Baylee's Turning ONE!

Baylee turns one in a few short hours. I think I feel indifferent. I guess a little sad and weird. Old. Haha. I thought I'd share our story for her birthday. It may be a tiny bit graphic, sorry. You don't have to read it, but for those that want to. I do this tonight because I probably won't get on tomorrow, and then, knowing me, it'll turn into a few weeks before it gets done. Plus everything started the day before anyway, so it works out. Enjoy.

Remembering Friday, February 12, 2010 (February 23, 2010)

I woke up Thursday morning, the 11th, and went to the bathroom. It wasn’t completely normal when I had finished. I didn’t really think it was any big concern but didn’t know. It was as if I was at the very end of my period or something. There was just a very small hint of blood on the tissue.
I texted Dustin telling him what happened and asking what I should do. He didn’t respond. I went about some other things and went to the bathroom again and this time it was worse. It wasn’t bright red blood but it was blood none the less. It was more this time and mucus like. It was gross. So I finally got online to talk to Dustin. I asked him if he’d got my text and he said no. I told him what was going on and he said that maybe I should wait until I go again and see if it gets worse. I said I did and it did.
When I went the third time it had gotten still a little worse and I had spotted in my garments. I was really scared now, with spurts of crying throughout the morning. Dustin said that maybe I should go to the hospital just to be safe but I didn’t want to go by myself. I think I was trying to hint to him that I wanted him to come home from work right then. That’s my fault for sending it as a hint.
I took a bath to try and calm myself down. Most the time in my bath, however, I kept thinking in two extremes. I figured I was either miscarrying or I would go in and they would do an emergency C-section. The bath didn’t calm me too much, I still cried a lot in there. I didn’t want to lose my little girl!
Dustin told me that we should call Dr. Baxter’s office and ask them about it since I was so reluctant to go to the hospital. It took me forever to find a line to get through on. Then when I finally did, there was no answer, but there was an answering machine this time. I left a message asking one of the nurses to call me back.
I was finally convinced that I needed to go to the hospital. I had prayed for comfort and calm and help in knowing whether or not I should go to the hospital. When I couldn’t calm down enough I decided I needed to go. My mom was online too so I asked her if she would take me to the hospital if I decided to go today. She said she could do it as soon as she was done with her conference call. (She was unaware of the situation and why I wanted to go.) She’d been working from home all week because her computer at work crashed. So I told her I wanted to go and she was on her way to pick me up. I also got a call back from Dr. Baxter’s office from one of the nurses. I told her what the events of the morning were and she said I should go to the hospital just to be safe. She was pretty sure it was nothing but I should go just in case. I was grateful that she had called back and confirmed my decision in going.
We got to Timpanogos Hospital around 4:30 or so. I explained to my nurse what had happened and they went through a couple of questions with me. She then did a few small tests that they always do there, including taking my blood pressure. She came back a short while later saying they weren’t concerned about the spotting, that it was fine but they were worried about my blood pressure, it was pretty high. So she drew some blood and used a catheter to get a sample. After the results from these tests were back we could essentially go home, 20-30 minutes. An hour goes by and finally the nurse comes back in. She explains to me that they want to keep me overnight to monitor my blood pressure and put me on a 24 hour urine sample. Great! I didn’t want to stay I wanted to go home. If I wasn’t miscarrying then I was fine, who cares about a little blood pressure? As long as my baby was fine then I didn’t need to be there.
So mom and I hung out in my room watching “Friends”. She was texting Dustin for me keeping him updated but we still weren’t really worried, just a little agitated now. At about five o’ clock they took me down for an ultrasound. It took at least thirty minutes! But it was cool. I felt like they looked at a lot more things than at our other ultrasounds. It did hurt though, it was really crazy. The technician said she wondered if I was contracting because my tummy was so tight there was no room for her to push and get a good picture. We didn’t really have good pictures the whole time apparently. Good enough though to tell us that our girl had hair!
During the ultrasound mom called Dustin and told him to leave work early and come to the hospital. He was the only one at work and it was about 5 or 5:30. He was supposed to be there until 6 but mom’s his boss so she could do that. That was nice.
