The Story

Isla's birth was the most amazing experience of my life. It was pretty much magical.  I honestly couldn't have dreamed up a better experience.

Here's the story of how we welcomed Isla Jane into the world.

Sunday, April 15, 2012 at 11:12 AM

5 lbs 11 oz 18 inches

Sorry if this gets a little graphic, but it is about me pushing a baby out of my chotch, so prepare yourself. I woke up Sunday morning around 1:00 am because I felt a couple of those tell-tell gushes of liquid. I got up, went to the bathroom to confirm what I was experiencing. I then woke up Ronnie and told him that I thought my water had broke so we will be needing to go to the hospital. I told him I wanted to take a shower first and then we'd leave. I also suggested he put some pants on. I called Ronnie into the bathroom like 5 minutes later to have him get something ready only to discover that he looked like he had no clue what was going on. I had to remind him that we needed to go to the hospital soon and to put some pants on. He finally got the memo. I got out and called my mom to tell her the news so she get could get on the road. She had a two and a half hour drive from California ahead of her and she really wanted to be there for the birth. On the way to the hospital I texted my sister and best friend who live in Utah so they could also hit the road and hopefully make it to the delivery.

I didn't start having contractions until we got the the hospital, but once they did hit they were much more painful than the ones I had had on Thursday. They put me in triage and made me pee in a cup which was almost impossible because I was pretty much constantly leaking but did not have to pee. They hooked me up the the fetal heart monitor and the contraction monitor and made me sign a bunch of paperwork in between contractions, which was insane. Ronnie took the paperwork to fill it out and the nurse reminded him twice that she only needed his signature once and mine a million times. It's like she wanted me to sit there and read through all this crap and sign stuff when I was in pain every 3 minutes. Anyways, they did this test to make sure my water had broke and then got me into a room like an hour later. Up until that day I had the intention of holding off on the epidural until I was dilated to a 6 because I had this fear that I would stop progressing once I got one. I threw that out the window pretty fast. Contractions are not fun. And I wanted to be done ASAP. So I requested the epidural even though I was only between a 3 and 4. The nurse said the epidural doc had just gone into a c-section so it would be like half an hour before I could get one. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but at least the end was in sight. During this time Ronnie's mom and my mom had arrived. They all sat around anxious and excited for me. I tried to chit chat in between contractions. Soon after I was able to get my epidural. Obviously, getting a needle/tube in your spine isn't the most comfy situation, but it wasn't too bad at all. It was more shocking than anything, feeling the medicine going into your spine. But glory goodness it was heaven once it kicked in! They ended up having to readjust it a little bit once because there was one spot on my right side that was not getting the meds. Once that was fixed it was glorious. It is crazy to me how they invented the epidural. How it can take away certain sensations, but not all? I wasn't completely numb. I could still feel my right leg and most of the contractions. But they didn't hurt anymore. Absolutely amazing. A little while after the epidural they checked me again and I was at a 5. So far things were going super smooth. I even got a new nurse who was the bomb.com. Shailynn and Britt were on their way, I was painless and we were going to have a baby that day. It was craziness. Two hours later they checked me again and I was hoping to be at least a 6 or 7. Nope. I was at a 10 already. Say what?!? Usually when you hear that someone's at a 10 it means they are going to start pushing and have a baby within like minutes. For me, that wasn't the case. The nurse said the baby was still in a high position and she would check me again in an hour, but to let her know if I experienced any pressure downstairs that I hadn't felt before. We got all worried that my sister wasn't going to make it in time and my mom was freaking out that they were going to wait an hour to check me again. After half an hour she pretty much took a peek under the sheets to make sure the baby's head wasn't poking out. No worries guys, it wasn't.

