Birth Story

Here is our family! Our baby girl's name is

Julie Taylor

Here she is during her nap this morning, trying to get her to sleep like this during the night!

Her she is in her going home outfit

Our little pink girl in her swing!

Well, it all started probably Saturday when I noticed my Braxton Hicks contractions were lasting longer and closer together. They were around 5 minutes apart but not painful, just the tightening of my stomach. Then on Sunday they were still the same, we stayed home from church and around 3:30p.m. after I woke up from my nap, they started to hurt a little bit. They were still around 5 minutes apart lasting 60 seconds. We went to my parents house for dinner and I didn't eat that much knowing that I could have this baby soon. I kept having contractions and when I was at my last doctors appointment he said to go the hospital when you have been having contractions for about an hour at 3-4 minutes apart lasting 60 seconds or your water breaking.

So having them like that pretty much all day long, I didn't know for sure when to go, so we got ready for bed, I wasn't sure if I was even going to be able to lay down to sleep, but I got a towel out of the closet to lay on the bed just in case my water broke. At 11:00p.m. I jumped into bed and found out that sleep was not going to happen tonight, I could not lay down through the contractions, and 5 minutes after getting into bed, I felt this popping inside my stomach and then a gush of water come out. Rob was in the other room and I told him, we need to go to the hospital because my water just broke. I went to the bathroom and then Rob loaded up the car while I got ready to go. We headed out and got to the hospital around 11:30p.m., we got a room and my doctor was actually in the room next to us just finishing delivering a baby, so he came over afterwards and checked me. Dilated to 3cm, and 90% effaced. After my water broke my contractions were not quite so bad. I was hoping to be dilated a little bit more.
There was a little meconium in the amniotic fluid, the doctor was not to worried, but because of that I had to be straped up to the monitor for 15 minutes every hour. My contractions were still every 3-5 minutes and I was having AWFUL back labor. They put an IV in but I asked to have it not hooked up to anything. I was bound and determined to have this baby 100% natural, and I heard an IV could slow you down even further. So, the back labor was the worst pain I have ever felt and Rob would try to help put pressure on my back and it just wasn't helping, so I pretty much did it myself. EVERY 5 MINUTES! The hours went by pretty quick though. Those 15 minutes strapped up on the monitor came by quicker than I thought. It is amazing how quick you forget the pain, I really don't remember the pain of the contractions, just the pain in my back. Every hour they would check me and I was 1 cm dilated more every time the checked. And during almost every contraction, I just remember saying I can't do this anymore, it is so painful. But, then it would pass. During three of the contractions I threw up from the pain. I would hurry and yell to Robert to grab the container to through up in and I hate throwing up. Not fun.
At one point I tried using the birthing ball to rock on, but what I liked was just to sit on the edge of the bed and rock back and forth while holding my back. It got to be morning and still no baby. Just slow going. There was one point where they checked me and I told Robert if I was only an 8 I was going to cry. They checked me and guess what, an 8. One cm every one to two hours, ahhhh, they would ask me if I still did not want any medicine and I would say no. I was trying really hard to relax through the contractions, but with the back labor that was nearly impossible. At one point they asked if I wanted to try any different positions to see if the baby would turn, so I got on my hands and knees which might have been slightly better but didn't help in getting the baby off of my spine.
Rob was worried that I was going to get dehydrated so he asked if they could put some IV fluids in me, and so they did. I was pretty exhausted and tired and those ice chips were not enough.
My doctor came in to see how I was doing in the morning and I think I was around 9 cm dilated and there was still a little part of the cervix that was not thinned out all the way that they were waiting for it to thin. Uggh! So then I get to a 9.5, but I could not push because of that little part of my cervix that would not thin. There was one point where the contractions were not letting me rest, they were just constantly coming. And then once I got around a 9.5 cm dilated the doctor decided to put me on some pitocin so that they would come quicker and stronger to see if that would help thin me out the rest of the way. They were pretty much right on top of each other and so when they wanted to check me I would lay down, and then another contraction would come and I would have to hurry and lift myself up to a sitting position, the pain of the back labor was even worse lying down. Lying down was so much worse than sitting up was. I was to the point where I had the urge to push but I couldn't, I just had to blow through them. That was super hard, it is so hard to not bear down when the urge to push comes. I think that lasted for about an hour.I don't know quite how accurate everything is near the end, I was concentrating on the pain and my breathing that I forget. Everytime they would check me I would just pray that the little part of my cervix would be thinned, but it wasn't. They finally called the doctor to see if I could just start pushing. He said yes, and what a relief. So, they got everything ready and I started pushing, but it wasn't until the doctor came in that things started moving. The baby's head was tilted a little. There was one point while pushing where I would have my eyes closed and then I opened them and there was two other nurses in there, everyone was cheering me on. Kind of strange and nice at the same time. The last set of pushes I did without a contraction and our sweet baby was born at 12:33p.m.

