With my memory the way it is, every detail of our sweet Lila's grand entrance to this life would be forgotten in 3 years.... so here we are world, the much over-do story of how we came by our little gem.
My due date couldn't have been timed better if we had tried. According to the Dr. my due date was May 14th, but according to me it was more like May 3rd at 9pm when Jess would be finishing school and out for the summer. True to my nature I had of course self diagnosed that due date, but i had some valid reasons.
- According to my baby app, i was due May 11th.
- At my 20 week ultrasound the baby was measuring about a week and a half big, but they wouldn't change my due date unless she was at least 10 days big, she was 9.
- My stomach measured consistently bigger the entire pregnancy.
I had been having what I figured were braxton hicks contractions starting around the beginning of May, but I had already committed to keeping baby girl in until Jess was out of school no matter what so he wouldn't have to make anything up. So I put them in the back of my mind and tried not to pay attention to them. They were in no way painful, but were usually followed by minute of angry kicks and jabs from baby which were in no way comfortable. On Friday, May 3rd, Jess had finally finished school and had his little graduation ceremony in Richfield, which was slightly entertaining. I worked til about 3 and then Jess and I loaded up and headed down. My Mom, Paul, and Chy and her kids drove all the way down to support Jess which was so great of them cause who really wants to drive from Orem to Richfield for anything?
The second that ceremony was over was, I was doing my best to induce my labor. We went to Wingers for dinner and I ordered the spiciest thing on the menu, which didn't result in a baby just alot of heartburn. We drove to Orem that night since Jess had drill the next 2 days. I stayed at my moms, while Jess headed to Salt Lake. Still no baby. Saturday the 4th, we did a lot of walking, yoga ball bouncing, and Toby and Rowan were kind enough to bounce me while I sat in the middle of the trampoline. Still no baby. I figured I'd better get my hair done since baby was coming any day so Chy and I went to Ali's for some gossip, a pedicure, and some highlights. After sharing with the ladies how I had been feeling that week, and how the anticipation was going to kill me, and it didn't take long to convince me to just go to the hospital to get checked, just to see where things were, after all i'm double covered so i wouldn't have to pay for it :).
After Ali finished my hair, Chy and I went to the hospital where they monitored me for a little over an hour, I was dialated to a 2 and was 90% effaced , but wasnt progressing fast enough for them to keep me. They told me to go home (to Ephraim) so I could go to my regular doc, Dr Frishknect. (I was secretly hoping to be at least a 6 so I could brag to Jess how strong I was, but I wasn't surprised by the findings.) They released me and I called Jess to fill him in. He was able to get excused from drill the next day, the 5th, so we headed home early Sunday morning.
Sunday the 5th was great. The house was clean, we drew the curtains, and napped and caught up on some TV shows we had been neglecting. I was now considering what i was feeling real contractions, not only because i was refusing to let this baby stay in any longer, but also because they were very consistent. 1 minute of contractions, 3 minutes of angry baby kicks... all day long. Around 10pm we debated going into the hospital, but the contractions still were tolerable, and I didn't want to get sent home again, so I decided to just go to bed. I'm not sure if it was the contractions that woke me up, or the feeling I was going to pee my pants that woke me up, but around 3 am I was awake again. The contractions were worse, and closer together so I decided it was time to go in. I woke up Jess, and we headed to Mt. Pleasant.
Our little hospital was of course empty, but we were greeted at the door by my nurse and went right into a delivery room. I had dilated to a 4 and was almost completely effaced by this point. I was just shy of 39 weeks so they were hesitant to admit me and get the ball rolling...I guess this is a new thing?...so they monitored me for an hour and I had dilated to a 4 1/2. Not a ton, but enough to show I was progressing on my own. They called my Dr. and he decided it would be pointless sending me home since he was pretty positive I would be back in a few hours. So they got me in the beautiful blue gown and hooked me up to the IV and Jess and I started wondering what the heck we got ourselves into.
Monday the 6th, Dr. Frishknect came in around 8am to check things and make sure we were ready to kick off, which we were. The nurses changed, so we were introduced to our nurse we'd be with hopefully til Baby Girl came, her name was Hollie, yes same name, same spelling, which never happens. I was now at a 5 1/2 and a little terrified at the idea of having a child later that day. He ran through some of my options, told me they'd break my water at noon, chit-chatted for a bit and then he left. Jess ran home to get a few things that we had forgotten but I was in good company with Skip and Steven A (ESPN). I hadn't decided if I was going to go natural or get an epidural, but they told me the CRNA would be in surgeries all day so since I was undecided it would be smart to at least have him put the jazz in my back and then I could run the medicine later if I decided I wanted it. That sounded like a good plan, so the CRNA came in around 830 am and got me all hooked up. I was a little bummed he came in so fast, Jess really wanted to watch him do his thing but wasn't back yet. I was officially hooked up and ready to go, and he ran a test batch of medicine though and at that point I decided to just keep it coming. The pain was still tolerable, but I decided to enjoy my entire labor painfree. Jess came in just after the medicine had really kicked in, and Hollie the nurse let him put in my catheter.. which I think was the highlight to that point for him.
We decided we'd better called my Mom, who was still sleeping, and told her she could come whenever.... its about an hour drive and I swear her, Paul, and Chy were there in 30 minutes. They were all so excited to sit with us and wait for Baby Girl. It turned out Jess plays basketball with the CRNA so he invited Jess to scrub in on a surgery he was just about to start. I was ok with it since nothing was really happening on the baby front. He headed over to watch them take out a gallbladder and I tried to take a nap, which if you know me wasn't hard since I can pretty much sleep anywhere at anytime.
Jess got back just as Dr. Frishknect was coming in to break my water, which made me happy. I was worried he was going to miss it like the epidural. The doc checked me and broke my water at the same time, no crochet hook necessary. I couldn't feel any pain, but it was the weirdest feeling to feel my belly go from unnaturally stretched and tight, to a gooey mess of skin. Not alot happened for a while, I had to lay on my right side the whole time since every time I rolled over we'd lose the baby's heartbeat. Hollie the nurse would try her best to find it again, but it would take forever, so we decided it was better to just stay on the one side. Being on my right side so much, the epidural completely wore off on the left side, which was interesting. By this point it was about 3pm and I was at an 8. Those painful contractions felt completely different than I had expected. It was almost like a bad side ache after running. The CRNA was in a surgery so it took a little while for him to come in and adjust the epidural so it would numb me up again.
The Doc came in just after the CRNA fixed me up, and said it was time to start pushing, scary! I had pushed a few times and Baby Girls heartbeat was dipping to much for comfort so they stuck the huge oxygen mask on me. It helped the baby alot, but I secretly loved the mask since it hid my hideous pushing face. I pushed for about and hour and a half, which sounds like a long time, but there were a few points where the monitor wasn't picking up the contractions or the babies heart rate, so we'd have to stop and adjust things. We were losing the babies heart rate so often they decided to put the monitor on the babies head instead. At one point Jess told me she had hair, which I laughed at since we were both bald til we were 3, but sure enough at 5:44 pm Baby Girl was born with a full head of dark curly hair. Jess asked who the dad was, I quickly responded, who's the mom??
Sweet Baby May was here, and finally had a name....Lila Belle Keele 7lbs 12 oz and 21 inches of perfection.
And the best part of the story? Let me paint a picture:
