Labor Post

So like I said in the last post, this one will be mostly for me, but you can read it if you want.

Charlotte Kaye Higham

We called the hospital at 6:30 AM the morning of January 25th, and we were told to call back because they were just changing shifts and weren't sure when they would be able to have me come in. So I called back at 8:00 and they told me to be there at 9. So we packed Savannah down to the car, and headed out.

Just as we went over the first speed bump to get out of our condos I told Dave I was feeling terribly sick, so he pulled over after the third speed bump and I threw up. Then we were on our way again, after determining that I was done with that bout of nausea and vomiting. Savannah went to my mom's house and got to spend the weekend there.

When we got to the hospital our stubborn baby refused to stay on the monitor! I could feel her moving so I wasn't concerned about her. The problem with her refusing to keep her heartbeat on the monitor is that they can't start you on a pitocin drip until they have 20 minutes of continuous readings for the baby.

The nurse finally decided to quit trying to get her heartbeat on the external monitors and called the doctor to come in and break my water so they could put the internal monitors on and get the readings that way so I could be started on the pitocin.

At around 10:30, the doctor came in and broke my water. Things were finally getting started, and after 20 minutes of monitoring babies heartbeat, we were moving right along! I was dilated to a 3 and 60% effaced when they started me on the pitocin. Every hour they came in and turned the pitocin up which made the contractions harder and longer to keep me progressing.

The contractions weren't super hard, so I was handling them with just breathing. My father in law came to visit and both he and Dave kept telling me that since I was getting an epidural anyway I should just get it and not deal with the pain that I didn't have to feel. I was stubborn though and I kept going until the contractions were really bothering me, to the point that I really wanted them to be done. So I called the nurse in and she called the anesthesiologist.

Getting the epidural hurt really bad. I almost wished I hadn't asked for it while they were putting it in. They give you a local where they are going to thread the catheter in, but for some reason it was just really hurting me. Anyway, he had a hard time even getting the epidural in, which is part of why it hurt so bad. After he finally got it in, he asked if it was starting to work, and I could feel tingles in my leg, so I said yes.

He told me to push the button 15 minutes after he left that delivers an extra dose, so I did that, but for some reason I could still feel all of the contractions, my entire left leg, and my right calf and foot. Well, this went on for quite a while, and I was complaining a lot. Dave was so patient with me though.

The contractions were strong enough that I felt like I should be pushing every time one came! And I was so frustrated that I was still feeling them even after I had an epidural! I told Dave that I needed to push and he just kept saying "Don't push! Don't push!" After hearing that a ridiculous number of times, I completely lost my cool and I became one of those crazy pregnant women who yells at her husband while she is in labor! I felt awful about that later, and now it is something I laugh about.

He kept telling me not to push and my response to him was "The next time you really need to poop, just DON'T PUSH okay?!?!" (I still get a kick out of this, not sure it even remotely compares to the feelings of labor though...) Then the yelling part was all over.

The nurse came in and we told her I was still feeling the contractions and that I was having the urge to push, so she checked me and I was only dilated to a 6! They called the anesthesiologist in and he gave me a dose of something that is 2.5 times stronger than the phentanyl they put in an epidural to help. Well, that sucker didn't work either!

He came back an hour and a half after the epidural had originally gone in and said that sometimes you develop scar tissue in your back after having an epidural before and I asked if that meant that I was going to have to have my baby naturally. His answer was "possibly", I was freaking out!

He said he may need to pull it out and try again, but that it would hurt again and that it may not work, or he could try just pulling the catheter out a little and seeing what that would do. So he pulled the catheter out 2 centimeters, and it is amazing what a difference 2 stinkin' centimeters makes!

I could finally relax through labor, and I was super happy! At around 5:30 the nurse came in and I was close enough that she called my doctor to come in because we were super close to pushing! I was dilated to a 10, but not quite fully effaced. Well, I was ready to push before the doctor got there because of rush hour traffic!

When he finally got there around 6:15 he told the nursery nurse to come quick because we were having a baby, and he told her we were going to race and have the baby before she got there. Well, sure enough, we had a baby before the nurse got there!

Charlotte Kaye Higham made her debut into the world at 6:34 PM on January 25, 2013. The doctor said because the nurse wasn't there her first APGAR got to be a 10, but the labor and delivery nurse said no, she had to be a 9 so she didn't end up in the NICU. Both APGAR scores turned out to be a 9! She was healthy in every way, and just beautiful!

