Blakely Rio

Well I've finally found the time to write about Blakely's birth story so here goes.

(To read the short and sweet version click here)... but the long version is awesome.

Monday 9/17/12 I had a dr appointment that morning. We went and I was dilated to 3.5 cm and 80% effaced. (The week before was our first appointment where our doctor, Kimberly McCulloch, checked if the baby was head down (yes she was), and guessed that she'd be high 6lb low 7lb baby. I was 3 cm 70% effaced. She told us that it was likely that the baby would not be late.) I was measuring 38 weeks and had gained 20lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight. Not bad. At one of my appointment in the last month Dr. McCulloch said I was the "poster girl for pregnancy", which I thought was awesome. I felt like I was having a great pregnancy, it wasn't as bad as people had made it seem. (I'll write about my thoughts on pregnancy in another post).

So Brock and I went to work like normal. I was planning on Friday to be my last day and and then i'd take the week before she was due to get things ready like cleaning up the house, putting finishing touches on the nursery, washing baby clothes, getting organized... all those sorts of "nesting" things. That day after work Brock went to his workout and got rear ended. Thankfully I wasn't in the car, but it was still a frustrating thing to have happen. We just bought a new car a month or two ago too.

So we decided to go to dinner at the new restaurant in the mall, Sunrise Bakery. We saw Kris Siddoway there with her kids (I used to babysit them like seven years ago... now they're all taller than me). Brock had been recommending walks and spicy food the last few days, hoping that would get baby here quicker. So we walked around the mall.

After we went to the grocery store to get some snacks and lunches for work. I can't remember why, but we ended up getting to bed around 1am. Brock slept on the couch, because I used too many pillows for him to fit comfortably on the bed.

At 4:00 am I woke up having some painful contractions. I have an app on my phone that I had been tracking things like kicks, contractions, dr appointment info, weight (all that fun stuff...) so I pulled that out to see how far apart my contractions were. They were between 7-10 minutes apart. They started getting to the point where I didn't really know how to deal with the pain. I hadn't taken any birth classes (I didn't ever feel like I really needed to take a birth class. I figured I'd over think everything they told me and they'd probably freak me out. I avoid googling symptoms and stuff because I usually end up panicking about how I have the worst possible outcome from the smallest symptom). So I tried moving around to see if that helped. It didn't. I went and woke Brock up at 4:45 letting him know I was in a lot of pain and didn't know what to do. He called the hospital to see if we should come in or not. We knew they said not to come till contractions were every 3-5 minutes, and I didn't want to be one of those people who just comes in because it was hurting. They told us that even though they were 7-10 minutes apart, if they were intense enough it was ok to come in. The lady Brock was on the phone with asked if I could talk through the contractions and I definitely couldn't. I was about to just accept the fact that I was having an episode of contractions and try to get back to sleep when I had a really strong, painful one. I was like, "Okay get me to the hospital!". I wanted to shower, so I ended up taking a hot shower which helped a lot. Being on my hands and knees was the best position when a contraction came on. I just took deep breaths and low deep sighs to breathe through the contractions.

I had been talking to Brock the last week about packing a hospital bag, which we hadn't done. I told him to grab some clothes, snacks and other things to put in the hospital bag. I don't think he thought I was serious, or that this was "it". In fact if I remember right he seemed to be considering going into work. He put the car seat in the car, and once I was ready we made the 2 minute journey to the hospital (we live a few blocks away).

We got to the hospital at about 10:00 am. I felt a little silly because when I got out of the car it had been long enough between contractions that I should be having one anytime and I wasn't. But once I started walking I felt another come on. We went up to the second floor and I checked in. They took me to room 14 and had me put on the hospital gown. I was having really bad back pain and the nurse showed Brock a trick to push on my knees and it really helped relieve a lot of the pressure/pain. She checked my cervix and I was at 5cm. They asked if I was planning on an epidural. It seemed like all of the sudden this was real. They told me the anesthesiologist would be there in a little bit to give me the epidural. I was like "Wait a minute, you only get epidurals if you're going to have a baby". The nurse was like, yep you're going to have your baby today. That was so unreal. I was excited but overwhelmed and anxious. It was like I couldn't accept the fact that I was going to have a baby.

