Lauren's Birth Story

Sunday July 22 (39 weeks, 4 days) I woke up with contractions around 1 am.  They were coming every 10-12 minutes and felt different than on Wednesday.  I felt pretty sure that this was the real thing and wanted to stay in bed and rest as long as I could.  So around 1:30 I started really paying attention and I'd mark the contraction on my app and go back to sleep and mark it and go back to sleep.  Around 3:15/3:30 am, I couldn't sleep any longer.  I put on the Jim Gaffigan book "Dad is Fat" (which is hilarious) and got the house in order.  The house was still very clean from the housekeepers coming earlier in the week, so after I folded laundry and got the kids' clothes laid out for church, I decided to distract myself with sewing.  I'd been spending time making a baptism dress for my dear friend Leann's daughter, Lily.  It was almost done, all that was left was the hem and the sash.  So around 4 am I started working on it.  I laughed at the book and breathed through contractions and sewed.  It took me til just before 5 am to finish the dress but I was really happy that it was done before baby came.  At that point the contractions were getting stronger so I filled up my big bathtub and kept listening to my book.  I knew I didn't want to cut it as close as I did with Emily, so I was really paying attention to how close my contractions were.  By 6 am, they were coming every 3 minutes or so and I knew it was time to get Dan up and head in.  I showered and blow dried my hair while Dan got ready.  The kids started waking up and getting breakfast around 6:30 am and we called Ali to come over.  The kids were watching me really closely as I breathed through the contractions and asking over and over again how I knew it was time for the baby to come.  Ali got there around 7 and we headed down.

Ready to head in--7 am

I called the hospital on the way to let them know we were coming.  Dr. Sander (my doc) was at the hospital and was hoping she'd get to deliver this baby.  We pulled in around 7:30 and got put in a waiting room for a few minutes.  At this point, I had to really concentrate on my breathing as the contractions came and couldn't talk through them anymore.  We were in a waiting room for about 10 minutes (3 contractions) before my nurse came to walk me to my room.  As we headed down the hall and she asked me about my pain, I said I had no pain between contractions and maybe a 3 or 4 during.  Dan warned her that the nurse delivered my last baby and that things typically moved very quickly from 6 cm to 10 cm and she took him seriously.  I changed and she checked me around 7:50 am and I was at a 6.  Dr. Sander came in to see how things were going and was disappointed that I wasn't farther along--she'd been up all night and realized I wouldn't be delivering in the next half hour so she handed me off to her colleague. We got settled in and the nurse got everything ready for delivery.  I had a saline lock but no IV running so I wasn't tied to an IV pole.  One cool thing with this delivery was that since I wanted to be able to move around, she used a wireless monitoring system for baby's heartrate and contractions.  I loved that I didn't have to wear the belts.  It had a center sensor that stuck on my bellybutton and little sensors that stuck above and below.  It worked well and I was able to mostly forget about it.

The nurse got a yoga ball for me to sit on and I would rock my hips in circles between contractions and Dan would put counter pressure on my back during contractions. We kept listening to the book because it helped keep me distracted until about 8:40 (we'd been in the room for an hour).  I was really starting to feel pressure and needed to use the restroom and suddenly was ready to turn the book off.  When I stood up to use the restroom, my water broke (at 8:45 am).  I was relieved because with Emily, the time between my water breaking and her birth was about an hour so I knew it wouldn't be much longer.  The nurse checked me after my water broke and I was at an 8.  She called the doctor in and checked me during a contraction (NOT my favorite) and said during contractions I was almost complete, minus a little forebag of amniotic fluid that hadn't completely broken.  The doctor broke that forebag and then I was complete and he said I could start pushing.  They had a mirror for me and I could see that her head was right there.  I pushed through one contraction and then on the next she was crowning.  At that point I was more than ready to have her out but the contraction stopped!  I was pounding my fist on the bed and it felt like forever (Dan told me later it was maybe 15 seconds) but another contraction started and this time I was determined to be done.  I pushed with all my might and her head was out.  I had to do one more big push as the doctor helped pull on her shoulders and then she was born at 9:17 am!  It was the most amazing feeling of relief and joy.  I got to watch as the cord was clamped and she took her first breath.  Dan cut the cord and then they handed me my sweet little babe, to hold skin to skin on my chest.  The afterbirth was more uncomfortable this time than I remembered from Emily and Jack but soon enough that was done (no tearing and no stitches needed for me!) and I got to just enjoy my snuggly newborn.  She was bruised (but not as bad as Jack) and reminded us of Emily.  I held her for an hour or so and then handed her off to Dan.

