(This is super long, so if you don't want to read it all, you can just look at the pictures. There's a lot of those also!)
As
we drive home from AZ, I finally have the time to write about this
sweet little baby we have. There may be some things you don't want
to read, but I am writing everything for my own records. So if
you don't want to know all the girly details of my labor and
delivery, skip down to the next paragraph after this one!
When
I was 41 weeks pregnant, I went in for an appointment at the birthing
center. They did a non stress test to make sure the baby was doing
ok, and she was doing just fine. We decided to try to get things
going to see if we could kick start labor because I knew I couldn't
deliver at the birthing center if I hit 43 weeks. I had a foley
catheter placed in my cervix to force me to dilate. They put
the catheter in and fill a balloon with water until it is 5cm in
diameter. It puts pressure on the cervix to dilate until it comes
out. It put me into hard contractions until it came out 9 hours
later at 11pm and then contractions slowed down and eventually
stopped while I was sleeping. We did a lot of walking that week to
get the contractions going again, but I was just having Braxton Hicks
contractions that did not cause any progression. A week later on
Sunday afternoon (the 23rd) after no progress, we went back into the
birthing center after picking my mom up from the airport. They
listened to the baby's heart rate and found it to be a little
elevated. We finally realized it was because I was dehydrated. They
hooked me up to an IV and gave me 3 bags of fluid. Her heart rate
returned to normal after that. We decided to have them strip my
membranes to try to induce labor again. At this point, I was dilated
to 4cm and 40% effaced. It
was extremely painful and I had tears in my eyes by the time they
were done. They stretched me to 7cm dilation and sent me home. It
put me into hard contractions again by the time we got home. I
labored at home Sunday evening, walking the neighborhood and trying
to stay on my feet, but the contractions started to slow again. I
got to sleep just a little bit before the contractions got harder
again about 3am Monday morning. I went back to the birthing
center in the late morning to get checked again due to regularity of
my contractions. I was only dilated to 5cm and 85% effaced.
They stripped my membranes again, told me to go to lunch, get some
protein, walk a lot and come back in a few hours. We went to
lunch at Great Harvest and then some dessert at Dairy Queen where I
walked the sidewalk and the curb for a while. When I came back,
there was no progress even though I was still having very hard, yet
irregular, contractions. So they sent me home to labor and try to
rest to gain my strength. Stacey came over (my lovely
sister-in-law and doula) to help me with my labor. She tried all
types of different positions for me to labor in and was so good to
make me feel better with massage and pressure points. She was such a
comfort to have by my side. We finally found a position that helped
me relax the best through contractions. Chase sat on the end of the
counter with each foot on a chair. I stood between his legs with my
back to him and let my legs relax and hung on his legs with my arms.
Letting my legs relax really seemed to help and it was the only way
to not kill him with that dead weight. Mom got little Emmalee
(Bethany's baby that was born 6 days earlier) on facetime chat
thinking that it would take my mind off my pain but it just made me
cry because I was jealous that my sister was already done with her
labor and had her baby to hold. By midnight on Monday night, the
contractions were getting unbearable and we assumed that I had to
have dilated more. We went back to the birthing center and
discovered there had been no change at all. They offered to
break my water and put me in the tub to see if that would help.
By that point, I couldn't handle the contractions anymore. After a
lot of debating in my head, I decided to transfer to Timpanogos
Hospital and get an epidural. I felt so disappointed that I
wouldn't deliver at the birthing center and that I failed at being
able to do it natural. I understand now that I was never able to
slowly work up to those really hard contractions and that laboring
like that for 36 hours was a valiant effort. I still was very
disappointed to go the “normal” way. I wanted to be that rock
star that could give birth naturally! My mom does tell me how
impressed she was that I did so well during those 36 hours and that I
was able to use my training from our Bradley class to relax through
the contractions. It was such a hard decision for me because it went
against my plan and I really didn't want to be in the hospital or
hooked up to tubes, but I really had as much as I could handle.
