Thanks to a wonderful little reminder from my loving father, I remembered that I have a blog. Haha. Things have been insane around here, being new parents and all.
Our beautiful daughter joined our family on January 31 2010, in all of her 7lbs 10 oz, 19in long, glory. I knew she would come in January. Not many people believed me, and said it was just wishful thinking. Truth be told, I wasn't miserable. Even in those last days, I just got really excited for her to come. I did think of trying to induce labor on my own but before you go flippin on me, let me explain. I was a little tired of being so big and tired but I only thought of it because I wanted to have her here and to hold her in my arms (and to see what our babies look like...of course). But I never did...mainly because I wanted her to be as healthy as possible. Well, that and my mom said that I needed to do 2 things. 1. Take a picture of myself so she can see what I look like so close to my due date(picture to the left is of me the day before my water broke). and 2. Take it very very easy as to not make the baby come any sooner than she was supposed to.
So I know that most of you know the story already so I'll try to keep this less long ;-)
In this, I've learned many things. One of which is to be very careful what you pray for. Once you are truly willing to submit to the Lord's will...it happens. Jan. 30th I was saying a prayer and I told my Heavenly Father that I really did think that she would come in January, but I didn't anymore, but when she comes I will know that it was when she was supposed to. Well, my water broke at about 9:30am January 31st. The whole water-breaking experience was actually quite confusing and anti-climatic. First off, my water broke while I was going to the bathroom and it was just a little gush...so I couldn't do the tests that they suggest to tell if it really did break. We decided to go to the hospital because I was pretty sure that I'd never had that happen so 99.9% sure baby was coming. I didn't really feel rushed, I still took a shower after, and totally shaved my legs too! Haha. It did help that the hospital was only a 5 minute car ride from home...if even. Funny thing is that I finished packing my hospital bag the night before. Every time I bent down or moved, a little more would gush...awkward feeling by the way.
When we went out to the car Casey Lee was in the parking lot and looked at us very suspiciously. Jim was holding the carseat and a little duffle bag, obviously something was up. He asked us how we were doing and what was going on. Jim said nothing much, and Casey commented back with "so you just take the empty carseat and a duffle around for fun?" we all laughed and I replied, "we think my water broke so we are on the way to the hospital" Then Casey exclaimed"Now that's what I'm talkin about!!" It was quite comical.
When I got out of the car at the hospital the big gush gush happened...I told Jim that the baby is coming. I don't think he fully believed me, like maybe I was mistaken, because he wanted to leave the hospital bag in the car. I told him that really, we won't be leaving real soon. So he brought it in but I'm pretty sure it was just to humor me.
So they took me to th
e room where I would deliver and my worst fear about the hospital came true when my first nurse Crista took like 5 pokes to get my IV in...NOT fun. :-( and when she did get it in, it was in an awkward spot so it hurt to hold Jim's hand and the other hand was bruised from where she tried to get it into so it hurt to hold his hand with that one too. NOT COOL. She wasn't very friendly and said she was new so she was worried about doing things correctly. (*translation: I'm worried about myself right now, I don't have time to think about being sympathetic to you.) When Jim and I first got in there, we could hear screaming coming from next door...Crista said"sorry, there is a natural delivery going on in the next room. I knew at that moment that the odds of me doing this with no drugs was slim.
I wasn't contracting so she started me on Pitocin (forgot how to spell it.) I had to go to the bathroom like 5 times and then she finally came in and told me that I couldn't be off the monitor while I was on pitocin. I was thinkin...ok lady, I have to poop, and I'm not about to do that in my bed so if you have to watch me-FINE. but I'm finishing my business. (**they don't like you to be off the monitor because when you deliver, it feels like you have to poop, and if you push too soon then it can really harm the baby, but I really did need to poop. and I'm glad that I finished because that was probably why I didn't poop on my doctor :-D haha. sorry if that's over-sharing.**) Then my contractions started getting really hard and Jim noticed that my pitocin went up abnormally fast. compliments of Crista I'm sure. :-P but holy cow they got really hard really fast. We asked for something to take the edge off, and it worked for a little bit but then it wore off before she could give me more and they hurt twice as bad.
