8 lbs 8 oz | 20 inches long | soft, dark hair | squishy cheeks
A week before she was born, I was up during the night with hard and fairly consistent contractions. By sunrise, they had slowed down. But, I still thought things would progress and we would have a baby by the end of the day (May 21). I even woke up David around 3:30 am and told him we were probably going to the hospital soon. He got up and made sub plans and arranged for a sub for his class. I had a dr appt that morning around 10. By that point, the contractions' intensity and frequency had significantly decreased. Dr. Small had me do the NST and everything was fine with baby's movement and heart rate. She checked me and I wasn't dilated at all. That was a very disappointing and off-putting day for us. I was grateful David stayed home, because I was exhausted from the lack of night sleep. We felt like our lives were on hold for a few days because of how sure I was that the baby was coming on May 21. By the 23rd, I felt like I had regained my patience for Esther's arrival. I also didn't get excited about any hard contractions I was having. I didn't want to be disappointed again.
On the evening of the 23rd, we went out to Beusy's for a family bbq and birthday celebration. Adam and Emilee, Rebecca, Jess and Specner, and Heather and Nathan were all there. It was so fun to be with everyone. It was a mini reunion. I wasn't feeling that great before dinner. And after dinner I started feeling worse. By the time we got home, I was pretty sure I was coming down with a stomach bug. Benson had a stomach bug earlier in the week.
I threw up and had diarrhea a few times during the night. At 3 am, I threw up and had diarrhea. When I exited the bathroom, Annika was waiting in the hallway and said "mom I throwed up." Fortunately, I had the "20 minute window of feeling decent since I just threw up" thing going on. David cleaned up her bed while I gave her a shower/bath to get all of the throw up out of her hair and neck. It was pretty gross. I put new sheets on her bed while David cleaned up the mess from removing her clothes in the bathroom. We were a good team. I made it back in bed just as I was starting to feel sick again. Annika slept through the rest of the night. She woke up around 8 and promptly went back to bed when she found out she couldn't have milk. I think she got up around 10:30. She ended up sleeping in a taking naps for the next few days. I was dehydrated and lacking an appetite but didn't throw up or have diarrhea the rest of the day. David and Benson went to sacrament meeting and then came home to take care of us. I started having hard contractions about 7 minutes apart by mid afternoon. I didn't think I would be praying for Esther to wait longer to arrive at this point in the pregnancy, but I was. I had David call the on call OB to ask what I should do. That's when we found out Dr. Small was out of town for the weekend. I was thinking the contractions were probably caused by dehydration. The Dr. told us go in to the hospital so I could get an IV for hydration. So, my dad came over and we went to the hospital. We brought the hospital bag just in case, but we both thought we would probably be home in a few hours. I felt so much better after the bag of IV fluids was in me. The contractions slowed down considerably before we went home. I slept much better that night.
The next day was memorial day, and I was grateful David was home. Annika had a few bouts of diarrhea. We ended up putting her in diapers for a few days so we didn't have to clean up diarrhea off the floor. That was a good choice. :) Monday night, I was up most of the night with acid reflux. I threw up once and just felt miserable. I felt bad asking David to stay home another day, but I knew I needed to rest and get some strength back before I went into labor. I took a unisom and went to sleep for a few hours in the morning before my scheduled appt with Dr. Small.
At the appt, I found out I wasn't dilated at all. I scheduled an induction for Friday morning at 8 am. Dr. Small said I would most likely have to start with a cervix ripening med before they started pitocin. She said if I didn't start dilating with that med, we could either go home or stay overnight and try another med before pitocin. I came home and talked to David about the induction and my worries. I didn't want to force labor. But, I was also so ready to be done. We decided we would keep the induction appt and try the cervical ripening meds, but not stay over night.
The next day, May 27, I woke up around 4 am because of contractions. I came out and watched Netflix and was able to rest for about an hour around 6:15. The contractions weren't too painful or too close together the rest of the morning. I was able to clean the bathroom, change Annika's sheets, and straighten up the house. I wasn't able to nap in the afternoon because the contractions were too painful. I just kept busy and moving around. I think I put some laundry away and cleaned Annika's room. I found that standing up was much more comfortable when the contractions came. They were almost unbearable when I sat down. By 2:30, I was convinced that we would be going to the hospital fairly soon. I called David at 3 and told him not to be too long after school. He came home around 3:30. The contractions were intense but still 6-8 minutes apart. So, David asked if he had time to mow the lawn. He mowed, swept the sidewalk, and took a quick shower. I texted Abby at 4 and told her not to dilly dally on her way home because we were heading to the hospital when she arrived :) We got to the hospital around 4:30. While we registered downstairs, I didn't have any contractions. I was really starting to doubt the seriousness of the contractions. I didn't have a contraction from the time we left our house, until I was upstairs putting a gown on and doing a urine sample. But, then they started come 6-8 minutes apart again. The nurse checked me and I was a 3. Dr. Small came in awhile after that she checked me too. Dr. Small had told me I was a hard check because my cervix was posterior and to the right. But, the nurse was much more efficient at checking me than Dr. Small. I was grateful that I wouldn't have too many more checks at that point. After the miserable check, Dr. Small said they would give me an hour and check me again before admitting me. David and I really hoped they wouldn't send us home at this point. The contractions were intense and consistent enough that wouldn't have felt comfortable going home. While we waited our hour, we played UNO (I won almost every game:), walked around, and I ate some delicious jello and chicken broth. When our nurse checked me again, I was a 4 and they were going to admit me. Hallelujah.