So we drove the mile to the hospital in the rain and the midwife and
student midwife came with us. They took care of calling ahead to let
them know we were coming and helping get me checked in. The nurse
checked my progress again. She was not nearly as nice and gentle as
the midwives. They had to give me another bag of fluids because it
is required for an epidural. It took 3 tries to get an IV on me,
which did not surprise me. The nurses switched shifts and I got a
new nurse who was just absolutely amazing! She was everything I
could have asked for and more! She had just moved from CA and had
only worked at this hospital for a few days although she was an L&D
nurse for about 30 years. She was so nice, understanding, social,
and sweet. As soon as the bag of fluids was done, the nurse
anesthetist came in, asked everyone but Chase to leave, and gave me
my epidural. He said I was an ideal patient and wished I would come
in to his classes to be a model for more epidurals. No thanks! But
it really didn't hurt at all compared to labor especially, but also
because I have a high tolerance for needle sticks. I finally got
great relief a few minutes later and they got me comfortable in my
bed. Ester, the midwife left and Harmony the student midwife stayed
with me for a while. When we decided I was just going to sleep for
the next few hours, Harmony left and then Stacey left to get some
sleep before her husband had to leave for work that morning. So I
was finally able to sleep! The nurse stayed in my room most of
the time I was there. The on-call OB, Dr. Broadbent came in about
5am. The first thing he said to me was that the last patient he had
the wouldn't let him induce her, delivered at 43 weeks and her baby
died. Who says that to any woman in labor?!! And then he said that
because I was in labor for over 36 hours he was almost positive I
would have a C-section because the baby didn't seem like she was
going to come out. He also thought she was 10 lbs just by looking at
my belly. Without telling me what he was doing, he broke my
water to get labor progressing because I still wasn't dilating. They
put an internal uterine pressure monitor in as well to see if my
uterus was contracting well enough. They also put me on pitocin to
get me to have effective contractions. They started at 2 and by
the time I was done, I ended up on the highest dose. I finally
was fully dilated and effaced by about 1pm Tuesday (about 48 hours
from the first contractions). My nurse called Dr. Broadbent to
let him know I was there and to ask if we could rest and let the baby
descend on her own (she was still at a -2 station). He told her
no and said I better start pushing because if the baby wasn't out in
2 hours, he was taking me to surgery. So I started pushing.
Thinking back on it now, I know I didn't have to listen to him, but I
didn't feel like putting up that fight after everything I had been
through. We called Harmony to come back to help with the
delivery. My nurse gave me ideas of positions to push in, since I
couldn't really do the ones I had prepped for now that I couldn't
feel my legs! I started on my back and then switched to my sides
which was very effective. Chase and Harmony held my legs so my mom
could be our photographer. Everyone kept saying that I was doing an
awesome job pushing and that they could see a lot of hair on the
baby's head. The epidural was wearing off slightly at this point,
which made it easier to feel the contractions so that I knew when it
was time to push. It worked out perfectly. The nurse
anesthetist came in and gave me just a little booster of pain control
medication to get me through it. Within an hour, I had her crowning
and then had to stop pushing for about 5-10 mins to wait for Dr.
Broadbent to get there. Our nurse had called him at the perfect time
so that she wouldn't get in trouble for calling him too early. At
this point, I had a very small 1st degree tear. When Dr.
Broadbent was ready I was about to start pushing again. Without
telling me, he picked up the instrument to do an episiotomy and
mumbled that he was going to do an episiotomy. Chase yelled at him
to stop! Thank you Chase! Such a great coach! We had already decided
that I would rather tear a little than get the huge cut of an
episotomy. The Dr. gave us a dirty look, put the instrument down,
and returned to the delivery. On the first contraction, I
pushed 3 times and then on the fourth push, the baby shot right out,
shoulders and all! I remember that even though I couldn't feel much,
I could feel such a huge release of pressure when she came out. The
Dr held her and again Chase had to stop him, this time from clamping
the cord right away. He told the Dr that we would like to let the
cord stop pulsating before clamping it. They wouldn't let me have
the baby on my chest without the cord clamped because they said it
was dangerous, so he just held her down there for about 30 seconds
and then clamped the cord without asking us if it was ok. They they
put her on my chest and wiped her down. I was trying to get her
to nurse right away to clamp down the blood vessels to my placenta,
but after about 30 seconds to a minute of trying without success, I
looked up and realized my placenta was already delivered, so I
stopped trying. I assume Dr. Broadbent just pulled it out
rather than letting it deliver on its own, but I really don't know.
