The Grimmett's: A Baby Story: Miley Marie

So, most of you know births are messy! If you have a weak stomach or are grossed out by blood or details about needles (Kate!), etc. don't say I didn't warn you!!!!!

Let's start on back on Thursday, May 10! On Thursday morning, I wrote about how my contractions had stopped the night before but that morning they had picked back up. On Thursday afternoon, I planted flowers in my front yard, then weeded my back yard for 4 1/2 hours!!! I filled up our whole yard debris bin plus four black garbage bags! When I finally finished, my contractions were definitely noticeable! They continued through the night but I still wasn't ready to go in yet. Shaun decided to work from home on Friday just in case it was the day. We played our Friday morning like a normal day. Maisey went to preschool and I brought Maisey's preschool teacher's son home with me. I took Gage and Brody for a long walk that morning. I picked Maisey up from school, fed the kids lunch and put them down for naps. I took a nap Friday afternoon as well, I was exhausted from the yard work, being up all night with contractions the night before, and my looooong morning walk. When I woke up, my friend offered to take the kids to her house for a while to play. Since we didn't have the kids, Shaun and I decided to head to the outlet mall and walk around some more. My contractions were getting stronger, but I could still totally walk and talk through them. After the mall, Shaun went and got the kids and took them on a "date" and my mom and I went to Costco. We saw a lady from my ward there and she was like "You haven't had this baby yet?" I didn't say anything about having contractions because I didn't want to get anybody's hopes up. But I was thinking to myself, "Hopefully tonight!!!" As we went through Costco, I actually had to stop during my contractions but they were still about eight minutes apart. After we finished up, my mom took me to dinner at a burger place. I mentioned to her something about hoping I don't regret eating here if I ended up going to the hospital that night. On the way home from dinner my contractions were getting closer and stronger, so I told my mom that we would probably head down to the hospital and just get checked out. I had some things I wanted to take care of at home first. Shaun had already put the kids in bed but they both wanted back rubs from mommy. So between contractions I ran in each of their rooms real quick to do those. WARNING *This next part is kinda gross, but still details I want to remember.* After I finished with them I went to the bathroom and it was really bloody. I lost my mucous plug on Wednesday, but this was like bright red!!! It scared me really bad so the next 10 minutes after that were CRAZY!!! I had to finish throwing everything in my bag, and order a shutterfly book that I had a deadline for all while I was shaking because I was scared. I don't remember bright red blood with the other kids. I went in Maisey's room and kissed her goodbye and she started crying, which made me cry. As we finally went out to the car I was a mess, and my neighbors were outside. Of course, they came over to chat (mind you, I'm still crying and shaking) and we finally left for the hospital about 8:30 pm. We got to the hospital at 9:03. After 9 pm you have to check in at the emergency room instead of going straight to labor and delivery. The lady checking us in was as slow as ever and tried to tell me that my doctor wasn't contracted with the hospital, even though I could see his name on the list! We finally got everything taken care of and I had to be wheeled by some creepy old guy over to labor and delivery. That's where the fun started!!!

