Now that my little lady just turned 4 months old yesterday, I am finally getting around to writing her birth story. Thats me, always on top of things! ;) I finally put it at the top of my to do list because I don't want to wait to long and the details get fuzzy. So here is the story of how my precious Presley came into the world...
As I have mentioned before, I was having some issues with blood pressure my last trimester. So the Thursday before she was born I had my appt at the doctor. At that appointment my blood pressure was 150 / 100. Gulp! That is crazy high! (I usually run in the 120's / 70's). After a lot of thought and deliberatoin with the doctor, we decided to go ahead and set for me to be induced the next Monday (which was the day before my due date) at 7:00am. The doctor sent me to the hospital to be monitored since it was so high. This was the third time I had been sent to the hospital for observation of my blood pressure. She explained that if it didn't go down, they would just keep me and induce me right then. However, if it was normal we would just wait till Monday. So once again, I got to the hospital and my BP was completely normal. This happened every single time I went....crazy high at the office and completely normal at the hospital. We all laughed about it and they decided that I must have White Coat Syndrome.
I remember being both relieved and disappointed that they weren't going to keep me. I was very anxious over my BP and just praying the baby was ok and not affected. I thought it would just be so nice to have her out and all that over with, but I was relieved because I wasn't logistically quite ready and my nesting was taking over and I wanted everything to be all set with the kids and the nursery, etc.
It was kinda nice to know when the date would be. This was a first for me. I have always just gone into labor naturally not knowing when they would come. However, I was not thrilled at the idea of having to be induced and messing with nature's timing. I have had pitocin with Kobe and Kensi after being in labor so long without moving past a certain point, so I knew what was coming!
We got everything set for the kids. My dear mama came to stay with us on Saturday and was planning to stay an entire week to take care of the kids and the house. (she seriously is the best Mom there is!). I had asked my friends and family to just pray that the baby would come over the weekend on its own and I wouldn't have to be induced. I had a conversation with one of my friends updating them on the latest and I told her that my ideal situation would be to go to the hospital and for them to say I was 5-6 cent already and just let me go on my own.
On Sunday, Aaron and the kids went to church and my mom and me stayed here. I remember it was raining and we just had such a nice morning together eating turkey wraps and watching HGTV. Its the little things that make me happy. It was such a nice relaxing day. I got everything packed and ready for the next morning, took a shower, did my hair (had to be lookin good for her arrival!). The perks of having a c-section, without actually having it. ;)I just kept hoping and praying all day that I would start on my own.
As the evening wore on my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. I still wasn't convinced it was the real thing, because for 2 weeks I would start and stop, start and stop. By 7:00 I was pretty sure that this was it, but I didn't want to go to the hospital just yet. My mom and Aaron kept saying, maybe we should go now, but I just wanted to stay home and do as much at home as I could. It was such a funny labor looking back. I was having some intense pain and here I was watching America's Funniest Homevideos with all the kids and my cousin was here fixing our computer. It was great having all those distractions. ;)
Around 9:00 I decided to go up and lay down and get some sleep. Sleep didn't happen because my contractions were getting to the 'crazy point' as I like to call it. ;) By about 12:45am I told Aaron I thought we should go. I love watching him when its time to go. He jumps up and into action and does everything double speed. We left for the hospital at 12:54. I remember the exact time because I looked at the clock as soon as we got in the car to time my contractions. Aaron drove like a crazy man. I kept telling him to slow down or we were going to get pulled over. He didn't seem to worried about that. :)
We got to the hospital at 1:00 am and things were so intense I felt like I was losing my mind. I could hardly speak I was in so much pain, so I was a bit irritated that these people who were checking me in kept asking questions. Finally, some sweet woman who also worked there stepped in and said, we just need to take her up and we can check her in later. God bless that woman!
We got up to the labor and delivery floor about 1:10am and got in a room and they called Dr. Visger to come. Aaron had called a few of the people who wanted to know when we went in no matter what time of day. The nurse checked me right away and said , "your fully thinned out and 5-6 cm." I was blown away! What we had prayed for was happening! She once again started trying to 'check me in' and after about 10 min I couldn't handle it anymore so she said let me check you again. When she checked, she said I was fully dialated and ready to push! It. Was. Crazy.
