Happy Birthday Luke

Sunday, November 8, 2015, 

Finally, the day was here.  The day that I had hoped he'd come on his own, the day that I had put in my calendar as his birthday six months prior, and the day I had just been scheduled for induction at 4 p.m.  I'd taken a Benadryl the night before and slept a solid 8 hours, for the first time in months. Even better, when I woke up around 7 a.m., to my surprise, I was having contractions, slightly painful ones, every 5 minutes. I was SO excited! I got in the bath for a little while to see if they would continue (they did) and I did listened to some mp3's from Hypnobirthing which helped me relax and prepare to be relaxed while in a harder  labor. The idea there is that pain is more managable when you can stay very relaxed. So so true, but it's hard to do without some help. The contractions stayed steady for a few hours, but were definitely not increasing in intensity. It was our regional conference that day instead of regular church, and my mom had already taken the girls and gotten seats; I decided that I didn't really need to labor at home and might as well pass the time at church and get some blessings.  This ended up being kind of stressful and uncomfortable, sitting in plastic chairs in the crowded, noisy primary room, with my kids getting on and off my back and being loud, and trying to get something out of the broadcast. My contractions started slowing to every 7-8 minutes, and labor would end up dragging on all day. They even got down to 10-15 minutes apart, despite us going on a family walk, and me doing some curb walking, and at one point in the afternoon, jumping on the trampoline with the girls.  I was feeling a little worried about his head not being in a good position, because labor should have picked up instead of just going on and on and not getting any stronger. Sam rubbed my feet at one point, and I actually fell asleep for a little nap in the afternoon, probably about 30 minutes is all. (Sam said that as soon as I fell asleep, he was convinced that was the end of "labor"). After I woke up, I saw that it was getting closer to 4 p.m., when I was supposed to go into the hospital. I really did not want to labor there, with monitors on me and with a hard tile floor, and without my tub and bed and pillows, etc. So I called the hospital and asked if I could labor at home longer. They told me I could if the midwife, the one on call that day from Dr Guzman's office, gave me the okay. So I called her and she said I could. I'm sure she didn't mind staying at home longer since she was on-call and didn't need to go into the hospital til I got there. Next I got online (www.spinningbabies.com). I had been referring to this website a lot in the last few weeks of my pregnancy, as they have some amazing information about ideal positioning of babies for birth. They had a trick for a stalled labor- it was called the Belly Lift. They claimed that this move often fixed the positioning of a baby and could get my labor going hard like it should. For ten contractions I was supposed to put my hands under my belly and literally lift it about 2 inches for the duration of the contraction, while tucking the pelvis. So I did- and it was very uncomfortable. I didn't enjoy it. During this hour I really just wanted to be alone. I was avoiding all the noise of the the household, and just hiding away in my bedroom, grateful my mom and Sam were handling the kids and the meals. After about an hour of this, or 7 contractions with belly lifts, there was a definite change in my labor, just as they said there would be. My contractions started hurting a lot! Like I couldn't ignore them, but had to start breathing through them. They started creeping closer together (4-5 minutes) and I knew there was probably no turning back now! I got my stuff ready, got back into the bath for a little longer as the contractions started hurting more, and had Sam call his parents over. His dad would stay with the kids and the two moms were coming with me and Sam. The contractions were getting harder and harder and about 3-4 minutes apart now, so I got dressed, took these pictures in between contractions, (the final belly shots!) 