They took the baby to clean her up, suction out her nose, and warm
her up for just a few minutes before giving her back to me. I
was in shock that I had a baby of my own in my arms finally and it
was just so wonderful. Dr. Broadbent did have to do a few
stitches on my 2 small 1st degree tears. I showed him that not
everyone needs an episiotomy! They cleaned everything else up and
left us with just our nurse, family, and baby.
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| 9/11/12 - 40 weeks 1 day |
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| 9/17/12 - 41 weeks |
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| 9/23/12 - 41 weeks 6 days |
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| Getting fluids at the birthing center for dehydration |
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| The best labor position |
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| Finally able to sleep - both of us! My wonderful nurse keeping an eye on me & the baby. |
Juliet
Elizabeth was born on Tuesday, September 25th, 2012 at
2:45pm weighing in at 8lbs 8oz and 21 in long. I was absolutely
amazed that she was finally here and that she was ours forever. She
wasn't anything I expected her to look like, although I didn't really
have any expectations. I felt so much more grown up at the that
moment and realized that my whole world just changed for the better!
It was so great to hold her so much. I never wanted to put her down.
We went to recovery after a little while and we had Juliet with us
all the time. Chase's family all came to visit on Tuesday
evening. I was a little out of it, so I wasn't very social, but they
were just eating her up! She slept in our room both nights and never
left our side except when they took her to the nursery to check her
vitals, do the PKU test, and have the pediatrician on call check her
out. The pediatrician heard a small heart murmur on Wednesday when
he checked her out, so he asked us to stay in the hospital for a
second day so that he could listen to her the next day also. When he
did, the murmur was gone and we were cleared to go home. Chase
stayed the night at the hospital with us Tuesday and Wednesday night
but went to work on Wednesday while my mom stayed with us during the
day. Juliet was eating well and even slept 5 hours the first night.
She would have slept longer but they made me wake her to feed her.
She was such a good baby and slept most of the day. Bella Birth
Photography came in on Wednesday afternoon to take newborn pictures
of Juilet. They put her in a cute basket and wrapped her up in a
blanket. The pictures were so cute and I decided to buy the CD of
all the images. My mom and I watched TV and I slept a lot while she
read during the day. The nurses were fantastic and did whatever I
needed and were so helpful. We were discharged on Thursday afternoon
and made the trek home after stopping at Kmart in Orem for pain meds.
It was so weird to have an extra person in the car with us!
Overall, the hospital experience was better than I expected, but the
OB experience was exactly what I expected. Looking back, I wish
we would have printed our birth plan out (I wasn't expecting to be at
the hospital, so I didn't expect to need it) and I wish we could have
actually had time to discuss it with the OB before so there were no
surprises.
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| Our new family |
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| 8lbs 8oz |
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| Love how Chase is holding her hand to comfort her <3 |
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| Grandma love!! |
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| Finally a Daddy! |
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| Our amazing nurse! (Don't pay attention to how awful I look!) |
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| Our family! |
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| Going home! |
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| We're home! |
For
the first week, I had a pretty tough time. My entire body was sore
and I had a really hard time walking. My hormones were so out of
whack that of course, I was crying all the time for no reason. I
cried because my body felt like I had been hit by a truck. I cried
because I was so happy to have such a beautiful sweet baby to call my
own. I cried watching commercials on TV. I cried when I thought of
how grateful I was to have my mom there to help me. I cried when I
thought about how lucky I was to have so many great friends in the
ward that were willing to bring us such yummy dinners. I cried
because I was lonely when my mom left and Chase was at work. I cried
extra hard when we said goodbye to my mom when we dropped her off at
the airport on Sunday night. She did so much for us while she was
there and was such a comfort to have during my recovery. I never
realized how blessed I was before that week.
