Hadley's Birth Story

I have been procrastinating writing about Hadley's birth story. I tell myself every week that I'm going to write about it this week and it never happens! Mostly because I am so busy with her! I have a sleeping hubby and baby right now and all I want to do is climb in bed and join them but I am MAKING myself do this finally! This might be really boring but I want a record of her birth story written somewhere so I figured I would share :)

Since the end of November I had been pretty miserable having contractions. My doctor told me that there was no way I would make it to my due date. I stopped working a few weeks before I had planned because I was so miserable with contractions. It's like my body wanted to go into labor but didn't quite know how. Anyways, my due date (December 22, 2013) CAME and WENT!!! I had hoped and hoped that she would be here for Christmas. Christmas morning I was having contractions that were 5-7 minutes apart so we decided to go into the hospital. When we got there the nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 4. She hooked me up to the monitors and my contractions were 7 minutes apart. She had me walk around the halls for an hour to see if that would speed things up. When she checked everything again I was still the same so they gave me some pain meds (I was so miserable) and sent me home! If you ever want to ruin someones Christmas send someone home from the hospital that is 3 days over her due date! I was so mad, especially because we missed all the Christmas festivities and because they told me I would probably be back that night!

That night I didn't sleep at all because the contractions picked back up. Finally around 7 in the morning we decided to head back to the hospital because they were 3 minutes apart. When we got there the nurse checked me and I was 4 cm dilated still! I thought they were going to send me home again but when she checked me again in a half hour I was a 4.5. They decided to keep me, give me the epidural and break my water to see if that would speed things up. I got the epidural shortly after (which is not bad at all) and a little while later the on call doctor broke my water. (My doctor was nowhere to be found). They checked me shortly after (probably about 2 or 3 in the afternoon) and I was only a 5!!! They decided to put me on the pitocin because they said the epidural had slowed my contractions down. After they put me on the pitocin my epidural started wearing off. I kept pressing the button for more and the anesthesiologist even came in and gave me more but it wasn't working. The contractions were really strong and painful at this point. She checked me again around 6:30 and I was a 10. They called the doctor and she told me to start pushing with the nurse. I pushed for about an hour and at 7:53pm on December 26, 2013 my sweet baby girl was born. I can't even explain the feeling I felt when they put her on my chest. I am crying just thinking about it. She was 9 pounds 15 ounces and 22.5 inches long! They took her away from me pretty quick because her and I both had fevers. They had to take her to the special care nursery to get iv antibiotics and I was bleeding a lot from her being so big so they had to stitch me back up. This was the worst part for me. My epidural did not work while I delivered her or while they stitched me back up and I was in a lot of pain at this point. After an hour of stitching I was finally able to hold and feed my baby girl.

The days in the hospital were rough. I could barely get up to go to the bathroom. Garrett was so awesome through everything. He would go into the nursery with her to get her antibiotics, change all of her diapers, help me feed her and stay up with her at night. She swallowed a lot of amniotic fluid so she kept choking and they had to keep suctioning it out of her stomach. We were super paranoid at night. Finally that Saturday her labs were finally normal and they let us go home! I was so happy to get out of that hospital! We went home and started our new life with her! She is so sweet and we couldn't ask for a better baby!

32-37 Weeks

A lot has happened during the last few weeks so I figured I better post about everything so I don't forget, especially since we are getting close and she could be here any day! At 32 weeks I had another baby shower. It was really fun to get together with all my friends and celebrate. One of my good friends, Chelsy, flew from California just to come to my shower! Talk about a good friend! Baby girl got lots of cute things! At 33 weeks we got some maternity pictures done. I wasn't really excited about them at first because I didn't really want any pics of my big belly but family talked me into it and I'm glad we got some because it will be fun to look back on them! The girl that took them is AMAZING!

