Grace's Birth Story...

Sorry it has taken so long to get this written...life just flips all over for the first little bit after a new little one joins the family...no matter how prepared you think you might be!

We had our doctor's appointment on Dec. 20th and I asked him if there was a chance that I would go into labor on Christmas. He said that things weren't really progressing but that since I have had 2 already...it could happen fast and so he wasn't going to say no to a Christmas birth possibility. Although he did comfort me in the fact that he was the lucky one on call for Christmas. (there is a Doctor story here...but that will have to be posted after the fact since I fear this post will already be a long one!) So that weekend we joked that I would go into labor and be in the hospital and Josh would be left curling Maddie's hair for the dance recital. All of course went well and we made it through the weekend.

Sunday came and so did some contractions so I stayed down and took it easy until Christmas day. Santa brought a Wii and of course I had to play! I don't know if it was Grace's determination to come as close to Christmas day as she could or Wii Bowling that did it but by 10:00 that night I was having contractions every 10 minutes or so. I knew that the hospital wouldn't do anything when they were that far apart. So I called my family and put them on the alert that they could get a call sometime soon and to be ready.

By 11:30 the contractions were still happening but not consistently so I called them back and told them that things were probably fine and that I would call in the morning. I got ready for bed, fell asleep and then was quickly woken up at 2:30 with more contractions. So I laid there in bed trying not to wake up Josh thinking that they were nothing. But they were now every 3-5 minutes and were starting to hurt a little more. So I woke Josh up, called my parents, and we sat in bed watching the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire (NOTHING is on at 2:30 in the morning...but something has to take your mind off the pain!) until I couldn't take it anymore. I got dressed and we grabbed the kids and headed off to the hospital.

They put me in the closet...I mean triage room/"we want to see if you are serious about delivering a baby or not" room and quickly found out that I was very serious and they quickly admitted me in at 5 cm! GO ME!!! Just kidding! We had a great laugh with the nurses that we had missed the dreaded Christmas day baby senario as they strapped me to every gadget in the room. I sat in the bed trying to smile through each contraction because little nurse Maddie would start to panic if I showed the slightest look of pain. (Please get here fast Mom and Dad!) I realized that I wasn't going to be able to smile much longer and had the anesthesiologist come and work his magic. (I have never had a friendly one...you would think that someone who comes and takes your pain away would be more pleasant considering the gift they have but nope! Oh well, I quit hurting!) My doctor was supposed to be leaving to go out of town but stayed because he heard I was in labor and came in to check me. He said we should be seeing a baby in 45 min to 1 hour. So I had Josh on the phone telling my parents to hurry hurry hurry! They made it and 20 minutes later we were ready for a baby! 3 pushes and she was here. It was the shortest labor/delivery I have ever had. She was checked and given a clean bill of health. Josh brought her over to me and I couldn't stop crying. My brother and sister brought the kids in once everything was done and Maddie couldn't wait to hold her...Hayden didn't even notice anything had happened. I am so thankful that it was a smooth delivery. Everything fell right into place and happend perfectly. Grace fits perfectly into our family. She is a great baby. She sleeps well (even through all of the noise) and is so patient (so far!) I am so grateful that she has joined our family and I realize just how blessed I am.

**Doctor story...for anyone still reading and not sleeping!! My first doctor's visit when I realized I was pregnant was with a Dr. Smith (name changed just in case!). I went in and had my appointment and that night was a girls night and I was talking with one of my friends in the ward and she mentioned Dr. Smith's name. I said "Oh, I just went and saw him." She looked at me and said "He is in our ward. His wife is the primary president!!" Some people are fine with seeing OB/GYNs that are in the ward, there are actually a few in our ward who go to him...but I am not one of those people. To me OB/GYNs are to be seen in an office and no where else!!! I wanted to switch but didn't want to hurt his feelings. So I went to another appointment or two where they just talk to you...but then I ran into him on the way out of Sacrament Meeting and I just realized I couldn't do it. So I talked to the receptionist in the office and come to find out my Dad's friend from high school was also a Dr. there and I switched. Fast forward to delivery day...my Dr. was on call through Christmas. After that he was off...and Dr. Smith was the new Dr. on call. The problem was that my Dr. would be out of town and I would have to go with Dr. Smith for the delivery. So we hoped that everything would work out and it did!! Grace made it at the last second! Dr. Smith did have to discharge me from the hospital but he only came in, asked how I was doing and then left me a prescription and off he went!