The Birth Story

Seeing as I'm sitting here still in the hospital, I guess I might as well take the time to write out ARC's birth story now while it's still fresh.

Pmc and I have been working really hard to prepare for this birth, since we both felt like it was my last chance for a VBAC. I'm sure there are those who would argue that it was crazy to try for a VBA2C, and those who would argue that even if I'd had another C-section it would be okay to try again. Well, we stood on the middle ground, following a recommendation from Dr. Silver here at the U hospital, as well as trusting our own research and feelings. We had considered using a birthing center, but ultimately decided I should be seen by the midwives clinic through the U, and have really appreciated their help and support. One of the midwives highly recommended the Pink Kit to me, and we've been spending much of our time working on that in preparation. It is some pretty in-depth stuff to work through. Over the last few weeks we especially worked on getting baby ARC into a good position for birth - both the boys were posterior when they came, so we were especially concerned about getting her turned anterior and engaged in my pelvis. We also read up quite a bit on prolonged labor, just in case all of our efforts still didn't prevent the 30-hour labors I'd experienced.

So, about a week ago I was dilated to a 3 and we felt like we'd gotten her pretty settled into my pelvis, and turned the correct way. So we started just waiting for labor, hoping for the best. I started having some very mild contractions during the nights, but nothing consistent and they'd always fade during the day. On Wednesday the contractions didn't fade during the day, but they also didn't become consistent. In my mind I thought "This is how things went with Cdc, I better get some rest." So at bedtime I took some Melatonin just to make sure that I slept well even if I continued to have contractions. And I did sleep well, and had contractions throughout the night - but still no consistency.

Then at 5:45 a.m. I woke up to a "pop" that I both heard and felt and thought "did my water just break?" So I got up to use the bathroom and check, and sure enough, my water had broken. My sister had her water break with 2 of her kids, and it still took a while for her labors to start, so I figured I had some time. However, I could tell within a minute this was not going to be the case. I quickly started having contractions, and they quickly progressed to the most intense contractions I have had in my experience with around 60 hours of total labor (I wouldn't say they were more painful - but definitely intense). In addition, I noticed that it looked like there was meconium in my fluid - so it was off to the hospital with us immediately. Certainly not what we'd planned. We didn't pack any bags because we figured we'd have plenty of time. So Pmc quickly rushed around the house grabbing a few things in between helping me with contractions. He also managed to reach his mom to come be with the boys. By the time she reached our house I was desperate for Pmc to get us to the hospital and no longer convinced that I was going to make it through this birth without an epidural. It did cross my mind that being in water (I've heard is like a natural epidural) would feel amazing - and I knew that was an option with the midwives at the U hospital. However, I also realized that we'd left the number for the midwives at home, and I wanted something IMMEDIATELY upon getting to the hospital. I moaned quite loudly through each contraction - and since Pmc's truck has no air-conditioning, the windows were down and I'm sure I made quite a few people uncomfortable (particularly at one stoplight where I noticed the car next to us had their window down) - I did not care one bit! I actually felt like the ride in the truck was quite helpful during some of the contractions believe it or not.

Upon our arrival at the hospital there was a woman at the entrance who works with Education in Labor and Delivery and recognized my noise and came to our car with a wheelchair. In my previous labors I couldn't stand to sit in a wheelchair - but this time it was perfect. This sweet woman took me up to L&D while Pmc took care of the car - she even came back and found me to congratulate me after the birth! Pmc must have followed behind pretty quickly because he was there to answer the myriad of questions that people suddenly started asking me. My contractions were so strong that all I could do was moan deeply and try to keep breathing deeply so that they could be effective and I wouldn't tense up. In between the contractions I barely had time to catch my breath, let alone relax my pelvis like I had learned to do. So answering people's questions was not a concern to me. Soon I found out I was already dilated to a 6 and at a +1 station - I cannot express how relieved that made me feel when I had been in labor for less than an hour! It had taken me over 24 hours of regular contractions to reach that point in previous labors. The bad news however, was that she was somehow facing posterior again, and they were concerned that with my history this could still be a big concern for the progression of my labor and how little baby Arc would handle it. They did mention that they could try to turn her using manual rotation, and I had read up a bit on this and knew it could be painful but very effective. I figured this would be pretty hard for me to let them do, so in my mind I came to the conclusion that an epidural would actually be the right choice - and I'm sure Pmc was shocked at the point that I asked for the epidural, but he entirely supported me. So, still in a whirlwind of contractions here are some little moments I can remember:
~ Some nurse attempted putting in my IV/heplock 3 times. Now, I have never been a nurse, so I have no idea what it's like. I don't know how experienced she was, shucks, I don't think I ever got a look at her because I was so focused on the contractions. But I have experienced nurses tell me all the time that I have such easy/great veins. And these attempts were requiring me to hold my arm still during contractions - which was extremely taxing, as I really wanted to grip something. So apparently the anesthesiologist finally took over to put it in and by that time I was so frustrated I looked at my arm and said "what are you doing?" in a tone I'm sure was rather sarcastic. Sorry to the anesthesiologist who did a great job of getting it in right - I had no idea you were not the one who had been doing it all along!
~ Another nurse happened to put herself right in front of me while they were having me sit up and sit still for the epidural placement - just as a contraction started. I gripped her arms pretty tight and as soon as I let go of her she moved Pmc into her place and skipped out on the rest of my labor to go help others. Everyone said she had a pretty painful look on her face. Sorry nurse! - you're right that Pmc should have been the one to be there!
~ While they were putting in my epidural on the next contraction I was gripping Pmc and started feeling some sort of "pushy" feeling and began to really grunt. I thought - I can't push a baby into the bed! For a moment I wondered if I had made a mistake to get an epidural, what if I was ready to birth my baby already and this would make it harder? I said a little prayer in my heart that things would still go well and I immediately felt peaceful as Pmc helped me lean back on the bed a little.