The nurse told me that when the baby is delivered that they were not going to make her cry, because of the meconium that was in my amniotic fluid, they needed to suction her mouth out, so she would not suck any into her lungs. Well, when her head came out she made a small little cry, and the doctor had to hurry and suction her out. I also was not stretching to get the baby out so the doctor had to cut me a little. The pressure from the baby coming out was a weird feeling and then I had to wait until the next contraction to push again. Labor is definitely hard work, there is no doubt about that, but when you see that sweet little baby afterwords everything is all worth it. I wasn't able to hold my baby until after they cleaned her off and Rob brought her over and set her on my chest. She seemed heavier than I thought she would be. She was my angel sent from heaven, it was special.
My labor from when my water broke was 13 hours long. And I was able to have my whole labor 100% natural. I just didn't want to put any drugs into my body. I am glad that I prepared myself for a natural delivery.
After an hour I held my baby as they wheeled us up to our room. All of the labor and delivery nurses we had were awesome, and also the nurses on the third floor. We stayed for 48 hours after the delivery in the hospital, and we were ready to go home.
My back hurt for a day or two afterwords, it felt like it should have been black and blue, and then I was washing my face and putting lotion on and my cheekbones were sore. I finally figured it was from pushing, made me laugh thinking I have sore face muscles from pushing.
Life is so fun, the only complaint is the lack of sleep. Before the baby was born I would usually get around 8 hours of interrupted sleep, I usually only had one potty break. I slept pretty soundly throughout my whole pregnancy. And since the baby, I have only got around 2 hours of sleep every night, Ugggh, so not fun. And I have obviously been on my feet to long, since my feet look like elephant feet this morning, so I had to put on some gray socks.
We took her home on Wednesday the 27th, my actual due date, and it was yucky smoggy outside. She fit into her carseat pretty well.

Here is the proud father, Rob has been super in helping out and you can just see it in his face how happy he is and in love with his daughter. He is so cute with her. I love him so much for all he does for our family.

Rob right after Julie was born and cleaned off!

She's Here!

Hello everyone, we are excited to announce the arrival of our daughter, yet to be named! She was born at 12:33p.m., and weighed 7lbs 12.7oz, and has black hair, which I think might be curly. And she was 21 inches long.

I will tell the birth story in a few days. For now, here are some pictures. Don't judge, we were soooooooo tired!

39 weeks!

Whoa, I can't even believe I am 39 weeks! That is just super crazy! But, here I am. My wonderful neighbors on each side of us gave me a baby shower last Friday with the ladies in my ward. It was great fun, and I got lots of fun stuff. Two things we got were a swing and a bouncer, both of which we had not purchased yet, because we could not decide what we wanted, so instead someone chose for us. We set them up the next day and now our front room has the swing in one corner and the bouncer and also our car-seat. Looks like we are expecting a baby, HaHa!