At 34 weeks I was at work and started having lots of cramping. I called my doctor and she made me come right in. They hooked me up to the NST monitor (non-stress test) and I was having contractions. After that she checked me and I was dilated to a 1. She also did a test that detects a hormone to see if you are in labor and that came back negative thank goodness! I was on light bed rest for the rest of that week and then she told me I would be fine to go back to work for my normal 2 days a week. She said after 35 weeks the baby would be okay and so they wouldn't try to stop it if I did go into labor. Up until 36 weeks I did not feel good! I was having a lot of cramping and contractions. I tried to take it easy because I really wanted her to wait until I was at least 37 weeks to come. My last doctor visit was the Wednesday before thanksgiving. I was 3cm dilated and 60% effaced. My doctor said that most likely I will go into labor on my own and she doesn't think I will make it to my due date. She said if she had a guess it would be in the next week and a half! She is out of town right now so she better stay in until at least Monday ;) I have been feeling a lot better this week and have had a lot of energy. I have been cleaning like crazy and putting up christmas decorations. Everything is finally done and now I can just relax and wait for her to come! I work Monday and Tuesday and then I am done until February! We are so excited to meet her and we can't believe how close we are getting!

28-32 weeks

I don't feel like a whole lot has happened in the last few weeks. I entered the third trimester, which was exciting.  Time is going by really fast and it is kind of scaring me! Some days I am so ready for her to be here and some days I am freaking out at how little time we have left to prepare. I guess you can never really be 100% ready. I am starting to notice a huge difference between the second and third trimester. The morning sickness is getting worse, I have heartburn like crazy, I am tired all the time and I can't sleep because my hips and back hurt. I have no energy whatsoever. Garrett has been so good to help me out when I need it, even though he's the one who works full time. He is going to be such an amazing dad! We had a doctors appointment 2 weeks ago and everything is looking really good. I have had a pretty standard and normal pregnancy so far (thank goodness). We go for another appointment on Friday so I'm hoping things will still be good. I love feeling my baby girl move around all the time. That is one thing I'm really going to miss about being pregnant is having her with me all the time.  She gets the hiccups almost every day! Also, I have been craving chocolate like crazy lately, which is so weird because I didn't really like chocolate before I was pregnant. Another thing is I feel like she has grown a ton in the last 2 weeks. Garrett made the comment that "you look pregnant" the other day and it made me laugh considering I am in my 8th month! Lol.  I need to post some pictures of her nursery but I will do it later because I don't have any on here right now. 2 months or less and we get to meet our baby girl!

27 weeks in a nutshell!

I have been feeling horrible lately about not blogging or keeping some kind of journal about my pregnancy so I decided that I would try to write it all down in a nutshell up until this point. For those that don't know I had a previous miscarriage so part of me not blogging or journaling was a big fear that things were going to go wrong again. This post might be a little long and a little boring but it is mostly for myself to keep record of such an amazing experience.

FINDING OUT
Earlier this year Garrett and I were planning on moving to Colorado. Garrett worked for URS and they were laying off all of their employees due to some law that they needed to close the plant down. With no other options besides transferring to Colorado with the company we felt that it would be an adventure and we would make the best of it (even though we were scared to death.) Around the first of April we were getting ready to call a realtor to put our house on the market. Garrett received a phone call on a Friday to come interview for a job here on Monday. We were excited but trying not to get too hopeful. He interviewed that Monday and it went well, meanwhile I had been feeling a little funny and kind of had a feeling I might be pregnant. Wednesday, April 9th came and I decided to take a test. It was positive. I told Garrett and we were both excited and kind of nervous. Literally about 10 minutes after I took the test Garrett got a phone call offering him the job here. It was a HUGE relief knowing that we didn't have to move away being pregnant and leaving our families.