Jim was so sweet the whole time. I felt bad that it hurt him to see me in pain, but he held it together quite well. He would hold my hand and breathe with me through my contractions and tell me I was doing great when I'm sure I looked pathetic. After the pain killer wore off, Crista was gone for a while, and next thing I know, Emily shows up. In their absence Jim and I decided that I needed the epidural. Emily was my new nurse. She rushed to get the doctor that gave me the epidural and was back in like 5 minutes...just in time to help Jim keep me from hyperventilating and to keep me still for the epidural. I didn't feel a thing when he gave it to me. He told me that I would feel kind of tingly and then a warm sensation, and I did. Then I didn't feel pain from another contraction after that. It was amazing! I could still lift my legs and wiggle my toes, and feel pressure, but no pain.
From that point on it was just waiting until it was time to push, so Jim and I tried to watch an episode of MacGyver. I couldn't really concentrate because I was so hungry. Then Emily came in and said it was time to push. I was shocked...it was really happening! In a little bit, we would have a daughter. CRAZY! I was way excited...and a lot less nervous now that I didn't feel pain. :-) I was also surprised because the doctor wasn't here. She said that they come in in time to catch the baby, sew you up and then they are done. So we started pushing when I would contract, turns out, its really good that I could feel the pressure because they couldn't get a good reading for when I was contracting. Let me just say, 10 seconds never seemed like so long until I had to push for 10 seconds twice at a time. I got so nauseous I was really glad I didn't sneek food because I would have thrown it up for sure. I got the mirror at the end of the bed so I could see everything that was going on. WEIRD! I could see my little girl playing peek-a-boo before she even came out. cool...but weird. When I'd push her head would come out a little bit, then go back in, then out, and....back in. I thought I was never going to get her out. I could even see her moving her head when I wasn't pushing...way weird! Haha. 2 hours later...still pushing. exhausted...then Dr. Broadbent comes in and says, one more push Karisa. I'm thinkin...funny...there is no way that there is only one more push. Sure enough 5 minutes later...we have a beautiful baby girl :-)
When Dr. Broadbent pulled her out, my first thought was "why isn't she crying?" then "so that's what they look like when they come out?" then I heard it; my little girl crying. She sounded like she was cold and shivering. It wasn't the typical scream that you hear on television when they come out...but a mellow shivering. It was so sweet. Just like her. :-) Then when they handed her to me. I thought for sure I would cry, and being quite honest...I kind of tried to cry but it didn't happen. I was so happy, I looked at her and felt a rush of intense love rush through me. And then I got to stare into her eyes and then all I could think was "where on earth did that nose come from?"
She took it upon herself to be named Angela Rose Clemens instead of our predetermined Juliet. She is most definitely not a Juliet :-) and Angela Rose suits her perfectly. I kind of knew that that would happen too. :-) I couldn't really see me calling my daughter Juliet, and I'm assuming that is because she wasn't going to be a Juliet. I looked at her and then told Jim, she doesn't look like a Juliet. He thought she kind of did, but I didn't at all. So we called her Juliet and she started crying. Then we said Angela and she stopped. Then we said Juliet again, she started crying again. Haha. The girl knew what she wanted fresh out of the womb. Then it was the matter of choosing a middle name...that took a while.
I asked the nurse if I should try and feed her, she said that it can't hurt. Angela latched on wonderfully. I was so relieved after that. Then they took her to go clean her off and Jim went with them to take pictures. Emily helped me get to the recovery room and get settled and gave me lots of cookies...which I so fully deserved after not eating from 6am to 10pm. I also asked the nurse to bring me some food so she brought me soup, crackers, a sandwich, and jello. I ate the sandwich and crackers and Jim ate the Jello.
So there I was, sitting there thinking..."where on earth is my husband and my baby...?" I was waiting for about a half an hour before they came in. Jim said that he would have been there sooner but they told him he could rock her in the rocking chair so he did that instead of checking on me so soon. It was so cute I couldn't really hold that against him. Then he said he was hungry so he went to get McDonald's and got me some too.
I love her so very much.She is so beautiful and growing so fast!