My doctors appointment went well today, measuring 38 cm, the heartbeat was good. I am dilated to 1.5 cm, same as last week and effaced the same as well. Basically, I am just waiting for my body to start into labor. The nurse tells me I have the perfect pregnancy, which I am grateful for. My doctor is also in my ward and told me that I should have the baby around 7:00a.m. Sunday morning, because he has a meeting. I told him I will work on it. In the words of Robert, I could explode at any time now. And that I could!
This just might be my last weekly picture, but I will take one final picture before we leave for the hospital. So here I am at 39 weeks:

I feel like I am getting smaller or looking smaller at least. That could be the fact that the baby is down in my pelvis really low, just waiting to make her grand entrance.
I have two more days of work left, and then I am taking about three months off, and then I will finish up the school year. It will be strange not heading off to work every morning at 6:10a.m., I think I will really miss it. Especially the kids, they are always so happy, ALL THE TIME. Even when your not in the greatest mood, it doesn't effect their mood, these kids are just so positive and happy. What a great job!
It is harder to move around on the bus, I just get so sore since the baby has dropped so low. I am ready to just stay home and rest until this baby comes. Not much longer now.

38 weeks!

Well, I am 38 weeks and I have half my bag packed. Rob has been getting on me to get this done and I have just been slowly gathering things to put in there. I guess my thinking is, once the bag is packed the baby will come, so maybe I am just holding off so the baby won't come. Although I know it will come whether the bag is packed or not.

I think Rob is more excited than I am, he just keeps saying it will be so much fun when the baby is here. The baby is still moving around like crazy, which is how it should be. This past week I have noticed that the tips of my fingers on my right hand go numb and tingly in the morning and right before bedtime. It is really strange (doctor says it is a form of pregnancy carpal tunnel).
38 weeks:

I went to the doctor today and everything is going well. I gained the pound I lost last week, the heartbeat is good. I found out that I am 80% effaced and 1.5 cm dilated. The baby is also really low, at a 0 station, which means that my labor should be short. Wahoo, I am all for short labors! The doctor says my body has been doing what it needs to.
So, now I have just been cleaning around the house and getting everything organized. Who knows when this baby will make her appearance. My prediction is I will have her on the 25th, that is my guess.
Well, that is my update and now I am off to bed.
Good Night!

37 weeks!

21 days to go! My back is starting to hurt a little more if I don't sit up properly. I had a week and a half break from work for the holidays and started back up on Monday. It felt like I had been off forever, but I wasn't looking forward to going back to work either. I don't get as much sleep, it is just so hard to get to bed early. So, I take a few naps during the day when I can. I do not like getting up so early.

I had my doctors appointment today and everything is still looking good. I have stayed about the same weight all week and from what the doctor says I lost a pound this week. And, I also went from 37 cm last week to 36 cm this week. The heartbeat is good, my blood pressure is good and actually went down. I am not swelling, the baby is head down(he said that he could definitely tell where the head was and the legs), and everything is normal. Hoorah! He said I could go any time, now that I am FULL-TERM. I could have had him check me to see how much I was dilated and effaced, but since there really was no change and everything is looking good I decided to wait until next week for that.

Rob is getting SUPER excited, it is so cute to see him so excited. I am excited as well, and nervous. But, I just keep telling myself I can do it! I CAN!
I still have yet to really pack my bags. Any suggestions that I should stick in there that you mama's out there loved to have at the hospital?
I turned in my papers for Family leave and will work up until the 22, unless the baby decides to come before then. I feel very fortunate to have had such a wonderful pregnancy, and I just hope the delivery will go just as smoothly.

Just after Thanksgiving I made this hat for my sister. It is a kid size hat, but I modified it and added a row onto it and it turned out really cute. Now I just need to make a cute little flower that she can wear with it. She is so cute!

36 Weeks!

36 weeks! I had my doctors appointment on Tuesday and I am measuring 37 cm. My blood pressure is slowly going up(meaning from the low seventies when I had my first doctors appt. to the mid 80's at my last appt.), but nothing to worry about unless I notice swelling and I have a frontal headache and side pains around my liver. Nothing new to report really, I am feeling great, sleeping good, and moving around well. The baby seems to always have the hiccups. She is still poking her legs out the side of me. I have 4 weeks left, we are all so excited for this baby and I just hope everything goes well. I really never thought I would get to this point, well I knew I would eventually, but it just seems crazy that it is finally here. So very strange.

