Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Newborn Pictures

Warning: Picture overload to follow... You have been warned! :)

We had the chance to take some newborn photos in the nursery and around our house which was a lot of fun! (Thanks Jen!!)
We also went to CameraShy in Lehi to have a newborn session done. Guys, they did WONDERFUL!! If you need pictures taken I would at least consider them. Addy was very unhappy 90% of the time and yet we ended up with some fabulous pictures! 

I now understand why parents post so many pictures of their kids. It's impossible to keep them to myself!

Some of the pictures by Jen:









Some of the CameraShy pictures:






One day she will kill me for this picture! Love this "poop" face!

This is how 90% of the session went... sad baby!












Addy's Birthday Pictures

I thought I would post a few pictures of our hospital stay. We didn't take as many as I would have liked, but at least we got some!

Waiting for baby Addy to arrive!

First time meeting our little girl! I can't get over the big smile on Matt's face- very proud daddy!
Happy family

Uncle Justin

Proud Grandpa Mark

Uncle Tyson

Not happy about getting dressed :)

Going home!

Going Home!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Addy's Birth Story

Well it's been 3 weeks since we welcomed Addy to our family and every day since I have thought to myself, " I need to write a blog post about my labor and her birth story before I forget any details". So here I am, this post is mostly for me to have to look back on, so don't feel obligated to read any further, I won't have my feelings hurt. :)

I had been having weekly doctor appointments since 36 weeks and had only been 1 cm dilated each week. I had a doctors appointment January 8th (Reminder: I was due January 7th, so I wasn't exactly excited that I was still pregnant at this point.. ha). At the appointment I was still only 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced so we started talking about the possibility of an induction. We had just found out that there was a possibility of my  mom having to go to Washing D.C for work the next week and I wanted to make sure she would be here for the delivery, so a plan was made. The doctor called the hospital and scheduled my induction for Saturday night, January 11th. We were going to have to go in that evening to start the process. He told us they were going to have to soften my cervix with a pill, one at 6pm and the second dose at midnight, from there they would start pitocin to start my contractions and hopefully we would have a baby by Sunday night. It wasn't our first choice since I was hoping I would get to experience the whole "am I in labor??" process, but with the situation we were okay with it and we started thinking of all the things we needed/wanted to do before the baby got here. We enjoyed our afternoon together and got more and more excited at the thought of having a baby that weekend!

We quickly learned that this little girl likes to make plans of her own. 

Thursday, January 9th, I woke up around 5:30 a.m having contractions. They were definitely there but they were not killing me yet so I got up and cleaned the house a little and finished putting together some freezer meals I had started the night before. Matt kept asking if I wanted him to stay home from work but I didn't want to jinx myself, so off to work he went. By 8 a.m I decided to start timing my contractions. They were coming anywhere from 5-10 minutes apart and were about 40 seconds long. I walked around the house a lot and finished gathering things for the hospital in case this was the real deal. (Side note: I was set on the idea that I was NOT going to go to the hospital thinking I was in labor just to get sent home because it was a "false alarm".) By eleven they were getting much more consistent and much more painful; nothing was helping relieve them. I decided it was probably time to have Matt come home from work and that we should go get things checked out. He came home and I drug my feet a little more (again, worried that I would get there only to get sent home again).

We checked in to the hospital at 1:30 and they hooked me up to the monitors. I was contracting every 4 minutes or so and they were lasting about a minute each. It was nice to hear her little heartbeat and cool to watch each contraction start and end on the monitor. The nurse checked me and I was still only dilated 1 cm, just my luck! I was so discouraged. I had sat through contractions ALL morning long; how had things not changed??? Labor and Delivery was pretty busy that day so we hung out in the room they had us in for a few hours. By the time the nurse came back I was hurting quite a bit and contracting consistently. She checked me again to see if I had progressed at all and once again, just my luck, still only dilated 1 cm. Not going to lie, I was so frustrated with my body. Why wasn't it doing what it was supposed to be? I cried and knew we were going to get sent home, Matt hugged me and told me everything was going to work out. The nurse came back in with discharge paperwork after having talked to the doctor. We signed the papers and she gave me a shot of Morphine and Phenegran for the pain and told me, "I bet you are back within 24 hours to have this baby!". We left the hospital at 4:30 p.m.

