jayne's birth story in a nutshell

i'm going to share it the same way i wrote it the day it happened 

(with some slight modifications since my mind was a tad fuzzy at the time...)

2:30 am. contractions woke me up. not painful but consistent.

4:00 am. heading to hospital (contractions already 2 1/2 min. apart)

6:00 am. Steve helping relieve some pressure during contractions (still feeling pretty good). On constant monitoring as jayne's heart rate is dropping occasionally (they tell me this is not good), my contractions are very close together, and I'm only at a 2 1/2 (yikes).

8am.-10:15am. ONE MAJOR BLUR. My water breaks and things get really intense. Some periods of no break in between contractions. Getting nervous as jayne's heart is being monitored and still having drops. Have to lie on my side in the hospital bed for rest of time to get best possible heart rate for her- and to avoid c-section. At this point I am having very intense contractions 1 min. apart and some back to back double. Steve and my mom were the best team ever, coaching me and being so supportive as I start to have transition like contractions- however, I am still only at a 5 1/2. At this point I am pretty much scared I'm going to die (not really, but really).

THUS, I opted for an epidural. The anesthesiologist was amazing. I was really scared and nervous about getting the epidural because I was worried it would slow down my progression and that I would end up having to get a c-section since jayne's little heart wasn't doing its very best.  However, I was also having incredibly strong contractions at such a relatively early stage in the game and was finding it too difficult to stay in one position while trying to manage each contraction.  The last thing I wanted was a c-section (which they said i would likely have if jayne's heart rate did not improve). Thankfully, the epidural couldn't have gone any better. I started progressing much faster as I was relaxed and could stay on my side in comfort (its hard to stay in one position without medication, as it feels more comfortable to move or walk around). It was such a relief to be totally comfortable and just let my body do its work, and it was even more of a relief to see my body progressing and jayne's heart rate doing better and better as time went by.

1:30pm. My doctor checks me and baby is at a plus 2.  Its time to push (YAY!)

2:10pm. Begin pushing. 

2:36pm. Our sweet little jayne is born!

Nothing has ever compared to the miracle we experienced with Jayne's birth. I know we were being looked down upon from above and that everything worked out properly and the way it was suppose to. Everyone's prayers and love on our behalf were felt and answered. The feeling we had seeing Jayne for the first time truly testified of God. 

Birth is such an incredible miracle. 

 Holding Jayne for the first time was the best feeling I have ever had in my life. 

welcoming baby maxwell

around 3:45 am, on september 26, i woke up with contractions, but they weren't super intense so i just got up and walked around trying to get comfy. they weren't stopping, so around 4:15 i woke my husband up {it took a good ten minutes for him to actually wake up enough to understand what i was saying} and told him what was going on. he sweetly suggested that i roll over and he'd scratch my back. i didn't think that would do the trick...but i did, and within two seconds of him scratching my back, he was asleep again. i kept trying to get comfortable but nothing was working. this went on for two more hours, until finally i decided that enough was enough. i really didn't want to get sent home from the hospital but at this point, i didn't care. if anything, we would be able to get pre-registered. i finally got danny out of bed and we threw a few essential items into the diaper bag and around 7 am we were on our way to the orem community hospital.

as soon as we arrived, my contractions basically stopped {go figure!} but we went in anyway and checked in. the nurse asked for my name, and i told her, while smiling. i'm sure she thought "she thinks she's in labor...but she's not..." they admitted me to the back, had me change into a gorgeous hospital gown, and minutes later sent a nurse into check me out.

within seconds of checking me, she said, "yup! i feel a head! you are dilated to a four so let's get you admitted and start your i.v. you are going to have a baby before you know it." we couldn't believe it.

the next few hours were a complete blur. ann {my nurse} escorted us back to the room where we would stay/deliver the baby and then she started my i.v. and called the anesthesiologist to get my epidural started. by the time he got there {around 9:30} i still wasn't in a lot of pain but the second i got my epidural...i was in heaven. people tell you epidurals are amazing, but i guess you can't fully appreciate them until you are the one receiving it. after 9:30 am, i didn't feel any pain. at all. it was amazing.

around 11 dr. judd came in and broke my water for me to speed up the process a little bit. he estimated the baby would be born around 4 pm {i was still only at a five} so he left, and danny and i just hung out. still in shock. {i think it was finally starting to sink in that we were about to become parents}

at 12:30 ann checked me again and i was at an eight. she said, "looks like this baby is coming sooner than we thought!" and she went off to call dr. judd. i decided then was a good time to call my mom and have her head over to the hospital and by the time she got there at one, my room was filled with nurses and doctors getting ready to deliver a baby.

at about 1:05 they told me to start pushing...and at 1:13 maxwell scott entered this world. it was the MOST spectacular thing that i have ever witnessed or been a part of. seeing my little boy for the first time was miraculous. i couldn't stop crying. dr. judd made fun of me, telling me i was crying more than the baby.

but seriously, it was wonderful.

i couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

the birth story of jonah.

