She's here!
After a difficult pregnancy,
and an incredibly miserable 2 weeks leading up to her birth,
She's finally arrived!
We can start way back on January 15th.
I was at church, sitting in sunday school and I could not for the life of me get comfortable.
I was having consistent braxton hicks and decided to get up and walk around for a bit.
After about 5 minutes of walking around,
I decided to sit on the couch in the Foyer.
It was the most comfortable place I could find and my back was killing me.
As I was sitting there I began feeling a couple of contractions.
They weren't as consistent as the braxton hicks,
but they were definitely contractions.
I sat there through most of Relief Society
and counted down the minutes until it was time to go home.
I seriously was ready to go. haha.
When we got home,
the contractions didn't stop.
In my mind,
I was SURE this was it.
Because DUH, once you start having contractions,
you're obviously in labor right? 😉
They weren't consistent and they would range anywhere from 5-20 minutes apart.
Sometimes I would even go almost an hour without having one.
This continued on into the next day,
and the next day,
and the next...
I was beginning to become really irritable.
I was hardly sleeping because of these dumb contractions and I couldn't get comfortable because of it.
But I knew it wasn't real labor because they weren't becoming more intense,
or consistently closer together.
I began bouncing on the birthing ball like a mad woman.
one day, it was literally all I did!
But that wasn't doing anything which made me even more frustrated.
By Friday,
I was just an emotional mess.
I was miserable.
The contractions were now between 2 and 10 minutes apart at this point,
and although I knew they weren't getting stronger,
they were starting to hurt, and I was crying everytime I got one.
Not because they were so bad to the point of crying, but once you have mild contractions for that long, they start to hurt. Mostly just because they were going on for so long, and I was tired.
My back hurt,
my front hurt,
my entire body was starting to hurt.
By about 4 pm,
I was starting to wonder if my water was leaking.
This parts a little TMI,
but I was having a lot of discharge which I hadn't had at all until the day before.
On top of that,
I'd had it.
I could NOT do it anymore.
and my next dr appointment wasn't until Tuesday,
so I called the nurse.
She recommended I go in if the contractions were making me cry and also if I even questioned if my water was leaking since obviously it could get dangerous if I waited more than 24 hours with broken water.
subconsciously,
I knew that the reason I was crying was because they had been going on for SO LONG,
and while I wasn't sure if it was my water or not,
I really didn't have much hope.
BUT,
to be on the safe side, we headed to L&D
We packed the kids in the car,
took them to my parents house,
and drove to the hospital.
TWO hours later,
we were finally there.
I was still an emotional wreck.
I was miserable, tired, and honestly didn't think I could do it anymore.
I had been 0% effaced and dilated to a whopping 0 at my appointment the week before
(which was also before I began contracting).
So I was praying that these miserable contractions were actually doing something.
When she checked me,
I was dilated to a 1+ and 0% effaced.
I was so upset that it was just a 1.
I'd been contracting for 5 days and that was it!?
an hour later,
I wasn't progressing,
so the nurse decided to give me a shot of morphine, said if I was still getting the same contractions after it wore off, to come back in.
I welcomed the morphine shot!
If I wasn't in labor,
I just wanted the pain to go away so I could get some sleep!!
Sure enough,
the morphine did it's job.
I was So out of it, Tyson had to practically carry me to bed.
he took SUCH good care of me during all of this.
They suggested that I take a bath when I got home,
so he helped me inside after we got home,
started the bath for me,
and made sure I was okay.
Then a little later,
he came in,
woke me up because I was out of it while in the tub,
helped me out,
and walked/carried me to bed. haha
They said the morphine would last about 8 hours, but it was almost 24 for me.
I felt so groggy the next day.
By around noon, I started feeling contractions again,
but because the morphine was still affecting my head,
I didn't care.
It was really weird.
I could feel them,
but they didn't bother me at all. haha
That night,
I went to my roommates baby shower.
She was due two days before me.
While we were there, I had a couple intense contractions.
They were the strongest I'd felt so far, but they were maybe 10 or 15 minutes apart.
