Lynnden

SHE'S HERE!

The little lady who had been growing inside of me for 40 long weeks has finally made her way into the world.

She is lovely.

We are SO glad she is here.

And I for one do not want to forget all of the wonderful (and not so wonderful) details of her arrival. So here is her documented birth story.

Even though the entire pregnancy is long, I think the last four weeks take the longest. Every single day you wonder, "Is today the day?" Especially when the doc seems to think that could be the case too.

At 37 weeks I went into the doctor and he said I was already dilated to 2 cm and 50% effaced and that he wouldn't be surprised if I went into labor sooner than later - that he'd see me the next week for my appointment - if not then sooner to deliver this baby. Yahoo!

Except that didn't happen. So at 38 weeks I go in and now I'm a "loose" 2 cm and 70% effaced. So I'm still making progress and once again the doc thinks there's a really good chance I'll go into labor any day.

Nope. My 39 week appointment rolls around. This time I'm dilated to 3 cm but only 75% effaced. The doctor strips my membranes and seems pretty confident that will send my body into labor within 48 hours. We schedule me for an induction though just in case. I have contractions on an off all week long but they never progress into anything regular.

Yup, you guessed it. My 40 week appointment rolls around (June 24th - due date) and I still have no baby. However, I am 4 cm dilated and 75% effaced and only two days away from induction day. So even though it's looking like I'll be induced again, I'm optimistic that everything will go pretty quickly once it starts. I mean, I'm already dilated to a FOUR. With Ammely, my entire labor was spent getting me to a four. Then I went from 4 cm to a loose 9 cm and ready to push within 45 minutes.

The next day I spent going over my house and hospital bags making sure everything was just right. I desperately wanted to come home to a clean house and had spent the last month making sure everything was just so before bed or leaving the house. That night we got some Sonic (hello dirty Dr Pepper), read some scriptures, got blessings (me and Ammely), then went and picked up my mother from the airport (Yay! She'll be here for the whole experience and will be able to stay at home with Ammely!).

The next day was induction day, aka "Baby Day." My appointment was for 5 a.m. and, miracle of miracles, when I called at 4 a.m. everything was running smoothly at the hospital and I could ACTUALLY go in at 5:00. Yahoo!

Ammon and I finished getting dressed, said goodbye to Mom and Ammely, grabbed some toast and mango and headed to the hospital.

We made it with no problems and snapped one last pregnant picture before heading inside.

 

We checked in, went through the paperwork and then Nurse Susan came out to take us back to my Labor & Delivery room.

She was wonderful. She went through more paperwork  (do they call it computerwork these days?) and then at 6:30 she checked me (still 4 cm and 75% effaced) and started me on the Pitocin.

At 7:00 it was shift change so Susan introduced me to my new nurse, Cherie. Again, she was wonderful. Very attentive. Very patient. Very informative.

Also, the anesthetist came in, introduced herself and explained the process of the epidural. Whenever I want it, I can have it.

Ammon and I decide we're going to do a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon since they have all four of them on the television.

We start number one.

Contractions are coming quite regularly but are totally manageable. I mean, I still looked like this:

However, around 8:30 Dr. Layton comes in and breaks my water. Afterwards, he hangs around for a few minutes and says he wants to see my next couple of contractions because "they should start getting a lot worse."

Nurse Cherie pipes up and says, "Yes, look at that smile. We're going to wipe that smile off her face."

Great.

They only spoke truth. (Note: there are no more pictures of me until after the baby arrives, ha!)

The following contractions were horrific. After only fifteen or twenty minutes of these intense contractions, my sweet husband asks what he can do to help me through the contractions - "What do you want?"

"I want the epidural."

Ok.

Somewhere between 9 and 9:30 the blessed anesthetist comes in and gives me the epidural. It works beautifully. On my left side. But I can still feel everything on my right side.

So they keep up-ing my dosage. Slowly, I feel less and less of those contractions on my right side but it doesn't go numb.

By 10:00 I'm starting to feel a lot of pressure (well, on my right side) and I ask Ammon to check and make sure everything is okay. He takes a peek and spots some blood and notifies my nurse.

The nurse in turn checks me and informs us that the baby is in the birth canal and my body is ready to push.
We get the anesthetist back in the room and they give me what I think they called a "sit up dose" which they assured me would make me completely numb very quickly.

