laurel caroline

our adorable little girl is 10 weeks old, so i feel it is probably time i should write up her birth story before i forget! 

with getting ready to move to california, and rhett starting work on the 3rd of november i was really nervous that our little girl would come late. and knowing my family late babies are pretty much the norm. the last thing i wanted was a late baby and then rhett having to leave days after he became a dad. so i was doing everything i possibly could to make our baby girl come! walks everyday, acupuncture, sitting on exercise ball, dr. pepper, standing forever. the list could go on and on. you name it, i did it. 

october finally came and i was so excited for her to get here. the first weekend was general conference and i had a dr appointment where he partially stripped my membranes. i also had my third acupuncture appointment. i missed the first session because of my appointments and then rhett and i met up with my mom at the mall. we walked and walked and did some shopping of course. i had been having a little show all day, but the day came and went with no baby. 

sunday i woke up to a lot of show. it kind of freaked me out, so i called the dr and they said it was normal and probably because i had my membranes stripped. all day sunday i was having contractions but nothing time-able. that night rhett and i played some just dance on the xbox one. oh man, i won pretty much every dance and i bet it was a site to see. but it was really fun. we went to bed and no baby. but my contractions were getting stronger. rhett and i laid in bed talking and around 11 my contractions were more consistent. 

between 11:30 and 1:30 i was having a contraction every 3-6 minutes. rhett had fallen asleep so i woke him up and let him know it might be happening. i was in a lot of pain and he was ready to take me in, but i wanted to wait. so i went upstairs and took a shower and got our stuff together. i was really nervous and had rhett give me a beautiful blessing, then we were on our way. 

we got to the hospital around 3 am and they took me in to monitor me. when they checked me i was 2 cm and about 70% effaced.  i wasn't due till the 15th and it was the 6th. so the wouldn't admit me because i was still technically 38 weeks. so they had me walk the halls for an hr. i was having contractions every 2-4 minutes and boy were they painful. so the hr was up and i went back in and i had a new nurse. she checked me and said i was a 3 but i hadn't changed enough to be admitted. so she got me a room and had me lay in the tub. she said that would stop false labor or ease the pain and lesson the contractions. (looking back it is dumb because she just wanted to get my contractions to stop... obviously i should have kept walking the halls to progress, not lay in a tub) so for the next 2 hrs i would get in and out of the tub. 

when time was up she came in to check me and said i was maybe a 3.5 but hadn't changed enough and i was going to be sent home. i wanted to cry. they said i would be more comfortable at home. comfortable my butt. so a new nurse tami came in and got me an ambion. she said it would help me to sleep through my contractions and when i woke up i would be ready to come back in. she said she knew she would be me back later that day. 

i took the ambion and went to bed. well... rhett went to bed and i died a little. the whole "the ambion will make you sleep through the contractions was a load of bull. i was dying for the next few hours. every contraction i was on the floor in o much pain. finally around 11:30 am rhett decided to call the hospital. I didn't want to go back because i was scared they were just going to send me home again. but we headed back.

when we got there, they checked me and i was a 5! the most magical thing ever to hear that they were going to admit me! so we got situated into the room and they got me my epidural. i was actually really scared of getting an epidural, but it was nothing compared to the painful contractions.

it was so wonderful to see the contractions on the screen but not feel them. but the epidural slowed me way down so they started me on pitocin. then the waiting game started. around 2 rhett was starving so he went to go get some food, and i could only have clear liquids, but my nurse tami informed me that gummy bears count. so i made rhett go pick some up for me. while he was out the dr came in and broke my water. i thought for sure the baby would be coming soon! but no....

rhett got back round 3 and i had just been checked and was at a 7 ish. so we spent the day updating family, watching tv, trying to take a nap and just enjoying our last hrs just the 2 of us. our nurse tami, who was AMAZING, got off at 7pm and was really hoping the baby would come before then, but this little girl just wanted to hang out a little longer. i was really sad that tami got off because she was really the best. the nurse that replaced her was brenda and she was really awesome too.

finally around 9 i was finally fully dilated! brenda wanted me to wait till i couldn't resist the urge to push so i wouldn't be pushing for as long. i called her in at 9:30 and told her i thought i was close, so she said she would come back in at 9:45 and we would start pushing. i was so anxious but excited. rhett and i just sat in there and just talked about how excited we were and everything that would change. just enjoyed our last minutes just us.

at 9:45 brenda was back and i was starting to push around 9:50. the contractions seemed to be so far apart! but around 10:10 the dr came in and it started getting more real. i felt like i was pushing forever. i just kept asking if she was here yet. i was so tired and just didn't think could do it anymore. rhett was amazing and so supportive.

finally at 10:33pm our little angel was born. they put her right onto my chest and i just couldn't stop crying. it was so amazing that she was finally here! they had us guess what we thought she weighted and i think my guess was 7.6 and rhetts was 7.9 or something. but no we had a big baby on our hands. 8.01 pounds 21 inches, and she was 9 days early!

life has been so much happier, crazier, sleepier, and better since she joined our family. i can't believe that she is 10 weeks! it feels like she has been with us forever and i don't know how we ever lived without her. she is getting so animated and her smile melts me every time :)