Things were moving at lightning speed. My nurse got another nurse and told her to call Dr. Visger and tell her to hurry. Bless their hearts, they were moving so fast to get things ready for the delivery. They had also been concerned about my BP during labor because sometimes when your in pain that can send your BP way up, in which case they would give me meds thru an IV to bring it down. Their was a whole room full of nurses, but no doctor....ack! Once they saw that this was it and I was pushing this baby out NOW, a nurse ran and got Dr. Nelson who is a doctor at another office in town and he came in to deliver.
At 1:28am on January 18 our sweet girl was born weighing in at 6lb 12 oz and 21.5" long. She was absolutely perfect. I remember I just kept saying, " I can't believe this is happening." Mentally I had prepared for a long night and possibly day, but here she was already born after only being at the hospital 28 minutes. I was in such shock that she was actually out that I totally didn't even hear the doctor say it was a girl. After a minute I remembered and said, " What is it?!?!" Hahaha. That makes me laugh. This is the only baby we waited to find out the sex of and thats not exactly how I pictured it going, but it was still such a fun moment finding out that it was a little girl who would complete our family.
***Check out that bruised little face! Ouchie!***
When they put her in my arms I was instantly in love. She was so small and beautiful and perfect. Its hard to put into words the feelings that went on inside of me when they placed her in my arms. Complete and total awe that this baby was the one who had been growing in there all these months, instantaneous love, an immediate feeling of wanting to protect her and keep her safe, deep joyand contentment....so many intense emotions all at once.
It was like a collective sigh of relief when she was born from everyone in the room. We were all looking at each other like, "did that really just happen?" The nurses were all so wonderful and incredibly supporative. They were all cheering me on while I was pushing. We had to laugh because Dr. Visger finally got there about 15 minutes after she was born. Which I thought was hilarious because that exact same thing happened when Kensington was born. Dr. Visger was on call and came and checked me at 8:30pm and I was 5cm. She said it would be after midnight sometime before she came so she was going to go do a C-section and then come back and check on me. Kensi was born at 8:56pm and the exact same doctor, Dr. Nelson, happened to be there and came in to help the nurses deliver. How ironic is that?! I told them both that and they thought that was so funny.
I called my mom about 1:50 and told her she was born. She thought we were kidding because we had only left the house an hour before! It was pretty funny. She said she had just been praying for us since we left and asking the Lord that it would go fast and the baby would arrive quickly and healthy. He certainly answered that prayer!
I remember just living in the sweetness of the moment and taking it all in knowing that this would be the last one we ever experienced. I loved those first moments of getting to look in her eyes, checking all her fingers and toes, being completely blown away by how much thick, black hair she had. I just held her and nursed her. It was simply beautiful.
They took her to clean her up around 3:00am, and then moved us to our post partum room. Poor Aaron had been up for almost 24 hours so he was exhausted. After he made sure I was ok , he crashed on the couch! I had asked for them to bring her back to me when she was done being bathed. I had so much adrenaline pumping through me, I just couldn't sleep. So I spent two hours with her. Just us, in the stillness of the night, checking each other out. It was such a precious time for me.
The next morning we were flooded with friends, family, flowers and balloons. We had such a lovely time introducing everyone to her and just visiting. I geniunely love, LOVE being in the hospital. Well, let me rephrase. I love being in the hospital to have a baby. :) Whats not to love? You get to lay around in a bed all day spending time with just ONE child, somebody else cooks for you and then cleans it up, friends and family visit and you have no responsibilities of hosting. Its simply a delightful time! And this time proved to be no different. I like to think of it as my little vacation.
I also loved the evenings, when all was quiet and it was just Aaron, Presley and I. Just the three of us snuggled up in the bed, Aaron and I just holding her close. There is just something so special about that time in the hospital. Its a little bubble from reality. Every time I have a baby I am also surprised when I leave the hospital and life is still going on as normal. Its as though I think because our whole world has just changed, that everyone else's has paused too. :) But, life just continues as normal all around us.
I feel as though Presley's birth was a gift to me. A loving gift from my Father, who heard my prayers many months before and walked me thru this journey. Because I have had two miscarriages, I had a hard time connecting with the fact that I was going to actually have a baby. I always had that nagging fear in the back of my mind not to get too attached, this one may not actually be born. I know those thoughts were not from God and I would beg and plead with the Lord to let everything be ok with this baby. And every time I had an intense pleading with Him, deep in my spirit I heard Him say to me, "this baby WILL be born. Its a gift to you." Every time those thoughts would come back, I would just remind myself of that word and speak it to my spirit over and over.