9 lbs, 1 oz and 20 inches of newborn sweetness

Carrie had to speak in church and was really sad she missed the birth, so she and Brent headed over as soon as church was over to meet our little one.  By this time we had decided that her name would be Lauren.

 After Carrie and Brent left, Tyler and Kortnee stopped by.  We were introduced to each other and then the newly engaged couple got to hold the baby.

Sweet little bruised baby...

Dan left to get our kids around 3 pm.  He brought them all up to meet their new sister.  It was quite the crowd around the bed but they were all so cute and excited.   They got there around 4:30 pm and were about as excited to eat the sibling cake as they were to meet the baby.

Emily, age 2, was in heaven meeting her baby sister.  

Brooke, age 9

Candy, age 7

Megan, age 10

Jack, age 4

 Dan and the kids left by 5 pm and it was just Lauren and I. 

Shad came to visit around 7 pm.  He facetimed Amy and Ellie so they could get a glimpse of our sweet little one.

He was kind enough to do Lauren's hair for us.

Shad left before 8 pm and it was just my sweet baby and me.  I held her skin to skin for most of the evening.  She was pretty good at nursing and even though sleeping in a hospital tends to be interrupted, we managed to get a few hours of sleep that night.  It was nice to be able to enjoy her without all the other kids around.  I was feeling great, my biggest complaint was that my tail bone and pubic bone were a little sore on the inside from that big baby but it was not too bad.

Ready for bed--these were at 8 pm so she was about 11 hours old.

Week before Lauren's birth...

As I write this, Lauren is almost 10 months old!  But now is better than never to get my memories out of my head.  Thankfully I sent a Polo about her birth story to my sister-in-law that I can use to help me with details!
The belly before church on July 15 (38 weeks, 4 days)

On Monday July 16, I had a dentist appointment and then did grocery pickup before meeting friends at the pool and sending Megan and Brooke on playdates after.  Tyler came over for dinner and we had family night like always.  It had been a week since my last OB appointment where I wasn't dilated at all, so I was feeling like it could take a while for baby to make her appearance.

Tuesday July 17, we went for our bike ride in the morning and I worked hard to have the house picked up before the housekeepers came.  Thanks to my Dad and my friends, I had the gift of housekeepers coming every other week for June, July, and August--best present EVER!  I took the kids to Walmart for a bit and then to hang out at Ali's house (Ali and her fam were still gone in Utah) while they were cleaning.  Dan had a mattress delivery that night and it was a quiet evening.

Riding the firetruck toy at Walmart

Early in the morning on Wednesday July 18 I woke up with contractions.  It was about 3 am and I had them every 10-20 minutes for about 2 hours.  They weren't intense but it was enough that I had Dan work from home just in case.  They slowed down through the morning and by the time we got to playgroup at the pool around 10 am, the contractions stopped.  So we joined the Activity Days girls at the mounted police stables to feed the horses.  I had mixed feelings about the contractions stopping.  On the one hand, not being pregnant anymore sounded great.  On the other hand, Ali and her family were on their way home from Utah and it would simplify things if she was back to help with the other kids when I had the baby.  Also, our friend Cris had just passed away and his funeral was on Saturday and I was hopeful Dan and I would be able to attend.  Ali and her family made it home that day and Dan went to pick up a mattress that evening.  No more contractions.

Thursday July 19 Dan worked from home again and I went to my OB appointment in the morning.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear that I was dilated to 2 cm (those contractions the day before had been doing something after all).  We were happy to have cousins home and spent the day playing with them.

Friday July 20 was another quiet day with Dan working from home one more time.  I was feeling good and noticing contractions here and there throughout the day but nothing consistent or strong.

Saturday July 21 was the morning of Cris's funeral.  Ali watched the kids so Dan and I could attend the service.  It was a really beautiful service and we got to see lots of people from our time in Summerwood ward.  We had lunch over at Ali's afterwards.  Tyler dropped in for a quick visit before heading to the airport to pick up Kortnee--he was pretty excited because he had a ring in his pocket and planned to propose to her that evening!  We were looking forward to meeting her at a family dinner at Dad's on Sunday.  She said yes when Tyler asked that night and we were so happy for them.  We headed to bed around 10 pm.