So the anesthesiologist came in, it was Wes Mortensen, son of Dr. Mortensen who delivered me when I was a baby. I was so so grateful because I immediately trusted him and felt calm about the epidural. Getting the epidural was probably more worrisome to me then actually having the baby (because of my sister's accident and nerve damage, not to mention when my mom got an epidural on my sister it numbed up instead of down leaving her unable to speak). He was great. Brock even watched the whole procedure. This may be silly, but I had been practicing arching my back for the epidural because I wanted to do the best I could. Wes said that I was going to be an easy patient because the main reason it's sometime hard to find the right spot is because people's bellies are too big so they can't lean forward enough. Since I was "smaller" it worked just fine. I felt proud of being such a good epidural-getter, haha. I held super still and even breathed through a contraction (I told him so he didn't do anything while I was having it). Afterwords the nurses told Brock to go lay down because he looked pale. He said he was fine, but went to lay down anyways. Wes told Brock most dad's don't watch so he did an awesome job.

Once that was in it was about 10 minutes and my left leg started to loose feeling. Wes adjusted it a bit to try and even it out. I was hoping the baby would come before noon, that would be about 8 hours of labor. But after a while the doctors checked me and I was only at a 6. They wanted to start pitocin, which I really really didn't want but I trusted the doctor/nurses decisions and let them start me on it. I started having serious back pain, even though I had the epidural. It really started getting out of control. I tried moving positions, laying on myside, my back but nothing would help. I started getting a little hysterical and just sobbed about how much it hurt. I was also feeling nauseous and kept saying I was going to throw up, but I never did (I kind of had this thing about not wanting to throw up my whole pregnancy- happily I can say I never did!). I remember when I was getting worked up about my back pain Brock took my face with his hands and just told me how strong I was, and that I could do this. I was crying because of the pain but also because of how much this meant to me. Brock was so amazing at keeping me calm and motivated. Brock gave me a blessing and the thing I remember him saying is that everything would be okay and the pain wouldn't be more than I could handle. My mom and Linda were so sweet and helpful, they'd hold a cold washrag to my forehead, or just hold me in their arms. I'm so glad I have them.

At 3:00 they checked again and I was only at a 7, it was somewhat devastating to realize I'd have to be at this for hours longer, I just wanted it to be over. I asked them to stop or at least back off the pitocin because it just felt like too much. The doctor broke my water. There was a machine behind me that would monitor my contractions and the baby's heartbeat but I never looked at it. I didn't want to see anything that may set me off and make me upset.

Finally I found a comfortable position on my right side and I was able to sleep for a bit. I remember waking up and Brock was gone to grab lunch but my mom and sister (Nichelle) were with me. I asked Nichelle to get me some snacks that I brought in my bag, even though I wasn't supposed to. As soon as I was putting the last cracker in my mouth a nurse walked in to check me. I couldn't chew without her noticing and I definitely couldn't talk either. She asked me how I felt and I just gave her the thumbs up. Once she left I felt so sneaky. I remember saying, "Jeez they starve you, deprive you of water, and expect you to deliver a baby!". I was feeling really crummy because I just needed some type of nutrition. The 3 crackers I got helped quite a bit (surprisingly). I fell back asleep.

(After delivery we talked about a few things I said during labor. One was something like, "I thought this was supposed to be awesome, but it's not very fun"). And the blood pressure monitor on my left arm was super annoying, it kept sliding down and would nearly take my elbows blood pressure because I couldn't slide it up in time. 

I woke up at 4:00 and I was at a 10. The nurse had me start pushing. I pushed for about an hour but didn't make much progress because she was face up. She had me lay on my side for about 20 minutes and that did the trick. She had rotated so she was head down. I remember asking, so how long did I push for... like 20 minutes? Brock was like, "Nope, that was an hour". An hour! Whew it went by fast. I pushed again for about another hour. The doctor (Dr. Olsen) asked if I wanted a mirror, I said yes but that I wasn't sure how long I wanted to watch. He said that some women like to watch while they push because it helps motivate them as well as give positive reinforcement on what pushing works best.