 and then by 8:30 I was sure that it was time to go. The first indication of that was that I was starting to get nauseated with contractions. That happened to me with Ella's labor and I got to the hospital dilated to a 7. The other thing happening was that I was getting SUPER irritable! I was trying to help get everything finalized before we left, who was going in what car, etc. My mom and Floy were wondering if I should go to the hospital and get checked before they came over. It's only 10 minutes from my house, and with Aria's birth, I got to the hospital at a 6, contractions stalled, and I got the epidural and she wasn't born for about six more hours, at 3 in the morning. So they were probably assuming they'd be there all night. I told them that was fine, but in the next three minutes before we drove off, I changed my mind.  The contractions were hurting too much, there wouldn't be any more stalling of labor, and I definitely didn't want them to miss the birth!  Since nobody was making decisions fast enough, I ordered them into a separate car and told them to follow us, and ordered Sam to get in and START DRIVING. (See- irritable, I told you.) I rode to the hospital in the front passenger seat, kneeling on the floor. They say that your body will find positions that are best for labor, if you let it. Once you have the epidural, you lose the ability to position yourself in ways that feel best and help the baby come faster and smoother. I knew that once I got to the hospital, I would ask for the epidural. I've always known that. My only chance at a natural birth was to get to the hospital too far along and to be forced to do it naturally. The main reason I don't like epidurals is because they always let me down. Hard. They wear off for me, usually completely, and my first birth with Kalia really taught me the consequences of getting an epidural too early, losing the ability to move around to get better positioning, and also that nothing on this earth hurts more than back labor and forced contractions with the drug Pitocin, and having a worn-off epidural and having to just endure that private hell. That's why I've been dead-set on not being induced or having pitocin. Anyway, I was leaning over lots at home, and leaning over on the drive there, and as you'll soon find out, ended up delivering that way too. We left the house at 8:30 p.m.

Sam drove fast (too fast, the moms weren't able to follow but they found the hospital pretty quick). We went through the emergency room, and my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and hurting something fierce. They told me to wait for a wheelchair (although I told them I did NOT want to sit!) and I had a contraction or two while we waited, and finally my mother-in-law went to the window and said, "She's really laboring, can we get her up there sooner?" Bless her- they had someone start wheeling me up right away (why couldn't I just walk myself up there? I'd been there four times in three weeks and they were expecting me for my "induction" anyway. Oh well.) They took me to my room, at this point it was about 9 p.m. and my nurse came right in. Both moms were there, and we had called Sam's sister Erin (a nurse, and a very good help for going through labor. She's had 5 kids without an epidural and is a great help, much more helpful than Sam or the moms, no offense to any of them.) My nurse asked me if I wanted to change into a gown, and I told her to check me first to see how far along I was. She started going through admission questions, and I was just leaning over the edge of the bed trying to get through contractions. My mom took this picture of me trying to move and work through  a contraction that was killer. 

 

My mom texted this pic to the family at 9:05 p.m.
.I didn't know it at the time but my dad responded with this:

"Reminds me of the Savior taking on my pains. You women are more like Jesus than I realized."

This comment really hit me hard when my mom showed it to me later. I had listened to Elder Holland's recent conference talk, many times since he gave it in fact, where he talked about a mother's love, and how closely it parallels the Savior's, and how it is simply divine. He spoke of how the Savior helped us get somewhere we couldn't get on our own, and this is also something mother's do when they give birth.  This theme has turned out to be an important one, as this fifth baby has really taken me on a journey to know the Savior better, and I am grateful for my dad's insight with this picture. The love we already feel for the little baby inside us is enough to go through anything to get them here, and I have a better understanding of the Saviors love for me. 

I am also grateful that my mom was texting my entire family (in a group message) in Utah the play-by-play of what happened, and I loved reading back their comments and jokes and worries and questions. It was the next best thing to them being there. Also, I wouldn't have known how fast this all this happened, because it's a big blur now! Anyway, I turned my relaxation MP3 on again on my phone. The whole room could hear it and my mom said she was getting so relaxed! I was not so relaxed anymore though.