The rest of August plus Hurricane Harvey

We got home and were so excited to get a new-to-us swing set for the yard! Our neighbors that moved to New Mexico sold their home and the new owners didn't want it, so they gave it to us and we paid to have it moved to our yard. It is so fun and the kids LOVE it despite the blistering August heat. 

It got all set up on Tuesday August 15. These pics are from Wednesday Aug. 16--Candy got her cast off just in time to enjoy the new swings!

On Thursday August 17, Megan had ear surgery at TX Children's hospital.  This was the culmination of our efforts to understand why she has conductive hearing loss in spite of multiple round of ear tubes.  We met with a specialist, Dr. Alex Sweeney, who requested a CT scan of her ears and we discovered that the tiny bones that conduct sound in Megan's ear are not able to move freely.  So we scheduled a surgery in which we hoped he would be able to replace her bones with prosthetics to help improve her hearing.  Unfortunately, he was unable to do that with this surgery.  There was infection behind her ear drum and he was uncomfortable attempting to repair those tiny bones with infection present as it can lead to a complete hearing loss.  We were disappointed, but she is recovering well and we are now scheduled to meet with an audiologist and get hearing aids for our girl in the next few months.

The swing set in all it's glory!  It is perfect in our yard.

 There was a solar eclipse on Monday Aug. 21.  We went out in the backyard with our homemade viewers and were able to see the crazy shaped shadows as the eclipse went by!

We went to "Meet the Teacher" on Thursday Aug. 24, where we were all trying to stay optimistic in spite of the looming Hurricane in the gulf that was due to hit Corpus Christi the next day and then turn north to Houston.

On Friday, Aug. 25, it started raining.  At first, it was fun.  The kids had a blast playing out in the warm rain as it started coming down.

Our chubby little Emily especially enjoyed the deep water in the swale of the yard. 

We came in and stayed cozy.

It rained all day Saturday.  We woke up a few times Saturday night as the wind howled and would look out the windows at the water level in the yard. We got texts in the middle of the night from Shad, showing us that the water was licking their back door and they moved as much furniture as they could upstairs and were expecting water in their home at any time.  They miraculously made it through the night.  And on Sunday, it was still raining.  Church was cancelled, so we made our way over to Aunt Ali and Uncle Ben's for some home singing time with friends.

The rain continued all day Sunday.  And it was raining hard.  The swales began to fill up and we began to get nervous.  In the late afternoon on Sunday, we had a brief break.  It wasn't much but it was enough to allow a little bit of drainage. 

We felt so helpless.  We kept hearing about more and more people with flooded homes.  The water rose so much that we couldn't even leave Piney Point. The water was covering Mesa over the bridge.  People were being rescued from deep water all over the city.  We tried to keep the kids busy.  We did bubble baths and watched movies and gave thanks for power.  

It kept raining Monday, but let up enough that we were able to leave Piney Point again.  Here is the bridge with the water receded back down a bit.  The start of school was postponed.

Tuesday August 29 was our 5th straight day of rain.  But again, we were getting breaks that allowed drainage to keep up.  The kids enjoyed a lunch in the family room to help change things up.

We knew the storm was past that evening.  We went for a walk after dinner.  The weather was surprisingly cool and we were all happy to get out of the house.  It was crazy to see all the downed trees and water lines on the roadways.

The sun peeked out.  It was so good to see it.

Our trusty house made it through.  No water inside. 

By Wednesday Aug. 30, we were hoping to get some fresh groceries and milk.  There was a line to get in.  And after waiting in line for 20 min, they closed the store because the fridge and freezer items had spoiled after a power outage.

All of our friends were just as stir crazy as we were, so we biked up to the school to let the kids play and play.

We knew Dan would be headed out with work crews to clean up in the next few days.  There were people in need everywhere and it was hard to know how to help.  I decided to go donate blood on Aug. 31.  As the water receded, this big tree went down near the bridge by our house.

It was a pretty crazy experience.  Lots of lessons learned.  We were so thankful to come through with a dry house and with power the whole time.  We had enough food for the time that stores were closed, but fresh milk was what we missed the most.  We decided it was time to buy flood insurance.