She's Here

Happy birth day to this little princess!

We are so happy to finally meet this little girl! And of course, we all think she is perfect. It's 2 am on June 1st now, and for some reason I'm awake. The nurses just came in to take my vitals and they took the baby to give her a bath and do whatever screening tests for a bit, so I'll give the details of the baby's delivery day. It was a normal school morning with carpool and such, and I would have gone on "one last" bike ride again, but it was too cold. But I was going to go on a therapy ride to cope and wait out the day if the hospital told me I could not come in. As it was, I kinda sulked a little bit most of the morning. After the jr high kids were off to school (Mel took them) I just let the little kids sleep (their last day of school was last Thursday), but Daniel and Peter were up early. Daniel stowed away with Mel to carpool and messed up her plans to go to the gym. She ended up playing racquetball with Daniel. They came home around 9, I read a dinosaur book to Peter and that made me tired. Luckily he said he was tired and wanted to sleep, so we both took a nap for an hour. I let Mel be in charge of anyone awake. I was supposed to call the hospital at 11, and around 10:30 I decided to get up and exercise a little bit of faith that my plans for a May baby might come true, so I put on some makeup and curled my hair. 

I said a prayer and called the hospital at 11. The charge nurse told me she talked to Dr. Smith and they'd like me to come in at 2. "Ok!" and I hurried and said thanks and hung up before she changed her mind. Mel was home and I told her in person. I texted Corey and also let the older kids know the happy new via our facebook messenger that I was indeed going to go in today - YAY! I texted Abi and Lily, and they were excited too. I had 3 hours to help the little kids practice and do their summer school stuff, and then I had a nice lunch (teriyaki salmon salad) and packed a few things to take to the hospital. Corey hadn't noticed the group chat or my text, until he was talking with Joseph and J told him. Corey texted and I confirmed Joseph was correct - I get to go in today! Corey was home at 1:30, he gave me a blessing, Mel took a photo for us and we were off. YAY!

Things were a lot slower to get started this time, which is fine, I was just glad to be here. We went to room 103, I got changed, read a little bit, answered 100 questions, nurses coming and going as they did whatever stuff. They asked how quick my labors in the past have been, and I spent a little time looking through the blog to see what I had recorded there. I shared my stats time from water breaking until birth - some were really quick, some were long... Sophi's birth: 10:00 - 12:30, Natalie: 9:30 - 5:14, Owen: 12:50 - 4:48, Daniel 8:05 - 1:46 and Peter 3:30 - 6:50. So that was good for myself to review, to feel like I knew what was coming. Some family expressed concern that I'd better hurry or she might not be born until after midnight, but I was pretty confident it wouldn't be that late. 

They were ready to start pitocin a round 4:00, but my veins were not being cooperative. The anesthesiologist finally got the needle in, then Dr. Smith came and broke my water around 5. Things progressed nicely after that. 

I got an epidural at 6, we all watched the monitor the whole time watching the baby's heart beat and how she responded to the contractions. Here heart rate went down a lot with each contraction, but she always recovered nicely, but it was still a bit nerve-wracking to watch and reminded me of Lily's birth, which was before I blogged all the boring details, but with Lily I was fully dilated and we were just waiting for the doctor, but it went so low that I kinda asked the nurse "Should I just push" and then I did anyway and out she came. They were checking how dialated I was this time cause I did feel like it was happening fast. At 7:45 I had progressed to 4, and I'm glad that I kept a good record of Peter's birth cause this went quick like his. The nurse checked me at 8:00 and I was at a 6, she called the dr, he was there in 20 minutes and I was ready to go. A few good pushes and she was here. She was born at 8:30 on the dot. 

Corey sent a voice recording of her crying and then Mel sent him a picture of all of the girls at home just oohing around the sound coming from her phone 

This is my 11th delivery with Dr. Smith. I hold the record with him, and he thinks I might have the record of births at Alta View too (8 at Alta View... We've had 2 in Provo (J&W) and 3 at Jordan Valley (EH&L))

For the "golden hour" I just held her skin to skin and nursed her. Didn't know her weight or anything, and I wasn't cleaned up much so we didn't get a picture of her to share with family until past 9:30, when I took a few selfies~ 

Corey went home to help get the kids. Joseph had come up from Provo, and he, Mel, and Wes were on their way. Visitors were limited to groups of 5, so JMW came in with Corey's parents - Joseph held her first ~

Then Wes (cause Mel had volunteered to be official baby transporter, thus giving her more turns) 

We could take off the masks in our room so here's Wesley's face, he's in love. She has the most heart breaking and cute little cry, trying to let us know she has had a rough day. 

Corey's mom was next, then we made Mel take a turn so we could try and get a photo

The nurse took her and weighed her and put the goop in her eyes - 7 lbs 5 oz, 19 inches long. Corey arrived with the rest of the crew and let us know they were waiting!

He said that when he got home, they were all already in the car, ready and anxious to go! Lily in the waiting room, having a hard time waiting.

So JW went out, the girls came in - group photo of the new sisters! 6 girls! They are catching up to the boys!

Abi hogged her in the delivery room, then they switched me to the recovery room. We went by and showed the baby to the boys who were still patiently waiting!

In the recovery room, finally Sophi and Natalie got a turn.

No one got to hold her for as long as they wanted! I had to set the timer and rush them through, since we were over the allowed number of visitors and still had a line of kids waiting.

The nurses went to get Corey and the boys so we could get a quick group photo - 

We were supposed to be quick, but no one wanted to leave. 

The boys finally got their turn - Owen

Daniel - 

Aaaaand presenting the NEW BIG BROTHER - Peter!

What do you think Peter? The baby came out of mommy's tummy!

Hyrum got a photo too, ha. 

He called in from his mission in San Diego, Ethan was already in bed in the Dominican Republic. Ethan is lucky that he's coming home in a few weeks and will get to see her in person soon. Poor Hyrum wanted to see what was going on, but we kept wanting to take pictures so we'd hang up on him and some one else would call him, but none of us were really talking to him, or we'd be looking at something but would not have turned the screen and he's like "I want to see!" so that was kinda funny. Joseph holding up Hyrum so he could have a picture with the baby.

Mel was holding Hyrum in the group pic if you didn't catch that. SO it was an exciting day and we are all thrilled that the baby is here. It was late when they left. Corey came prepared with donuts as an incentive to help them be willing to leave and get back into the car. I nursed her a bit and now she's off getting a bath and I'm going to try and rest. We are feeling very grateful to have experienced the miracle of birth again. Life is a miracle. 

Ok, so yeah, it's very late at night/early Wednesday morning, and I'm going to go to bed now. Here's one last video - a message from Corey of Peter telling me goodnight (and that he loves me💕). Precious. I love being a mother again and I love my family! God has been so generous to us, I am so grateful.