She's Here

So they strapped me to a table and a few minutes later at 8:18pm Addison JoLynn Pierce was born. They quickly showed her to me and took her to the nursery. The doctors were all guessing at her weight and they were all guessing around 9lbs. Well she came out at 8lbs 8ounces. Much smaller than I was anticipating. I know that is not small by any means but it is a lot smaller than I was planning on. I was planning on a 9 or 10lb baby. Brighton followed her to the nursery and I finally couldn't take it any more. I threw up. Everywhere and boy am I glad Brighton wasn't there.

She looks super swollen in this picture but in my mind it shows her calm demeanor that she has. She just kind of smiles at me all the time. Come to find out the reason she wasn't come out was because he head was turned sideways and was getting stuck. So when she came out she had a little cone head on the side of her head and her starting to swell up was making it worse.

I love this picture of her because this is how she holds her hands today. She likes to cuddle them up to her face and curl up in a ball.

I didn't get to hold her until midnight that night but I really didn't feel well enough to take care of her so I didn't mind. LOL, they kind of made me go and see her. Welcome to motherhood right? I really don't remember the next 24 hours and I definitely don't have pictures of it.

The second day however, she was a little jaundice so they put her under the bilirubin lights. I was actually really sad about that because I couldn't hold her unless it was to feed. I was surprised at how hard that was for me. But just to prove her personality to me her is my little girl telling me "Peace, all is well mother." Just like my little girl.
She is a very calm baby. She only cries when she is hungry or when I change her diaper before she eats. Other than that she doesn't cry much. I got very lucky that way. Knock on wood.

By the time I left the hospital I felt great. Well, better than I had since the surgery. Here is my little angel in her coming home outfit. Her socks were huge but I liked the dress.

And here we are coming home. I still look awful but really that has never stopped me from posting a picture before right?

(Still to be continued...)

The Beginning

So I was having trouble arranging all of my pictures so I have decided to post my story in three different posts. Also, that way I can do bits and pieces at a time. I am having a hard time finding time to get everything...okay anything done so posting my story in parts is the best idea.

Monday night I was to be checked into the hospital to be induce. Hallelujah...it is about time to have this baby. Here we are about to embark on an adventure that will change our lives forever. 38 weeks and 2 days along. Already dilated to a six.

Checked in a ready to go. The actually didn't start the pitocin until 5 the next morning because they thought that I was going to have the baby asap. So all of Monday night I slept 1 1/2 hrs. It was a nightmare. I didn't even watch tv because Brighton was sleeping and I didn't want to wake him up. Thank goodness for lame games on cell phones and conference talks online.
Once the pitocin started...nothing really. I still felt my normal contractions and I was dilating a little more. I got an epidural and they broke my water. Me and pain go together like...nothing so an epidural early was my plan. I won't lie, when they broke my water I lost like 10lbs and it felt amazing! They were surprised how much water I had. TMI?? Ya I think so too. So after my water broke I kept dilating but oh so slowly. I told my nurse that I hope I had this baby while she was on shift (and this was at 10am) and she said I would definitely have this baby by 7 tonight. Well 3:30 rolls around and I start pushing. I had slept most of the day and had lots of energy to push. So I pushed, and pushed, and pushed. And she got stuck. They weren't sure why but her head kept coming down and then when the contractions would stop her head would pop right back up. 4 hours of pushing later her head was starting to swell from all of the pushing and nothing was working. They were also afraid that if her head came out her shoulders might get stuck. They were afraid she was a big baby. NOT A SUGAR BABY. For anyone who knows about diabetes my diabetes was under control during my whole pregnancy. My highest AlC was 6.0 and my best on was a 5.4. If you don't know what that means...lucky you. But it means that my baby was not a sugar baby. So after much contemplating and more pushing we decided a c-section would be best. So at 8pm the fun began.

I would have pushed for 10 more hours if I could have instead of a c-section. I don't know why but it was awful. Actually after they told me to stop pushing I was really exhausted and kept falling asleep. I was really thirsty and they wouldn't give me any ice to eat so that made me more miserable. However, Brighton was such a huge support and I definitely would have fallen apart (more than I did) without him. To be continued in the next post.

One week

Addison is one week old today. Well in exactly 10 minutes she will be one week old!! I absolutely love her to death and can't get enough of her. There will be more pictures to come but as for now, her she is after her first bath!

It's here!!!

I am heading into the hospital tonight to finally have this little girl! I check in at 8 but they won't start the labor process until early early tomorrow morning. I am already dilated to a 6 so really how much longer can it take. I hope not too long. I am so ready/nervous/excited. All of the above. My body tell me no more, my brain tells me what the heck am I thinking, and my heart wants to see this little girl so badly.
So ready or not... here we go!!

I'm Still Ready

I'm still way ready to have this baby. But to keep my mind off the last 8 days of my pregnancy I am going to post about something other than how miserable I am.

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day and Brighton and my Dad's birthdays. We get together with my family on the 2nd Sunday of every month and so we celebrated everything with my family last week and not this week.

These next two pictures are just random but they REALLY make me laugh hard. My sister Michelle has a cat names Zuri (yes after the elephant, very fitting) and her cat is...um huge. We love it! We don't fully understand the cat but she has some knee problems and hip problems and consequentially likes to lay on her back. In these next two pictures she is attacking/eating a stick while we brush her tummy. This is a common positions for her and we love to tease her while she lays like that. You can kind of get a glimpse at just how big she is. She is so cute and so squishy!

Today my mom had her piano performance for her national certification. This is a certification that usually takes someone two years to complete and my mom has done it in a year and a half and has worked so hard to get it done. She has spent many hours practicing, studying, doing homework, and many other things so she can complete her certification. She had judges there tonight to judge her performance and she did amazing. She was so nervous but she played immaculate and her songs were not easy. I am so proud of her and all she has accomplished! And she did it all on her 33 wedding anniversary!! My mom is flat out AMAZING!