My nurse finally told me to come get on the bed and she checked me and announced I was dilated to an 8. AN EIGHT. Yes. Good news, better than I had even expected! My mom texted that news to my family at 9:15 p.m.  The nurse wanted to start an IV but she totally blew my vein. This has never happened in my life, nurses love my veins, but maybe she was feeling the pressure of only having 2 minutes between contractions, plus my mom had just announced that Sam and Erin are both RN's, so maybe she felt a little more self conscious with them watching her do it. I flipped back over on to all fours on the bed, and begged Sam to come do counterpressure on my lower back. I couldn't go through transition without this help. The pain felt almost unbearable. We discovered this counterpressure trick with Ellas labor, and it helps immensely.  It's not just counter pressure, but by someone totally squeezing my hips closer together and almost changing the shape of my pelvis, and I could get through the contractions a little easier. This is especially true with back labor. The contractions were hurting so bad that I could not remember to breathe or count or think of my relaxation stuff. However, at some point, I remember telling everyone, with glee, "Call the midwife!" and only I got my joke because I like that show on Netflix. Now that Erin was also there to help, they doubled up on me, with Sam pushing as hard as he could on one side and Erin on the other. I was feeling a little crazy from the pain of contractions, I did NOT remember it being this bad with Ella's birth, however this counter pressure was making a significant difference. I know because at one point I thought the contraction was over and told them they could let up, but as soon as they let go, the pain took my breath away, and I begged them to come back for 15-20 more seconds. So it really really helped. I wondered how long I would have to go through this though. Another hour? Two? Three? Luckily I had 2 minute breaks in-between them and could smile about something, who knows what it was here. Maybe my "call the midwife" joke. So I had the monitors on my belly, and his heartrate was still great, no distress. An on-call doctor popped in and checked me around at 9:25 and I was STILL an 8. That's when my heart dropped a little and I lost heart, and said, I need the epidural!  My midwife Tiffany was there by then, and she looked at me like I was so silly, like LOL, Heather! Just that there was no way it was happening when my contractions were two minutes apart, and we both knew I could and would do it without. So, by this point, I had resorted back to smashing my face into the bed and groaning and yelling through the contractions. I remember yelling to everyone, "I want to swear!" and someone told me I could go right ahead. But at the next contraction I maintained enough self-control and just yelled Oh Shiiizzzzzzzzz! (and more groans). I asked if my friend Kathy was there, she was my photographer, there to capture my last birth, which was going to be just as dramatic and emotional as I could have possibly hoped. I heard her say "I'm here!" And i was so glad she'd made it in time, but I hadn't seen her come in, smashing into the bed and all.  I knew I wasn't supposed to push til I was a 10, so I was surprised when suddenly I felt the urge to push,and I announced it to the whole room (it was now 9:32). AT that point it's pretty hard NOT to push- so I just started pushing, with Sam and Erin still on each side doing counterpressure like crazy. They told me they were pushing with all their might. The next thing I remember was the POP and SPLASH....my water broke and out came a ton of meconium in that precious water, that I had been trying so hard to keep up to a safe level for the last few weeks. I could not believe how much meconium I saw, and immediately felt quite worried, because why on earth was he in distress? His heart rate was still perfect.  I was not even registering that I was still in my clothes. I had worn a skirt in so it wasn't a problem that I hadn't changed. I still had my shoes on.  Anyway, immediately came more urges to push, so I just smashed my face into the bed. The midwife told Sam to wash his hands and get ready, and Erin called my mother-in-law over to take his place with counter pressure. A neonatologist was called in for the delivery, that's standard when meconium is seen in the amniotic fluid.  The midwife then suggested that I  lean up a bit higher on the back of the bed instead of down on all fours. The bed  was raised to about a 60 degree angle. I did that, and the gravity really must have done the trick because he was born very soon after I moved up. It felt like one long push after that. I pushed once, twice, felt the baby moving, and wowee,  it started burning so bad down there, I thought I must have had that baby halfway out, but then I heard Sam say, 'You're crowning!" (only crowning?) So I took a big breath and pushed as hard as I could, heard some comments about the head, then another push and then the midwife told me to stop for a second. My face was still in the bed, so I didn't know what was going on, but after seeing the pictures, I know the head was out and the neonatologist suctioned him.  Then  Tiffany told me to give one more final push, I took a huge breath and pushed and he plopped right out. And OH WHAT A GREAT RELIEF! I did it! I yelled it out to the whole room two or three times: I DID IT! For sure there was one point where I had cried, like so many women do, "I can't do it!"  But we can and I did. He was out and I had completed the hardest thing I've ever had to do.  (Ella's birth was very similar but just didn't hurt quite as bad. Probably because of the back labor. I think Luke turned while Erin and Sam were doing the counterpressure. He came out perfectly face down, as he was supposed to. Well, Technically face up, since I wasn't on my back. And P.S. It is actually better for your hips to deliver this way than on your back. I had hip pain for months after delivering Ella on my back). It was 9:51 p.m. I didn't hear any crying, and they let Sam cut the cord real quick, and they took him right over to the warmer, where everyone crowded around him, and I still hadn't seen him, basically having given birth blind. My mom texted the family- Tara wanted a picture, Krystal wanted to know how his coloring was, and my dad suggested we name him William Wallace, for all the "sons of Scotland", lol. My dad is the best. My brothers celebrated too, and I think I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