I began to feel relief very quickly and began to be aware of the people in the room and the conversation that was happening. The midwife and a student midwife arrived and pretty soon thereafter it was mentioned that baby Arc's heart-rate dropped pretty drastically at a time they don't like to see it drop and that in addition to her posterior position was concerning the doctors and midwives enough to bring up the possibility of a c-section. However, they thought it was a good idea to try resting just a bit and breathing deeply with some oxygen, as well as an attempt at manually turning baby to an anterior position. So, I asked if we could have a few moments, just Pmc and I and everyone left the room. Pmc kindly gave me a Priesthood blessing, after which we decided together to go ahead with the manual turn.

As I talked in my mind to baby Arc, coaching her and I both - a fantastic doctor, experienced with doing this manual turn, worked on us and 2 contractions later baby Arc was in a perfect position again! I felt so much relief.

After waiting a bit, the concerns about baby's heart-rate were relieved by her showing some great patterns. They checked me and declared me ready to push. I was thrilled! We briefly discussed whether Pmc would cut the cord, and the fact that the meconium in my fluid meant that a pediatric team was waiting in the corner and they would go clean her a bit and check her before placing her on my chest.

So I started pushing. After about 6 contractions it was declared that this baby had lots of dark hair. WHAT? Me? I? I could have a baby with lots of hair? And Dark?

Even though I had the epidural I felt like I could feel what I was doing while I pushed, but I certainly did need a little coaching. They were having me push 3 times, but I could kind of tell that the contractions were longer then that. After 7 contractions they seemed a little disappointed that I hadn't quite gotten her out, so on the 8th contraction they had me push an extra time and out she came around 9am!

I cannot express what a sacred and empowering experience it was for me to see my little baby girl actually come out of my own body. She immediately started crying, even though the pediatric team tried to get to her quickly enough. But alas, she didn't breathe in any meconium and did just fine! Even though I had thought it would be somewhat hard to not get her directly on my chest, I was perfectly happy to sit and rest for a moment while they checked her out and cleaned her up a bit. When they handed Arc to me I told her how proud I was of us, for our teamwork getting her here the natural way.

The midwives were working on me a bit, so I handed Arc off to Pmc while I relaxed a bit. I lost quite a bit of blood, and the meconium made my membranes sticky so it was really important to make sure they got me all clear before moving on.

And now we are a family of 5. Wow! And because I had a VBAC, I feel perfectly comfortable stating that I think we still might try to have a total of 7 kids! ARC is a little angel. We are all in love with her, even Cdc who was worried yesterday that "mommy won't hold me anymore."

Now if my hematocrit levels would just go back up, after loosing all that blood, so that I can go home from the hospital we'd all be dandy!

Baby ARC

How I gleefully chopped my wedding dress into tiny pieces...

Yes, you heard me right. No, there is nothing wrong in our marriage!

So ever since we got married we've had an ongoing discussion about what to do with my wedding dress. We've listed it in online classifieds a few times hoping to sell it to someone who might really love it, with no luck. And we've considered forking out the money to get it cleaned and preserved - but I really feel like the likelihood of one of my daughters (if I have more than one) wanting to wear it someday isn't that high. I mean, I LOVE my wedding dress - but I'm not super confident that my kids will have the same taste as me, or that it will be in style then - 'cause honestly I'm not sure it was in style when I wore it, it was just MY style.

Then, when we found out we were having a girl - we started thinking about a little blessing dress for her. Pretty soon we decided that making a blessing dress out of my wedding dress would be a fun project. AND, even if I totally botched it - it would be a fun story. But, I am happy to report that this project has turned out to be one of my best yet. I personally think it looks absolutely beautiful. This isn't a great picture - but you get the idea. The first cut I made into my dress was definitely intimidating. And there were a few moments, especially when I was working on the sleeves, where I wondered what in the world I had done. However, I really can say I was pretty gleeful about the whole project because I'm SO STINKIN' EXCITED for this little girl to join our family!

Now if this little girl would just show us her pretty little face one of these days - we would be over the moon to see how she looks in it!