Even though we live just minutes up the road from the hospital I was pretty loopy feeling by the time we pulled into the drive way. I made it to the couch with my pillow and blanket and tried to rest. (What was I thinking? That was not even close to a possibility.) We were told that the shot she gave me would probably decrease my contractions and make it possible for me to relax which in turn would help my cervix dilate. I was still contracting and was still very uncomfortable. I did everything I could to relieve the pain from my contractions but nothing was helping. By midnight I decided it was time to go back to the hospital so I woke Matt up (he had been in and out of sleep for about an hour) and we once again made the short drive back to L&D. 

We got checked in and on to the floor at 12:32, we were put into a room and the nurse hooked me up to the monitors and checked my cervix. This time I was 3 cm! It wasn't a ton of progress BUT I wasn't 1 cm anymore and that made me SO happy. Since I had dilated from a 1 to a 3 since I had been in hours earlier it meant we were staying. I opted for them to call in anesthesia since it would take a little time to call them in from home for my epidural.  He came in and placed my epidural- shortly after my first dose of medicine my lips and face started to go numb, it had ended up in a blood vessel instead of the epidural space so he had to take it out and place another one. The second one worked like a charm and I was one happy camper! :)

An hour later the nurse checked me again and I was dilated to 5 cm and then another hour or so later I was 7 cm dilated. The nurse went to call the doctor to let him know. By this time we had family that had shown up. My parents, Matt's mom, and my grandparents all came to support us. 

The doctor came in and decided to break my water to help things move along. (Talk about the weirdest feeling EVER!) After he broke my water is when things started to get interesting. I wasn't in any pain because of my epidural and I was contracting every 2-3 minutes but with each contraction Addy's heart rate would dip down and take some time coming back up to normal. My nurse would come in and re-position me from one side to the other each time her heart rate would fall and before we knew it we had all sorts of nurses and staff in the delivery room. The doctors were concerned about how frequent her heart rate was dropping. They kicked our family out. They then put a different type of monitor on her head to monitor her heart rate more accurately and they began an amnioinfusion to put water back up around her to help keep her off of her umbilical cord. When that didn't make much of a difference they began putting me in different position to try to help. They had me on my hands and knees which helped for a short time, but it didn't completely solve the problem so they gave me a medication to stop my contractions. In the middle of all the craziness a nurse came in and had us sign a consent form for a c-section, in case it came down to that in an emergent situation.

At this point both Matt and I were scared/worried and didn't care if they needed to do the c-section. We just wanted our little girl here and for both her and I to be safe and healthy. Obviously it wasn't our ideal situation, but whatever needed to be done we were okay with. 

After a little bit of time with no contractions her heart rate was normal again and she was doing fantastic so the doctor decided to try to start my labor once again by using pitocin to see how things would go. He wanted to give me every chance to have a normal delivery VS the c-section. With-in minutes of starting my contractions back up Addy's heart rate began doing the same thing as it was before. Matt and I had been talking about the whole situation and we had decided that there was no point in stressing Addy anymore than we needed to; so when the doctor came in the room and suggested that we stop my contractions again and go ahead with the c-section we were quick to agree and before we knew it they were taking me into the operating room. 

In the OR they prepped me and got Matt all dressed in his sterile gear before he could come in to be with me. They had to pull out my epidural and give me a spinal in order for me to be numb enough for the surgery. (Let's just say numb was an understatement of how I was feeling after it was all said and done!) They let Matt in when they had me all ready for the surgery and he sat next to my head. He was being so supportive and did a wonderful job of making me feel a little more at ease. When the anesthesiologist told him he could stand up and watch if he wanted to he jumped right to his feet and watched the whole thing. If you ask him he will tell you, "it was sweet to watch!" I love him so much! Because I had labored for so long Addy had dropped pretty low into the birth canal. The doctor had to give her a good tug and pull 4-5 times before he was able to pull her out. 

At 9:11 a.m on January 10th Addyson Allene Webster was born. She came out screaming and super active. She had the cord wrapped around her neck, hence the heart rate decelerations during labor. Addy weighed 5 lbs 15 oz and was 19 inches long. 

So after 27 hours of labor, 3 IV's, 2 epidurals, 1 spinal, and a c-section our family went from the two of us to the three of us, and we could not be happier. Even though my labor was quite the process, I would do it again in a heart beat. It amazes me how quickly you forget the bad parts because of all the love you immediately have for the sweet little spirit you have been blessed with. It feels like she has been apart of our family forever. It's hard to remember what life was like with out her. 

Addy, we love you more than words can describe. Mommy and daddy can't wait to experience life and all that it holds with you. You are our world, baby girl! 
XOXO


First family picture :)


Happy Momma


Proud Daddy