Anesthetist: "The other doses would never have caught up with your body. This WILL make you numb."

Nurse Cherie reminds me of how to breathe and push and says we'll do a few practice pushes. We do.

She suggests not pushing for the next twenty minutes and just let my body's contractions naturally take the baby a little further down without wearing me out with all the pushing.

After those twenty minutes we do another one or two pushes and everyone can see that this is going to go very quickly.

No more pushing for me until they can get the doctor there. They call Dr Layton and he shows up within ten minutes or so.

I remember looking at the clock at 10:55 and thinking "Okay, here we go. I'm going to start pushing now and the baby will probably be here around 11:30 or a little later."

Everyone starts coaching me through some pushes and mere minutes later I can gear our baby crying (they didn't even have to suck stuff out of her mouth) and I can see on Ammon's face that our baby girl is here. Another push or two and they're laying her on my abdomen and letting Ammon cut her umbilical cord (which is apparently shorter than usual).

There was a lot of activity and emotion in those few minutes and I truly expected it to be much later than it was - imagine my surprise that her birth time was 11:02! Hallelujah! Mere minutes of pushing and only 4.5 hours of labor!

She was here! And it was quick!

The next couple of hours were spent trying to wipe down, calm, feed, measure and warm my baby.

She was NOT happy those first few hours of life. But once everyone finally stopped poking her and just let her lay out under the heater, she was contented as could be.

During that time Grandma Baysinger came to see her - her first visitor (and one of her name sakes)! Unfortunately, she didn't get to hold her so we asked her to come back with Grandpa later.

A while later little Lynnden was happily keeping her temperature up and at long last Daddy got to hold her.

From there we got moved to our recovery room and poked and prodded some more. (Note, we only got about 30 minutes of the first Pirate movie done - no marathon for us, haha!)

Meanwhile, our next set of visitors eagerly awaited the green light to come inside (Ammely, Grandma Breakall, Grandma and Grandpa Lords and Aunt Tammy).

Apparently, while they were all at lunch Ammely told Aunt Tammy that she wanted to go shopping for a balloon. So they did. AND she got a "Big Sister" button on her shirt too. Is she not the cutest Big Sister in all the world?

Finally, the nurses were done with us and our visitors could come inside. Here we are, the four of us for the first time.

For some reason, most of our family shots were crazy blurry. Oh well. 

The conversation for the above picture went something like this:

Ammon: Ammely, who is that?
Ammely: Mommy!

Ammon: Yes, but who is THAT?
Ammely: Baby.

Ammon: Yes, what baby?
Ammely: Maggie!

Ammon: No, it's not Maggie. That's your sister.
Ammely: Sister...?

Ammon: That's Lynndnen.
Ammely. Lynnden.

Afterwards, we got me scooted over on the bed and Ammely got to hold her baby. I'm pretty sure they love each other already.

Ammely: "She's cute baby!"

Then Lynnden got passed around and eventually Grandma Breakall got to hold her too (Lynnden's other name sake).

A little while later, after our visitors had gone, I finally got all of my needles and ropes and tubes and wires removed from me and  I was able to change into my comfy PJs - I felt almost human again! And Lynnden got into some comfy PJs too.

We spent the rest of the evening getting to know our daughter...and watching mandatory (and not mandatory) videos so that we would be able to leave as soon as possible.

Also, Grandma and Grandpa Baysinger DID come back that night and they got to hold her this time around! Did I get pictures though? No. Sigh.

The rest of the night went pretty well too. We did send Lynnden to the nursery for one portion of the night though - she was fed and changed and still not happy. And we were exhausted. So off she went and we got three hours of uninterrupted sleep - and it felt like ten. SO glad we did that.

The next morning was another series of pokes and prods. But both Lynnden and I passed everything and we got the "ok" to go home that afternoon.

Not before we got a few last visitors though - Mom and Ammely came back (SO grateful that Ammely got to spend this time with Grandma - she was happy as could be).

AND Brigham, Jenn and Ephraim came to say hello! AND they brought ice cream - which Ammely was not upset about.

So we strapped Lynnden into her carseat...

...waved goodbye to our room (1102...pretty cool since she was born at 11:02!)...

...and packed up the truck and headed home to start this newest, grand adventure...

...life with TWO precious girls...a blessing indeed.