Savannah loves her sister!

Savannah got to come in and meet her sister, and she was so stinking cute about it! She loves Charly to pieces!

The Pregnancy

Oh wow... It has been almost a year since I have written and published anything on my blog! And it is incredible how much has happened in that time period! The most major being we have a new baby in our family! Because I kind of want to document this just for me, I'm going to write down how that came about, and maybe later I'll write down the birth story, which would again be just for me really.

After having my second miscarriage on Christmas of 2011, my doctor and I decided that if I still wanted to get pregnant I should start taking progesterone every month starting on day 21 of my cycle, then taking a pregnancy test on day 28, then again on day 31. If it was still negative on day 31, then I was supposed to stop taking it, because it will prevent your body from having a period if you are taking it. 

So I started taking the pills, and testing every month became something I dreaded, because I didn't want to see any more negative pregnancy tests. I wanted a baby so badly! Seeing a negative test was like a stab to my heart each time. I tried really hard not to get my hopes up every month, but that is much easier to say than it is to actually do.

Well, during the month of May (end of May, beginning of June), I took the test on day 28 of my cycle and it was negative, so I waited until day 31 and it was still negative, so I stopped taking the pills. A couple days later I still hadn't started my period so I called the doctor. His nurse told me to take another test, so I did and to my surprise, it was positive! I wasted no time calling the doctor to set up my first prenatal appointment. Also, I started taking the progesterone again in hopes that it would help me carry this baby to term. (Progesterone is supposed to help strengthen the uterine lining during pregnancy as sometimes this can be a cause of miscarriage. We never knew a cause for my miscarriages, as most women often don't, but my doctor wanted to give me the best possible chance for a healthy pregnancy.)

At my first visit I was 8 weeks along, and so excited I could burst! The doctor came into the room with his little Doppler machine that lets you listen to your baby's heartbeat. Well, they couldn't find it with the Doppler, but I was told not to worry because often, it's too early for the Doppler to pick it up. My doctor being the amazing doctor he is though sent me for an ultrasound because he knew I wouldn't be able to relax until I knew my baby was okay. This is the point in both of my pregnancies that ended in miscarriage where we discovered something was wrong, so I was nervous anyway.

We went in for the ultrasound and we saw our little peanut! Everything looked good, the heart was beating, and the placenta looked great! Huge weight off our shoulders.

The next appointment was at 12 weeks. Again, the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat with the Doppler, and this time I was more worried than the first time. I was farther along, he should have been able to find it! He sent me for another ultrasound, and we were so relieved to see that the heart was beating strongly and things were still going well. 

The next couple appointments were uneventful. At 20 weeks, we went for an anatomy scan and our little peanut was modest! We couldn't get the baby to move so we could reveal gender at all! We got to go back for another scan and we finally got to find out that we were having another baby girl! Up until this point I had been determined that it was a boy because I was so sick all the time! 

There's nothing really exciting that happened during any of my appointments, but the closer we got to my due date (Feb. 7), the more miserable I was. I really wanted to be one of those women who loved being pregnant, but I am not. I had slipped and fallen twice during the month of January and I just could not get comfortable. My hips and pelvis were constantly aching and I was still throwing up and nauseous. 

Every time we went to the doctor in the month of January I was hoping to hear the words "Go to the hospital! Have a baby!" The one time, I told the doctor that's what I wanted to hear and he said "Okay, go the hospital! Have a baby!" Too bad he was only kidding. They kept checking my progress, but everything was at a stand still. Dilated 3 cm and 60% effaced. My body just was NOT cooperating with what I wanted. 

On the 24th of January I told my doctor I really didn't want to be pregnant anymore and that if he told me to go to the hospital and have a baby I wouldn't complain. When he told me he couldn't I almost cried. I begged him to let me have this baby because I was still feeling awful. I couldn't sleep at night because I was so miserable. Well, he looked at my chart and had mercy on me because he told me I could go the next day to be induced! 

So we went home and tried to get everything ready to have a baby the next day! (For the record, you are never ready to have a baby...) We cleaned the house, got Savannah ready for a sleep over with grandma and got ourselves ready for a trip to the hospital. I had one of my dearest and best friends come over to braid my hair for labor because I didn't want it hanging in my face.