I again,
wondered if I was in labor.
After leaving the shower,
I told myself that if they continued to be that strong,
I'd go in.
The shower was about an hour away from my house,
and by the time I got home,
they weren't that strong anymore.
I was of COURSE still having them,
but nothing strong again.
So I went to bed.
The next day (sunday),
I didn't go to church.
I was miserable still and still having the same contractions.
I texted my mom that night and asked her if she could come be with the kids while they slept,
because I was going to go back to L&D (because that's what they said to do!).
We got there around 10 pm.
They checked me and I was at a 2+ and still 0% effaced.
BUT,
lo and behold,
I didn't progress in an hour,
so I was sent home.
I was in the WORST mood after this.
The entire pregnancy I had wanted to let my body go into labor on it's own this time.
I wanted to avoid pitocin for as long as possible,
and see how far I could dilate on my own before getting the epidural.
But at this point,
I didn't care about that.
While I really REALLY wanted to see how far I could go,
if this was how labor was going to be,
I just wanted them to give me pitocin, give me an epidural,
and get my body moving faster!
On tuesday,
I got to my appointment,
and I was already in THE WORST MOOD.
So when they told me that my dr wasn't even there,
and that I wasn't supposed to be scheduled that day,
I literally burst into tears.
It wasn't just a little bit.
It was FULL ON ugly cry tears,
where I was doing that hyperventilating type breathing and everything.
haha
I honestly couldn't control it anymore.
my nurse told me she would find someone to check me,
and even set up an induction date for me that day so that I had something to look forward to.
She got another OB to come and check me.
he said I was still at a 2+, but I was about 60% effaced.
Seriously,
my body WAS progressing,
but slower than anything IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!
haha
She also had me schedule another appointment for that coming Friday, the 27th.
My doctor would be there then and she said he'd strip my membranes.
This was 3 days away.
While that doesn't seem like very long,
when you're contracting consistently,
it feels like an ETERNITY!!
I miraculously made it to Friday though!
I was 38 weeks and 3 days at this point.
side note: before all this contracting started, I was totally fine even if I was going to go over my due date. I wanted to labor on my own without help. I had actually hoped that I would go 4 days over due so that she would be born on the 11th. That way all my kids would have their birthdays on the 11th! However, since I was contracting forever, I could not FATHOM waiting any longer and my plan to not be induced, was no longer an option in my book. I WAS going to be induced if my body didn't progress by February 1st!
When he checked me, I hadn't progressed since Tuesday, which was even more upsetting to me!
He agreed to strip my membranes, told me to schedule for another appointment on Monday were he would strip them again, and then I would be induced that Tuesday if nothing had happened yet.
I left that appointment feeling So defeated.
He SAID he had just stripped my membranes,
but not only did I feel like it hadn't done anything,
I wasn't contracting anymore.
Braxton hicks came, but the painful crampy contractions had left.
I didn't have much hope that the membrane strip did anything,
but was happy the contractions had stopped for the time being and met my sister at Carls Jr for lunch.
While at carls jr,
I started contracting again,
but they were pretty much the same as before.
After lunch,
I went to target with my kids and started doing a really weird bouncy walk through the aisles. haha
I was contracting and told myself that this better be it and I bounced up and down to ensure that this was the case. haha
after target,
I went back to my sisters house.
It was my nephews birthday and I was helping her make his cake.
I was contracting at first,
but as time went on,
they stopped again.
My nephews party started at 6:30
and about 15 minutes into the party,
I started contracting again...
but this time they were stronger.
At one point I went in to a different room and started timing them.
Some of them were SO strong.
it went from painful contractions every 2 minutes or so,
and then after about 30 minutes, I was still "contracting" every 2 minutes,
but some were more like braxton hicks where they weren't very painful and mostly just lots of pressure.
The painful contractions were about every 3 or 4 braxton hicks apart.
My sister asked if my kids wanted to sleep at her house as part of the birthday party,
and I quickly accepted! How perfect would that be if this was really labor right?
After the party,
my other sister and her husband asked us if we wanted to go to dinner.