As I pushed and we started to see her head we saw she had long brown hair. While I was pushing I had imagined her coming out and every time I closed my eyes I saw brown hair. Dr. Olsen kept mohawking her hair, it was cute. As she got a little farther there was a little bump on her head. I was worried about what it was but the doctor pushed at it and I guess it was just a blister from the friction of birth. When he poked it some fluid squirted out and he basically had to dodge it. He acted like it was no big deal, which I thought was somewhat entertaining.

So finally we got down to the final moments. I still had the mirror up, and I loved being able to watch. I recommend it. I could usually feel the contraction coming on, at this point I was totally off pitocin and it was all my body doing the contractions. The doctor said they were really strong and long lasting. I normally got three pushes in but there were a few times I did four. I was so tiring but I was working as hard as I could. It felt like I never wanted anything more than to get out baby girl here. One of the odd parts about getting an epidural was that I had zero feeling in my legs. I was actually a little weirded out to touch my own legs because they didn't feel like mine. They were up in the stirrups and I'd have to pull back on them during a contraction... I wasn't strong enough to pull them back to where I could reach them so Brock and the nurse had to help. It seriously was such a weird feeling... like phantom limbs. I would've sworn my legs will still straight if I hadn't been looking at them.

I went to push my epidural button and the epidural medicine was out. It makes you wait about 15 minutes till you can send another dose. I was somewhat worried that I'd start to get feeling back by the time she came but oh no, I definitely did not. Also, when you push the button it was like a rush of cold going through my back. It felt kinda cool.

I could tell we were close, the doctor and nurse were so encouraging. Brock was doing the counting (he did it in English, but one time he did it in Portuguese and it drove me a little crazy). Before I started pushing, when a contraction came on you could see her start to move out a little. The moment finally came. I remember pushing and then as soon as she came out it was a huge sigh of relief. She was all purple, and I remember seeing the umbilical cord- long, white, and twisty like a noodle. Brock cut the cord and they placed her on me. Next to getting married to Brock, I had never been happier at that moment. They wiped her down while she was on me, then took her to be checked over. Her APGAR scores were 8 and 9. I remember seeing Brock over by her, he couldn't take his eyes off her. I felt a little bit like, "Well it's no longer about me", but that was okay.

The rest of my time in the delivery room was a rush. I had to be in there for an hour after delivery. A nurse came and took out my epidural. Then they had to move me to another bed to be moved up to the recovery room. Since I had zero feeling in my legs I had to roll over onto the new bed, it was awkward but no one really cares about awkward at the hospital.

We got up to the third floor, room six. I got to hold baby Blakely on the ride. Once we were up there a lady came in and showed us how to bathe her. Brock's parents brought us dinner (Pita Pit) and hung out for a while. My parents came by a little later. We decided to have the nurses take her to the nursery. I definitely regret telling them I didn't mind if she had a bottle or pasifire. I wish I would have said no to both, but I didn't really understand that it can be important to not introduce the baby to bottles/pasifires when you're planning on breastfeeding. During the night I had to use the restroom, the nurse and her assistant both had to help me because my left leg was still numb. They told me to lock my legs but I couldn't lock my left one, it was somewhat useless. They were so kind, and just took care of everything for me. I thought it was hilarious though because I literally peed for probably like four minutes straight. No joke. They showed me the little squirt bottle that you use rather than wiping and I was like "Oh cool, it's like a makeshift be-day". Haha, the one girl thought that was funny. I think I only had help like 2 more times to use the restroom before I was good on my own- just because of the numbness. And also, (this is random/TMI but I kind of liked the little mesh underwear they gave you. It was hilarious. Also a glove full of ice is hilarious too. Those pads were like two feet long and it was awesome. I kind of miss having my nursing hospital gown too because it was so easy to nurse skin to skin whereas now I've got all these layers of clothing).

