We are sooo excited to have our little girl here with us. Chloe ReNae was born on October 25th weighing 6 lbs 12 oz and measuring 18 in long.
Some people have been asking me about the birth story, so here it is, without too much gross detail. haha.
On Monday, the 24th, I was having on and off contractions all day, but they weren't too painful. Around 6:00pm they were a lot more consistent and painful. I started timing them (with Doug's help..he would time how long they were and remember when the last one was. I could have written it down, but I didn't want to get up.) and they ended up being 7 minutes apart for 3 and a half hours. We had decided a while ago that we would wait to go into the hospital until they got to be around 4 minutes apart, just so we wouldn't get turned away. They started to get more painful, so we called our Moms asking for advice. We ended up taking a walk around the block around 10:00 pm to see if they would go away or get closer together and they got more painful, so we got ready and drove over to the Utah Valley Hospital in Provo. On the way over I was still having them about 5 to 7 minutes apart, but I was still unsure if the hospital would really admit us. Doug also realized that he had left his wallet at home. haha. We got to the hospital around 11:30 pm and they put me in a gown and checked to see how dilated I was. I ended up being 2.5 cm dilated and 90% effaced (same as my doc appt the Thursday before) and I was pretty upset. But they hooked me up to a machine to monitor the contractions and Chloe's heart rate and they said they would check me again in an hour. One hour later I still had made zero progress even though my contractions were now 3 to 5 minutes apart. The nurse said to us "you are definitely in the beginning of active labor and I wouldn't be surprised to see you back soon." I was pretty pissed, because I knew I was having Chloe soon. They gave me a shot of morphene for the pain and phenegran to help me sleep and they sent us on our way. By the time we got to the car I was feeling good, nice and loopy from the morphene and super tired from the phenegran. When we got home, I passed out in our bed.
2 hours later I woke up convulsing, in a ton of pain from my contractions, and terrified because I didn't know why I was shaking. I woke up Doug crying because I was scared and he tried to calm me down a little bit and then he called the hospital. We thought that I was having a reaction to the morphene because I've never taken pain killers stronger than ibprofen, so I had no idea if I was allergic or not. The hospital said that I was fine, and that my body was shaking because of the pain I was in. Doug gave me a blessing and it helped calm me down a ton and I was able to relax and focus on breathing through my contractions. We decided it was REALLY time to go to the hospital considering my contraction pain was going through the morphene and the contractions were 2 minutes apart. This time Doug made sure we had everything...my hospital bag, car seat, diaper bag, wallet, keys, phones, chargers...we were good. On the way over they were getting more painful, but I concentrated on breathing so I was doing good, and the pain was bearable (not sure if that is the correct spelling). We got to the hospital and they admitted us, checked me and I was 5 cm dilated. We decided that getting the sleep helped relax me to help me progress more.
Within the hour of being admitted, I was in lots of pain and having contractions almost constantly..well that's what it felt like, and the nurse called in the anesthesiologist and gave me the epidural. It is really hard to curl up into a ball when you are pregnant, and it is also very hard to not arch your back when there is a needle going into your back. I was lucky that Doug was there with me because he helped me focus on not twitching so I wouldn't get paralyzed or something crazy. It took about 10 minutes for the epidural to kick in, and let me tell you, AMAZING!!! I was able to sleep for a couple more hours and that was super nice. I could still feel the pressure of my contractions, but no pain. It was wonderful.
Side note - I had asked Maraina if she wanted to come in and see Chloe be born and I told her it was totally up to her. If she wanted to, then fine, but if she didn't, I wouldn't be offended or anything. She said that she wanted to and I was really excited to have my sister there with me too.
We called Raina and Danny around 7:30ish a.m. and they got there around 8 am. They brought Doug some McDonalds and I was lucky enough to be on a diet of ice chips - orange flavored :) We hung out for a while and then I kept falling asleep and what not. But around 9:30 am I started feeling really bad pain again and kept feeling like I had to push. Doug and the nurse told me I couldn't yet, so they got the anesthesiologist in there to give me some more medicine. And again, epidurals are amazing!!! He gave me just enough to where I couldn't feel the pain, but could feel the pressure as to when to push. 10:00 am I started to push. Doug was super supportive and was a fantastic counter for me. 1 hour and 49 minutes later, Chloe ReNae was born and it was incredible. The second I saw her face, I started balling my eyes out. It was so overwhelming. The doctor cleaned her up and I got to hold her for about a minute. The nurse came over and said to me "how about we see how big she is." She was so calm and I was excited to see what she weighed I didn't think that anything was wrong. Turns out that Chloe's lungs weren't opening up all the way and they had to bring her to the NICU. She was also making this weird grunt sound that they wanted a specialist to check out. Doug went with her and reported back to me with everything that was going on. We were never worried about her though. We knew that she would be ok.
In the NICU she was hooked up to a C-PAP machine to help open up her lungs all of the way to get an entire breathe of air. After about an hour I had moved to my recovery room and I was just hanging out with Raina and Danny when Doug came back in and said she was moving to the nursery! I was so excited because that meant we got to see her soon. BUT in the nursery she started grunting again so a group of specialists came down and looked at her again. The diagnosis was pretty simple - the giant bruise on her head hurt, so she was whimpering. She decided that she was going to come out sideways. Instead of looking down on the way out, her head was turned slightly right. Everyone thought she was vacuumed out, but she just came out sideways...well her head did. At about 4 pm I finally got to hang out with my baby girl! I was so excited.
Chloe is now 1 week and 5 days old and she is awesome. The swelling on her head has gone down a ton (she still has a funny shaped head, but the doctor said that should go down withing 4 - 6 weeks) and she is now eating like a champ. She doesn't cry too often, when she does, it is always because she is hungry or needs a diaper change. She sleeps all of the time and loves cuddling with her Daddy. She has also recently started gripping things with her hands. It is so cute! We love her so much and thank Heavenly Father everyday for bringing her into our lives.
My recovery is going pretty good. I'm definitely not 100% but I feel better and better everyday. I am looking forward to when she is 6 weeks old so I can start working out :) Doug has been awesome. He was able to get more time off for work than expected and he was helping any chance he could. He went back to work on Halloween and worked 17 hours, but then the next day he only had to work 8!
I have had some awesome support. Way more than I expected. My neighbors have been awesome! Mindi has brought us dinner 3 times, and Rachel has been really nice to talk to (she just had a baby too) and she is bringing us dinner next week :) My ward actually got meals set up for this whole week and that has been nice. Maraina and Danny have brought us dinner, and so has my Destin. Doug's parents have come over a few times and brought me lunch and dinner. Kari even came over and cleaned my apartment! I am so thankful for all of the support that we are getting! And I am so excited to have my parents in town right before Thanksgiving, and then my best friend Chelsea and her hubby Marcus are going to be in town right after that!