Me, after the epidural

My nurse knew her shiz. She came back an hour later and said we could do some practice pushes soon.  Thankfully, Shailynn, Brian and Brittany arrived shortly after. I was so happy that they were going to be there for this amazing experience. The nurse came back an we did some practice pushes. Ronnie and my mom had to hold my legs up because I could barely move them. After a few practice ones she gave me a break and then came back for the real deal. It was time to start pushing. Holy moly. So you basically have to push your brains out for 3 intervals of 10 seconds. I did this for every 3 to 4 minutes for an hour and 45 minutes. Finally, my doctor came in which meant things were getting real close. I pushed a couple times for him and finally her hairy little head was out. And she was finally real. I don't know how else to explain it. None of it seemed real until that moment. The doctor let me feel her face and then asked if I wanted to help pull her out... Heck yes! Most amazing experience of my life. I got to pull her out and put her right onto my stomach and hold her and look her in the eyes. So freaking amazing people. After a few minutes the nurse took her and cleaned her up and then she got passed around to the insane amount of family in the room (Just fyi, there was my mom, Ronnie's mom, Ronnie's sister, my sister, my brother-in-law and my bestie all in the room for all this jazz) while I got stitched up (the doc had to cut me... fun times)

The rest is unimportant. I'm a mom now. It's pretty bizarre. And pretty amazing. I still don't understand how this perfect little girl is mine.

The False Alarm

So I almost went into labor the other day. It was pretty exciting for a few hours there, but alas I'm still prego. All Wednesday night into Thursday morning I had contractions. I finally woke up around 4:00 am and started keeping track of them with an app on Ronnie's phone. After an hour, they were 3 to 4 minutes apart and painful, which they never were before. So then I took a bath with the intention of shaving and washing my hair because I wanted to be ready and cute for my hospital stay. Still had consistent contractions after that was said and done, but I wasn't sure if the contractions were painful enough to actually go to the hospital. So I called the nurse at my dr's office and she said to go in and get checked because pain tolerance is so different for everybody so if they are consistent and painful go in. So we rolled into Summerlin hospital around 8:30 and got sent up to labor and delivery triage. When we got to the front desk we ran into Ronnie's uncle and aunt, who is due the same day as me. She woke up same time as me that morning with contractions, but they were leaving to endure the brunt of early labor at home since she was only at a 2. After we filled out some paperwork they took me to a bed and started monitoring the contractions and the baby's heartbeat. The second I layed on that bed my contractions slowed waaaay down. And then stopped altogether. It was a little embarrassing. They probably thought I was such an idiot for coming in with these lame contractions. We stayed about an hour and half so they could see if I progressed at all, but I didn't. So we got a little taste of the action. Now we are anxiously waiting for the real deal. Doesn't feel like it will ever happen, but we know that's not true. In the meantime I will make some cute flowers to go on the hats she will be wearing in the hospital. P.s. Ronnie's uncle and aunt ended up having their baby that day. He was super presh and we were super jealous.

an update

hey, howdy hey! Yes, I'm alive. And still pregnant. Believe it or not my life got kind of busy for like a second. But now it's pretty chill again. Since we last met I've been to the doctor a million times, packed up and moved out of the sweet house I've been occupying the last 18 months, and had 2 baby showers.

About 5 weeks ago I had an ultrasound at my dr's appt and they said my amniotic fluid was low (at a 7) so they wanted to check me again every week to monitor it. So I've been to the doctor every week since. Good news is that it has gone up every time since then. We are now back where we should be just in time for me to start seeing the doctor every week any ways because I'm 36 WEEKS. Say what?!? Yep. I'm going to have a baby in four weeks. Or less. Or more. I'm hoping for less. Crazytown.

At the beginning of March we had to say goodbye to our sweet house on Catalpa Trl. The lovely couple we were house-sitting for came home from their mission in Germany on the 6th. The few weeks before the move I was slightly freaking out because we hadn't heard anything about the house we were trying to buy and I had no idea where were going to live. We needed to live somewhere month to month because the bank could say yes to our deal anytime and then we'd have a house like a month later. Living month to month is expensive. And renting houses is expensive. And I was having no luck finding any where the one day I actually started looking. I was seriously on the verge of a meltdown. Then Ronnie came home from work and was like hey I just talked to Mike B. and he has some housing options for us... I had one day of panic and then our prayers were answered even beyond anything we could have hoped for. Our friend Mike's parents had a rental home (in our current ward) that they had just fixed up and were looking for renters. They had even thought of us before we contacted them about it because they knew our situation. They were totally down with the month to month thing because they still had some kinks they wanted to work out on the house. So we had a newly updated house to live in that was still in the ward we love. And our landlords are the bomb. We are so blessed.

