Once I started taking prenatal vitamins I felt great. I think James was just sucking the life and nutrition out of me. I really only got sick during a one month period and it could really be controlled. As long as I didn't do too much the first few hours I was awake, I was fine. I couldn't eat much in the morning or too fast, or run up the stairs and just in general, hurry. It made me nausious. I was still going to cosmetology school at the time so sometimes this proved problematic but I actually only puked once in the car :) But other than that, I had one of the easiest pregnancies I've heard of. I was in my zone. I ate healthy, I read baby articles, magazines and books like you wouldn't believe. I became quite the expert. I really felt like this is what I was born to do and everything just came so easily. I was happier than I remembered ever being and I wasn't a negative person. My life seemed to gain supreme purpose and meaning. I started showing quickly. Even for my first pregnancy. By five months people started asking if I was going to have that baby anytime soon. Then I would kindly explain that no it's just that obviously not a single toe of my baby resides in the space that used to be what I called body. I carried outward and it only got worse. I was happy with how I held my pregnancy though. From the back, up until the last month or so you honestly couldn't tell I was pregnant. I wore my same old skinny jeans that I wear now, up until the last couple months. I was pretty proud of that ;)
I loved my doctors appointments. And Justin came to every one as well. I went to a midwife because that's what my mom did, and I wanted to do it naturally. I love my midwife and I plan on going back to her for the next, if she hasn't retired. She was an older lady, completely gray but looked very fit. She was so melow and had a very calming affect on me which was good because I think I'm a little high strung and I know Justin is. I needed that calming appointment with her. They always weighed me and then I had to pee in a cup. I always worried that I wasn't going to be able to do it on cue, every time, but I never had a problem with it. Haha It's amazing how much you pee when you're pregnant. Then they sat you down and your midwife would come in and measure your belly, we'd listen to the hear beat (so cool!) and talk about everything that going on with me. Back pain, rib pain, braxton hicks contractions (false labor type things), prenatal vitamins, eating habits, excercise, sex life and so on. I really appreciated Justin being there with me. I never had to pressure him, he just wanted to.
Around six months is when my rib pain came to a peak. It hurt so bad but within a month afterwards it subsided. Because my baby "dropped" is what I was told and that's when the back and hip pain are supposed to kick in. About this time I took a maternity leave from school. We were worried because that's when the so called 'Swine Flu' was going around. We didn't think it would be good with all the people that are coming in and out of the school to get their hair done. And I was ready for a break anyways. I was so exhausted being on my feet all day. I started to work for my dad as well, for a little extra money. Justin was going to Provo college at the time to become a Pharmacy Technicians, so the money was helpful. I did a little secretarial work and I did accounts payable for Rumbi's. I loved it actually. I'm not antisocial or anything but I loved my office job and I just got to sit there and work. Sometimes the sitting made my ribs hurt and I'd have to walk around a bit.
By Christmas I was dying to have my baby out. I felt kind of selfish to want to have a baby that early but I was pretty huge by this point. You should have seen the looks I got. My belly grew out into a point. My mom always joked that it looked like my baby was trying to take off running, his head where my belly came to a point. It looked that way too.
The week that I had my baby I went to work that Monday and felt awful. My dad gave me and Justin Jazz tickets for that night and I went and ended up missing the whole game puking in the bathroom. It was awful. That night I went home and continued to feel awful. My face and hands and feet went numb and I started to freak out that something was wrong with me. I ended up calling the midwives and told them all the symptoms I was having. They told me that they thought I was just dehydrated from the puking. They told me to drink a lot and get some rest. So I did and by the next day I had feeling in my hands. I really didn't want to go to work anymore but I felt bad not going in. I laugh about it now because, at the time I thought I was such a flake for not going in to work. I called Mike, my boss and uncle and told him I was going to stop coming. My mom had to talk me into it though because I felt so bad for doing it last minute. My mom told me that I was crazy for feeling bad because I was due within the next couple weeks and they probably wondered why I was still showing up anyways. I did eventually call. That Wednesday we finished up getting everything we needed. We got the crib put together, all the sheets washed, everything sanitized and then went over to my parents house for a blessing. My mom told my dad to tell God to let me go into labor soon. He of course didn't but blessed me that I would have the strength to do this and that everything would go well. That night we went home and prepared a hospital bag because they say you should have this ready at least a couple weeks before your due date. I went to sleep.