About half way through the ultrasound my back started hurting SO bad. I finally said something because I thought I was going to pass out. I asked the tech if I could sit up on my side. She said it wouldn’t work out as well. Instead she grabbed something to put under my knees, which ultimately didn’t help at all. I think that the ultrasound was ended early because of me. I just couldn’t take it anymore. The pain was so severe in the right side of my lower back. I was so happy to be done but also felt bad because the very moment we finished Dustin walked in.
We went back to our room and mom left to get us snacks and food. Dustin and I hung out watching TV all night. They brought a cot in for him.
I was hooked up on monitors so we could hear the baby’s heart beat all night and see if I was contracting, which I thought I’d be able to feel. Well the nurse told me I had to drink two full mugs of water before I went to bed that night. Holy goodness I thought I was going to drown! That’s so much water! Anyway, I accomplished the near impossible. It was probably midnight or later when the nurse came into our room and said it looked like I was having contractions. I thought really? Weird. I didn’t think so. She felt my belly for like 5 or 10 minutes while watching the monitor. And what do you know I didn’t have anymore the whole time she was holding my belly. Awkward. She leaves and tells us that she’ll just keep an eye on me from the monitor out there. We finally fell asleep.
Dustin stayed home from work the next day so he could stay with me in the hospital. The whole by myself and hospital thing just does not work for me. We were supposed to be there ‘til about 4 or 5pm. Well a nurse came into our room at about 8am and told us that everything looked great overnight. I didn’t have anymore contractions. They thought the water helped that. She told us we could go home. Yahoo! But of course, me being the crazy that I am, I asked about my breakfast. I had to order it the night before. So naturally I asked, “Do I still get my breakfast?” I think the nurse was a little irritated at this question. She checked the clock and said it’ll be about twenty or thirty minutes. I said that’s fine, I’ll wait. And I did.
We started packing up and I got dressed and then breakfast came. It wasn’t worth the wait. It smelled funny and kind of made me sick. So I didn’t eat it, but I think Dustin liked it at least a little. I got up to go to the bathroom again before we went and my belly hurt a bit. I told Dustin that it felt a little weird. We called the nurse in and told her what was going on. She really wasn’t much help. I wanted her to tell me if I was having contractions because I sure as heck didn’t know. She just kept asking me things instead. It did feel like maybe I just needed to use the bathroom, but when I finally did, it just made it worse. I went back to my bed to lie down. We told the nurse and she said well I guess we’ll just readmit and reevaluate you.
The nurse asked if I’d been checked yet. I’m like oh yeah we had an ultrasound last night, no big deal. And the nurse was like no, have you been checked? I guess for dilation. I was like uh…I don’t think so. Don’t really know though. The nurse was livid that nobody checked me for dilation. How was I supposed to know? All the sudden out comes a rubber glove and some gel. Whoa where’s the ruler?! Jeepers that’s unpleasant! Apparently I was dilated to a 4.
She told us that because it was preterm labor I had to prove myself and prove that I was in labor before I could have anything for the pain. So they would come back in one hour and if I’d dilated more they would give me some pain killers. Fantastic right? And I remember asking Dustin if my contractions were at least less than 5 minutes apart. He told me they were probably less than 2 minutes apart.
The nurse came back in shortly after and told me that the doctor would allow me to have this specific pain medication. I don’t remember what it’s called. So they hooked me up on an IV and got my magnesium going to try to stop my labor but didn’t get the pain meds on yet. The hospital was all the sudden crazy busy! A few of our nurses got called away to other places. We had the head nurse with us for a short time. She was on the phone yelling at people. I didn’t want her in my room anymore. She was yelling to make sure nobody else came to the hospital. Two people wanted and tried to come in and be induced. There was a 27 week emergency c-section. It was nuts!
They finally got my pain meds going. They didn’t help. All they did was make me feel dead in between contractions. They didn’t ease my contractions at all.