Other Randomness

Summer Bubble Blowing

Yumminess from our Bountiful Basket - I LOVE Bountiful Baskets, they just work for us!
And Cpc's recent allergic reaction. We're not sure what it is yet - but hopefully we can get to the bottom of it, 'cause it sure gave us a fun scare this weekend!

Cousin Time at the Lake

This is a very small part (I wasn't very gung-ho about pulling out the camera) of the time my kids got to play with their South Dakota cousins at the lake. Cpc and Lmze have finally formed a pretty strong bond! That makes me so happy! It was great to see the way both of their strong personalities rubbed off on each other. We've got some good peer pressure going on here. Yes, that is five children under five hanging out on the lake - and on the tube behind the boat with Uncle S.
Don't they look so cute watching a movie in their Sunday clothes?

Happy Independence Day!

We came home a little early from the D family reunion so that Pmc could make some money parking cars for the Sugar House Arts Festival and Fireworks, and so that the kids and I could watch fireworks with him. We were pretty tired by the time we were waiting for the fireworks, and I won't say I was a very nice mom that evening. I was very ready to have Pmc's help by the time he came home to watch with us. These boys were SO excited for the fireworks, and they didn't disappoint!

And Cdc really had something to say about the fireworks. He was cracking us up. And then Cpc just had to go and get us rolling on the ground with laughter about how the fireworks made him feel!

D Family Reunion

So, in the middle of a couple weekends at Bear Lake, we enjoyed a BIG family reunion with Pmc's mom's side of the family. This was a pretty big deal - and it was just as much fun too! I'm too tired to give very many details - but we ate well, played hard, enjoyed reminiscing (which was great for me - I got to hear some awesome details about people who I love but I've never met), and then came home to celebrate the 4th of July!

Here's Cpc getting ready to go on the "big swing". Cdc was a little bit scared, but we somehow managed to bribe him to do it too - and of course, as always, he loved it.

Here's some "minute-to-win-it" games we played. That's me trying to throw some cards into a bin, and the kids trying to get some big noodles onto a spaghetti noodle.

And THAT is the group, minus a few people - there was definitely some coming and going - inevitable with a group that big right? Each different color represents one of the siblings in Pmc's mom's family. It was such a blast!

Cdc

Cdc is quite the little guy around our house. And soon he won't be our baby any more. In so many ways that makes me sad, because he has fit his role so well. For a long time I simply called him "baby." It was his little nickname. He is such a good little cuddler, he's got such a good baby voice, he sucked his thumb, and he's excellent at living up the attention the youngest is generally given.

But alas, the time has come for him to move on to big brother. And he knows it, and we don't think he likes it very much. Either that, or he has just been trying to live up the time he has left. Because even though he is totally in a "mastery motivation" stage where he wants to do everything "all by myself!", he still acts like a baby a lot of the time. He reverts to baby talk. He wants me to just hold him a lot (which is kind of tricky with this baby bump). He cries and says "mama" in a baby voice when he is sad. And the list goes on and on. And he's been doing this for about 6 months I think. I'm really hoping that the moment he gets to meet little sister, he realizes he needs to grow up a bit - because this really is getting old. I try not to wish away my children's childhood - but I'm not doing a very good job on this account.

However, he is "Tough Guy" around our house. We are always amazed at how well he handles scraped knees, bumps and falls. He was definitely meant to be Cpc's little brother, because there's a good chance any other kid would have caved under Cpc's attacks.

Cdc still takes naps, which is good and bad. If we don't wake him up after an hour then he will keep Cpc awake at bedtime forever! Cdc has officially named his dog "Woodruff," which was a suggestion by daddy after months of us asking what his dog's name was and getting a response of "woof woof." This led Cpc to naming his Moose (which he has become attached to, and led him to gifting his dog to me and his bear to daddy) "Randolph" - since we pass through Woodruff and Randolph on our way to Bear Lake.

Cdc has quite the attitude. He is not afraid at all to tell his parents "no" which often leads to long, drawn-out tantrums and time-outs. He also picks up the funniest phrases, and we're often surprised that he's even heard some of the ones he comes up with. Last night he told daddy "talk to the hand." I'm really not sure if he even knew what he was saying!

But he's a sweet kid too. Just this morning I gave him a little pile of laundry to put away in his drawers and he has told me "thank you very much" no less than 18 times.

And even though I have a million more things about him I want to cherish right now - that's all I can think of, and I've got to get to other things too.

Summer Begins

Summer never truly begins in my mind until we get some good family time at Bear Lake.
I'm thrilled that we got a tether-ball up there this year! We had one of these in my backyard growing up. I was too afraid to get near it because I'm so clumsy with this baby bump - but it sure was fun to watch.

My sister was able to make it down from South Dakota, so we spent all weekend with her and her family. My boys were so thrilled to spend time with their cousins - who they've mostly been getting to know via Skype. But my mom has all those pictures, so we'll have to do another post later on that. We're excited that next weekend we get to all be up there together again! But for today - we're headed to a family reunion with Pmc's family! Like I said, keeping ourselves busy until this baby makes her arrival!