I just love what's happening in this picture. Erin using all her strength to give me a little relief.  Sam in the background washing his hands and getting ready to get gloves on. Me thinking I just could not take much more of this.

I love the look on the nurses and my mom in the background. And I guess my mom took a pic from that angle but I think it's been deleted. I never saw it. 

Sam said the baby plopped out too fast for him to "catch him" but this picture proves he at least got some hands on him for a second.

Here he comes, covered in meconium.  It looks like he was passed right over to the Neonatologist.

I never saw these instruments. Ever. 

I didn't end up using these once I got to the hospital, things went too fast for me once I got in the room, but I diffused Frankincense the whole time I stayed in the hospital after the birth, and all the nurses loved coming into our room and always commented on how good it smelled. 

This is my I'M SO PROUD OF MYSELF face! Also, I was so incredibly thirsty and was so glad they were letting me drink (I was also famished, and food was being brought up.)

All the attention turned to the baby in the warmer. They told me later his oxygen saturation  was only 65% when he started breathing on his own. (His apgar scores were 8 and 9 though, with points taken off only because he was quite pale.) I would hear an occasional tiny cry and it sounded like a little kitten. They suctioned him some more with a catheter and blew some oxygen near his face for awhile while everyone looked on. 

 In the meantime, the midwife helped me deliver the placenta.  We looked it over real good- the doctor had wondered if the placenta was struggling to keep the amniotic fluid levels up.  The midwife sent the placenta off to pathology to see if we could learn anything, but it looked normal.

This was all I could see from the bed. I was dying to see my baby boy!

Luckily his daddy was with him, and held his hand.

At 10:10 p.m., his oxygen saturation was up into the 90's, so they weighed him (7 lbs 9 oz) and measured him: 20.5 inches long. My smallest baby ever! 

and then FINALLY I got to meet him.

I really felt so grateful that Tiffany was there to support me in my VBAC dreams and deliver my baby in a less-than-conventional way. I felt so much love for her. I said goodbye to her, and then hello to my son.

The magic moment when I finally FINALLY got to hold my baby. Those 21 minutes of waiting felt like forever. I love the look on his face when he saw me for the first time too. He looks kind of excited too I think. 

His oxygen climbed right up to 100% once he was laid on my chest. It's amazing how that happens.

And then I cried. So much stress and worry was now replaced with that overwhelming bundle of emotions: Joy, Love, and Gratitude. 

Props to my birthing TEAM! They each contributed to my birthing experience and I was so glad every one of them was there. Look how happy we all are.

Great-grandma Ruth on one phone and Grandpa Perie on the other- I was letting them hear his tiny kitten cry.

It's always such a wonderful relief to see ten little toes and ten fingers- and those tiny fingernails! I love them so much!

About an hour after his birth, the adrenaline caught up to me. I started shaking and shivering like crazy. They brought me several warm blankets and covered me. Also, a sandwich and chips and yogurt and apple juice, which I devoured, while everyone took turns holding the baby.

His dream of having a son- finally come true.