I woke up at four in the morning to an intense pain. I was having contractions. I started counting contractions, four mintues appart for a whole hour. Then I woke up Justin. I said Justin we need to go to the hospital. I start laughing just thinking about his face. He was so tired. He had been sleeping on the couch a lot because I would sweat a lot and roll and take up the bed. He said are you sure. I assured him and he started getting ready. He finished packing stuff he thought he wanted and we got in the car. We started calling my parents, then Justin's and we headed down. He questioned me a couple times if I was really going to have a baby tonight and I said I'm pretty sure. It was snowing a little bit in the canyon but not too bad. He drove fast. We got to the hospital at about six thirty in the morning and started signing in.
This is one of the things I wish people would have mentioned. So you are standing there trying to get into a room and they make you fill out all this....crap for a lack of better words. Well actually I don't lack better words, it's paper work but thats what you feel it is when you're in intense pain and they want to know your middle name? your address? your social? Can't they just ask you after you deliver! It's not like I was going to run out of the hospital as soon as I gave birth. Anyways, that was annoying. So they finaly get me laying down and then bring me more paper work, still annoying. And they tell me my midwife is on the way. The nurse thats putting in the IV to administer, something because I was GBS positive or something. I don't really remember what that means but it makes it so you don't infect your baby coming through the birth canal.
Then was more waiting time. My mom, brother and grandma got there about an hour and a half later. My mom brought a book to distract me but I couldn't even really communicate let along listen to her read. Not to mention I had to PEE like no ones business. And I tried to. I really tried but it was like, impossible. I had had no problem peeing up until this point and I was used to being able to pee ALL the time. I felt like I had all this pressure on my bladder. Which of course I did. It's called my baby's head. I said if I could just go then I would be fine, I felt like I was going to explode. Eventually I had my midwife get a catheder and it really did make me feel so much better. It kind of stings putting it in though. I sat in the bathtub twice. The first time was great. I felt so relaxed that I almost fell asleep a couple of times. I was doing this things where I would go longer in between contractions but because of that my contractions were doubling up which meant they lasted twice as long. I would just about be asleep when they hit me hard. I got out and paced. I needed to be moving I thought. I tried once more to relax in the bath but little did I know I was pretty far along. I couldn't relax. I needed to be moving. I got out of the bath the second time and I was in some pretty unbelievable pain. I wanted to do it naturally but it just hurt so bad. My midwife then asked me if I wanted to get some pain medication. I felt like I wanted to crying and said "I just don't know" She said " Well, lets check you and see how dialated you are and then we'll decided then. She checked me. I was almost a nine! "I can do this!" I thought. She brought in a bouncy ball and I sat on it while bouncing and Justin and my mom sat on both sides and put pressure on my knees and my back. When a contraction hit they pressed on me and I bounced. THIS helped soooo much. I will do this next time. Before much longer it was time to push.
When you are pushing, you don't feel any pain. It's pure adrenaline. And then after you push, you're exhausted and then a contraction comes you push 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 and relax. You push in ten second intervals until the contraction is over. I was probably only push for under an hour when they were having trouble hearing the baby's heart beat. It ended up being just a problem with the monitor. There was nothing wrong with his heart. But this freaked out all the nurses and stuff so they brought in a specialist. She was all freaked out for some reason and was really pretty rude. She kept yelling at me. "PUSH LADY!" I felt like saying, "What do you think I'm doing?" but I was way too exhausted to waste any effort on words for her. They did end up having to give me an episiotomy. It's strange that they didn't even need to numb me and yet I didn't even know they did it until after. My mom said she didn't know why they did it because it never looked like I was going to rip. She said she thought it was just that they were freaked out the baby's heart rate was slowing and they wanted to be able to use the suction. Everything ended up being fine. At 11:27, not even five hours after I arrived at the hospital, I had my baby boy. He was so beautiful. I was so exhausted but somehow I managed to cry. I was so happy. I kept thinking, that I wished I could live it over again. Something about giving birth naturally. You feel like you had an out of body experience. Like you were born to do this. That's how I felt anyways. And I can't wait for the next time.
