Sunday, March 27, 2011

August 22nd, 2010

On August 22nd, I was scheduled for my induction.
I was kind of bummed that I had to be induced because I really wanted that whole experience of going into labor and what not, plus, I HATE hospitals and I wanted to be there as little as possible and induction meant I had to be there for the whole entire labor. BOO!
But anyway, we had to be at the hospital at 5 in the A.M., which was pretty dang early for us since we were so used
to being asleep until around 11.
We got to the hospital and they pretty muc
h insisted to wheel chair[?] me from the lobby to labor and delivery, which was totally unnecessary since I wasn't even in labor and I could walk pretty dang well thank you very much.
However, they were hospital people, and, frankly, I'm not one to stand up to authority and they scared me, so I obliged and let th
em wheel chair[okay, I really don't think that's right, but oh well] me. It was super awkward.
Well, we got all signed up and I got my wrist ba
nds and they sent us to a room. I got hooked up to baby heart rate monitors, a blood pressure cuff, and an IV.
At around 6, they put this pill formed medicine in
my place where the baby comes out to soften the cervix. By 8 o'clock I was 100% effaced and 2 cm dilated.
I was so insanel
y excited.
However, until around 5 p.m., my day was almo
st completely uneventful.
I started feeling the contractions bad, but I couldn't get my epidural until I was at least 3 cm dilated.
Well, I took a nap, but was awoken by contractions
. So they suggested walking around the hospital and I felt like telling them, "Screw you.", but like I said before, I'm not one to argue with authority, so we walked. And basically, it sucked.
After 20 minutes of walking, we went back to the r
oom. I was finally dilated to a three! So around 3 p.m., I got my epidural.
After that, they broke my water and by 5 p.m., I was di
lated to 5 cm. They said I would probably deliver around 10 p.m. since the nurse said it went super duper fast [my words not hers :)].
So I slept some more and at around 8 p.m., I started feeling contractions.
I was freaking out because I didn't want to feel
ANYTHING. Hence, the epidural.
However, there was this magical little button o
n my epidural thing that you could press every three minutes or so that would kick in more epidural. Needless to say, we pressed every three minutes or so. It did absolutely nothing. [Until later, which I will get to later :)]
Then at around 8:20ish I started feeling pressure and they said if I'm feeling pressure, it means I need to start pushing. So they pu
t my feet in the saddle things and the nurse got all up in there and I started pushing which is not the most fun thing in the world.
Eventually my doctor came in and was really only in there for about two or three pushes.
At 8:41 p.m. on August 22nd 2010, the most gorgeous little 6 lb 15 oz 19 inch baby girl was born
The doctor put her on my chest area, CJ cut the um
bilical cord, and they started to clean her up.
We were all totally tearing up. She had a full head of
dark hair and she was more amazing and gorgeous than I ever imagined her to be.
She cried a little and my mom got a few pictures.

Then, they whisked her up to quickly measure and weigh her and to do all that other necessary stuff they had to do with babies.
Then, Lilly was passed around the room.
First, to CJ.

Then, to my mom.

Then, to Tiffiny.
Lilly started getting kind of fussy and the nurse suggested that she was probably hungry. I had decided that, if I kept my baby, I wanted to breastfeed because it was just generally better for the baby. However, since we were placing after a week, I figured I'd just breastfeed for the week. So I think she ate enough cause after that, she fell asleep.
Then, they moved me on to a different bed that rolled and stuff and moved me into a room. Thank goodness Lilly was born when she was because private rooms were first come first served and we got one! Woo hoo!
Any way, shortly after we got into the room, CJ totally passed out and, since only one person could stay in a private room with the mother and the baby, our moms went home.
I enjoyed some time just holding Lilly, but I was dead tired. Soon enough, CJ woke up and put Lilly in this little bassinet thing they have for the babies in the rooms since I couldn't feel from my hips down and couldn't even lift my legs because of the epidural, a total result from pressing that button so many times. Whoopsies :]
Lilly absolutely refused to sleep in the bassinet, though, and CJ was asleep again. A nurse came in and offered to take her to the nursery so we could sleep a little. I felt kind of guilty letting them take her like that, but I was so incredibly tired. So, she went to the nursery for a few hours so CJ and I could sleep a little. We had a big day coming up. Lilly was going to meet everyone. Including her parents♥

Coming to the Very End.