Speaking of blessed, I've already had 2 baby showers. My mom wanted to throw one in California for all my family and friends there and my ward insisted on throwing one as well. As if those weren't enough I am having a 3rd shower here in Vegas for all of Ronnie's family and all my Vegas peeps! This baby girl is already spoiled rotten.

Here are some pics from the CA shower. We had it at a Mimi's Cafe because my mom is crazy and didn't want to deal with having it at her house. The pictures kind of stink because my sister had the camera on some weird setting.

Cutest diaper cake ever.

Some of my fabulous family.

Seriously cannot wait until baby girl can wear this.

My mom is probably more excited about this baby than me. Ok, that's not possible, but she's pretty close. She gave me a huge basket with a clothesline of clothes for the baby. Which only included about half the clothes that she's actually bought the kid over these past months.

                              

My aunt Melissa and me and the bump.

my maja

the sister

Tiana and Megan, my cousins.

My good friends the Calders.

All the family that attended.

The immediate cousins. This is only a percentage of us.

Needless to say it was lots of fun and I was so happy to have so much of my family there to celebrate this new member joining the ranks.

So guys, baby girl is getting strong. And my ribs can attest to it. She is approximately 4+ pounds at the moment, but they are saying she will have a birth weight around 6 pounds and some ounces. I'm down with that. No 10 pound babies around here please, thanks. Speaking of babies, my sister-in-law had her second baby boy on Monday. She had him by c-section and I was unintentionally one of the first in the family to see him after he was born. I can't tell you how bizarre it is from this pregnant perspective to see that new baby. Like one second he was in her belly and the next he was here in the world needing to be cared for. It's freakin nuts. It was awesome getting to hang out with her and the baby for two days in the hospital and get an idea of what things will be like in 4 weeks. I got to help with the baby a lot since Angela couldn't do too much. Omg, babies smell amazing, btw. I could just sit and smell them all the live long day. It made me so excited to see my little baby and see what she's going to look like - because you know everyone and their mother is doing nothing but trying to figure out who the baby looks like every second of the first days of its life. It's a fun little game. Anyways, I'm seriously excited to spend many hours cuddling my baby and kissing her soft skin and smelling her.

In other news I rented a lens for a day so I could do a photo shoot for a friend. Those pics will be along soon. I made Ronnie take some maternity pictures of me before I returned the lens since I have like 3 for my whole pregnancy. They're not too shabby, but don't him I said that. He already thinks he's a pimp photographer.

I know I said I would never post a bare belly picture, but I lied. Just deal with it.

Oh snap!

No prob, doc!

My doctor just recommended eating a bowl of ice cream every night. I just realized he's the best doctor in the world.

rockin' and rollin' and what not

Two down. One to go. Trimesters that is. And this baby likes to rock n roll. I took some video to prove it. Warning: this video is trippy and might freak you out. Because it pretty much looks like an alien is about to bust out of my belly. This is the crazy show I get to watch almost nightly.



In other news, this is what her nursery is going to look like. Thanks to the genius at Lay Baby Lay who designed this room for her little girl Vivi. It is so fabulous.

Obs, baby girl's room will be a little different, but I love the wall color with black, white and hints of pink. I'm also going to use silver frames instead of gold. I can't wait to actually have a house to do this in!

happy sunday

Here I am at 26 weeks. Holy shiznit this baby is coming. Also, I watched a few episodes of A Baby Story. I'm totes getting an epidural. There's always these peeps who want to go natural, but then want an epidural when it's too late. That ain't gonna be me. Definite props to those peeps, but it seems like I'm gonna want one eventually, I might as well get it right off the bat.

howdy

I seriously spent many hours yesterday writing a post about my Christmas gifts even though Brittany said it was untimely. But then I read over it and was like-this is some snobby bs right here. So I'm not gonna post it. But I got some cool stuff and I am excited about it.