Preslie Jane

On Dec. 21, our little Preslie Jane was born. It was absolutely wonderful and I can't believe I haven't posted her birth story yet! I know a lot of people don't write very much about their labor stories, but I am going to write EVERYTHING I remember! So deal! :)

On Thursday, Dec. 17, I went to the dr for a checkup. I was due Dec 23 and was really worried about being late; not going into labor until the 23 or later so I'd be in the hospital on Christmas. I REALLY didn't want that and was hoping I was pretty dilated so the baby would come soon. Unfortunately I was only dilated to like a 1 and I wasn't feeling anything. I knew the baby wasn't coming soon. I told the dr I wanted to be induced on Monday, the 21, so I'd definitely be home for Christmas. Later that day, the dr called me and told me I wouldn't be able to be induced on the 21 OR 22 because the hospital was already full of people getting induced and the only way I could be scheduled was if one of the women went into labor on her own before her induction date. I was pretty bummed, but excited at the same time-I was a little worried about getting induced and I didn't want the baby to be too small or anything. Cody was also excited I wasn't getting induced because he wanted the baby to come on her own; it's so much more exciting that way! On Sunday, the 20, I was sitting in YW when Cody came to the door and motioned me to come out. He said the dr had called him and told him there was an opening for me to get induced on Monday. I was so scared! I went back into YW and told some of the other leaders what he had just told me. They were so excited for me! We talked about it more later and I was telling everyone I was really scared, but they all reassured me and told me it'd be absolutely fine. Cody and I decided it was the best choice and we knew everything would work out ok, so we decided to go with it.

That night Cody and I walked a LOT trying to get my contractions to start to make the induction go easier; really hoping I wouldn't have to be induced at all! It didn't work. I felt totally great! I wasn't really having any contractions and wasn't feeling any pain. After we were walking, though, I was sitting with Chloe and just crying and crying. I was so sad to not have her be my little baby anymore! I felt like once I brought the new baby home Chloe would just be gone and not really apart of our lives anymore and I was so sad.

The next morning I woke up at 6 and called the hospital to make sure they had room for us. They did and told us to come around 7 or a little after so we'd have a room. I was so scared all morning while I was getting ready to go. We didn't leave until around 7 and I was feeling so anxious because I felt like we were so late and I wanted to have a room with a view of the ocean - not other buildings! Cody kept saying, "Just tell me to run this red light! I'll do it! I'll do it! If I get pulled over you just have to act like you're in labor. Come on, this is the only time we can do this! Do you want me to speed??" And I kept saying, "Cody, we really need blessings today! We have to keep the commandments and not speed and not lie." He agreed and we got their safely and without a ticket :)

When we got to the hospital we met with our nurse, Ellen, and she took us to our room, with a view!!! I was SO scared by this point and just wanted her to leave so I could take to Cody and he could calm me down...but she didn't. She went to put in my IV and I told her I was really scared. She put in a numbing shot first which hurt REALLY bad, and then did the IV. All of a sudden she said, Uh-oh!!! and we were like-UHHH what?!?! She said my blood vessel popped and she'd have to do it again. I was so upset! I had already done it and gotten through the hard part, but she did it again anyway. The second time it didn't hurt as bad because I knew what to expect.

The dr. came in around 8:45 and broke my water and things started picking up! Later, Ellen said for my babies after this, if I need to be induced I shouldn't need pitocin because once they break my water my contractions start up by themselves and keep going strong! I also got really comfortable with Ellen. Cody really liked her and thought she was really nice, and once I wasn't so scared I realized that, too! She wasn't just there to hurt me! :) We talked for a long time and we told her we were from Idaho. She was like-Oh, Mormon country! I LOVE mormons! When we told her we were Mormon she was so excited and that was pretty much all we talked about for awhile! I finally asked, "Ellen, if you love Mormon's so much, why aren't you one?" She was like-I don't' really know...

