Welcome to the world Ella Katrina Anderson!
We added a new member to our little family in early September. I suspected I was pregnant around the first of the year when I had constant nausea that would not go away. Sure enough, we were blessed to have a baby on the way. And a girl baby at that! Honestly, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not have a girl. Given the odds in the Anderson clan, I really didn't think there was any chance a girl would ever come our way. However, from the onset of this pregnancy, I had a small suspicion of it being a girl, but so as not to jinx anything, I really tried to down play that feeling. I just felt "different". The morning sickness was different, worse in a way. They say pregnancies are different for boys and girls. I believe it. It sure was different for me.
My due date was September 10th. A special day for us for a number of reasons. It is my parents anniversary, the date that Jed officially proposed to me and the date that we were sealed in the temple. Pretty cool due date, in our opinion.
We were able to get an ultrasound early on(super early) because we had been going to the U of U Infertility clinic. Basically when you get pregnant while you are dealing with infertility issues and are taking infertility meds, they like to check things out early to make sure it is a viable pregnancy. We were ecstatic to find out everything looked really good.
The pregnancy was pretty normal. No major complications or illnesses like when I was pregnant with Baden. I had a few weird things happen that I brought up with my Dr. I'm sure he thought I was a mental case. I got a really weird rash on my arms and neck. It looked like I had a big hickey on my neck for weeks. Then as suddenly as it showed up, it went away. My Dr. had no idea what it might be as he had never seen anything like it and didn't think it was necessarily associated with pregnancy. I had a couple of other mysterious/weird things like that happen. Thank goodness it was nothing major. Another good thing with this pregnancy was that I did not develop migraines all the time like I did with Baden. I attribute that to a couple different things. One being that I have significantly cut down my dairy intake. I think that is a major contributing factor to my headaches. The other is that we have begun using doTERRA essential oils since Baden was born. Using the oils has helped me to prevent headaches and also manage them quickly before they turn into full on migraines. Love my EO's!
So up to the actual day of delivery, I was feeling pretty miserable. I don't remember feeling that lousy with Baden. Maybe I was and I've just erased it from memory. I had been seeing my doctor every week since week 32 and things were looking good. At 3 weeks before my due date I was dilated to 3 cm and about 70% effaced. Dr. Jones said I could basically go into labor any time, OR it could be another 3-4 weeks. The fact that my body was making the necessary changes was a good sign to me. I wasn't dilated at all when they induced me with Baden. I guess having had a baby previously, helps the body prepare faster with subsequent babies. Anyway, I was more than ready to have this baby. I was super uncomfortable and unbelievably tired all the time. At my 37 week appointment I discussed with my Dr. some of my concerns about labor and delivery. We had a good discussion and he asked me to consider being induced if I hadn't delivered by the 5th of September. Given my history of sudden preeclampsia with Baden, he didn't want to risk that becoming a problem again. Jed and I discussed it and decided to go with that plan. We scheduled the induction. So, either way, we knew we would have a baby on September 5th.
I wasn't feeling any changes and didn't really think I would have this baby by the 5th. I just had it in my head that would be her birth date. Imagine my surprise when things suddenly started happening on the afternoon of the 3rd. Jed was at work. I was working from home that day. I had put Baden down for a nap around 1:00. I also decided to lay down and take a nap. Around 2:30 I woke up with some small contraction pain. I had been having similar pains for the last week or so. It didn't really seem like anything was any different other than the contractions I had been having previously were only happening at night. I decided I needed to get up and shower, since I had been lazy and not done so since the day before. I got up and got to the bathroom and started to get undressed for my shower. I suddenly sprang a small leak. Anybody who has been pregnant can probably relate to this...it was a small amount so I wasn't sure if my water had just broke or if I just lost complete continence and peed myself, lol. I decided to grab a towel and lay down on the bed for a minute to see what was going on. Sure enough, not long after I started to get much more "water" coming. I texted Jed, but he didn't respond right away. I decided to go ahead with the shower. I really wanted to clean up a little bit before going to the hospital and I figured I had plenty of time. After all, I was in labor with Baden for 24 hours. I got out of the shower and called Jed. Told him my water just broke and he needed to come home. He works in Orem about 25 minutes from our house in Spanish Fork. He was concerned about me waiting that long and asked if I wanted to just start driving and meet him half way. I was feeling OK at this point. Contractions really weren't more than some minor cramping pain. I told him to just come home and help me with Baden. I figured it was going to be a nightmare to wake him up from his nap, get him ready and out to the car. Jed finally got home around 3:45. We got everything loaded into the car and were on our way to American Fork. By this time the contractions were getting stronger and closer together, about 7 minutes apart. We dropped Baden off at Robb and Maggie's house and headed over to the hospital. Jed dropped me at the door and I went up to Labor and Delivery. They got me into their triage room to check and see what my status was. At that point they didn't know my water had broken so they were going to check to see if I really was in labor and needed to stay or not. As soon as I told the nurse my water had broken, she called to have a room set up for me. No way they were going to let me go home. When she checked me, I was still only dilated to 3+ cm. But I was about 90% effaced. A little bit of progress but I wasn't dilated enough to think this baby was coming any time soon. So I was officially admitted to American Fork hospital labor and delivery at around 5:00 pm.
