My Birth Story

I realized that I haven't told my birth story yet, and that I should.

This story starts about three years ago. We had been married for about two years and I was baby hungry!! My husband... was not. He would ask me, "Why do you want to have a baby?" Not in a condescending way, but seeking for a sincere answer. This shocked me at first, and the only reply I could muster was, "Because babies are cute." Which is true, but not the best answer, especially when making such a momentous decision. After a while I came up with better reasons. The best being that I feel like I was meant to be a mother. I loved that I had a bunch of siblings growing up. I can't imagine how empty my parents lives would be if they never had children or if they only had one or two. I am excited to teach children to be good people and to grow up to be honest and happy adults. I think that's a pretty good reason.

I prayed and prayed about it, my heart aching for a baby. Then one night as I prayed the Spirit distinctly answered me. Not in an audible voice, but a clear impression in my mind told me, "Don't worry. Be patient. You will have a baby soon enough. Not now, but soon enough." 

I could have played the martyr and passive aggressively agreed to wait when I didn't want to, but I didn't. My husband's desire to wait became my own and I was given incredible peace. After my prayer was answered the "baby hungry" feelings went away. I trusted that we would have a baby when the time was right, for me, my husband, and the Lord.

Fast forward six months, I was in college and still had three or four semesters. If I wanted to graduate as fast as I could I knew that meant I would graduate one semester before my husband. I really enjoyed school and taking classes just for fun, and figured I could take one last semester of all fun classes, so that we could graduate together! It was an awesome plan. As I was signing up for classes for a new semester the Spirit again distinctly told me to graduate as fast as I could. I was kind of bummed out because I really wanted to take that "Writings of Isaiah" class by Terry B. Ball. I didn't know why I received that prompting, but I followed it and planned the rest of my classes out, so that I would graduate in April of 2013, not December.

Fast forward again, I had been praying for a while that when the time was right to have a baby that the Holy Ghost would prompt my husband. Mind you I did not tell him I was praying for that! It happened in February 2013, and I wrote in my journal, "A few days ago he told me he felt prompted to get ready for children! You don't know how happy that makes me!!!!!!!"

 I graduated in April 2013 and we decided to try for a baby after that. What do you know, I got pregnant two months later! Here's the good part: After several weeks of "trying" and talking about the reality and responsibility of a child coming to our family we thought, "maybe we should wait a little longer... we don't even have heath insurance, what are we thinking?!" But I was already pregnant! God probably knew that if He didn't take advantage of the opportunity we would be tempted to wait longer than was best.

I told my dear husband that when I got pregnant he had to be happy about it. I was worried that the stress of responsibility would overcome him, but it didn't. He was extremely happy, and not just because I told him to. I am grateful for that. When I was 19 weeks pregnant my husband got a full time "big boy" job with incredible benefits, including medical insurance. We definitely attribute that blessing to God!

My pregnancy was AWESOME! I only had morning sickness for about five weeks and then it just magically went away! I ran my first 5k with my family when I was 20 weeks pregnant, and it was awesome! I actually didn't tell any of them I was pregnant until I showed up. I figured they would notice right away, but I was only slightly tubby, and they didn't want to be rude and assume anything. I told them and they freaked out, it was great.

The worst part about being pregnant was the last two months when I got acid reflux, painful swelling in my hands and feet at night, and by the end I was very uncomfortable sleeping on my sides. (We got a recliner on KSL and when it became unbearable to sleep on either side I slept in the chair. It saved me!!!) I feel extremely blessed. I know many women have it a lot worse.

When 38 weeks rolled around I was getting nervous and thought, "It could happen any time!" 39 weeks came and went, and then 40 weeks. My doctor set the induction date for Sunday May 23rd at 7pm, in case I hadn't gone into labor by then. I prayed and prayed that I would go into labor naturally, even if it was on Sunday morning!

Saturday came and we hung out with the Ashcrafts :) I had been having contractions, like I had every day for several weeks, so I didn't know if they were real or not. After our friends left my husband and I went on a 40 minute walk. In the book What to Expect When You're Expecting it says that if contractions stop during activity they're probably not real. During that 40 minute walk I felt great! No contractions... hooray.

My mom had been driving all that day from California, because one way or another I was going into the hospital the next day. When I told her that I had been having contractions, possibly real or not, she decided to drive the whole way instead of stopping for the night. She ended up arriving at midnight, and we stayed up until 1 am chatting. While we were talking the contractions got more intense and I knew these were the real things! 

My husband and mother went to sleep... while I did not. I think that having Crohn's disease really prepared my for labor. The pain was surprisingly similar, and it felt familiar to deal with intense, oscillating pain. My water broke at 3 am and we arrived at the hospital at 5 am. (PS anybody in the Utah Valley- if you need an OB/hospital to give birth at I HIGHLY recommend Orem Community Hospital. I don't know how our birthing experience could have been any better.) I was admitted and got the epidural in soon thereafter.

Oh My Glorious epidural! After going through labor and having an epidural I don't understand why any woman would want to suffer through it without one. And if You do, more power to you, but I'm 150 gazillion times happy I got one.

Hitches in labor/delivery: I was feeling great, but my sweet girl had a few problems. With a little pitocin and a pre-delivery "bath" (because the nurse saw meconium with the fluids coming out), our baby's heart rate dropped dangerously low. Our super-incredible-best-nurse-ever, Jill, got dressed in scrubs in case they had to do an emergency C-Section. My husband freaked out at that point. I was in and out of consciousness because I was exhausted, but all he did for hours was sit and watch the screen monitoring my contractions and baby's heart rate. Her heart rate normalized while labor progressed. When I reached 10 cm Dr McCarter came in to deliver. He was the on call doctor, but was awesome! He said, "I was watching your contractions and the baby's heart rate on my phone during sacrament meeting."

I pushed for 10 minutes (thank you Bastian birthing hips!!) (and haha to the nurses that said I could be pushing for 2 hours!) and she was out! I felt like I was in a dream. Everything seemed surreal; the doctor suctioning her nose and mouth out; the pediatrician looking her over and wiping my meconium-encrusted child off; my husband pulling out his phone to take pictures with the most sincere awe-insipred expression I've ever seen. Then the nurse put my sweet darling baby on my bare chest, so I could snuggle her, just minutes after she was born. So crazy and wonderful!

As the pediatrician was wiping her off just after birth someone asked, "What color is her hair?" He quickly responded, "Green!" And after 20 minutes of being in the room with me, the doctor said, "I guess I'll go back for Priesthood now."

                                          

She was born on Sunday, March 23, 2014 at 10:55 am, 6 lb 2 oz, 18.5 inches long.

We later found out that the placenta had started to calcify. Her gestational age was 41 weeks, and she weighed only 6 lb 2 oz. That's the 4th percentile!! I am so grateful she was healthy at birth, despite the low heart rate scare, meconium, and failing placenta. We were so blessed.

Up until the baby was outside of my womb it was all about the pregnancy. Everything I was experiencing was to culminate in the delivery. I didn't really think about actually having to take care of a human child for forever after that. When she was born I thought, "this isn't the end, it's just the beginning!"

Now she's a month and a half and 10 pounds! We love her with all our hearts and are so blessed to have her in our family forever! As we look back on the years we have been married and what we've gone through, both of us are extremely grateful that we waited to have this sweet girl. I am grateful that God knew and knows both of us- our personalities, our individual/couple needs and wants, and the desires of our hearts, and that we did what was best for our family. I am not encouraging anyone to wait to have children. Some couples intentionally have a baby right off and that's right for them.

I just know having our daughter now is what's right and best for us.