I thought I better take this opportunity (while everyone else is still napping:) to write about our miraculous week. It is going to be a long post, for my own benefit b/c lets face it, it may be awhile before this makes it into a real journal, unfortunately... And so the story begins...
This entire pregnancy has been a total miracle for me. I have been so healthy and had almost no complications whatsoever. I feel so blessed for that. Time and again, I have felt reassured that though we are far away and have no family close by (like we had when I was pregnant with the boys), that we would be taken care of, that Heavenly Father was aware of all my concerns, and that we have the most amazing friends and support system around us. Truly, we are so blessed.
Anyway, about a month ago when I went to my regular appointment, they decided to send me for a growth ultrasound because baby was measuring bigger than my dates. Sure enough, baby was already estimated to weigh about 7 lbs (plus or minus 10 %). I had never been worried before, but this really concerned me. My doc was also worried that because of my history of should distosia with Isaac, that I could have similar complications with this one. SO, with that she suggested to me being induced. I also had never really considered this before, but faced with some scary last minute complications, or being induced a week early, I knew that was the obvious choice for us (plus I was already progressed to 3 cm and on my way).
The new problem then became that the hospital (and apparently state law) states that no one can be induced before 39 weeks gestation, unless of course it is a medical emergency (which, apparently my potentially beastly child was not)! So, 39 weeks was March 6th- as in the week after Ben's spring break. As in 10 days of us hanging out on break with no new baby. A little frustrating! Last week during spring break, I tried every way I could think of to induce labor. I induced contractions all the time and had very regular, serious contractions, but nothing that would sustain close enough together to send me to the hospital. I'm talking like I ran every day at least 3 miles, we hiked at Thunderbird Park and I carried Zach on my back up the mountains, crazy stuff. But alas, no go.
At the same time, during Ben's spring break, we had 10 days of little boys sickness. Isaac started with a fever and cough, then he got over it, Zach got it, then got better, then got worse. In the end, Ike got better and Z got even worse with fevers for several days spiking up to 105 at one point. So, I was trying to have a baby, my kiddos were sick and we were all sleepless, frustrated and trying to see how this would work. How could we take poor little Zachy to someone's house in the middle of the night with a terrible fever so we could go to the hospital and have a baby?! Anyway, he ended up with bronchialitis, double ear infections (twice) and an eye infection at one point too. (When it rains, it apparently pours)! We ended up spending the week between my doc and his and nursing everyone back to health (while running, etc.) By Saturday, everyone was back to good health. Zach was on antibiotic, albuterol, and a steroid to help his lungs, but finally Thursday his fever had broken and he was sleeping through the night. We felt pretty good!
Saturday, I went to a women's conference while Ben took the boys to the Children's Museum downtown. Things were looking up, but honestly, I was so tired of having true contractions that led no where, I decided I was just going to ignore them and wait until something serious (like baby's head poking out), before I psyched myself up:) We had a great Saturday with friends and spent the night on a date too. I basically resigned myself to being induced on Tuesday (even with being dialated to a 4 1/2 90% effaced).
Sunday we went to church and everything was fine. We came home and chatted with all of Ben's siblings and made a terrific meal. It was a normal day. Then that night, as I was planning for Tuesday (we had a last minute babysitter change) and all of a sudden nothing was working out. We had a list of about 15 people who could watch our kids at a moment's notice and 2 in particular that were our "go to's" and no one could watch our kids on Tuesday without a major shift in obligations. My hormones and I lost it:) I started crying. It just didn't make sense, we'd been through all of this and now at the last minute, it won't work out. Sad. So, I decided to take matters into our own hands (with the help of our Heavenly Father:)
I told Ben after dinner we were going to go walk the baby out (wanted to keep the Sabbath Day holy:) I knew that the hospital will not send you away if you are dialated past 5 cm and I knew I was at least 4 1/2. IF I could just do that 1/2 cm, I could have a baby:) So, we walked the hardest, fastest walk I could (luckily it was 80* on Sunday and still really nice after dinner). I timed my contractions on my itouch. They had been happening all day around 7-10 minutes apart, but while we walked, they came as fast as 2 minutes apart and really getting stronger. I called my friend and she came to stay with our kids and put them in bed. We ate a good luck brownie with the boys, read scriptures, said prayers and made our way to the hospital. When we arrived (about 7mins away), my contractions slowed down because we had been sitting, so we walked around the medical campus as fast as I could again for about an hour. By this time, my contractions were pretty strong and I thought it should be "good enough" to get me a ticket to the OB:)
We strolled into the hospital happy, telling them I was in labor. Our nurse later told us she didn't really believe it because she's never seen someone so happy in labor:) In triage, we found out I was dialated "almost" to a 5, but my contractions had stayed about 5 minutes apart resting. They decided to keep me!! Oh sweet relief:)
From then on, Ben and I walked holes in our path around the second floor of the hospital:) We walked for an hour, I progressed to a six, in the second hour, I stayed the same and just kept walking. I knew if the OB would come break my water, I would have the baby, but alas, it was middle of the night on Sunday, the nurse told me she would try her best to accidentally break my water, but that no OB would come in the middle of the night to break my water;( I knew that could mean a really long night since I've always had my water broken and never had hard core contractions without.
About an hour later, 230am, my OB on call just happened to have to come in to deliver another baby. Miracle of miracles, she also offered to break my water while she was there! So, I readily agreed and went from a 7 to a 10 in about 45minutes. At this point, I didn't know I was at a 10, but felt really intense shaking and pressure, so with 7 miles of walking under my belt, I decided I was just too tired and ordered an epidural. As soon as the needle was placed, they checked me again and I was at a 10. Little Reese was born a couple minutes later and about 10 minutes after that, my epidural kicked in:) So funny! I wish I would've thought to have them check me before I went through the effort of holding still for a silly needle:) BUT, it all worked out fine, I think I'm just destined to always feel childbirth:)
I can't even count all the miracles associated with this labor and delivery. Little Reese Caroline is absolutely perfect. She is such a doll and was born at 8'8" 19inches long (not as big as we thought). There were no complications with her delivery and our recovery has been as good as it can be. It just reminds me how aware the Lord is of our situation and how in control he is. I am so grateful for that. I know it wasn't that big a deal that she was born a couple days early from her scheduled induction, but it made all the difference to us. Ben had M, T, W off from school, but had to work TH, and Fri, so had she been born later, we would've had complications with his schedule too.
As it is, we have been extremely well taken care of! As Ike put it today, everyone has just been mealing and mealing us! We are spoiled. We have also had amazing people calling to help out with the boys and bringing us beautiful little girl clothes, etc. I know that this is what life is all about. It truly is a miracle to bring a little baby into the world and a true miracle to have amazing angels around us helping us at every obstacle. I can never be grateful enough.
P.S. I told you this was going to be long:) It's ok if you skipped to the end... thanks for indulging me!
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