My L&D nurse, Lacey, was way awesome! She got us all set up in our room and checked me and I was between a 5 and 6. We called my mom to let her know we were pretty sure we were staying so she left and came to the hospital and our friend went to our house to stay with the kids. The nurse could tell I was in a lot of pain so she said she was going to go call the doc (my doc wasn't on call, so I had Dr. Mallek who I had never met!) and let him know what was going on and see if she could just admit me with out having me sit on the monitors for an hour (that's their standard procedure). She came back a few minutes later with my bracelets and an IV. I was so grateful for that. I couldn't imagine sitting there for a whole hour getting monitored! A CNA student came in to start my IV. I know all students need to learn sometime and on someone, but I just kept thinking, why me? She had to wiggle the needle around forever and she even took it out and had to put it back in. It was pretty painful. As soon as half the IV bag was in me, they called for the anesthesiologist to come in for my epidural. I tried telling her about my experience with Maisey (had an epidural placed 3 times and none of them worked!) but she seemed very confident in her skills. Well, it took her 3 times as well. She kept saying she couldn't get past a bony structure in my spine. So I got the painful numbing shot twice and could still feel the huge needle and the tubing going in ALL.THREE.TIMES!!! It was horrible!!! I couldn't move and I was having the worst contractions ever. But alas, by some miracle, the lady got it figured out! By the time she finished it was close to 11 pm. My mom got to the hospital toward the beginning of whole epidural process but she had to wait outside the room until it was finished. I was so happy to finally see her! The nurse checked me again and I was at an 8 with a "bulging sac of waters" as she put it. The CNA student placed a catheter in which was also very painful. I don't remember having one with Gage, and I remember they tried to put one in with Maisey (which I remember also being very painful) but the epidurals didn't work, so they took it out. If I ever have another baby I'm going to write out a birth plan and the only thing on it is going to be "NO CATHETER!" It was almost worse than the three epidural pokes! Anyway, the student and the nurse left the room to "let us rest" at about 11:15 pm. At 11:30 my water broke on it's own, which was a weird feeling. I've had it broken by the dr. with the other kids, so this caught we really off guard. It felt like a water balloon inside of me that just went SPLAT! I pushed the call button on my bed and the nurse and student came in and started cleaning me and the bed up, and from there it became a WHIRLWIND!!!! The baby's heart rate dropped really low so my nurse had me turn to my side and to my other side. Now remember, I have an epidural, so I can't move all that easily, actually not really at all. After a few minutes the nurse called for some "extra hands" and a few nurses came rushing in. My nurse asked me if she could put a monitor on the baby's head, and that's when I got really scared! My mom and Shaun had to stand back and all of these nurses were moving my body around to try to get the baby's heart rate up. They eventually helped me get on my knees and they sat my bed as straight up as it could go and had me drape my upper body over that and use it for a support for my lower body and that seemed to do the trick. I was feeling a lot of pressure so the nurse checked me again and I was at a 10. They called my dr. who was still at home in bed. This baby was coming whether the dr. was there or not, so my nurse frantically called to another dr. who was out on the floor to come in. He was ready to catch the baby just as my dr. walked in. My dr. put gloves on as a nurse helped him throw his scrubs on and Miley Marie was born within minutes at 12:04 am on Saturday, May 12. Yeah, all of that happened in 30 minutes!

Dr. Mallek

(the on-the-floor dr. seriously stepped back to let my dr. take over and Miley was born! He still has his gloves on and everything!)

That little yellowish dot with the red and blue braided cord on the top of Miley's head is the monitor they stuck on her.

They rounded up to 7 lbs. 14 oz.

Lovin' her Daddy already!

I swear that smile is not fake! I was just exhausted, as you can tell by my stroke eye! :)

Shaun and my mom got to hold her while I got stitched up! I only needed one stitch this time. (it seems to get better with each kid!)

My mom headed to our house around 2:30 am so she would be there when the kids woke up! She is such an awesome support and is always so willing to do whatever we ask her to!

We got moved up to the mother and baby unit about 3:00 am. I got all settled in and then the CNA came to give Miley her first bath!

Ready for her first night, uh... few hours of sleep!

That first night was rough. By the time we were all settled in it was close to 4 am! The hospital makes you sign a safety sheet saying you won't sleep with your baby in your bed. Well, Miley just wanted to be held. She didn't want her little plastic bassinet (you blame her?) so it made for a long few hours. Plus we had the nurses coming in every 30 minutes to push on my stomach, or to unwrap Miley to take her temperature under her armpit or some other frustrating reason. Then, all of the doctors make their rounds between 7 and 8 am, so we really didn't get much sleep. Dr. Mallek came in to check on us and said that technically since Miley was born on Saturday, we could stay at the hospital until Monday. I asked if we could go home Sunday morning and he said yes!!! YAY! I didn't want to stay longer than we had to.