We got settled in the room, which turned out to be the same exact room I delivered Baden in. We also found out that my doctor was not on call that night so we would have who ever happened to be on call from his practice. It was Dr. Brent Lind, the same doctor who was on call and delivered Baden on Christmas eve 2010. Jed was pretty excited to have both of those things happen and I have to admit it was pretty cool. At least we kind of knew Dr. Lind and we liked him.
I'm trying to remember the right time frame as things progressed through the night, so hopefully I am pretty close. Jed will correct me if I'm not. ; )
I decided to go ahead and get the epidural as soon as they could get it set up because the contractions were getting pretty intense. I had the epidural placed and going by a little after 6:00 pm. There was a shift change with the nurses at 6, so my new nurse came in and checked me shortly after that. I had not really changed much at that point. Still a very strong 3+ and 90% effaced. We sat back and relaxed a bit, or as much as I could and kind of figured it would be a long night. I ate some jello and drank some juice. All they would let me have. But I had to have something as I was starving since I hadn't eaten since about 11:00 that morning.
The nurse came in sometime after 7:00 pm to check me and I had dilated to a 6 or 7by then. Since I had the epidural I couldn't feel anything and of course couldn't feel any changes. We were watching the monitors and could see the contractions getting stronger and closer together though. Around 8:30 pm I started to feel the contraction pain in my abdomen. It took me a minute to realize what it was and that my epidural probably was not working. When I was in labor with Baden, my epidural got blocked and they had to come in and fix it. I figured that the same thing happened again! So, I called the nurse and told her what was going on. She came in and fiddled with the epidural for a minute, but could see nothing wrong so she called the anesthesiologist to come and check it out. I suddenly got extremely nauseated and just as the nurse left to get me some Zofran, I lost the entire contents of my stomach. It was not pretty.
The anesthesiologist finally got in there a little before 9:00 pm and determined that the epidural was working fine. By this time I was basically writhing in pain. I was not prepared to go into delivery UN-medicated! I have much more admiration for my friends who by their own choosing have UN-medicated births. The guess was that I was transitioning so fast the epidural couldn't keep up with my body to shield it from the pain. He reset the timer so I could be dosed every 18 minutes instead of 20 minutes with the hope that it would start to take away the pain. No such luck! The epidural never did kick in and dose me enough to take away the pain before I delivered the baby.
It was a bit after 9:00 pm that my nurse checked me again and found out I was now dilated to 10 and 100% effaced and this baby was ready to come soon! She rushed to call the doctor and tell him to come over fast. She grabbed another nurse and they sprang into action getting me set up for delivery. I'm sure they thought I was going to have at least a couple more hours until I was ready, so they hadn't gotten everything in the room quite ready yet.
Dr. Lind arrived about 9:27 pm, they got my feet in the stirrups and had me start pushing as the baby was already crowning. After 3 super painful contractions and me pushing this baby with all my might, she was born at 9:34 pm. Whew! That was incredibly painful and awesome at the same time! Unbeknownst to me at the time, the doctor and nurses were really cheering me on and wanting me to deliver this baby as fast as possible because during the middle of the first or second contraction when I was pushing, her heart rate plummeted. The doctor could see/feel just enough to know that the umbilical cord was wrapped across her chest, causing distress. They knew she needed to get out quick. And here I thought they were just being really supportive and excited for me. ;)
Baby girl was placed on my tummy while they rubbed her down a bit. She didn't cry and really didn't move much. Very similar to how Baden acted when he was first delivered. As the nurse was rubbing her and cleaning her up a bit, I noticed that she was kind of blue and getting bluer. Just as I was about to say something, the nurse said something to the doctor and they immediately cut the umbilical cord and rushed her over to the warming islet. No stopping for weight or anything else. The room suddenly filled up with about 8-10 people. They had called in respiratory, nicu and I'm not even sure who else to help with baby. She was breathing, but very shallow! It took them what seemed like forever to get her responding and breathing at a rate that was acceptable. However when we look at the video, I think it was only a couple of minutes. They finally got her heart rate up and breathing under control and she started to pink up. Although her feet and hands were pretty blue for a few hours afterwards. They say that is normal, but I sure didn't like the looks of it.