A new nurse from the Philippines did all of the admitting charting. That was painful. It took forever and she didn't even understand several of the questions. I was grateful that she didn't play a major role in the delivery or rest of my care.
I got my epidural around 9 pm. Things went fast with my first two after the epidural. And they went relatively fast with this one too. Soon after the epidural was placed, I had some intense and long episodes of uncontrollable shaking. It was annoying and caused me significant anxiety. I called the nurse in at one point because of the anxiety. Having the nurse in the room calmed my nerves and my anxiety decreased. After she left, I had another intense episode of shaking. It probably lasted 15 minutes. The shaking was because of the fast rate my cervix was dilating and my body was quickly preparing for delivery. By, 11 pm, the nurse checked me and said, "Dr. Small will come break your water and your baby should be here within an hour." Dr. Small was next door delivering another baby. So we just hung tight while they set up the room for delivery.
Dr. Small came in and broke my water and we were all surprised (and a little grossed out) by the amount of amniotic fluid that came out. They got things cleaned up and I started pushing around 11:45.
I pushed through 4 or 5 contractions and Esther's head was not descending very much. I was disappointed and starting to feel worn out. I took a break for a few contractions and then started up again. Around 12:15, I started feeling my legs a little bit. I thought maybe the epidural might be wearing off, but I didn't say anything. I thought maybe this epidural just wasn't as strong and I would continue to feel more pressure, but not pain.
Dr. Small started using the vacuum and that's when I started to feel more than I wanted to. It was very uncomfortable to have the vacuum in there. And I didn't remember feeling that when Dr. Bunch used the vacuum on my first two babies. By the time the head was crowning, I'm pretty sure I was feeling everything. It was horrible. I said something like "I can't do this" through my quick breaths. I was probably close to hyperventilating. They told me to breath slower and that I could do it. I felt helpless and desperate to be done. Soon after, our Esther baby arrived at 12:41 am. They placed her on my lap, and I tried to want to touch her and look at her, but I honestly had no interest in my baby in those first moments after delivery. I also told David that we weren't having any more babies. :) It only took a few minutes for me to feel intense relief that the delivery was over. At that point, I anxiously waited for the nurse to finish taking Esther's vitals and giving her her shots so I could hold her.
When I finally got to hold her, I was filled with gratitude and love for our sweet little girl. When I tried nursing her, she latched right on. Those first moments of nursing her were so tender. She had such soft, squishy cheeks and it felt so good to hold her against my skin.
As expected, I got very little sleep that night. I got up to use the bathroom around 5 am. That was quite an ordeal. I was nauseous and near passing out for about 30 minutes while I went from sitting at the edge of my bed, to the bedside commode, and back into bed. I was grateful to be back in bed after that.
Kathy brought Annika and Benson in to meet Esther around 10 am. I was quite surprised when Benson showed more interest in the baby than Annika. She didn't want to hold Esther. We got our cliche first family picture in the hospital and it was so good to see our sweet kids. I noticed Annika had spots on her face and Kathy diagnosed her with hives. That was concerning to me, but Kathy assured me she would take care of her.
We were disappointed to find out they now do a standard cardiac test on all babies at 24 hours old. That meant we would have to spend another night in the hospital. It wasn't nearly as bad as we were expecting though. I didn't have to have vitals done every 15 minutes like the night before and they took Esther to the nursery in-between feedings. They didn't take Benson to the nursery for us, so we weren't expecting that. It was so nice to get some sleep!
In the morning, they did an ultrasound on Esther's heart because Dr. Locke heard a heart murmur the previous night. Then, we had to wait for the results to be read by a specialist in Spokane before we could go home. Ugh. We waited until noon and Dr. Locke finally just discharged us after she talked to the ultrasound tech and was fairly sure everything was normal. David and I were so excited to be going home!
We arrived home around 1 pm. Dena was watching our kids. Benson was already down for a nap. Annika was excited to see us though. She asked to hold Esther about an hour after we got home. I got some cute pictures of that.
We are so happy to have our sweet Esther here. She is two weeks old now. Although I miss sleeping through the night, I don't miss being pregnant. This pregnancy was much more trying than the first two, especially at the end. But, as with every pregnancy, it is so worth it. We love you, Esther babe!
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| these were taken in the morning on May 27 (the day we went to the hospital). She wanted Benson to sit on her lap :) |
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| right before David and I left for the hospital (5/27) |
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| staying on my feet to be comfortable during contractions. This picture was taken before we were officially admitted. |
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| fresh from Heaven! |
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| this was a few minutes after Esther was born. That is a face full of relief! |
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| first bath |
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| 1st family picture (not our best:) |
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| squishy cheeks! |
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| we were so ready to go home! |
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| ready for her first car ride! |
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| holding her sister for the first time |
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| Annika put her doll next to Esther :) |
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| Benson holding Esther for the first time |
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| my cute boys on Benson's birthday morning |
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| cutie pies |