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| Sleeping with Daddy |
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| First bath at home |
During
the first week, I started having problems with breathing and chest
pain. It scared me quite a bit, but ended up being nothing. It
started when I would try to take a nap during the day and I would
wake up gasping for air right as I was about to fall asleep. Also,
when I laid back at all, my chest felt very heavy and made it hard to
breathe. I could feel my heart beating really hard too. I decided
to go get it checked out to make sure I didn't have a blood clot or
heart failure, both of which can happen from childbirth. I went to
the Dr. and she did an EKG and a lung capacity test in the office,
both of which came back normal. We went to the Dr. immediately after
taking Juliet for her newborn pictures at JCPenny and I didn't have
time to feed her in between and she was sleeping really well anyways.
Well, in order to do the EKG, you have to removed all your clothing
on top, which left me without a bra. Of course at this point, my
body is still trying to regulate my milk and I'm so full anyways from
not feeding for several hours, that as soon as I removed my clothes
to put the gown on, I started dripping milk everywhere! I tried to
stop and and decided to put Juliet on to eat real quick but she
wouldn't wake up and eat very fast and the MA came back in the room
in the middle of all our panic. The poor thing didn't know what to
do, but we thought it was hilarious! She gave us a couple minutes to
feed Juliet and then I just continued to drip a little while she did
the test. Luckily it was a pretty quick test, so I was able to
control it soon after. It was so funny and taught me a very good
lesson. Because those tests were normal, she sent me over to get
some blood drawn. It came back that my D-Dimer level was very
elevated, which has something to do with your heart. Apparently, it
is normal for it to be elevated after childbirth anyways, but it was
very high so she sent me to a cardiologist to have a ECG with an
ultrasound of my heart. I drove out to Magna, leaving early enough
so that I could feed the baby when I got there, which I did. I had a
little bit of a wait because they were squeezing me in and as soon as
they got me in there and I laid down on the table, Juliet started
crying and there was nothing I could do to help her. I was so
embarrassed and felt bad for the guy that was working on me. After a
little while, the receptionist came back and held her through the
rest of the test, which was a life saver. Again, I had to remove my
clothes on top for the test and even though I had just fed her, I
still leaked milk all over his table. Oh the joys of motherhood!!
The cardiologist looked at the results and said everything looked
great. It was really awesome to see my own heart beating and see all
the valves open and close. So then the Dr sent me to get a chest
xray and an ultrasound of my legs to check for clots. This time I
dropped Juliet off with Stacey and had the ultrasound done first. By
the time I went for the chest xray, I hadn't fed her in a couple
hours and they gave me a scrub top to wear instead of my clothes. I
was sitting for a minute waiting for the tech to come get me and
looked down to see that the front of the shirt was soaked with milk.
So as I'm trying to stop the milk with my breast pads, this 20 year
old guy walks up and asks if I'm ready. I turn to him with a dear in
the headlights look and after his surprised look, says that he'll
give me as long as I need. So I just tell him not to laugh at me,
which he didn't to my face, but I guarantee he was telling stories at
lunch! I walk down the hall with my arms crossed in front of me to
try to cover my mess and have to let him snap two pictures of my wet
chest before I can run away back to my clothes. I can not believe
how embarrassing my week was! So the chest xray and leg ultrasound
all come back normal and the Dr doesn't know what else to tell me.
We decided that it may be anxiety related, although I didn't feel
like I was having extremely high anxiety. But after a week and a
half, I was finally able to take a nap when we were traveling to AZ
and it continued to get better after that.
We
took Juliet to an appointment with her new pediatrician Dr. Blackburn
at Riverton Hospital. He is just absolutely fantastic. He is so
much fun and is great at spending enough time to ask questions and
explain things. We took her at one week in order to make sure she
was gaining weight. She dropped 10% of her birth weight in the
hospital and they wanted her to be back up to it after one week. She
was and was doing great. I took her to a two week appointment at the
birthing center where they did her 2nd PKU test. I never
realized how hard that is to watch when it is your own child. I
guess that came out normal since I never heard anything about it.
