October 24, 2012, I didn't pee my pants!

I'm not generally great at telling the short story... but here goes for those that just want the gist:

My water broke at 3:30 am on Wednesday morning. We got to the hospital at 6:00 am and then got my epidural at 8:00. At 11:00 am I was dialiated to a 9 and 100% effaced. A little after 1:00 pm I started pushing and Easton was here at 2:52 :).

And for the longer story... Thank goodness for this blog or I would never get around to writing this down!

So I woke up at 3:30am to feeling like I was peeing my pants. I thought to myself... hmm, never done this before... but you never know with pregnancy. So I got up and went to the bathroom and still wasn't so sure so I went back to bed. Casey and I started timing my contractions and they were every 5 minutes and started hurting more and more. At this point I had already been to labor and delivery twice and so the next time I was going to go, it was going to be the REAL THING. I decided to try to use the restroom again and when I did, I felt more "water" come out. I think I was in denial and a little bit of shock because I didn't want to believe my water had actually broke. First of all, every pregnancy thing you read tells ya that on your first, you will go to 40 weeks. Also if I was in labor then that meant pretty soon I had to deliver and I was SUPER SCARED of that. Anyways... we got to the hospital around 6:00 am and I was delighted to hear that I hadn't peed my pants and my water was in fact broken.

When we got to the hospital I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. My contractions were the same as when I get my period so I didn't feel like I needed an epidural until around 8:00 when they had gotten bad enough that I had to brace myself each time and had thrown up. Ya, those hurt pretty bad. When the anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural (Phil Groesbeck... an anesthesiologist I knew from my surgery days and was the OB one that I wanted!) he said, "wow, you are really in pain". I figure he would know. Well about 10 minutes after the epidural, I was feeling like new again. Besides shaking like crazy, Casey and I were just shilling. I even called my sister Julie who had given birth naturally a few months earlier to tell her she was CRAZY for going natural. Here are a few pictures from us hanging out before Easton came:

 Then around 11:00 I was in pain again. I could feel the contractions every like 2 minutes and it was getting worse and worse. I threw up a few more times and I would have to say that was the worst part of the whole experience. When the nurse came in I told her I how I was feeling and she looked at the epidural infusion pump. It was off. Everyone kind of freaked a little bit because that is clearly not supposed to happen. Casey pushed the epidural dose button to get some epidural in me while the nurse called the anesthesiologist. When he came in and saw the pump had turned off, he gave me a dose too. I had now been double dosed and after a few minutes I was numb from my shoulder blades down, my left arm and the left side of my face. My eye was swollen and was crying on its own. Having a numb arm while I was shaking was super annoying.

Then the nurse checked me again and I will never forget her face. She kind of freaked and said YOU ARE A NINE! Ya, you were feeling contractions! (Validation again, thank-you!) Haha... I don't think she was expecting a first time mom to go from a 3 to a 9 that fast. Then a little while after that I started pushing. I have always been terrified of pushing and I have heard tons of people say how awful it is. Pushing was probably the best part of labor for me (by best I mean by comparison here). There was a student the room that was trying so hard to help and was just being annoying that it was entertaining. The nurse kept telling me how well I was doing and that I was really good at pushing and breathing. I know that she probably says that to all the moms... but anyone telling me I'm good at anything just makes me feel good. Also I had Casey right by my side being awesome. We even had a system down... after every pushing cycle, he would put ice chips in my mouth. Also I LOVED seeing the look on Casey's face when the nurse showed him the little part of Easton's head.

I pushed for about an hour and a half (probably felt more like a half hour) and then the rest happened so fast. The doctor came in told me to push and then all of a sudden Easton's head was out... then his shoulders and then all of him. We was swept away to the side of the room where they wiped him, put the goupe in his eyes and gave him a shot in his leg. I have also always been super nervous about delivering the placenta (don't ask me why). I was too distracted watching Easton and Casey holding him that before I knew it, I was all done down there (episiotomy stitches and everything).

My favorite moment of the whole day was when Casey got to hold him right after. Easton was staring at Casey and Casey cried. Second time since I've known Casey that he has cried. Also when Casey brought Easton close to me and I started talking... Easton perked right up like he was trying really hard to hear.  Easton looks just like Casey and I think will even have his calm, loving temperament.

I absolutely LOVE my little mini Casey with all my heart, and I feel so incredibly blessed that I have my own little family.

Going home...

First time coming home

Grandma came to help out. I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank her enough. We were having a hard time with breastfeeding and my mom helped out a ton, on top of helping around the house. I feel very blessed to have a mom who could be there for us! THANK YOU MOM! I love you!

Easton's first doctor's visit...

When Easton was 6 days old, he had to be put on the billirubin bed :(. I had been doing good until this day... I think all my emotions and just being plain tired caught up with me. It was probably the worst day in my entire life. Casey had work, school and a football game and was gone all day so thank goodness I had my mom there to help me!

Oh... and about that football game, Casey came home with a black eye. Just to top off my horrible day! Basically there was this guy who was being a total jerk on Casey's team to everyone. After the game was over, Casey told him "don't ever talk to me like that ever again" and the guy, Steve, got in Casey's face saying "or what, or what?!?". Casey pushed Steve off of him and then Steve punched him in the face. My favorite part is that Steve, who coincidentally happened to be in one of my classes years ago actually asked me out and I turned him down cause that's when Casey and I were about to get engaged. Apparently it was pretty crazy with tons of people around, even the cops. Steve got banned from UVU property and UVU sports and the cop even wanted Casey to get Steve expelled from BYU for breaking the honor code. Casey didn't want to ruin this guy's life over a football game and decided to just drop it.
 

Mindy's girls came over for Halloween and were SUPER adorable!

 

I absolutely LOVE being a mom and hanging out with this adorable little guy. I feel so blessed and love my little family!