Okay, Now I Am Ready...

Okay, now I am ready. I think. Three weeks ago - today - I went into labor. Yep at 32 weeks my body was ready to have this baby. Clearly, I am still pregnant so they were able to stop the whole process but what an adventure it was.

My doctor determined a long time ago that I am just one of those pregnancies that has lots of contractions. I would say I have about 4 to 8 contractions an hour. Not painful ones and they don't seem to do anything to me or the baby, but they sure are not comfortable. Now they weren't always that way. On the Tuesday before I went into the hospital I was telling my doctor how uncomfortable and frequent the contractions were and after an hour later we determined... nothing. The contractions did nothing to me. Great. So back to work I went. She told me however that if they lasted longer than 30 seconds to come back in. I thought to myself, walking to and from my car causes me to have a contraction and that is a four minute walk so that 30 second rule didn't really apply to me. Well after not sleeping well on Tuesday night and after having contraction on top of contraction on Wednesday I called my mom crying. I asked her if these contractions were normal. They weren't stopping but they weren't painful. I was getting so exhausted from them. She told me to go in. I told her if they were better in the morning I would go in because I probably just over did it that day at work. So, after only sleeping 4 hours and finally making it work on Thursday morning I was exhausted. Contractions - still there. But who wants to go into the doctors! My boss wasn't even there on Thursday. However, a girl from my doctors office came in to pick up here glasses and I decided to ask her what to do. She said to come in for a quick 45 min appointment and see what they could do. After my coworker practically pushed me out the door, I took my cell phone and told her I would be back in 45 min.

I got to the doctors they hooked me up to all of this stuff... and 10 minutes later they told me I was going to be in the hospital for the next 24 hours!! What? Umm, not what I wanted to hear. I was dilated to a 4, 70% effaced and having contractions one right on top of the other. (I could have told you that part.) So what does a pregnant woman do at this point, I cried. I am not sure why. I think I cried because I wasn't ready to be at the hospital for 24 hours. My purse was still at work, nobody knew I was there and I was exhausted. After putting on an ugly hospital gown, :), texting Brighton, a doctor came in and told me I would be there for 48 hours. Sigh, this is a really long doctors 45 min doctors appointment. They told me that if the baby came that day she would probably survive but she would be in the NICU for a couple of weeks. So they were going to give me a couple of steroid shots to help develop her lungs. Apparently the steroid shots will mess with your blood sugar levels so they hooked me up to an insulin drip. They moved me to another room and there I was to wait. For what I am not sure but there I sat. Everything was just a blur.

Brighton finally showed up (I actually told him not to come because nothing was going on, but my mom convinced him otherwise), then my mom, and then my brother in-law Frank. Brighton and Frank gave me a blessing and the rest of my hospital stay was a breeze. I had a TON of support from family and friends. I can't even being to mention how grateful I am for all of my family. That would take up a whole additional post. I think they helped keep me calm because they were all more worried than I was. I never really believed I was going to deliver a baby. It didn't really hit me that I was in labor and delivery until that morning around 4. I finally realized that all of the rooms around me were delivering babies and that is what they were planning on for me. Scary! I hadn't even been to a birthing class yet! I didn't even know what effaced meant until that day. There were able to slow my contractions down, rule out any reasons for me having all of the contractions and moved me to a less high risk room.

My 48 hours turned into a four day stay, I didn't dilate past a 4 and they sent me home on 'modified' bed rest. What that means to me is that I can't go back to work. I still have lots of contractions and they still make me super tired but now I can take a nap whenever I want!! I love it! However, any time I move I have a contraction. Sitting, standing, rolling over in bed, walking, sitting here, you name it. But that just seems to be the norm. I was taking a non stress test the other day and my test was showing all of the contractions. The lady sitting next to me was due the following week and she was having none!!! I told her I would gladly give mine to her. My doctors original goal was for me to keep the baby in for 48 hours, then until 34 weeks, and then until 37 weeks. I am proud to say I am at 35 1/2 weeks and still pregnant. My contractions are getting painful now and not the kind I like but they are still pretty far apart. So waiting is the game. If I don't have the baby by 38 weeks on June 21st I am going to be induced!! I have never been so excited to hear that word. My original due day at July 4th but I have a lot of amniotic fluid (which they don't know why) and I am already dilated so June 21st it is!!! 19 days to go my friends. 19 days.

I have finally packed a hospital bag, washed the baby clothes, finally got a place for her to sleep (Brighton went out and bought that while I was in the hospital), I have had ample time to clean up the house, and now I am officially bored. Well I don't know if bored is the word but going to the bathroom every 2 hours, painful contractions, and having only 6 shirts that fit me I am ready for her to come. So when will she come??? We shall see...

Here is to 35 weeks!!!!

Graduation!!!

Brighton has officially graduated from the University of Utah in Chemical Engineering and I couldn't be more proud of him!!! He has worked so hard and he looked so good in his cap and gown. I told him he couldn't ever graduate school again while I was pregnant because I just cried during the entire ceremony.
These pictures are backwards but just like every time I put pictures up I just don't want to take the time to fix them. After his graduation we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse! That is where we went on our first date and it still our favorite place to eat.

(Almost) The whole crew!

Texas Roadhouse made Brighton (it wasn't really that hard to do) get on a saddle while they sang to him. And guess who got to eat his free ice cream? Yep, the pregnant wife. Delicious!

Now here are the pictures we took on the lawn after graduation. This part of the day took part before the dinner.

Off to celebrate!!