Labor and Delivery

(So I wan'ted to put this picture further down on the post but on Drews new computer its not letting me do that. This is little Mae in her "tanning bed" with her silly looking goggles on.)

We still can't believe the timing of everything. We have most definitely felt and seen Heavenly Fathers hand in this whole experience. When I tell you the whole story you will see why.

Just a little review of what Drew and I were doing before the baby. Drew was still down in Vegas finishing up selling while I moved back up here in case the baby came early and so I could go to my weekly Dr. appointments. Drew was due back August 27th......but 3 1/2 weeks was just WAY too long for us. After the first week we started talking about possibilities of him coming home earlier. We talked to his boss and he gave Drew the go ahead to go home whenever he wanted to. But with Drew being the manager it made it hard for him to leave to early from there. And he was going to have to work selling in Salt Lake until the official end of the summer (the 27th).

Finally, we decided he would just come home the weekend before the 27th....basically about 4 or 5 days early. We planned on him leaving on Saturday morning to come home but there was a little debate about him coming home Friday night after working. I didn't want him to do that because that meant him driving through the night which I am never fond of, especially when he is by himself. But Drew was pretty set on coming home Friday night and I had a hard time saying no because I missed him so bad.

He got home at 3:30 AM Friday night/Saturday morning. We laid down to try and get some sleep at about 4:30. I had been feeling a little uncomfortable during the night. Lower back pain and mild cramping feeling that I just thought was braxton hicks type stuff. When we went to bed, I laid tossing and turning getting a little more uncomfortable as time went on. Then I felt a pop and started thinking my water might have broke. But I had no idea what was going on. Never having been in labor before, neither Drew or I knew what it was going to be like. We got out the What to Expect book to see if we could figure out if what was happening was the real thing. I called my mom and while talking to her started to get a pretty strong contraction. Drew started timing them and they were about 5 minutes and less apart. We decided we had better get to the hospital.

We checked into the hospital at about 7 AM. I was just SURE that they were going to send me home saying it was a false alarm. But when the nurse came in to check me I was 4 and a half centimeters along and she said my water was most definitely broken and I wasn't going anywhere. By 9:30 or 1o I was at 8 centimeters and by 10:30 or 11 I was at a full 10 and ready to go. NOTE: I made it to this point only because I had an epidural. Epidurals are a DREAM and I definitely recommend having one when in labor. Thats just my personal preference, but I was able to enjoy the labor a lot more because of that.

So I was ready to go, but my doctor wasn't. He was in Orem doing a C-section and delivering another baby. He made it to the parking lot of our hospital and got a "STAT" call back to Orem. We ended up waiting for him for almost 3 hours! Since the baby wasn't in distress and I wasn't, we weren't the highest priority so we got to wait. I did start getting sick and throwing up a bit due to a few things I think. One, I hadn't eaten or slept.......I NEED food. Two, the medication was getting to me. Three, the nurse said your body naturally does that when you are ready to push because throwing up naturally causes the push reflex. That wasn't making me want to wait much longer.

Our doctor finally arrived a little before 1pm. I was already pushing from the nurses instructions as the doctor came in. I pushed through 5 contractions equalling about 20 minutes of pushing and we had baby Mae in our arms. It was amazing and surreal! We couldn't believe that this little girl was actually ours. We were overcome with emotion and just so happy to finally have this little girl we had been anxiously waiting for. We feel so blessed!

Now for a quick update from this week. Mae has had a bit of a problem with jaundice and has been spending 24/7 in her very own private tanning bed. It has been heart wrenching for us to not be able to hold her but we have survived and she had the go ahead to no longer have to be stuck in the tanning bed. Her biliruben levels have gone back down and she is doing well! We have of course been holding her non-stop making up for lost time. But we are all doing well. Thank you all for your sweet comments and for your love and support during such an exciting time for us. We really appreciate hearing from you all and wish we could reply individually to everyone. We will continue to update you with cute pictures of baby Mae!