The next morning we had to call the hospital at 6:30 AM to find out what time to be at the hospital. They made me call back at 8, and I was told to be there at 9! This was really happening! I was so excited. We got everything loaded into the car, were pulling out of the condos parking lot when I had to make Dave pull over so I could throw up. The full 38 weeks that I was pregnant I was throwing up! 

We dropped Savannah off at my parents' house and then off we went to the hospital.

Day 25 - Ideal

Day 25 - What do you want your future to be like?

Ideally, I would like my future to hold more children, and less schooling for me and Dave. I would like us to have more time together as a family and less time that is consumed by homework and classes. I would like my children to grow strong in their testimonies of the gospel, and I would like to grow stronger in my testimony of the gospel.

I would like my future to be debt free! Included in this is not having to worry about finances and where our money was coming from. I would like to live in a wonderful home (that is not this condo), and in a great neighborhood. I would like my closest friends to move to the same neighborhood as me. (Are you listening gnomies?!) 

Someday, I would like to go on a couples mission with Dave.

This is all I can think of right now that I feel like sharing...

Day 24 - Hypothetical...

So, the prompt for today is something you wonder "what if.." about. There are so many things.

I have spent probably half an hour typing up "what if" questions and then deciding they are kind of morose and more depressing than I really want this post to be...

So, for some lighthearted fun, what if the earth were made of entirely delicious edible things? You know, like that room in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where they can eat the grass, and the flowers and the dishes and everything... 

Day 23 - Longing...

Prompt for day 23 - Something you miss.

I miss being pregnant... I don't remember being especially grateful for the experience of being pregnant the first time I was... I wish I could go back and change that. Of course there are downsides to being pregnant (no one likes to puke...), but I wish I could go back and make it so that every day I was grateful for that life growing inside of me. I think the second and third pregnancies I was more grateful, but I wonder still if that was even enough then. I want to be pregnant more than just about anything right now. I don't feel like my family is complete... So there it is, I miss being pregnant.

I skipped yesterday on purpose, but right now I think I'll put a blip about it, since I am already kind of leading in to it.

Yesterday's prompt was "Your opinion about your body and how comfortable you are with it". This prompt is deeply personal for me, and I'm not going to share all of my thoughts and feelings about my body, but I will say this.

I wish that doctor's knew why my body is rejecting pregnancies. I wish I knew if it was a defect with the baby, or if it was something wrong with me. I wish I knew if there were something I could do to prevent me from having another one. I know two miscarriages doesn't seem like very many from the outside looking in, and I remember feeling like that. I remember thinking that it isn't that hard to have a miscarriage, but until you've been there, try not to think that. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. And I've had to do it twice...

I'm deeply dissatisfied in that regard to my body. I don't even know that it is my body that is the problem, but there are things that I see in my body that don't reflect the healthiest of lifestyles, and that will always make me wonder. There are things I should be doing that I am not currently doing, and that will always be a curiosity for me as well.

So there you have it. Some thoughts about my body and what I feel about it...

Day 21 - These are a few of my favorite things...

Prompt for day 21 - 20 of your favorite things

1. Dr. Pepper
2. Double dates with best friends
3. Single dates with the hubster
4. Spring weather
5. My kindle
6. Colors, specifically pink, green and purple
7. Bubble baths
8. Crafting with friends (not alone)
9. Books
10. Good Deals 
11. Laundry detergent that smells fabulous
12. Having a house to live in
13. Cheetos with Cream Cheese
14. Late night trips to Smith's with my gnomies that end up with cupcakes
15. Cupcakes in general
16. Swing sets
17. Heartburn medicine 
18. Scentsy
19. Ticket to Ride - pretty much a fabulous game
20. A clean house (which with a 19 month old does not happen often. She is a weapon of MASS destruction.)

I left people out on purpose, just like Lydia did. 

Day 20 - Utterly Delicious

Prompt: Day 20 - Death Row Meal

Honestly, I hope that I never have this situation ever come to pass, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure it doesn't. But, for the sake of this post, here goes.

If I were on death row, I would probably want some type of comfort food. I would want Dave to make brownies and ice cream for dessert, and I would probably want to have lasagna with green beans and garlic bread for the actual dinner part. And maybe throw in a green salad with some nice crisp cucumbers. Sounds delicious, right?