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| 1st time to church - 10/14/12 |
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| Bows in my hair already! - 10/17/12 |
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| Love my swing! |
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| Cute ducky outfit! |
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| 1 month old! - 10/25/12 |
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| Juliet with Kevin and Grandma Straw - 10/1/12 |
We
drove to AZ between the two appointments on October 5th
when Juliet was only 10 days old. She did really well on the drive
and slept the entire way except to eat when we stopped in Kanab for
lunch. She didn't do quite as well on the way back up because she
was way more hungry so she didn't sleep as much. We spent Friday
night with Blaine and Erica and stayed at Terri and Gary's house. We
had such a fun time spending time with them all. Juliet slept in a
travel bed in between us in the bed. She normally sleeps in her
bassinet next to our bed. We left for Peoria the next morning.
Juliet spent the week in Grandma, Grandpa, aunt, uncles, great uncle
and aunts, and great grandma's arms. She was very loved and also got
to meet her cousin Emmalee. I still couldn't do much but sit on the
couch so we just did a lot of hanging out at home. I had my friends
Megan and Brian & Natalie Hodge come to visit and meet the baby.
We had a great time being in Peoria and spending time with family.
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| Lunch at Big Al's in Kanab |
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| Meeting Grandpa |
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| Ready to go! |
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| Blaine and Erica's daughter Payton |
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| Napping with cousin Emmalee |
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| Megan and Kylee |
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| Uncle Scott |
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| Cute baby! |
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| Natalie Hodge |
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| Uncle Corey |
When
we got back home, Chase ended up working 8 days straight which was a
little hard on me. I was pretty lonely and didn't do a whole lot
because I was still recovering. Luckily, I have great friends that
checked up on me to make sure I was doing ok. Eventually, we fell
into a routine and started to go visit Chase at work and run errands
during the day. Getting out of the house made me feel so much
better. I was just loving laying around with my little baby so much!
I love being a mom. More than I ever thought I would. I love going
out with Juliet and having people stop me to admire her and tell me
how amazed they are at how much hair she has.
On
Halloween, Juliet and I went to the office so I could do some work
and then headed over to Jennae's house. All the siblings met up
there with their kids and we all went trick-or-treating through the
neighborhood. It was so fun to finally be able to show off my own
baby to my old ward members, rather than showing off the new nieces
and nephews. I dressed Juliet up in a Minnie Mouse outfit we had
received from a ward member. The kids stayed out pretty long this
time but had to leave soon after we got back to the house so they
could go to school the next day. At least Memphis shared her candy
with me before she left! What a sweet little girl!
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| Pumpkin Patch with the Hightowers |
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| Hayride! |
My
parents, Beth, James, and Emmalee came up November 1st
to attend Juliet's blessing. We had fun shopping and playing with
babies. We made preparations on Saturday for the blessing. Sunday
morning we woke up, finished the food and put it in the oven to bake.
It was chaotic, but all worked out perfectly. We took a few family
pictures before we left and went to church for the blessing. Chase
did a great job with it and I was a proud mama and wife. We had a
good amount of family and friends attend and we all went back to our
clubhouse after Sacrament meeting to have brunch. So many people
helped bring food and help with everything and we were so grateful.
We got to take a few more pictures with family and spent the rest of
the afternoon relaxing and watching movies. The family left on
Monday and I was all alone again because Chase was at work.
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| My family that attended |
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| Juliet and Emmalee |
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| Sweet Princess |
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| So big! |
On
November 13th,
I returned to work for the first time. Juliet stayed home with Chase
and did great. I did better than expected and the day went by really
fast. It was fun to be back with my friends at work and see my
patients again. I'm so lucky to have such a great place to work and
great people to work with. We had a reunion dinner at Dr. Baird's
that night and had a great time. Funny how much you don't realize
how much people mean to you until you don't see them all the time
anymore. Two days later was Stacey's first time to watch Juliet
because Chase and I both had to work. Stacey just watches her every
other Thursday and Chase has her every Tuesday and every other
Thursday. Works out great. But she did really well at Stacey's also
and slept most of the day. Some days leaving for work is much harder
than other days, but it just makes me love my days off with Juliet
even more. I went back to the gym also the next week. It was good
to be back but it is hard to force myself to take it easy so that I
can walk the next day. I've been able to go at 9:15 in the morning
on my days off when other mothers are there and I can bring Juliet
with me. I can go after work on Tues/Thurs if I want also.