I am enjoying this whole week off from work, I go back on the 4th. My plans are to work until the week of my due date. I was going to work a week into January, but if I am feeling good I want to use all my days off after the baby rather than before. We shall see how it goes.

My doctor gave me permission to just lay around, and I did just that Tuesday afternoon after my doctors appointment. My stomach was kind of hurting and I was not feeling the greatest after dinner, so I took a nap on the couch. Then I got up and made Rob and I a smoothie. Yum!
I am slowly getting everything out of the nursery room that doesn't belong in there. Slow process, but it will be done before this baby gets here. I still need to go pick up some paint and finish some wall projects for the room.
On Monday, we went to Robs parents and made another Gingerbread house. Brian and Jackson were over there and they helped with the house as well. It turned out cute.

There was one point that the wall on the left side was falling in and so my mother in law helped pull it back up and we secured it with more frosting. It was fun to make another gingerbread house.

Christmas and Maternity Pictures

We had a great Christmas this year! On Christmas Eve, Rob and I went to Mendon. We visited his Aunt and then went over to his brothers house and Rob and his brother went 4-wheeling all around their yard, having a grand old time. While they were having fun outside I was inside with Heidi making Gingerbread cookies and chatting. We had a good time. Rob came inside pretty frozen.

We headed over to Robs parents house and had Papa John's pizza and visited, we also decorated the Gingerbread men that we had made earlier. At 8:00 we grabbed all of our stuff and headed over to North Logan to my parents. We first headed home and grabbed all of our stuff to spend the night. When we got to my parents house, they were watching Santa Claus 2, and then after that we watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The movie was okay, but I really did not like it. After that movie it was pretty late and so we all got ready for bed. Rob and I were able to sleep in a bed this year(years before we would sleep on an air mattress), which was nice, but I still woke up 4 times during the night from my legs hurting. You get used to your own bed after a while and then it is hard to sleep comfortably anywhere else. Plus, the fact that I am pregnant doesn't help either. Finally, at 6:50a.m. I decided to get up and go downstairs to wait for everyone else. My younger brother and sister were already awake. I ate a little bit of breakfast as we waited for everyone else to venture out of bed. By 8:30 we were all up and ready to go. So, we headed upstairs to the awaiting tree and presents. Here is a picture of my younger brother and sister chilling before everyone else got up.

And here is Rob and I once we got upstairs. We missed having my sister and her husband with us, it was their year to spend with his family.

All of the presents are numbered and so we have to guess what number we are. After we figure out our numbers then we start handing out the presents.

After all the present are handed out we take turns opening one present at a time. We have not always done it this way. I think we started this last year, I really like it this way. It makes it so you can see what everyone gets as you go around the room. Rob and I only had a few presents so we skipped ourselves a few times before opening ours.
My brother had our name for Christmas this year, he always gives such unique and clever gifts so I was excited to open his gift to see what he gave us. Just as expected, unique. He gave us a ceramic plate with a face on it that you can decorate with your food. Our kids are going to have fun with this plate. We might just have to get some more when we have more kids.

The kids went in together and got a Wrench/Socket set for my dad. Here they are putting all the pieces in the right places. There was about 150 pieces.

We all got some fun presents. After opening our gifts, my mom made waffles and we had a late breakfast. After breakfast we decided to head home to get ready. Before getting ready though, we opened our presents at home. After opening our presents to each other we got ready and headed over to Mendon to Robs parents house. We visited, opened gifts, and we also watched Star Trek.
What a wonderful Christmas to spend time with the people you love.
On the 26th, I decide to put all of our Christmas decorations away. This is the soonest I have ever put Christmas stuff away. But, with the baby coming in a month or less, I wanted to have everything cleaned and taken care of. So, down it went. We went over to Mendon again and spent time with my sister in law and two of her kids(her husband and little daughter were not able to make it, they were home sick. We sure missed them and just hope they get feeling better SOON!)that came down. We had some yummy dinner and then chatted away and played a few games of Monopoly Deal. We headed home about 11:00p.m.