An hour and a half went by and the nurse finally came back in to see if we were really in labor. They checked and I was at a 7! So they rushed us into a labor and delivery room really fast. As soon as we got into that room they checked me again and I was at an 8. It was also right when we got to that room that I started having the hard contractions. The ones where women in the movies scream out in pain. The ones where my body starts pushing the baby out and I’m not meaning to or supposed to yet. Yeah those ones. Luckily I only had two maybe three.
With my first contraction I remember the nurse trying to calm me by laying nearly her whole weight onto my back and telling me to breathe. How was I supposed to breathe with you pushing all the air out of me? Stupid. (Funny thing was I really liked that nurse.)
I asked the nurse if I could still get my epidural if I was already at a 10. She didn’t answer me, basically saying no you crazy girl. I was really nervous because I was already at an 8 and it was so busy and nobody had called the anesthesiologist up yet.
He finally arrived and Dustin was like are you the guy? Can we please get an epidural? Dustin’s so great! You have to round your back to get the epidural so they sat me up. Right in the middle of a contraction none the less. And then the anesthesiologist starts asking me a bunch of stupid questions (which I had answered all yesterday, twice at least. And they told me that I wouldn’t have to waste time by answering them again when I went into labor because they would already have it all in the computer). It was ridiculous. And when they sat me up my IV popped out and blood was squirting everywhere, I had no idea where it came from. So I had to wait to get a new IV before I could get my epidural. I was being poked and prodded every which direction. I finally got my epidural and it felt great! I felt it run down my left leg immediately and then I couldn’t feel a thing from my tummy down. It was fantastic.
I was completely dilated really fast. We tried a couple of pushes and the doctor ended up leaving because he said it would take awhile. The nurse stayed with me and told me when to push because I couldn’t feel my contractions whatsoever anymore. Then they called the doctor back in because it was about time for baby to come. He came in and decided he was basically going to do it himself. I was fine with that. He cut me a little bit and had me push a few times just to get the head almost out. And from there he pulled her head and the rest of her out.
And there she was, all slimy and purple. I didn’t know what to think or how to feel. I was exhausted. I didn’t think anything of the purple at first. Then the doctor told us that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. I’m so glad she came when she did. What a miracle! We probably would’ve had a still born had we gone much further in the pregnancy. I feel so grateful for all the turn of events that took place for our sweet girl to come into this world and into our lives.
Baylee stayed in the NICU for the first 3 weeks of her life. We got to bring her home on March 7, 2010. She came home with oxygen and an apnea monitor. She got to come off of those on Easter Sunday 2010. (We kind of took her off it the week before though) And the first time we got to hold her was on Valentine’s Day. She’s been doing great and sleeping through the night consistently at about 6-8 weeks. We love finally having her home!

*Side note – I feel like there were so many blessings and miracles throughout all this, and not all of them are in the story. Some may seem more significant than others, but they are all pretty incredible to me.
• I had put in my two weeks the Monday before she was born because I felt like I should. I had the closing shift the Friday that Baylee was born. I insisted that I could and would work it when I talked to Brett on Monday, but he found someone to cover it for me right away.
• I’d bought Dustin’s Valentine’s present and was so excited that I made him open it early. It was a memory foam cover for our bed and needed at least one full day to lay out on the bed to expand and breathe I suppose. I gave it to him on Wednesday night. We slept on the couches that night. Then spent the next three nights in the hospital.
• Dustin was able to get the crib assembled just about a week or two before she was born. I don’t quite remember.
• Wingate had just redone insurance policies at the beginning of the year. Dustin had to pick a new plan. Even though the agent tried to talk him out of the 100% coverage he felt like he needed to go with it, so he did. We never paid a penny for all of the hospital expenses.
• It was nice to have her in the hospital for those few weeks. It was still very tough, but we took advantage. We were able to get our rest. I was able to heal and regain energy quickly. We were able to go out on lots of dates (usually to the hospital).
• We had gone to the temple the Tuesday in that same week. My mother in law said she looked over at me during the ceremony and thought that I looked so uncomfortable, and that I needed to have the baby. Then the next day I told Dustin I was absolutely DONE being pregnant.