Chase, Dani, Deja, & Krew: December 2009

I'm going to try to make this as short as possible, but I want to be able to remember this down the road and I'm sure this will be the only place I write it down.....so feel free to skip if ya don't want all the details!

Deja's story started about a week before she was born....Chase was going to be in Germany for a week, so I got a Dr's appointment on the first to see if there was any reason he should stay home. The Dr. reassuringly said 'You will NOT have a baby next week'. My mom already had tickets to come out and stay with me so she still came with my little brother so we could just play and have a fun week together. Chase took off on Saturday. On Monday my mom and I went to bed around 11:30...and an hour later, I woke up because my dog was pacing around my bed. When I got up to see what she wanted, I felt a 'gush'. After running to the bathroom and deciding I had just lost control of my bladder (it wouldn't be the first time....) I got back into bed. About 5 minutes later, I felt some more 'leaking'. I hopped up and back into the bathroom. This time I decided to get my mom's opinion, so (after about 15 minutes of yelling 'MOM!') she was in the bathroom with me. After telling her that I thought my water had broke, we grabbed my baby books to see if they could offer any help on what to do.... we were confused because I was not in labor whatsoever. -No contractions, or anything even remotely close to that. I ended up calling the on-call Dr. and he said the only way to know for sure would be to go to the hospital. So, after a complete breakdown on my part (because the reality of Chase possibly missing this finally hit) we got the dog outside, my brother up, and I somewhat packed a bag -which was a joke because I hadn't even thought of what I'd pack to take to the hospital yet. By the time we got everything together it was about 2:00....it was snowing outside and since my mom doesn't know the area I drove us to the hospital. We walked into the ER and told the nurse that I thought my water broke... she MADE me get into a wheelchair and took me upstairs to the 'triage' room to get checked. --It was here that we learned my little brother could not go into any hospital room other than the waiting area (thanks to my awesome friend Katie for taking him for us...but that's almost another story itself). Back to triage...they checked me and decided that yes, my water did in fact break....so they got things ready to get me into a delivery room. By this time it was 3:00 and I hurried to call Chase to let him know what was happening. Luckily, he saw that I called and was able to call me right back. I told him I was having the baby and he quickly got off the phone to see if he could get a flight back home. The next few hours were pretty uneventful....everyone knew my husband was out of the country and trying to get back as quick as possible...so we were just trying to hold off on having her as long as we could. This wasn't too hard because I really wasn't feeling any contractions yet and was only dilated to a 3. Chase called back and told me to 'just have the baby' because he wouldn't be able to get here until the next day. I was totally bummed, but decided to just go for it. So, they gave me some pictocin and the contractions started to come. At first they weren't too bad, only one every 15 minutes or so...but then they started to get harder and closer together. During this time, they were really monitoring the baby's heart rate, since my water broke so early--they were a little concerned with the changes that came with my contractions....so they hooked up some extra monitors and put me on oxygen for a while. The nurse told us that my Dr. would be in during his lunch hour to check me...so my mom ran home to take care of the dog and to grab some things. While she was gone the contractions really started to hurt....that, coupled with the fact that Chase wasn't going to be there to help me through it, got the best of me and I had a hard time keeping it all together. I told the nurse I thought I needed something. She gave me whatever it is that they put in your IV to help relax you and make the contractions a little easier. Not long after, the anesthesiologist came in and hooked me up with an epidural (this was about 10:30) they also checked me again here and I was dilated to a 5. The epidural really helped...but only for about an hour. I started to feel the contractions again, and mentioned it to the nurse before I pushed the little button for more of the good stuff. She looked and said I was ready to have the baby...so they called the Dr. and told him to forget about checking me...that it was time to deliver. I started pushing (it was now noon) and at 12:33 our little lady was here.

I couldn't believe how easy it all was....I know a big part of that is because I had the epidural, but it was great because I was still able to feel the pressure to know when to push. The cord ended up being wrapped around her shoulder and arm once, but it didn't cause any problems for the Dr.

They let me hold her for a quick sec...and then took her over to the nursing station (they were anxious to get her looked over since she was early). They were at first concerned about her breathing and thought they might have to take her to the NICU for a while, but after giving her some oxygen, they decided she was doing good. They also found that her blood sugar was very low. They had me try to feed her and then we gave her a bottle, which helped a ton---her blood sugar came right back up to where they were comfortable with it. All this was such a blessing. I am so happy to have such a perfect little girl, even though she didn't come the way any of us had planned....she is healthy and beautiful, and I couldn't ask for more! (I also got out really good, without needing any stitches-so recovery has been a breeze).

Chase got in the following day around 5:00, it was so fun to be able to show him his little girl!!

It's pretty overwhelming realizing the Huge responsibility Heavenly Father is trusting us with...but I absolutely LOVE being a mom, and Love my little girl more than I could have ever imagined. (Chase is also loving his new role as Dad and is pretty darn cute with her!)