Our Roadside Adventure

Well, after much waiting and tribulation, our new little guy has arrived. We had quite an adventure getting him here, and though childbirth is always kind of an adventure no matter what, I thought I'd better chronicle the whole thing, so he someday can know the whole story if he wants to. We have my in laws here for the last week, so I'd been trying not to lose patience waiting for our baby to arrive since that's what they came half way across the world to see. His due date wasn't till the 28th of October, but we really expected to see him much sooner since I was consistently measuring big. Plus, I'd been having pretty consistent Braxton-Hicks that sometimes got pretty strong for the last month or so. So on the 26th, I started to feel contractions (or birth-waves as my hypnobabies training would have me call them) that were strong enough I had to close my eyes through them. They were still six or seven minutes apart, but we decided that once I was sure they were actual labor pains, no matter how far apart, we would just make our way to the hospital  mostly because I tend to have a harder time focusing in the car and would rather be able to settle in at the hospital for the hardest part of birthing time rather than be driving through it. And we live about 35 minutes away from the hospital, so we just didn't want to take any chances. So, we packed up our mountain of stuff and started the trip. About five minutes into driveing, my contraction started getting further apart and lightening up quite a bit. We almost turned around and went home, but decided to just go there and see. When we called, the midwife wasn't super optimistic that we would be ready to admit yet, so she said to go and get checked and the hospital would let her know. When we got there, they checked me and I was about a 3. Since they couldn't admit me until I was at least a 4, they told me to stay an hour and they would recheck me. During that hour however, my birth waves had really slowed down. They only came about 1 ever 12 minutes. So after the hour passed I hadn't made any progress at all. They told me to go home and not come back until the contractions were 2-4 minutes apart, or were significantly stronger.

So we made the walk of shame back to the car, and let everyone at home know they were releasing us. But I was still pretty sure I was in the first stages of actual labor, so we decided to stay in the area and go see a movie and stay at a hotel so that we wouldn't have to go home and immediately come back. During the night my birth waves almost completely died off though, so in the morning we just went home. Charlie was very patient with me and very sweet about the whole thing. At home I lay down to rest and watch some Alias, and the waves sped up and strengthened quite a bit, but stayed put at around 7 minutes apart. Although they were consistently pretty strong, we kept waiting for them to get a little closer together so that we wouldn't end up going to the hospital and coming right back home again. After several hours of this I wanted to change tactics so I got up to start a bath. The walk over to the bath tub, and waiting for it to fill up, I had a few waves that were about a minute apart, but as soon as I sat down on the edge of the tub, they spaced out again. After getting in the tub, I had one wave that was seven apart and the next one was a two. Then I started to feel some pressure, so I got out and went to the toilet and the next contraction (one minute later) broke my water. We grabbed some clothes and ran to the car, but the waves stayed at about 1 minute apart and before we even left Spanish Fork, I was feeling the urge to push. We stopped at the Spanish Fork Clinic and Charlie ran in to see if they could possibly deliver a baby. As you can expect, he said the women looked quite shocked at the question, so he just said never mind and we started out of town. We pulled off the freeway again Provo, but then got back on again since getting to American Fork Hospital at that point seemed about as likely as getting to Provo Hospital considering the long drive through town. At this point I was sort of crying/yelling. Charlie tried to calm me but he was quite freaked out himself. On my part, it was less fear than it was my only way to deal the sudden onset of such strong and close birthing waves. It just felt better to yell. But at about 1/2 mile from the Pleasant Grove exit I told Charlie I was pushing and so he stopped and he had the presence of mind (through the scary situation of having a screaming wife and knowing he was going to have to deliver his baby) to call 911 and calmly let them know the situation. They connected him with a closeby emergency vehicle and talked him through what he should do. By the time the ambulance arrived, the head was all the way out. The EMT sort of pushed Charlie out of the way and then got me to push the baby the rest of the way out. Then he smoothly cleaned up the baby a little and suctioned out the baby's mouth and nose and cut the cord. He tried to deliver the placenta as well, but Charlie told him it usually took a while before my placenta came out, so they thankfully just left it and lifted me up onto the stretcher and into the ambulance where I got to hold and feed the baby while Charlie followed a long behind in our car. When we got to the hospital Fae and Mom were there waiting already. We went into Labor and Delivery and the midwife came and delivered the placenta and sewed me up and stuff. Our beautiful smart little dude took right to breastfeeding. And the EMTs stuck around for a minute for pictures and congratulations. They were (rightly so) quite proud thier part in the birth. One EMT said he got a little teary eyed.