I'm so glad my mom was able to be there for four out of five births, which is awesome considering I've never given birth in Utah.

I love this moment my mom shared with Samuel. I didn't see it happen, but it was caught by Kathy. I'm so grateful she was there, and I have these pictures to show me lots of things I would have missed!

There are a couple pictures of Luke nursing that I left off, for modesty's sake, but he latched right on like a total champ, and nursed for at least 30 minutes.  This was rad because I didn't want him born too early and to struggle to latch and suck. I was so happy about this. He proved to be my best nurser and caused me almost no nipple pain, ever. Can you even believe it? The after-birth contractions never bothered me that much either.  The hardest part of recovery was that every muscle in my back was sore, especially my lower back, which had some light bruising on it, and the back pain stayed for several days. Nothing a little ibuprofen can't handle.

Well as for the recovery, it was awesome.  I got up and went to the bathroom within an hour of giving birth. I was up and moving around just fine after that, and was moved to the postpartem room.  That night Sam slept in the room with me, and didn't hear the baby fussing. I was kind of jealous of all the sleep he got, although I'm sure he wasn't that comfortable. I was totally wired and couldn't fall asleep. I probably got about 60 minutes of sleep that first night,. The second night was even worse, as the tiredness caught up to me, and the fussiness caught up to Luke. He cried and cried, and that's how the night nurse ended up hearing how unusual his cry was. She asked me if it would be okay to take him to their NICU. It wasn't a full-blown NICU, but their version of it, called the special care unit. That was hard because they ended up keeping him there and then later transferred him to St. Joe's NICU. More on that later!

Oligohydramnios

Well, after having the easiest and (almost most) uneventful pregnancy ever, things got a little complicated at the end of 36 weeks. But let me back up a little further.

Kimmy got engaged to Bud and set their wedding date for October 22 in St. George.  I wanted to fly on Allegiant (a short one our flight) but after consulting with my doctor, she said she couldn't give me permission past 36 weeks, and I would be in my 37th week. Therefore I would have to drive, but they gave me strict orders to get out and stretch every hour, in order to prevent blood clots from forming. This meant that the 7 hour drive, which usually takes us 9-10 hours with kids, would now take us 12 hours. Because of Sam's work schedule, we had to drive all day on Wednesday the 21^st.  On Monday the 19th at about midnight I started having strong Braxton Hicks contractions, very regularly (about every 8-9 minutes).  This went on for about 5 hours, This is exactly how Ella’s labor started, so I was very concerned that the baby was coming early and we were going to miss the wedding. (This would be unprecedented though, as I have never gone into labor early, it's always been 2-3 days before my due date). The contractions did end up stopping, and luckily I had  scheduled my 37 week OB check-up for Tuesday the 20^th, and I asked for an ultrasound to check for size and to make sure everything looked okay before we made that long drive.  At the appointment, I had the nurse practitioner check me for dilation, and she said I was at a 1 and 50% effaced (actually, I was that at 36 weeks and hadn’t changed at 36 weeks 6 days). They did the ultrasound and estimated that baby boy weighed about 7 lbs. They did note that the amniotic fluid was getting low (total of about 8 cm) and they said that while it was still within normal range, it was on the low side, with 5-25 considered normal. They gave me the green light to go, but warned me that I needed to be drink a ton of water, and “listen to my body.”   We did manage to leave by noon on Wednesday, and it took us 12 hours, exactly what we had planned on.  The girls were so good, and there was no screaming or crying or whining.  Traveling with older kids is so much easier.  I laid down on the floor of the van (on pillows and blankets) for about 2 hours of the drive and it was so comfortable, my favorite way to travel! My belly BARELY fit in the space between front seats and the back seats, with me laying on my side. The only thing hiccup on the drive was that Ella started reacting to some Italian sausage that she had eaten on pizza in Wickenburg. Her airway was swelling up, something we thought she had outgrown- it hasn't happened for at least a year. She was coughing a ton and hoarse and by Vegas we had to get her some Benadryl, and by St. George she was so bad, we were seriously worried about her breathing and considered taking her to the ER. Luckily I found my mom’s inhaler (albuterol) and gave her a few puffs of that, and then put breathing essential oils on her alllllll night, every time she had her coughing fits. The oils almost seemed to help more than the albuterol, and I was so glad that I had  them with me. She ended up being okay (she coughed excessively for 3-4 days).  While I was in St. George, I started feeling concern that the baby wasn’t moving as much or as vigorously as I had been used to for the last few months. Sam told me I was probably worried over nothing, but on Saturday night I started doing kick counts to make sure he was passing the test for “not stressed or in trouble.” He did pass the kick count test, but I decided to bring it up at my next appointment.  Another thing was that I had a few trickles of fluid that seemed like water, but they didn’t seem like urine.  They weren’t happening when I had a full bladder. I did get a blessing from my dad before we left St. George, and I was so comforted by it- I was told I would make it home without incident and would soon have a good delivery and would have my beautiful baby boy.

