Welcome, Baby Faye Lucia!

Baby Faye- The Birth Story

(I'll have pictures up as soon as Blogger stops crashing. I've tried to load the pictures about 10 times and it crashes every time.)


Some of you might be interested to know what went down and I know it's a story I don't want to forget, so of course it needs to be put on the blog. Be advised, it's a two day affair, but that doesn't mean it's a really long story. It isn't.

November 1, around 8:15 AM

Lincoln and I saw the kids off on the bus and settled down for our morning breakfast and movie date. Usually the only way I can keep Link from screaming for Nathan in the mornings is if I let him pick a movie to watch while he eats his cereal, don't judge. This particular morning he was really clingy with me, very odd for Lincoln, especially in the morning. He gets clingy with Nathan in the morning, but not me.

He looked like he was trying to go to sleep, but couldn't. He wouldn't let me touch his diaper (not uncommon for him, but it was really, really full) and he kept pulling on his ears. Eventually I wised up and asked him if his ears hurt and he said they did. I called the pediatrician office on base and got him an appointment for 9AM. At this point it was 8:30 and it takes 20-30 minutes to get to the base if you go the speed limit. I lead Lincoln out to the van, realizing I won't have time to change my clothes (I didn't like the maternity shirt I was wearing) or put my contacts in, or do my hair. I tried to get him into the van and he did not want to get out of my arms. He fought tooth and nail on this. After almost 10 minutes I got him in his seat, but he was screaming. I ran back in the house and grabbed a sippy cup of milk, hoping it would calm him down. It only kind of worked; he screamed between sips until he fell asleep.

Not five minutes down the road and he threw up. He fell back to sleep. He threw up again. This went on and on until we got to the base. He was covered in barf and we were already late for the appointment. I had to undress him, and at this point I realized that I was out of diapers in the car, and wipe him down as best I could. I couldn't let him walk barefoot, so I carried him naked, smelling nasty, covered in barf still, and with an overflowing pee diaper. And me in my ugly maternity tee, glasses, and nasty hair, now also covered in barf and pee.

Practically running we make it to the pediatrician office and I explain that I'm late because he threw up in the car, although honestly, I would have been a little late even if he hadn't. I got a diaper from the lady at the desk and took Link into the bathroom to change him.

Yeah, he still didn't want to be changed. He screamed, and screamed, and screamed. The office lady that gave us the diaper came in to see if everything was ok, which it obviously wasn't. She saw the snot running down his face and went to grab some toilet paper to wipe him up with and as she did that another office staff member came in to see what was wrong. At this point, I lost it. I'd been really patient with him and using a soft, but firm voice with him. Now I was in tears.

The second lady almost immediately left to get a nurse. The nurse came in after I finally got the new diaper on him and was trying to keep him from taking it off. She walked in, picked him up, called him "Bubba" and said, "Let's go." He immediately stopped crying out of shock. I, of course, kept crying out of stress.

After this I found he had a double ear infection. No wonder he was clingy.

After the appointment I thought the same office lady that gave us the diaper wasn't going to let us leave because he was still naked and I guess when she got to work that morning it was pretty chilly so she assumed it was still cold outside. I assured her over and over that he'd be fine, that it wasn't that cold anymore, and that it would only take a minute to get to the car.

We immediately drove to the PX (like a mall with only one store and a food court) and bought us both new clothes. He got a shirt and jeans, I got a new sweater (non-maternity, I was already two days after my due date, there was no way I was going to buy a maternity shirt). As we headed out of the PX I checked my watch, expecting a good 15 minutes to get to my doctor appointment that I'd already had scheduled for that day. But no, I was already one minute late. I ran with him out to the car as I called the office to explain that my son had thrown up in the car, that I was on the base and on my way. We hurried back to the other side of the base for my appointment and changed our clothes after I checked in.

The midwife checked me and I hadn't progressed really since my last appointment (not surprising) and was still at a 1, but a looser 1 than before. She asked me how the baby was moving and I told her that the babe wasn't really moving much, but that I attributed it to there not being as much room to move around in. She asked if I could feel her move at least 10 times in two hours and I said no. That worried her apparently because next thing I know I was hooked up to a machine to monitor my contractions, which apparently didn't peak high enough for her.

I had to call a friend to pick up Emma from school at this point and have her dropped off to our neighbor.

After keeping me on the machine for a while longer (all the while I was texting Nathan to let him know what was going on) they told me to come back ASAP so they could induce me.

I drove home (forgetting to get Lincoln's meds first) and got my hospital bag ready, car seat ready, etc. and then Nathan said he was on his way home and to wait for him. I took Lincoln to our neighbor who had Emma and would take Megan and Jeremy when they got home from school.

Nathan finally got to the house and gave me a priesthood blessing and I felt better. We left to go back to the hospital (all the doctor offices are at the hospital on base) and got there right at 2PM.

They didn't get me hooked up to the pitocin until 4:30 and after not even 60 seconds of it they had to take me off because Dr. Abbey was going into surgery and didn't want me to suddenly be ready to have a baby while he was in surgery. I knew it would be pointless to tell them that there was no way I'd be ready that quickly, so they took me off the pit :(

Around 7:30PM they put me back on it when Dr. Abbey got out of surgery. The nurses made us laugh because they were positive that I would deliver before midnight. We told them that's not how my body works, but they didn't believe me.

I don't remember what time I got the epidural. I am sure it was before midnight, but I can't remember and apparently I didn't record it. The guy that did the epidural was awesome though. Lots of facial hair, big glasses, and quirky personality. But he was very comforting during the epidural. For some reason, it really freaked me out this time. I was in tears I was so scared for that thing. I don't know why. I had to have Nathan hold me and keep me from shaking. The epidural guy was great though. He went through the whole thing talking about "the bumble bee sting" and "the bumble bee's cousin" and if I hadn't been terrified for no reason, I would have laughed. Anyway, it was the best epidural EVER! I couldn't feel a thing after.

And like we said, at 3:30AM the following day, November 2nd, I was finally at a 5. And then all of a sudden at 4:30 I was at a 10. The epidural was so fantastic they had to tell me when I was contracting, yet, I could still feel myself push. I had to concentrate on pushing a little more than I had to with the other deliveries, but it wasn't difficult. It was awesome. And afterward I decided I needed to write a thank you card to the epidural man. And I would have, but he came in later to see how I was and I told him then just how fabulous a job he did and he said a thank you card wasn't necessary.

So our little Faye Lucia was born at 5AM on the dot, weighed in at 8 lbs. 7 oz. and 21 inches long. At first she looked a LOT like Emma. Darker complexion, dark hair, and really dark eyes. Her hair and skin have since lightened up a bit, but she still reminds me of Emma. Hopefully she'll be better behaved than Emma :)