Maternity Pictures
We went down to Salt Lake two weeks ago for an appointment and stopped at my brother and sister in laws to visit and spend the night. We also were able to get some maternity pictures taken. I love how they turned out. This first silhouette picture, we had to really hurry for this one. It was so freezing cold, it was literally done in less than 10 minutes. It was taken in front of the Provo Temple.

This next one is kind of fun, if you notice there is a bus in the background. School was just letting out when we were taking these and Heather got this picture with the school bus in the background. I work on a Special Needs bus, and so it was just so fitting that one of the pictures had a bus in it. I think it is even a special needs bus too.
(And if anyone is wanting to know where I got my shirt, just go to www.milanmaternity.com)

I just love the colors in these pictures, the blue sky, the white mountains, the field, everything just is so stunning. Just beautiful!

We also got some inside shots(where it was nice and warm).

This next one just makes me laugh, Rob was being funny and talking to the baby saying,"Hi, Baby" with his lips all puckered like he does when he says good bye to me and the baby in the morning when I go to work. He is just so cute and I just couldn't stop laughing. He is going to be a great father!

When I look at these pictures I realize that I don't look that big for being 34 weeks pregnant.

I saw this next picture on one of Heathers sample sheets and just had to have her do one like it. I just love how it show the span of pregnancy in months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. And now we are anxiously awaiting the day of our little ones arrival.

And one last picture! I love them, thank you so much Heather for these, they turned out awesome!
www.heathertaylorphoto.com

35 Weeks and Family Parties!

This week we had two family party's on the same day. Kind of crazy! The first was my side of the family. It was at 1:00p.m. and we were only able to stay for the food, and then headed out around 3:00p.m. for our drive to Lehi for our next party at 5:30p.m. The drive was good, except for the air quality was AWFUL once we got out of the canyon and hit Brigham City. SMOG!! Oh gross, you could smell it and feel it going through your lungs. It was making my eyes burn. Once we got to Ogden it cleared up and then we came to a hault, slow traffic from a semi that tipped over on an overpass and spilled its load on the traffic below. The truck was carrying onions, once we got past that traffic picked back up and we hit a another patch of smoginess around Salt Lake. We got to Lehi about 15 minutes before 5:30 and we were the first people to arrive along with Robs parents and sister and brother in law. We had such a good time visiting, eating, and playing a fun game of Bingo. We left about 9:00p.m. for our drive home. We headed onto I-215, and it started to get foggy, and then we headed onto Legacy highway, which was really bad. I thought I was going to get a headache from squinting just watching those white lines on the road. It was nice though since there was hardly any traffic to worry about. Once we got off Legacy and into Ogden it was pretty clear the rest of the way home. I was so grateful for that since I was planning on it being even worse there because of our earlier drive. But, smooth sailing the rest of the way home arriving home just a little bit after 11:00p.m. It was a long drive, but we had a good time and are glad that we went.
At church on Sunday we had a wonderful Christmas program. The choir and congregation, and they also had violins and organ and piano, sang the opening song. It was amazing, the feeling that was felt was so awesome. Such a great way to start out the meeting. And the rest of the program was very well put together. I just wish it would have lasted longer.
I had two days of work this week, and now I don't have to go back until Jan 4, I am so excited and then I think I will only work for a week or two after that. Hopefully I can get everything organized and cleaned over my break.
Well, I am now 35 weeks and down to 5 weeks to go. HOLY MOLEY, kind of crazy. I am feeling good. I have noticed I am starting to swell a little bit in my legs. I think this baby sleeps at night and is awake ALL day long, because she is CONSTANTLY moving. Hopefully she will stay that way after she is born. I have never woken up to her kicking me during the night, actually I have never really woken up to anything baby related during the night. I sleep better than Robert does. And my muscle aches have basically completely gone away, which I am grateful for.