I really didn't have an appetite
and wasn't really up for it,
but decided that was a good way to put off going home if this was real labor.
(our house was 30 minutes in the opposite direction of the hospital. So if this WAS labor, I didn't want to go home first, just to turn around and head back. Especially because one of my biggest fears through this LONG LABOR was that my body was suddenly going to speed up and I wasn't going to make it to the hospital in time since it was an hour away! Which was also one of the reasons I kept going int to be checked. I seriously was so scared I wouldn't make it for the epidural and that terrified me.)
We decided on the Pie Pizzeria.
I figured that could give us good vibes for labor because it's where my sister ate the night she went into labor with her son (the one who's birthday was that day.)
While eating at the pie,
my contractions/braxton hicks continued regularly about 1-2 minutes apart.
Some really bothered me,
others I could mostly ignore.
But about 30 minutes into eating,
I really started to feel like this might be it.
SO,
we packed up our things and headed to the hospital.
I was a 3+ when I got there
and an hour later,
I'd progressed to a 5.
They decided then to admit me!
I was REALLY surprised I'd progressed so much!
They broke my water about 30 minutes after admitting me
and I was so proud of myself for how well I was handling the contractions.
I thought I was going to be a lot more wimpy. haha
I got myself to 6+ and then made a dumb decision.
I asked them to give me a low dose of pitocin so I could try to get to a 7 before getting the epidural.
They gave me that pitocin,
and not only did it not do anything,
it slowed me down.
for another maybe 3 hours,
I sat there contracting with the stupid pitocin and I didn't progress AT ALL.
Really wanted to make it to a 7,
but I was at a 6+ and that was good enough!
She gave me some medication to help the pain in my IV that she said could last anywhere from a few minutes, to an hour depending on how far in to labor I was.
It lasted long enough for me to take a 15 minute nap,
and that was it.
I told the nurse that I wanted the epidural in another hour whether I progressed or not,
because it was starting to not only get painful,
but I was worried that if I waited any longer,
I wouldn't have time!
She left and a couple minutes later,
came in and said that there was going to be a line if I waited any longer for the epidural,
so she recommended I do it then just to be safe.
SO,
I agreed and got the epidural.
which was a good thing, because the last two contractions I had before he stuck that giant needle in my back, were so bad that they made me cry.
Yeah, I know, all of you who know me think that's not hard to do...
but I was doing SO GOOD at handling the pain until that point.
The epidural lowered my blood pressure significantly.
The same thing happened with Hayleigh as well, although with Hayleigh, I felt the effects more than I did this time.
They had to give me some medication in my IV to raise it,
and while it took a second,
my blood pressure got better and all was well.
About an hour and a half into getting the epidural,
the nurse checked me and I still hadn't progressed.
At this point,
Kalista and Hayleigh were just waking up.
I asked my sister to FaceTime me when they woke up,
so we could tell them the news.
Kali had been anxiously waiting for this day,
and her reaction did not disappoint!
Kali cried from pure excitement,
and they both were SO excited!
It was so fun to see their response.
After 3 hours of having the epidural,
the nurse checked me.
....Well, actually
she just put her hand down there and felt the head.
haha
She said, not push or anything,
and they were going to call the Dr. cause the head was right there.
Sure enough,
as soon as he got there,
I pushed 1 1/2 times
and our tiny little peanut was born!
Bonnie Ann
Born January 28th 2017
weighing 5 pounds 5 ounces
and 18 inches long.
it's so bizarre to me how teeny tiny she was!
The longer my kids have "cooked",
the smaller they've been.
Kalista, who was 36.6 weeks was 6 pounds 7 ounces
Hayleigh, who was 37.4 weeks, was 6 pounds 6 ounces
and
Bonnie, who was 38.4 weeks, was 5 pounds 5 ounces!
Side note: It doesn't matter how hard I try to do my hair at the beginning of labor,
it always ends up looking INSANE once baby is born. haha
Kalista and Hayleigh are the best big sisters ever!
They are overly obsessed with her to the point that I literally cannot take my eyes off Bonnie,
out of fear that they will maul her! haha
