Born: January 22nd 1:43 P.M.
Weight: 7lbs, 5oz
Length: 20 inches
Friday the 18th -Mitch dropped me off at my parents house where I was going to be spending the night while he was busy with the 24hr LDS film festival. Mom was out of town and so that night my Dad and I went on a lovely date to Olive Garden because I needed a lasagna really bad. They were so busy that the only seats available were at the bar, I was 9 days away from being 21 and the bar tender just kept eyeing my belly then finally said I could eat there because I was obviously not going to drink anything. HA!
Saturday the 19th -was my last day of work at the Ice rink teaching my kiddos and it was also the new due date (previously was the 30th but I was measuring bigger). After work I went to see how Mitch and the guys were doing on their film and the whole time I was starting to have contractions but they were few and far apart.
Sunday the 20th -At home I woke up and went to the bathroom to find that my body was starting to loose the "Plug", so I told Mitchel and then called to tell me mom. My mom was in and out of town for work and visiting her ailing dad so we were worried that I'd go into labor while she was out of town. My mom said usually when you loose your "plug" you can go into labor within 24 hrs to a week. So we knew it was happening any day. All through the day I was having more contractions but they were all over the place and would sometimes stop for hours. That evening Mitch and I went to Target and just walked, Mitchel thought it'd be fun to time each other to see how fast we could walk around the whole store. When we returned home I had some lightning painful contractions for a little bit but then they stopped. That night I woke up around 3 am and again at 7 am to go to the bathroom and there didn't seem to be any progress.
Monday the 21st -My contractions were not consistent for a long time, I hardly even had any. My best friend Carrie came over and went for a walk with me, she left at about 4 and near 4:30 I had a good strong contraction. By 6:15 they were coming every 6 min and were about 50 sec long. Mitch didn't want to get his hopes up like the night before he was getting frustrated with the waiting game. That night I went to the bathroom about 3 times and noticed more and more "plug", I must have been having contractions because I was just so uncomfortable or at least that's what Mitch observed.
Tuesday the 22nd -Early in the morning around 5:15 A.M. I had a very sharp painful feeling in my belly, it felt like someone punched me in the groin, it hurt so bad my back was arching, then I had a crazy painful contraction. I sat up only to have my water break. As I fixed my self up in the bathroom I yelled through the door giving Mitch instructions to warm the car up and grab whatever else he needed that I hadn't already packed. Thankfully my Mom was home and not out of town so I called her to say my water broke and in the middle of talking to her I realized Mitch was still running around crazy so I yelled at him. It was something like "What are you doing? Lets go!!" then I said goodbye to my Mom and we headed out. Every time I had a contraction Mitch would focus on me and not the road so we hit a couple bumps pretty hard and luckily we hit mostly green lights.
At the hospital (UVRMC) as we were getting in the elevator a Fed ex man came around the corner took one look at us and politely waited for the next elevator. Upstairs at Labor and Delivery Mitch told the lady through the phone that my wife is in labor. We got buzzed through and the lady at the desk was talking to an older couple which took way too long in my opinion, once at the desk she calmly was asking us to sign papers and what not and I just didn't like how slow she was going so I let her know this was not some first time mom false labor thing. I told her that my water broke..and you could tell she realized this was real and she took me more serious, She got me in a wheel chair cause it would be faster then instead of going around and down the hall to some room she zoomed me right back behind the desk through a door to another hall and into a room. I changed into a gown got into the bed when some nurses came in and set me up with an IV, monitors on my belly, and checked my progress I was 90% effaced and was dilated at about 2 1/2 to 3 cm.. One of the nurses was wearing green UVU scrubs and asked if she could be in the room for the delivery which I said was fine. They asked if I wanted and epidural now or wait, as I was contemplating it Mitch said to the nurse that I should have it now (I think he didn't like seeing me in pain lol). We waited not very long before the guy came in and set me up with an epidural. I was fine with getting it as long as I didn't see the needle, he asked me to curl in a ball and arch my back so I did the best I could and he asked me to curl it as much as I could, I told I was and that my back has a natural inward curve (due to scoliosis). With that being said he stuck me! After that ordeal we waited for myself to progress by watching some tv, I think we watched Shanghi Noon. Since arriving I gained 1 cm per hour.
