The Story

(Can you believe something so big fit in there? I can't. This is right before we went to the hospital Tuesday morning)

Well for those of you who want to know the story of Hallie's birth, here we go. It is quite the tale...just kidding. I actually had been having contractions consistently since Saturday morning. I finally made Devin take me to Labor and Delivery Sunday night, where they checked me and told me that I was dilated to a 3. They monitored me for an hour and said that if I dilated any more they would keep me, but if not, they would send me home. I knew I wouldn't dilate anymore in the hour because my contractions were not strong enough. At that point, they were barely painful, but it was obnoxious that they were coming 2 minutes apart but nothing was progressing. When they came with the news that they were sending me home, they told me they were calling my doctor just to update him. I asked the nurse to talk to him myself. She looked a little shocked at the request, but let me talk to him. At that point, I was so frustrated not knowing what was going on and not knowing how much longer I would just have to deal with constant contractions, I was near tears. When I talked to him, he asked what had been happening and I relayed the information. I am sure he could sense my frustration, because he said that we would watch and see what happened Monday and then if nothing progressed on my own, he would induce me on Tuesday. I felt happy enough with this information, but he must have felt especially bad for me as when I went to leave, the ladies at the desk called me over and told me that he had put me on the induction schedule for Tuesday already.

(Since Hallie was born on election day, we made sure to get a number of pictures with her and the "I voted" sticker. She stayed in the nursery her first night and still had the sticker on the next morning when she came back to me!)

I went home on pain meds, Percocet. Let me just tell you, me and pain meds=not a good combo!! Whenever I have had serious pain drugs before, I am ALWAYS loopy, as my sister and Devin can attest. Well, that night was no exception. I was seriously giddy all night laughing hysterically at everything. Devin revoked my phone priveledges at one point because I kept calling back and forth between my mom and sister and dying laughing about nothing. Needless to say, I went to bed happy and slept like a rock.

Let me just interject here and tell you of the Lord's tender mercies. I had been praying that Hallie would come because I was so uncomfortable and ready to have her. I didn't care when, I just wanted a baby. However, looking back, I have to say that the timing was exactly right and the Lord knew that. Not only was she born a week early, helping to put me out of my misery, but she was also born 2 days after we got Devin's insurance information in the mail for Smith's. We were unsure that we would be able to get everything ready and on track for his insurance before she came, since we qualified November 1st (yeah good timing huh!), but everything came and we were ready to go for the big day. So since we already have another health insurance policy and a seperate hospital policy, we were then triple covered. This will definitely be helpful as I quit one job and won't be working at the other for a while. On top of that, I had been working on a very important case at LDS that had just come up with one of my adoptive couples having a placement of a baby. Well, to make a long story short, it all happened within the week before Hallie was born, but it was not just an open and closed placement. There were a ton of legal issues and problems that could have arisen, but didn't. The couple was waiting to formally sign the paperwork for placement until a DNA test came back that was supposed to come back on Wednesday the 5th at the earliest. However, I went to work Monday the 3rd and we received word that everything had come back early and we were clear and ready to go! I was ecstatic to be able to do the placement with my couple and have everything ready to go before taking maternity leave and having to pass the case on to someone else (I am sure they would have been happy to do it, but I was so happy to be part of the process of helping this couple). So everything was ready to go just the day before Hallie was born.

(Oh no, we already have a thumb sucker!)

Monday night I got the call to be at the hospital at 7 am. I was happy to hear the early hour, since sometimes I know that people who are induced are called and told they have to wait because people who are in active labor come in before they get to their time. Anyway, we walked into American Fork hospital on time and I was the only one there in labor and delivery! (I bet that is rare in these parts!). I got started on the pitocin around 7:30 am and my doctor came in to break my water around 8 am. He told me, "Don't try to be brave and experience labor...as soon as you are uncomfortable, get the epidural!" I didn't listen. I waited until I was past uncomfortable...my pain went from a 1 to a 10 in the matter of 15 minutes as the contractions took full reign. I thought I was going to die. I didn't know whether I should stand, sit, slouch, or just curl into the fetal position. My nurse had buzzed the anasthesiologist by this point, but he was taking his sweet time getting there (at least that is how it seemed to me!). When he finally arrived, my nurse had checked me and I was dilated to a 5. After he got done with the epidural, which was amazing by the way, the nurse left the room and came back 15 minutes later to check me and I was dilated to an 8. Meanwhile, she was running in and out having me lay on my side, put on oxygen, and moving the baby's heart monitor from my abdomen to the baby's head as well as the contraction monitor from my abdomen to inside also. I was worried because she wasn't really direct with me about what was going on...turns out later I was told that the baby's heart rate was dropping dangerously low each time I had a contraction so they wanted to monitor them more closely. They were in contact with my doctor who also had them pump fluid back into my uterus to see if that would help.

(Devin was supposed to be keeping Hallie awake since we had a horrible night last night...she is all backwards thinking she needs to sleep all day long and stay up all night!)

At 11:30 am, I felt as if I needed to start pushing and I could not resist the urge. I buzzed the nurse who came in and said that if I needed to, I could push lightly. I waited 10 minutes later and I could just not do it "lightly", so I buzzed her again and told her I needed to push harder. She said okay and her and Devin started helping me push through the contractions. She told me we would call the doctor when we could see a portion of her head but that most first time moms push for at least 2-3 hours, so she wasn't too worried about it. She walked out of the room to get everything ready for the baby, when she came back in, apparently I had pushed past where the doctor should have been there because she frantically called the desk and told them to page him and have him come as soon as possible. Well, once you start pushing, you can't stop. Long story short, the doctor ran in in his khaki pants and button up shirt just in time for my last push to catch the baby! Wahoo! Hallie was born at 12:09 pm. The first thing I did was look down to check to make sure she was a girl...and she was! I had been worried about that as some of you know!

(Hallie is all girl and loves pink. Well, okay, maybe her mom likes to put her in pink, but hey! We decided to put on the tutu that Ashley gave her today to see how she looks! Ohhhhh fun!!)

We love our baby girl. She has been such a joy to have already and I can't express how much love I have for this little human. I was also worried about having an ugly baby as you know, but I can honestly say that I think she is gorgeous (of course I think that, I am her mother). In her short 4 days of life, she has already grown and changed so much, I can't even believe it. I can't wait to see her grow and change and hopefully I can be the kind of mother to her that she deserves.

(Too much pink!?)

*Sorry for the long post and possibly too many details, but I do want to record this because who knows when I will get to the journal. So sad that I am more dedicated to my blog than to my journal, huh?*