Juliet Elizabeth Straw

(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.

9/11/12 - 40 weeks 1 day

9/17/12 - 41 weeks

9/23/12 - 41 weeks 6 days

Getting fluids at the birthing center for dehydration

The best labor position

Finally able to sleep - both of us! My wonderful nurse keeping an eye on me & the baby.

 

Juliet Elizabeth was born on Tuesday, September 25^th, 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.

Our new family

8lbs 8oz

Love how Chase is holding her hand to comfort her <3

Grandma love!!

Finally a Daddy!

Our amazing nurse! (Don't pay attention to how awful I look!)

Our family!

Going home!

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.

Sleeping with Daddy

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 2^nd 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.

1st time to church - 10/14/12

Bows in my hair already! - 10/17/12

Love my swing!

Cute ducky outfit!

1 month old! - 10/25/12

Juliet with Kevin and Grandma Straw - 10/1/12

 

We drove to AZ between the two appointments on October 5^th 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.

Lunch at Big Al's in Kanab

Meeting Grandpa

Ready to go!

Blaine and Erica's daughter Payton

Napping with cousin Emmalee

Megan and Kylee

Uncle Scott

Cute baby!

Natalie Hodge

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!

Pumpkin Patch with the Hightowers

Hayride!

My parents, Beth, James, and Emmalee came up November 1^st 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.

My family that attended

Juliet and Emmalee

Sweet Princess

So big!

 

On November 13^th, 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 26^th, I took Juliet in for her 2 month checkup. She was doing great. She was up to 10lbs 10oz (54^th percentile) and 24 inches long (95^th 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.

At the Dr - 2 month checkup - 11/26/12

After immunizations - so sad!

After a little tylenol

Pretty baby!

My favorite picture of Juliet and Daddy! Love her smile!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2 months old - 10lbs 10oz 24in long

The onesies are replaced by pictures

So smiley!

Sucking her thumb already! 11/14/12

Squishy face!

Smiles!

Love those eyes!

 

On December 1^st, 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...

4 generations

I got the Elvis Santa gag gift at our gift exchange! They made me sing and dance!

Temple lights

Thanks to Corey for being such a great photographer!

I traveled happy!

Great Grandma Johnson

With Uncle Scott in my Christmas jammies from Grandma Nancy

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!