Charlie's sister, Meli, recently had her baby in the backseat of her car as well, in the parking lot of the hospital. Afterwards, she seemed like the only one who was calm about it. Her mom who was there, and her husband both seemed a little traumatized. I always wondered about that, but now I understand a little better. As far as my part of bringing the baby into the world, it wasn't much different than it would have been in the hospital. The Birth waves in the car weren't very pleasant I can tell you, so there probably would have been less screaming in a place where I would have been able to focus, but other than that, everything I did would have been about the same no matter where I was. Charlie's part was drastically different however. He was wise and level headed about the whole thing, but he was also traumatized by having his wife screaming and having all the weight of the decisions rest on him. Our other two kids Charlie caught when they were coming as well, but they were in a very controlled and germ free environment, with a midwife over his shoulder talking him through it. He admitted that he came away from this birth emotionally exhausted  I'm very proud of him and what he did. He made it possible for me to feel safe and confident in a situation which otherwise might have been very scary for me, or made the labor even harder. He also helped me not to tear very badly either. Great job hubby! The EMTs were great too. I was worried about giving everyone on the freeway a show, but they were very careful to keep me modest, and they were quite efficient and charming. So, not exactly like I had hoped for and my birth plan went out the window, but we feel great and the baby is doing great and Charlie will hopefully recover soon. :) I feel very blessed to be married to such a man. And blessed that the baby seems to be fine despite the unsanitary conditions. Heavenly father was certainly watching out for us.

Sometimes I think being pregnant is a little like shaving your head. If I decided to pull a Natalie Portman and go bald, I think I would be revealing a very lopsided, bumpy head. But I've heard that you never know until you try it. Some people thought theirs would be bumpy and it turned out not too bad, and others thought it would be smooth and it ended up really bumpy, apparently. I would never shave mine anyway, I just don't have the face for it, let alone the head for it.

Well for some reason, when I'm pregnant, my stomach looks like I have a very lopsided, bumpy volleyball under my shirt. Some people wear their baby bump kind of hidden, which must have its own set of problems.  Then there are those of us that keep it way out front and I can tell you it gets incredibly awkward and uncomfortable. And of course there are lots of in-betweens.


Before I got pregnant, I guess I thought I would look something like this, 

Instead, I always look more like this.

Anyway you just never know. It doesn't seem to have very much to do with body type, as far as I can tell. People stop me on the street to ask me if I'm having a boy or girl because apparently carrying way out front is indicative of having a boy. (Course, I was carrying way out front with Lydia too, but why spoil their delusions?) But I've never met anyone else who carried a baby out as far as I do. It often makes me the target of some speculation in public, especially toward the end of my pregnancy. I'm not really a fan of cavorting with strangers, cuz I'm awkward and somewhat antisocial. And its still my stomach, you know? Every little bump is still me, and its not like I poke it out for display on purpose.

What does that really have to do with shaving my head? Well....not much, I guess. I only said it was a little like it, ok? So um, there ya go. Here is a picture of the actual baby bump, just to make up for this lame post. 23 weeks and counting! Can't wait to meet you baby boy!

Our new baby

Yes, she looks peaceful, but don't be fooled...Zoe has as much energy as one of our kids!

Snow where did you go.?

I love snow. I really do. I know that's not very popular nowadays, at least among adults. I think the general distaste for it has something to do with driving in the snow, which of course must be miserable. And honestly, I don't drive that much, so that may have something to do with it. Except I have to say I like driving in the snow. Its kind of exciting. And, especially at night, the snowflakes in the headlights make me feel like I'm flying the Starship Enterprise. Awesome. Of course, I also like it when there's a power-out (yippee! Hide-and-go-seek in the dark!), so maybe I've just forgotten I'm supposed to be an adult now.

Anyway it hasn't been the snowiest of seasons this year. We've had some snowfalls, but nothing that has stuck for more than a few days (usually not more than a few hours). So last week when the radio told me there was going to be a big storm all weekend, I was super ready for that to happen. I mean, come on already! And true to their word, it did snow: a little. And the next morning it melted. And though there has been one other day of snow, it already mostly melted as well. The thing that really steamed my britches though is the complete lack of apology from the weather service. Logically, I know that it isn't their fault the snow fizzled, and I also know that the weather is like a living thing so it would be pretty impossible to predict. But still, couldn't they at least have had a repentant tone, or a "so its taking a slightly different turn than we thought", or at the very least a formal, notarized, written apology to me. But no, I've continued to listen to the weather every day, and even when there are changes from a prediction made a half hour before, they still give the each weather report like that is what they've been saying all along. I never thought I would be one of those people who was so bitter that they blamed defenseless weathermen for the weather. But man, I get so miffed with their smug assurances lately that I want to turn off the radio with a satisfying click every time they come on. But I don't. Cuz that would be rude. Also because I'm lazy. And forgetful. What was I talking about?