We got back on Sunday night, and on Tuesday the 27^th , I left my girls with Sam’s parents and went to my appointment.  I was still measuring small (by about 2 cm, barely within normal range, by 3 cm they would be concerned.) I mentioned the possible slowing down of movement and possible leaking fluid. This was enough for them to do another ultrasound, and they found that my amniotic fluid had dropped out of normal range- it was down to 4 cm.  There was no MD/doctor there that day, but the nurse practitioner told me to head over to the hospital because it wasn’t safe for the baby anymore and he needed to come out.  I was barely 38 weeks along, and not at all prepared to have a baby that day.  I don’t have my babies early! I hadn’t packed a hospital bag, Sam was at work in Florence, 55 minutes away, and I still had a ton of stuff on my “get ready for baby” to-do list.  They said I had enough time to go home and get some stuff and get Sam home from work, so that’s what I did. Then we headed to the hospital.  I was feeling so sad because I wanted to have a VBAC again so bad, and I knew that if I was induced, they would use Pitocin, my epidural would wear off like it always does, and I could very well end up with a c-section like I did with Kalia- and the recovery on that was awful. (Later I found out that because of my low fluid, my chances of c-section had gone up to 68% if I was induced.  Not good odds.)  Going through labor and then a c-section on top of it is just brutal on the body.  I wondered if it would be easier to just skip the induction and labor and go right for the c-section.  It just sounded easier. But we decided to see what the doctor on call at the hospital thought we should do. 99% of doctors will just induce or recommend c-section. But there was something unexpected waiting for me. It was such an amazing blessing- the doctor that day was a young doctor named Grayson Guzman.  I had heard of Dr. Guzman, and everybody just raves about how great he was. Little did I know that he was a huge fan of women who can do a VBAC, he works with midwives, and he had a plan for me. He was NOT going to induce me, but instead was going to try everything in his power to help me keep my baby healthy and in more fluids, for as long as possible, to try to get me to go into labor on my own. I did not know there was anything we could do about the low fluid, but it turned out that by giving me 2-3 bags of IV fluid, my amniotic fluid levels were raised.  They were actually raised enormously.  The first time we did it, it raised the levels from 4 cm to 12 cm! That was huge.  Baby boy started moving around vigorously again, and the whole time I was getting the fluids he was monitored, and his stats were so strong! His heartrate was awesome and never ever dropped, besides lots of Braxton hicks contractions while I was there, and his movement was exceptional. Dr. Guzman said he was the “best looking baby on the whole floor.” He was not in distress and did not not to be forced out. He said that it just wasn't a good idea because my cervix was not yet "favorable." (Favorable would be dilated to 3 cm and 70%, and chances of successful induction is much higher.)  That was cool. Guzman and Sam really hit it off, and Guzman said that he knew other doctors would just be ready  to induce me or c-section me without trying anything else. That’s just how doctors are these days.  Dr. Guzman is a rare gem indeed.  Dr. Guzman also told me that I switch over to his care so that he could make the decisions on how to handle my care and I knew that he would do everything he could to help me have a VBAC.  He really wouldn’t benefit from this switch, as he already worked under the same umbrella practice as the group I was already seeing- they just transferred my records over to him. I felt like it really was just for my own benefit and I was so grateful and touched that a brand new doctor would care that much about this outcome that I wanted so much.  Doctors who make you feel like they really care about you are hard to find! He told me to follow up in a week, and so I did. I went back to his practice at 39 weeks and they did another ultrasound. Unfortunately, the fluid had dropped back down to 5. Dr, Guzman checked me again, still not "favorable", so he sent me the hospital AGAIN to get more fluids.  This time I went on my own and just stayed in triage, and after a few hours, they did another ultrasound, and I was back up to 9.  Not as good as 12, but good enough.  He wanted me to come back in two days to see how well I was doing, and again, another ultrasound (this was on November 5) and I was back down to 6.  So we made up a plan: On Saturday I would go to the hospital one more time for fluids. Then Sunday night I would go back and get admitted, and be under the care of a midwife in his practice, and maybe have them put in a foley catheter to dilate me further (the water balloon thing that can get you dilated to a 4 or 5, no pitocin needed.) Then, he would be back on call Monday and delivering patients that day, and could hopefully finish off my VBAC for me. I felt good about this plan- Annie's birthday party was Saturday, my mom had just gotten into town for 11 days, and Sunday the 8th was when I had always guessed I would have him anyway, based on my history of going into labor on it's own 2-3 days before the due date. So I was still hoping to avoid an induction. Part of me really just wanted to have an all-natural birth, like I did with Ella.  You really need the stars to align for that, so I was prepared to get an epidural, but ideally I wanted to get to the hospital, dilated so far that there wouldn't be time for an epidural and I would be forced to do it naturally. It was my last time, and I thought I could experience the full pain and experience of childbirth one more time, and then enjoy the super fast recovery afterwards.

