Worth It All

I just can't get enough of Max. I could hold him all day and all night. (And I do right now since he isn't sleeping very well....) And you can see why…doesn’t he look so cuddly?? The night before he was born, I was talking to Marc's Dad Ed about how amazing it is for your love to stretch and grow as your family gets bigger. I told him it was hard to imagine that you can love another person with all your heart, but as soon as Max was here it would be hard to remember what life was like before he got here. And that was the truth! Lila and Chloe have been so good with him. Lila has taken on the big sister role perfectly. She has been a great help with holding him and also helping Chloe when my hands are full. I was a little worried about Chloe since she’s too little to understand what happened, but she has so much love to give. She loves to pat him on the head and give him hugs and kisses. Marc has also been the best husband ever. He has not only taken great care of me, but he has taken care of the girls, no questions asked. I know he has to be tired too, but he hasn’t shown any signs or complained at all!

No, I did not go into labor on my own. I completely wimped out. I called the doctors office on Wednesday at 4:30 PM (the 26th) and asked if they could induce me the next morning. Lucky for me, the hospital didn’t have any inductions scheduled, so they fit me right in! It must have been meant to be. I was told on average the American Fork hospital has 7-9 inductions a day! It was nice to have a plan instead of waiting on pins and needles for something to happen. We had to be at the hospital at 7 AM, so we took Lila and Chloe up to my in-laws house that night. I didn’t sleep very well and I actually woke up at 5:30 with cramps and contractions. I don’t know if it was the anxiety of going to the hospital or if I was really going into labor! We got the hospital at 7 and they got me going right away with a drip of Pitocin. I wanted to wait until I was “uncomfortable” to get my epidural, but I’m sure my uncomfortable was minor compared to real labor pains. The anesthesiologist came in and poked me in the back about 100 times with his finger trying to find my epidural space. That hurt more than the contractions I was having. After he put the catheter in, he told me he was giving me a “Cadillac Dose” to start me off. It sounded good to me at first, but then I started to feel really weird. I was pretty much numb up to my chest. I had never felt that way with the other 2 epidurals I’ve had. The nurse then called the anesthesiologist back into the room to give me some ephedrine because my blood pressure had dropped too low. I didn’t realize something was wrong until then. I’m glad the monitors knew because I don’t know if I would have been able to say anything at that point. It felt like I was frozen in place. Thankfully, the ephedrine worked but I felt really shaky afterward. But I didn’t feel any pain! That was the plan…right?? Not too long after that, it was time to push. I only pushed for 14 minutes, but it felt like an eternity!!! I was really concentrated on getting Max here, so I didn’t really notice that EVERY SINGLE NURSE on duty happened to be in the room. I think Marc counted 10. Since I was the only patient there, everyone wanted to help/watch! I was thankful to have some quiet moments alone with Marc and Max afterward.

And this is the end result of all the waiting and madness…it was worth it!

Thanks Mom for all the help you gave me during labor and afterwards with the girls and house stuff. (And for putting up with me for a week before hand) It was also nice to come home to a spotless house. My mother-in-law Lynne and Aunt Barbara cleaned everything top to bottom. I cried…partially because they saw my dirty floors that haven’t been scrubbed for a month, but mostly because the dirty floors were scrubbed. Thank you!!