With our luck Dr. Savage was already at the hospital because her son was there having surgery. So she kept going back and forth between the two of us. Around 10 AM she checked me again and I was at about a 7 1/2. She then started to talk to me and my next contraction I felt pressure to push so she checked me again and I was already at an 8 (only within about 5 min). We were starting to progress quickly. She then told us because I had Meconium staining in the water (baby poop from baby being stressed) they would have to work quickly once she is born in hopes that she didn't inhale any poop, so for this to be prevented they would not let her cry when she is born and would have to work fast. I was also told if everything is fine they would put her on me for skin to skin but if she inhaled some then they would have to take her to the NICU Where she could end up for a couple days to a week. I was so worried, and I really wanted to have skin to skin.
They let me do a practice push around 11 am because we were ready to go but then decided to let my body do a little more of it's own work, so I got to take a nap until about noon when they came back and set the room up. Mitch was helping with my left leg and the nurse from UVU was helping with my right leg. My doctor wasn't in the room yet it was just the two nurses. I did some pushes with the nurses when Doctor Savage arrived and pulled out the stirrups, she checked me and they found out that the baby was trying to come out ear first!!! What a stinker. I started pushing again and Dr. Savage was a great cheerleader!!! With each push she had to manipulate the babys head to get it in the right position. Not to far into the pushing I got extremely tired and just closed my eyes and focused on my breathing ( I have exercise induced asthma), Mitchel freaked out a bit and started to shake my arm and was calling my name but I was just too tired to talk and the Dr. even had to tell him that I was fine and i'm just super tired.
Not to long after that I was given an oxygen mask so the baby could get more air, I then pushed for about 1hr and 30 min (Labor was 8 1/2 hrs total).So like I said before Dr. Savage had to twist Lydia because she was coming out sideways, so after quite a bit of manipulating her and pushing Lydia Mae Shira finaly made her way into the world. They set Lydia on my belly and she was covered in Meconium!! the poor thing! Mitch cut the cord and then they took her over to the other side of the room where some guys cleaned her, only to find she was way too pale and was having a hard time breathing so they wisked her away to the NICU after I got one look at her. I told Mitchel to follow her!
Dr. Savage helped me with the rest of the yucky stuff and stiched me up due to a 2 degree tear. I was told I could see Lydia in one hour so I watched Happy Day's and ended up calling my mom and let her know that Lydia was born and she could come to the hospital if she wanted. Mitchel returned to me at about 1 hour later to get our things. My mom arrived and helped mitch while I got in the wheel chair. They took me to see Lydia, she had tubes and wires all over the place it was so hard for me to see!!!! She had a tube down her throat sucking out Meconium that got in her lungs and her tummy, Also had a CPAP machine blowing oxygen into her lungs, and IV and other types of moniters. They said she might be in the NICU for a week or a couple of days.
Down in a new room I was told I had to prove to the nurses that I could hold down food and go to the bathroom before I could see Lydia again, so I hurried and ordered food, held it down well and once as my legs were working I went to the bathroom, durring this time my Dad arrived and got to visit with us and see Lydia as well. Once as I was able we kept visiting Lydia and each time she was doing better then before!! :) By midnight-1am we went to see her one more time before going to bed and to give her some milk and she was no longer in the NICU!!!! :D We turned around and went to the nursery and found her there. I sat down in a rocking chair and Mitchel handed her to me, Finally after 12 hours we got to hold our precious baby girl!! Of course I cried and Mitch cried too. I didn't want to put her down. She looked so much better. I am so proud of my strong little girl. after 48 hours in the hospital we were finally able to take our miracle home!!
We are so thankful for a strong and now healthy baby girl!!! What a miracle she is in our life. Can't wait for the journey's to come!