So towards the end, we got kind of nervous that everything would not play out as expected.
My doctor was going on vacation on the week of my due date, so I was hoping and praying that I wouldn't have Lilly while she was away.
And then, we found out Sharri was going out of town for a few days to take her daughter to college in Utah.
We had originally planned that we would keep Lilly for a couple of days after we got out of the hospital and after she was born to solidify our decision and have a little time with her.
Luckily, I didn't have Lilly while my doctor was away and they scheduled me to be induced on the 22nd because I was over a week and they didn't want any complications.
However, Sharri was going to be out of town from the 23rd to the 28th and I was afraid she would miss the placement.
So we decided to extend our time with Lilly until the 29th.
We were pretty nervous to tell Kevin and Danya because we didn't want them to feel like we were backing out or anything, we just really wanted Sharri to be there.
We could tell they were hesitant and nervous about us pushing placement back, but we could also tell that they understood, they were just nervous about it, which I totally understood.
I was solid in my decision, though, and I knew that we were going to place with them.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Lake Tahoe

So with the excitement of the adoption story, I completely forgot about our Lake Tahoe trip! So here it goes:

So CJ and I were not allowed to go to Youth Conference this summer [okay, well he probably could have gone but he was amazing and stayed home with me since I couldn't go, and did not want to go to sweltering Utah being 6 months pregnant.] especially since it would have been a really fun one. Our stake was going up to Dixie College in St. George. They were going to all the historical landmarks, temple square, and doing baptisms for the dead at the Salt Lake City Temple. It was supposed to be our "big youth conference trip", so we were pretty bummed.
However, my Auntie Keiko [My Grandpa's
sister] asked
CJ and I if we wanted to go with her and her significant other, Lenny, to Lake Tahoe. We were so excited to go since neither of us had been and it was even the same week that youth conference was supposed to be. We packed up and were off!
It was a long drive, and it was super hot, but we stopped
numerous times to get ice cream! :]
The drive started getting awesome when we started seeing less desserty and more mountain, tree, stream-y. We even stopped t
o take p
ictures :]

We stayed in an awesome hotel with an even more awesome view of the lake.

The weather was super nice; warm, but not hot, and cool, but not cold. It was perfect.
We ended up staying in the hotel mostly, just playing in the arcade, swimming, and relaxing. One day though, we did go out to the lake and rode wave runners. That was a really neat experience since I've never ridden on one. I even got to drive it! :]]
The water was really really cold, so we went in fo
r about two seconds and that was it.
After we left Tahoe, we went out to Rio. However, leavi
ng Tahoe, we stopped to take more pictures. :]

We even ran into these cute little guys! :]]We didn't do too much in Rio since we had to leave early because Lenny wasn't feeling too well. We did catch Bodie on the way out, though.
Bodie is this little, old abandoned mining town from a super long time ago.
It's pretty well preserved and really not all that touristy. It was super cool to see all the buildings and what not still up.
We didn't go all the way through the town since it was hot and walking on bumpy dirt roads was not up there on my favorite things to do list, but I really really want to go back when the weather is nice to see the rest of the town.
[Factory in Bodie]
Our Tahoe trip was such a fun and well-needed vacation. It definitely set out what it was meant to do: let us relax and get away from everything for a little while, eat lots of good food, catch up on sleep, and most importantly, have fun. :]

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Minor Complications in the End.

As it was getting closer to my due date, I was getting a bit frustrated.
I was still only 1 cm dilated, and only 80% effaced.
The doctor suggested going on walks a lot, as that usually did the trick.
So my mom, CJ, and I went to Balboa Island and spent almost a whole day walking.
However, at my next doctors appointment, I was still only 1 cm, and I was less effaced. How could that even be possible???
And, worst of all, my blood pressure shot up, I had a lot of protein in my, sorry, but, urine, and, as a result, I was diagnosed with a mild case of toxemia. The only cure was birth, and if it got really bad, it could end up being really bad for me.
The doctor put me on a low-sodium diet, and said that I should rest a lot and if I got any really bad headaches that wouldn't go away, I needed to go to the hospital immediately.
Well, as if enough weren't going bad already, one night I did get a really bad headache. I ate, I took some tylenol, and nothing helped. I went to bed, and, in the morning, my headache was still present.
My mom called the doctor's office and was told to get me to the hospital.
Luckily, we had a bag packed just in case.
I was taken to a room and they immediately checked my blood pressure and did some blood tests.
When they were drawing blood though, the stupid nurse was too lazy to go get the right needle and tried to draw it with an IV needle, which is a heck of a lot bigger and hurts soo much more. After digging around in my arm for a while, she finally went and got the right needle. I think I still have a mark from it, though.
The blood pressure was still high, and my headache was still persistent, but my blood test came back well.
They gave me some super duper headache medicine and checked my blood pressure a few more times. It was really up and down, so they called my doctor and sent me home after about 7 hours being there.
The coolest part of being there, though, is that they had a heart beat thing on my stomach the whole time and we could hear Lilly's heartbeat. Definitely the best part of the day♥