I remember waking up around 5am thinking I should have Brock go get Blakely but I didn't. Turns out the time I woke up was just about the time that they fed her a bottle. When we got her back in our room I was using the restroom and Brock was filming her because she was making cute noises. This is when he caught the famous throw up on video. My left leg was still a tiny bit numb at that point but almost back to normal.

So Wednesday I had French Toast for breakfast, showered, then went to the 10:30am discharge/breastfeeding class. Brock didn't come, because he ran home to get a few things. I didn't mind at all that he didn't come but I was basically the only one there without their hubby. But I had Blakely. They had us push our babies in their little hospital carts down to this open area where they talked about health and recovery and breastfeeding. I had a little doughnut to sit on since my poor little bum was still quite sore.

After the class I had lunch, chicken nuggets and a quesadilla (which was quite good but I couldn't finish it). For dinner I got salmon, which was delicious. On Wednesday we had quite a few visitors. It was somewhat overwhelming but I didn't want to miss out on having people be a part of this amazing experience. Blakely met: Grandma and Grandma Allen, Chad and Kylee, Zach, Grandma Roberts, Grandma Lenis (who brought me a present: an awesome super soft pink robe and lotion... she's the best!), and Jonathan and Diana. Blakely had already met: My mom and Dad, Nichelle, Nicole, Jeff, and Linda.

At the breastfeeding class they told us they needed to come by to do a "latch score" to make sure baby was latching on well. The first time I got a 7/10 and the second time I got 10/10... yay! That night I slept from 10pm- 2am. I fed her at two and she ate really well. I woke up again wanting to feed her at 5am so I had Brock go get her and I fed her. I remember afterwords I just laid in my bed crying so hard because I was so overwhelmed with happiness and joy. I watched HGTV during the night because I couldn't sleep.

We watched a few movies during our stay: Wall-E and Captain America on Wednesday and Tangled on Thursday morning.

Thursday for breakfast I had beligian waffles (mmm), watched some more HGTV and then had this herb chicken and tomato soup for lunch (I gave Brock the soup). When it was time to leave I just cried. It was hard to accept that the hospital stay was over. They were so nice and took such good care of us. We walked out to the front desk and they called a nurse to walk us out to the car. We got in the car and less than two minutes later we were home.

Once we got home I just held Blakely and starting cleaning things up. The days since we've been home have totally been blurred.

Thursday- got home
Friday- 9am Billiruben test (14.9)
Saturday - 9am Billiruben test (16)
Sunday- 9am Billiruben test (17)
Monday- 9am Billiruben test (18), it was also her first doctors appointment. She weighed 6lb 5oz, which the doctor said was good because she had been gaining weight since we were discharged. We go back for her two week appointment on her due date of Oct 2.
We got the Billilights and billiblanket, which she stayed on for about 16 hours. (That was about as long as she had it). I had really been stressing about her sleeping... or should I say suffocating or choking while sleeping but for some reason I really felt relaxed about her being the in the BilliBed. Brock was such a sweetheart and stayed up most of the night with her. I wanted to just be by her side all night but I was totally exhausted. My parents came by and my Dad was so sweet with her (but he always is). My dad and Brock gave Blakely a blessing. I remember Brock blessing her with the desire to eat (eating is how they get rid of the billiruben). That night I said a prayer that meant a lot to me and had a great experience.
Tuesday- 9am Billiruben test (15)
They told us the doctor said we could take her off the lights. They came by around 3pm to get the equipment. We watched Avengers (well I fell asleep, but Brock did).
Wednesday- no Billi Test
Thursday - 9am Billiruben test (17.9)

Tomorrow is Friday so we'll see how she tests in the morning. Even thought this is stressful, emotional, and hard I'm surviving. I could not do it with out Brock. He is the best thing that has every happened to me. I can't express how much I love him, how proud I am of him, and what an amazing daddy he is already.