The plan almost didn't work out when I got to the hospital Saturday morning.  I woke up at 4 a.m. and couldn't fall back to sleep. I was feeling pretty anxious about how low the fluid might be.  So I drove myself to the hospital at 5 a.m. and went to triage. I was hoping to sleep through the I.V. bags but I couldn't fall asleep. The ultrasound showed that my fluid was down to 3.4! Holy cow- the lowest yet. They gave me two bags and took me back to ultrasound pretty quickly.  Unfortunately I was only back up to 4.3 and that's not even a safe level to let me leave at.  I was shocked that it wasn't working very well, but Annie's ice skating birthday party was starting at 1, Samuel was at work, Floy and Perie were busy with some church stuff, and the whole party would get cancelled and have to be rescheduled if I didn't get home. I begged the doctor to let me try one more bag and one more ultrasound. I was sure that it would work if I could just get one more bag of fluid (I'd always gotten three) and then I just needed a little more time for it to get into my belly! Sure enough, it did the trick,My  fluid was up to 6.7, but they made me schedule my induction time for the next day at 4:00 before they let me leave at noon. They also checked me one more time and my cervix had FINALLY gotten to favorable status.  3 cm and 70% effaced! Things were happening! As I was leaving, I ran into Tiffany, the midwife who was on call for the weekend.  She told me that she probably wouldn't even need to put in a balloon the next day, because I was already to a 3, and it wouldn't make that big of a difference. That put a little more pressure on me to go into labor on my own, and she recommended I get Sam involved when he got home with some nipple stimulation. (lol. But she really did tell me to do that.) I got home just in time for the party, my mom had made the cake, bless her heart, and had the house clean and everything ready. I'm SO glad she came a little earlier than usual to help make this happen. We drove up to Phoenix and she ice skated with the girls while I watched Aria and froze. (Should have dressed warmer!) 

OCT 27TH- almost his birthday, I took these pics.

We totally thought we were having a baby that day.

39 weeks 

So thankful my mom was there to skate with the kids!

And make the cake! And clean the house! And everything!