After that, we finally got to get a good look at our girl! When they brought her over again and let her rest on my chest, skin to skin, with Jed nearby, I had the most amazing peaceful feeling. This truly was one of the most perfect moments of my life! We feel so grateful and blessed to have this little girl in our family. She is a joy and we couldn't be happier!
We got settled in the room, which turned out to be the same exact room I delivered Baden in. We also found out that my doctor was not on call that night so we would have who ever happened to be on call from his practice. It was Dr. Brent Lind, the same doctor who was on call and delivered Baden on Christmas eve 2010. Jed was pretty excited to have both of those things happen and I have to admit it was pretty cool. At least we kind of knew Dr. Lind and we liked him.
I'm trying to remember the right time frame as things progressed through the night, so hopefully I am pretty close. Jed will correct me if I'm not. ; )
I decided to go ahead and get the epidural as soon as they could get it set up because the contractions were getting pretty intense. I had the epidural placed and going by a little after 6:00 pm. There was a shift change with the nurses at 6, so my new nurse came in and checked me shortly after that. I had not really changed much at that point. Still a very strong 3+ and 90% effaced. We sat back and relaxed a bit, or as much as I could and kind of figured it would be a long night. I ate some jello and drank some juice. All they would let me have. But I had to have something as I was starving since I hadn't eaten since about 11:00 that morning.
The nurse came in sometime after 7:00 pm to check me and I had dilated to a 6 or 7by then. Since I had the epidural I couldn't feel anything and of course couldn't feel any changes. We were watching the monitors and could see the contractions getting stronger and closer together though. Around 8:30 pm I started to feel the contraction pain in my abdomen. It took me a minute to realize what it was and that my epidural probably was not working. When I was in labor with Baden, my epidural got blocked and they had to come in and fix it. I figured that the same thing happened again! So, I called the nurse and told her what was going on. She came in and fiddled with the epidural for a minute, but could see nothing wrong so she called the anesthesiologist to come and check it out. I suddenly got extremely nauseated and just as the nurse left to get me some Zofran, I lost the entire contents of my stomach. It was not pretty.
The anesthesiologist finally got in there a little before 9:00 pm and determined that the epidural was working fine. By this time I was basically writhing in pain. I was not prepared to go into delivery UN-medicated! I have much more admiration for my friends who by their own choosing have UN-medicated births. The guess was that I was transitioning so fast the epidural couldn't keep up with my body to shield it from the pain. He reset the timer so I could be dosed every 18 minutes instead of 20 minutes with the hope that it would start to take away the pain. No such luck! The epidural never did kick in and dose me enough to take away the pain before I delivered the baby.
It was a bit after 9:00 pm that my nurse checked me again and found out I was now dilated to 10 and 100% effaced and this baby was ready to come soon! She rushed to call the doctor and tell him to come over fast. She grabbed another nurse and they sprang into action getting me set up for delivery. I'm sure they thought I was going to have at least a couple more hours until I was ready, so they hadn't gotten everything in the room quite ready yet.
Dr. Lind arrived about 9:27 pm, they got my feet in the stirrups and had me start pushing as the baby was already crowning. After 3 super painful contractions and me pushing this baby with all my might, she was born at 9:34 pm. Whew! That was incredibly painful and awesome at the same time! Unbeknownst to me at the time, the doctor and nurses were really cheering me on and wanting me to deliver this baby as fast as possible because during the middle of the first or second contraction when I was pushing, her heart rate plummeted. The doctor could see/feel just enough to know that the umbilical cord was wrapped across her chest, causing distress. They knew she needed to get out quick. And here I thought they were just being really supportive and excited for me. ;)
Baby girl was placed on my tummy while they rubbed her down a bit. She didn't cry and really didn't move much. Very similar to how Baden acted when he was first delivered. As the nurse was rubbing her and cleaning her up a bit, I noticed that she was kind of blue and getting bluer. Just as I was about to say something, the nurse said something to the doctor and they immediately cut the umbilical cord and rushed her over to the warming islet. No stopping for weight or anything else. The room suddenly filled up with about 8-10 people. They had called in respiratory, nicu and I'm not even sure who else to help with baby. She was breathing, but very shallow! It took them what seemed like forever to get her responding and breathing at a rate that was acceptable. However when we look at the video, I think it was only a couple of minutes. They finally got her heart rate up and breathing under control and she started to pink up. Although her feet and hands were pretty blue for a few hours afterwards. They say that is normal, but I sure didn't like the looks of it.
After that, we finally got to get a good look at our girl! When they brought her over again and let her rest on my chest, skin to skin, with Jed nearby, I had the most amazing peaceful feeling. This truly was one of the most perfect moments of my life! We feel so grateful and blessed to have this little girl in our family. She is a joy and we couldn't be happier!