Everybody knows that my husband is tall and skinny, so it is probably no big shocker to find out that I weigh more than him now. What a SAD SAD day, I have been trying to fatten him up but it is hard to put weight on that kid. I knew I would probably end up weighing more than him anyways, with the weight the doctor recommended me gaining. So, oh well!
I usually have one time period during the day where I just feel absolutely drained, no energy whatsoever. But, it does not last very long.
Here is my 35 week picture:

So, now the baby and I are basically in the gaining weight mode. She should be about 5 1/4 pounds right now and about 18" long.

34 weeks!

34 weeks! We went down south this last weekend to visit family and get maternity pictures taken. And we also went to Baby's R Us to get a car seat and other baby items. We got the new Graco Snugride 35. I am just glad we finally have a car seat. We have been getting everything ready for the big day, whenever it arrives. I am not quite as sore as I was, I think it depends on what I do or don't do, meaning the walks everyday that have slowly dwindled to nothing. Those walks sure have made a difference. While in Baby's R Us, there was a point halfway through that my stomach just started to hurt and walking made it worse, so I was walking around really slow. It kind of made me nervous. So, we purchased our items and got something to eat at Subway and headed back to my brother and sister n laws. It was better by then, but it was sure weird. We went up Thursday and headed home Friday around 6:30p.m. which I am glad we came home when we did. The next day the snow hit and I sure didn't want to drive home in that. We had a fabulous time visiting and playing with the kids.

And I have taken my wedding ring off since my fingers are getting fatter. I usually take it off when I put lotion on and I have to put lotion around my knuckle to even get the ring to come off. It is kind of depressing. I will have to find me a cheap one to wear until I can wear my wedding ring again. Hopefully that won't be too long.

At my doctors appointment on Monday, everything is looking good. I am measuring 34 cm, which is right on, and I am gaining the weight that I need to. The doc says I should be feeling some contractions now, although I already have the Braxton Hicks contractions all the time. He also said if I go into labor after 35 weeks he won't stop me. I have 6 weeks left or less if I come early. I have not gotten any stretch marks which I am excited about. Not that anyone will ever see, just means I have elastic skin. I am feeling much better, not so sore anymore. The doctor said it could be from getting too much calcium. Plus, I think a big part of it is the exercise, I noticed a huge difference since not being very consistent in my walking and prenatal exercising. So, I have got to stick with that. My next appointment is in two weeks and then every week after that.

33 Weeks!

I am 33 weeks, which is really starting to scare me. I only have 7 weeks to go, ahhhhh! When did that happen. I am really not ready. When I think about how little time we have left and how much I still need to get done, is when I start to get nervous about everything. I only have one package of diapers and I didn't even buy them, we got them as a gift. Time to kick it into gear.

I am still feeling it though, maybe because I haven't walked at all this week and only one time last week. The temperature went very cold and I just haven't gotten down on the treadmill. This week I had to have Rob help me put on my socks and shoes for me and tie them up. The baby is still rolling around and moving like crazy, which is fun. Her foot or something always pokes out of the right side of me and I have to push it back. I am still sleeping good, which is a good thing. Now, I just need to learn to go to bed earlier since I have to get up so early.

Rob and I started a gingerbread house, and we finally finished it this week. Rob came with me to Sam's Club and he wanted to get this gingerbread house so we could make it and then he could eat it. Well, he can't eat it just yet, but it was so easy to make and does look pretty yummy.

I finally got my hair cut, not any off the length, just layered a bit and thinned in the back. I had her show me how to use the flat iron to curl it and whoa, it was puffy curly. She put a relaxer in it and said it would calm down pretty good in about an hour. I came home and just wasn't liking the curls so I pulled it up. Plus, I had to go to a YW activity at 7:00p.m. and didn't want hair like that, so this is how it ended up. I will have to play with it a little to get it how I like it. I told her I would be back in two months to get it chopped again. After a year of not getting my hair cut, it was really damaged on the ends and needed a cut badly.

We did get our Christmas tree up, and that's about it. I also put out one Nativity also. I just didn't want to do any more than that. So, this year I am just keeping it simple. I am really bummed that Q92 has not been playing very many Christmas songs, so if you like to listen to Christmas songs during Christmas, turn your radio station to 103.3fm or 1390am for Christmas music all the time. Love it!