I delivered my sweet Jonah on December 31st, 2008 at 5:50 AM,
sixteen days before his due date.
he is my second born.
he came out with my strawberry hair and his daddy's features.
his birth was really different than what i had expected it to be.
it was a natural birth.

and here is the story...

the day before jonah was born i woke up feeling as if my belly weighed an extra 100 pounds.
it was so tight and i could feel that things were changing, like maybe his head was about to come out...
that day i walked a lot, ate an oreo mcflurry, washed baby clothes,
and then i wondered if today would be the day.
but then again, he wasn't due for 16 more days.

the evening rolled around and we decided to go swimming.
it felt so good to be weightless in the water.
we went home, put our little girl to bed at about 8:30,
and it was then that i knew i was feeling "real" contractions.
i labored at home until the pain really set in.

we went into the hospital at 2 am.
i was only at a 3, so they put me in a recovery room thinking it would possibly be 10 plus more hours until he came.

shortly after, my contractions were coming hard, really hard.
i asked for my epidural, but my nurse said it was too early.
all the while i'm sure she was thinking i was such a wuss!

the hours passed...still no epidural.
those hours were almost unbearable for me.
i hadn't prepared for a natural birth at all and was in too much pain to think straight.
my husband did his best to help me get through the pain, but i remember his voice sounding so faint as i tried to take myself to another place to run from the booming contractions.

at 5:30 i told my husband that he was coming.

and coming he was...

we were in the room alone when i started to push, in fact we had been in the room alone all along.
then pam came in.
she was a calming, obviously experienced nurse, who then announced that the baby's head was in sight.

she delivered my jonah right then and there.

it was all so indescribable!
the pain, the joy, the fulfillment.
and although i hadn't planned for a natural birth, there were so many amazing things about it.
i have never felt so much in my life...physically, emotionally...
and although it went different than i had planned,
it all turned out just fine.
beautiful in fact.




the first time my daughter preslee met her new brother...

here's pam, the nurse that delivered him:)

and here are my jonah and preslee now...

p.s. just so no one is scared to deliver a baby now...my nurse was new and inexperienced, hence the unusual circumstance of jonah's birth... that probably happens one in a billion times, so don't be scared that your nurse wont give you an epidural per your request.

Luke’s Birth Story

Like most expectant mothers, by the time 40 weeks rolled around, I was ready to have my baby NOW. However, I told myself (and everyone else) that he would probably arrive late, thereby hoping to jinx him into coming early. And I guess it worked, because two days before my due date, I was up all night with regular contractions. That morning, I timed them and was thrilled to find that they were only four or five minutes apart. They weren’t too strong yet, though, so I decided to go into work (my office was 2 minutes away from the hospital).

After about an hour, the contractions started picking up the pace a little bit, and since I wasn’t having a particularly productive morning at the office (shocking, I know) I decided I might as well head over to the hospital to see if they’d admit me. I was a little afraid that the nurses would point fingers and laugh if they decided it was too early to admit me (I know you all worry about the same thing deep down) but everyone was very nice and took me seriously. They hooked me up to a monitoring station, where I sat for an hour or so sipping juice before they determined that yes, the contractions were holding steady at 3 minutes apart, but I wasn’t dilated much, so it would be better if I came back when the contractions were stronger in a few hours or so.

A little disappointed, I called my husband (not wanting to be caught driving if the contractions stepped it up), who told me that his office was having a work party at Tucanos for lunch. Spouses were invited, and while it seemed like sort of a weird thing to do to go out to lunch in early labor, we figured it was a free meal of delicious food. So we went. While there, the contractions stepped it up big time, and by the time lunch was over I was about ready to keel over from trying to look perky while wanting to yell and possibly curse every three minutes. My husband’s hand was a mangled claw from my squeezing it under the table.

However, despite the painful lunch, I didn’t want to go back to the hospital unless I was SURE this was real labor (I didn’t want to be sent home twice. Prideful, prideful). The nurses at the hospital had told me to come back when the contractions were so strong I couldn’t talk through them (I never did figure out what they meant by that, by the way. I could yell the whole time. Did that count?) So I went home and tried to take a bath. Tried to watch a movie. But I wanted to die, so I figured that was good enough and went back to the hospital.

They admitted me, thank all that is holy, and things progressed pretty rapidly from there. The epidural wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d thought it would be. In fact, after it was placed I told my husband how much I loved it every five minutes or so for the rest of labor. Only a few hours passed, and I was ready to push. So I pushed. And then pushed some more. And some more. After three hours, they decided my baby just wasn’t angled right, wasn’t going to come on his own, and they needed to do a C-section.

The rest is a little bit of a blur, since by then it was 2 a.m., but after some slicing and dicing and some pain-killer that didn’t quite work, I heard the song I’d been waiting to hear: baby boy’s cry. I’m sure I’ll never forget the moment my husband brought him over and let me see his little face. I think the phrase “all worth it” sums it up pretty well.

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Bonnie and Amanda!

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Congrats!

{and sorry for the late announcement}