Even with all the health issues I had going on with my thyroid and blood pressure, the labor was so smooth and uneventful. I know that is because God was in every detail . Even down to the fact that she was born 6 hours before I was scheduled to be induced. He knew my hearts desire to go naturally and heard our prayers. Not only to go naturally, but to be 5-6 cm when I arrived. I specifically prayed for that, and that is exactly what happened. During my labor my blood pressure was fine and never went scary high. I write all this just to have record of it so I can look back and remind myself of the goodness of the Lord in my life. He loves me and is into the details of my life. He has given us four perfect, healthy kids. Yes our life is busy and wild, but what unbelievable gifts He has trusted us with.
*Other random things to remember... ~ When she was born, the cord was wrapped around her neck and shoulder. The doctor and nurse hollered for me to stop pushing so it wouldn't strangle her. I felt so panicked because I didn't want her to be hurt, but also its like my body had just taken over and was pushing on its own. A sweet, older nurse just took my face in her hands and said, "just focus on me and blow." And thats exactly what I did. The next day she stopped by to see me and talk about the birth and I told her how much that helped me that she did that. She said she always tells women that because that is something they can do as opposed to when someone says ' stop pushing' and it feels like thats something you just can't do. Such a wise lady! I was so glad to have had her there.
~ Because of how fast she was born, her poor face was bruised very badly, just like Kensi's was. Poor girls had a black and blue face with burst blood vessels for the first week. That first night, the night nurse came in and panicked because she saw her blue face and thought she wasn't breathing. I told her what happened and she was so relieved and said thats kind of an important piece of information for the labor nurses to pass along. hahaha. :)
~I remember thinking as the nurse handed me the newspaper for her scrapbook as she was wheeling me to my post-partum room about how I had seen on the news earlier a woman in Haiti who had just given birth on a concrete sidewalk due to the earthquake devastation. I was just thinking about how unbelievably blessed I was to have my baby in such comfort and just praying for that lady.
~This was the first time I have ever had a baby in the middle of the night. Usually my whole family and Aaron's whole family are in the waiting room for most of the labor. It was fun calling my family and waking them up with the news. ;) Aaron had called my dear friend Leanne (because she had asked to be called no matter what time of day or night) to let her know and she drove right over to the hospital and was the first person to meet Presley. We were still in the delivery room when she got there. It was special to have her there. We both found out we were pregnant within two weeks of each other and were so excited to be "pregnant buddies'. At 17 weeks she lost her baby. Her baby would have been born two weeks before Presley. So for her to be there and share in this moment with us was really special. We couldn't have planned that if we tried. Normally my family would have been there, she would have had her 3 kids, etc, etc, but since she was born in the night all those details were taken care of.
She later told me, as Aaron and I were just gushing over her and on cloud nine, she was worried sick because of how gray she was and thought something was wrong with her breathing. We forgot to tell her about the bruising. She said she kept thinking, surely one of the nurses will look over and see somethings wrong, she just didn't want to be the one to burst our bubble. Hahahaha....that still makes me laugh. Sweet Leanne.
~Presley was born during the prime time of the H1N1 flu, so the hospital was not allowing any children at all to be there unless they were patients. I was so bummed about this because part of the reason we were so excited to not find out the sex was so the kids could come back and we could just show them their new brother or sister. Needless to say, that didn't happen. So we came up with another plan. We didn't tell the kids what sex it was until we brought her home! It was difficult to keep the secret, but we did it and were able to be there when they found out. More on that in another post.
Next up : Bringing her home and the first few weeks....
Daddy & Presley on the playground. (I think they look EXACTLY alike in this pic).
Finally... the all important cake!
New Dora video...woohoo!
This was such a cute night. She 'found' her hand for the first time and just kept trying to focus on it. I wonder what goes on in their little minds as they start to figure out and find all these parts and sights. Check out the cross eyes! She did this so much for probably the first 2 months. To the point I was really worried about her eyes. But, just like everyone said, she totally out grew it.