On
November 26th,
I took Juliet in for her 2 month checkup. She was doing great. She
was up to 10lbs 10oz (54th
percentile) and 24 inches long (95th
percentile). Everything else looked great and she is starting to
spit up less. Her spitting up was really bad for a while and at some
points I didn't know if she was getting anything to eat! She also
got her immunizations. She drank one and got 3 shots. The poor
thing – I've never heard her cry so loud! She slept a lot the rest
of the day and was a little crabby. Thanks to Cherelle next door for
some Tylenol to help her feel better. At two months, Juliet has
found her hands and sucks on them a lot, sometimes just on her thumb.
She smiles a whole lot and laughs at anyone who does something
silly. She sleeps til 6am every day no matter what time she goes to
bed. If you lay her down when she is tired, she will go to sleep on
her own. She eats a lot and gets mad when there's no milk left. She
wiggles a lot if you lay her down but just lays and looks around when
you are holding her. She takes a few small naps and one long nap
during the day. She has a strong neck and likes to stand with
support. She is wearing 3 month pants due to the length and is
barely big enough for 0-3 month onesies. She can still fit in
newborn size if I want to, but I'm getting anxious to move on to the
cute clothes she hasn't been able to wear yet. She is quite thin and
has long skinny feet that aren't wide enough for most shoes. Her
hair just keeps getting longer and longer and is now too long for a
faux hawk. She is a very happy baby and loves to be held, but also
loves her swing.
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| At the Dr - 2 month checkup - 11/26/12 |
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| After immunizations - so sad! |
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| After a little tylenol |
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| Pretty baby! |
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| My favorite picture of Juliet and Daddy! Love her smile! |
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| Happy Thanksgiving! |
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| 2 months old - 10lbs 10oz 24in long |
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| The onesies are replaced by pictures |
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| So smiley! |
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| Sucking her thumb already! 11/14/12 |
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| Squishy face! |
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| Smiles! |
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| Love those eyes! |
On
December 1st,
we drove down to AZ again for Emmalee's blessing. We had a holiday
dinner at Beth's house that night and the Bishop and Stake President
came over and James was ordained an Elder. Saturday was a day of
shopping and preparing the food for the blessing. Scott and Chase
went to the gun show and had a good time. We went to the ward
Christmas party for dinner that night. Sunday was the blessing.
James did a great job on the blessing and they had a lot of family
and friends attend. We went to their house for lunch after. That
night, we all went to my parents house for dinner and watched family
home movies and sat around the fire out back. Monday, we visited with Deidre Cammack, got the
girls' picture taken at Kmart in their blessing dresses, went
shopping again, had a quick pizza dinner, and then went to see the
temple lights in Mesa. It cracks me up that as soon as you tell the
sister missionaries that you're from Salt Lake, they stop trying to
convert you. Love it! Tuesday, the girls went to see the last
Twilight movie and left the babies with Chase and Grandpa. We had
family dinner that night. We left Wednesday morning. Always sad to
leave but I love planning the next time we'll get together. On our
way home as we were driving along I-70, we hit a dead deer that was
in the middle of the road. It launched the left half of our car into
the air and made such a loud thump under our car. We pulled over at
the next exit and found a dented gas tank, dented floor in the back
seat and some pinched lines for the heat to the back seats. There
was deer remains everywhere under the car! So gross! Deer fur was
caught on the inside of the wheel. It was pretty gross. So now we
are having to deal with repairs on that. Yippie...
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| 4 generations |
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| I got the Elvis Santa gag gift at our gift exchange! They made me sing and dance! |
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| Temple lights |
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| Thanks to Corey for being such a great photographer! |
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| I traveled happy! |
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| Great Grandma Johnson |
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| With Uncle Scott in my Christmas jammies from Grandma Nancy |
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| Hanging out with Emmalee |
Over
these past few months, I have truly felt blessed to have such a great
and adorable baby, such amazing friends that are willing to help at
any time, and a truly amazing family that will do anything for me and
are so happy to see us as often as possible. A huge thank you to everyone for all your support! We love you!
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