Before we had come to the hospital, I had packed a Christmas story by President Eyring and I gave that to her when we left. I don't know if she read it or if it mattered to her, but I felt like it was a good thing. So hopefully! She asked a lot of questions about the church and LDS people in general and we really liked talking to her about it. I haven't talked to someone about the church in a long time-it feels like everyone I know in Idaho is LDS!

Around 12 I was starting to feel some pain, so I asked for an epidural. Unfortunately the anesthesiologist was helping someone else so Ellen put some meds in my IV. She told me, "You know how you feel when you have too much red wine?" I said, "I've never had wine." She was like, "Oh..Ok, how else can I say it'll make you dizzy?" I was like, "I've been dizzy before....I know what that's like." She said, "Yeah! It'll make you dizzy." It definitely did! I felt like my head was going to float away it felt so light. I fell asleep after awhile and then I got the epidural and felt great! (Except I felt nauseous the whole time...Surprise, surprise, I threw up when I was in labor (and after) with Chloe 4 times!) Around 3 or 3:10 Ellen checked me and I was fully dilated, so my dr came in and after 3 or 4 pushes, Preslie Jane was born!!! She came into the world at 3:32 pm, Dec. 21. It was awesome!

When she was first born, she didn't cry at all. The hospital we were at is really, really big on giving the baby RIGHT to the mom and letting them be together, but because she wasn't crying the nurse apologized and said they needed to check her. After about 5 minutes they brought her back to me and apologized again-they said she was totally fine, just not crying! She just didn't want to cry! Also, when she was born, she came out with her right arm next to her head-Ellen kept saying she was a little ballerina with her arm up! But she scratched her eyelid in the process of having her hand up there by her face. So sad.

We still hadn't decided on a name yet for her; it was between Preslie Jane and Natalie Paige. I had totally decided months before that her name would be Natalie Paige, but as time got closer Cody and I kept leaning towards Preslie. At first it was going to be Preslie Paige, but everytime I would think of the name Preslie I would automatically think of Jane. I told Cody and he loved it. So we changed our minds! While I was holding her Cody asked me what we should name her and I couldn't decide. I had wanted to wait until she was born so I could see what she looked like...But she didn't look like anything! I didn't know who she looked like and no one name was speaking to me. I told Cody to pick and he picked Preslie! (I wasn't surprised, he totally loved that name) We were both really happy with the choice.

A few hours afterwards Ellen and Cody took me to my new room on a different floor. I still was feeling really nauseous and the elevator ride didn't help at all! Luckily when I got into my new room I threw up! I felt MUCH better after that.

Our new room had a FABULOUS view of the ocean and the harbor. Our new nurse said we had missed the festival of light parade they have in the harbor on all the boats by just one day! Oh well, it was still totally beautiful.

Preslie was a little angel the whole time! The first night she slept from like 10 pm until 4 am - I know you're supposed to wake them up every 2 hours to eat...But I didn't. And she's still alive. So calm down. The second night, Cody went home to sleep and for some reason my left side hurt SO badly. I didn't know what was wrong with me (and still don't know), but I couldn't sleep facing Preslie and was really worried something would happen to her and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it...So I had my nurse take her to the nursery. I cried and felt like a horrible mother, but after getting some really nice texts from Cody telling me I wasn't a horrible mother and she was going to be ok and I needed to get as much rest as I could, I was able to fall asleep.

We took Preslie home on Dec. 23, dressed up in a little Santa outfit that my sister, Amy, had given her. The woman that wheeled me out of the hospital was a little 81-year-old and was SO adorable. She kept saying how cute she is and she took me to like 3 different floors to show "her nurse friends" how cute Preslie was.

The next few weeks were VERY hectic and stressful-Preslie took a while to figure out nursing - she'd figure it out and then totally forget again! I was pretty upset about it...She'd nurse for 3 hours at a time and then still cry and be hungry afterwards! Luckily we figured it out after about 2 weeks. Not so luckily, I got mastitis really bad after a month and had to stop nursing.

Now we are back in ID and LOVING every second we get with this little baby! Now that she's 7 weeks old she is ALWAYS smiling (when she's awake) and so fun and happy. She's cooing and talking and such a joy! We love everything about little Preslie Jane!!!