FIRST TRIMESTER
I don't really think there is a lot to tell about this part of the pregnancy besides I was literally sick as a dog the whole time. I went MIA for a while because I never wanted to leave my house (or the toilet). I went from working full time to part time because I was so sick I couldn't handle being at work all day, every day. I had an early ultrasound at 6 weeks and sure enough there was a baby with a heartbeat. The 12 week appointment was the one we had been waiting for and were so nervous about because my last 12 week appointment was when we couldn't find the heartbeat. It took my doctor a while to find it but it was there :)

SECOND TRIMESTER
Everyone kept telling me I would feel better in the second trimester but I was still pretty sick up to about 21 weeks and I am still sick (just in the mornings though). I have thrown up every day except maybe 2 since I was 6 weeks pregnant. I'm pretty used to it now and actually think it would be weird to wake up and not be sick. lol. I am still just working part time so that when the baby comes I can just go back two days a week if I decide to. At 15 weeks we went to Fetal Fotos and found out we were having a GIRL!!! Right after we went shopping with our moms and picked out some cute outfits. Garrett and I didn't care either way what the gender was but I am pretty excited about having a girl. Garrett is excited but a little nervous about all the girly stuff ;) We had our 20 week anatomy ultrasound also and our baby girl looks perfectly healthy! Besides being sick I have had a pretty awesome pregnancy so far with no complications at all. I had my glucose test last week and it made me feel so sick afterwards but I passed and everything is good. I can't believe I am almost in my third trimester. CRAZY! Time is flying!

I am so thankful that I get the opportunity to experience such a miracle. I love being able to feel my baby girl move and kick around. It is such an amazing thing. I also am learning that timing is everything. I can now see why I had a miscarriage and why it just didn't work. We are beyond excited to meet our little girl right around Christmas time!

Welcoming the New Year!

2011 was a great year for Garrett and I. Here are a few things we did this year...


-Went on a cruise.
- Bought our trailor (and went on a lot of camping trips!)
-Went on a lot of mini vacations including wendover, alaskan inn, park city multiple times.
- Celebrated our 2nd anniversary.
- Started going to school full time.
- Got a new job that I am very happy at.


I'm sure there is a lot more but this is all I can think of right now! Though we had fun in 2011, I am so ready to start the new year. I am hoping this year is better and brings a lot of fun and change for us!

Chipmunk for Christmas!

Garrett and I had a very INTERESTING Christmas this year. Let me start out by saying I finished school in mid-December... Hallelujah! I have never been so relieved! On December 20th my very best friend, Alyssa, came home from her mission. It was a lot of fun and so good to see her! December 22nd I got my wisdom teeth out.... BAD IDEA! I was thinking I would be just fine by Christmas. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were horrible. I looked like a chipmunk and I felt horrible! I couldn't take the pain medication because it made me sick so i just has to take ibuprofen and tough it out. On christmas Eve I had Jello and Mashed Potatoes and Christmas day I had Mashed potatoes! SAD! I have never been so miserable to where I want to lay in bed and sleep 24/7. Garrett worked night shift the weekend of Christmas, like always. I didn't get to see much of him. We tried to make the best of the situation but overall, our Christmas wasn't the greatest this year. This wisdom teeth business has been rough! Tuesday night I was sick throwing up. Thursday when I went back to the doctor he told me that one site wasn't healing properly so that is why it has been so painful and I have been so sick. It has been a week and a half and I am still pretty sore but feeling a lot better. I'm glad I got it over with but I would never recommend getting your wisdom teeth out 3 days before Christmas!

Pathetic

Wow! I have been a horrible, terrible, pathetic blogger lately, however, I have a pretty good excuse (i think.) This has been my hardest semester yet! I decided to go full time again and that was a bad choice. My classes have been a lot harder than they have been in the past. All I spend my time doing is working, going to the gym and doing homework, and I am not lying. After I started the semester I quit my job... and then got a new job! I have been working full time and going to school full time. For those of you who have had to be around me I am deeply sorry because I have been one onery girl lately, And i'm pretty sure Garrett feels like he no longer has a wife. Even though I am so stressed out I am really loving my new job. I get to work with one of my best friends, Kelli. Everyone there is really nice and hard workers! Well I don't have time to catch you up on anything else other than that because I have finals to study for but after next week I am hoping to be a better blogger ;) I am only taking two classes next semester so i'm hoping that will help my stress levels... and maybe I will actually feel like i'm married again!