We celebrated Grace's 1 month birthday today. She celebrated by sleeping a lot :).
And in honor of her 1 month birthday, I thought I would finally post her birth story for anyone who is interested.
Tuesday afternoon (April 22), Michael flew to Denver for a quarterly corporate training that was scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. He arrived in the late afternoon and joined some of his colleagues for dinner even though he was in quite a bit of pain as he had a tooth that needed a root canal. He finally got to sleep at about midnight.
Meanwhile, I was having a girls’ night with my neighbor Emily and sister-in-law Ariana. We ordered Sushi, gave ourselves pedicures and Ariana gave us make-overs. I had been having sporadic contractions throughout the evening, but didn't think anything of it because I had been having evening contractions off and on for a couple of weeks. The girls left a little before midnight and by midnight the contractions were becoming more frequent. I knew that labor was starting. I decided to take a warm bath to try and relax and slow down the contractions - I didn't really want to go into labor in the middle of the night with Michael in Colorado.
By 12:30 I started timing the contractions and they were coming 3-15 minutes apart and so around 2:30am I decided to call Michael and give him a heads up. I felt bad waking him because I didn't want to worry him if it was a false labor, or if the delivery was still days out (you may remember that I labored for 50 hours with Dominic, so I was hesitant to disturb him since he had a big day of meetings in the morning and because his tooth had been bothering him so much). I also called the midwife to let her know that I was in the early stages of labor and that Michael was in Denver. She recommended I take another warm bath (this time a little longer).
The warm bath helped a little but long story short, I didn't really sleep that night because the contractions were so consistent and intense. I talked to my mom around 7am about coming up to help once Dominic woke up. I told her that I was currently managing fine and would call her when he woke up so she could drive up (she lives about 45 minutes south). Fortunately she had some motherly intuition and left before I ever had the chance to call her. A little after 8 o'clock the contractions started coming very consistently every 10 minutes so I called Michael again to check in. He had been looking at flights home. The earliest flight back was at 10am, but it was already overbooked. The first available flight would have him arriving around 2pm. So he was going to checkout of his hotel, touch base with his employer, and head over to the airport.
After about an hour of consistent contractions, I called the Midwife back and updated her around 9:30am. She scheduled an appointment for me to come into the birthing center for a check up at 3:00pm. Dominic woke up about the time I got off the phone so I began making him breakfast and getting him ready for the day. I called my mom and she said she was already on her way. I had a few more contractions at 10 minutes apart, and then they dropped from 6 minutes to 5 minutes to 4 minutes, and then two, two, two minutes apart!! I called the Midwife back immediately and she told me to get to the birthing center and she would meet me there. I called my mom to see how close she was and if she could pick us up, or if she should just meet us at the birthing center (and I would have my neighbor drive us over). Fortunately she was only a few blocks away and in a whirlwind raced up to our apartment, and helped Dominic and I outside to the car.
In the meantime Michael had notified me that he had gone to the airport early and miraculously made an earlier flight and would be landing in Salt Lake City around 11:30am. Great News!
Dominic, my mom and I left the apartment a little after 10:30am and got to the birthing center around 11am. After a quick check up, the midwives anxiously asked how soon Michael would arrive informing me that I was fully effaced and dilated to an 8! They decided to have me take another warm bath in hopes that it would slow my labor just enough that Michael would make it! Gratefully, the plane landed a little early and Michael arrived at the birthing center via taxi by about 11:30. I started pushing about 10 minutes later and by 12:44pm our little girl was born.
I was grateful to have my mother show up just in the nick of time to get me to the birthing center and be with Dominic while I gave birth. It was so precious to see him interact with the new baby once she arrived.
Michael's mother, Deb and his siblings were able to come and meet Grace before heading to the airport to pick up Alyssa (the youngest sibling who was returning from an 18-month spanish-speaking service mission). Michael and Dominic went with them while my mom took care of Grace so I could get a little rest.
And in honor of her 1 month birthday, I thought I would finally post her birth story for anyone who is interested.
Tuesday afternoon (April 22), Michael flew to Denver for a quarterly corporate training that was scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. He arrived in the late afternoon and joined some of his colleagues for dinner even though he was in quite a bit of pain as he had a tooth that needed a root canal. He finally got to sleep at about midnight.
Meanwhile, I was having a girls’ night with my neighbor Emily and sister-in-law Ariana. We ordered Sushi, gave ourselves pedicures and Ariana gave us make-overs. I had been having sporadic contractions throughout the evening, but didn't think anything of it because I had been having evening contractions off and on for a couple of weeks. The girls left a little before midnight and by midnight the contractions were becoming more frequent. I knew that labor was starting. I decided to take a warm bath to try and relax and slow down the contractions - I didn't really want to go into labor in the middle of the night with Michael in Colorado.
By 12:30 I started timing the contractions and they were coming 3-15 minutes apart and so around 2:30am I decided to call Michael and give him a heads up. I felt bad waking him because I didn't want to worry him if it was a false labor, or if the delivery was still days out (you may remember that I labored for 50 hours with Dominic, so I was hesitant to disturb him since he had a big day of meetings in the morning and because his tooth had been bothering him so much). I also called the midwife to let her know that I was in the early stages of labor and that Michael was in Denver. She recommended I take another warm bath (this time a little longer).
The warm bath helped a little but long story short, I didn't really sleep that night because the contractions were so consistent and intense. I talked to my mom around 7am about coming up to help once Dominic woke up. I told her that I was currently managing fine and would call her when he woke up so she could drive up (she lives about 45 minutes south). Fortunately she had some motherly intuition and left before I ever had the chance to call her. A little after 8 o'clock the contractions started coming very consistently every 10 minutes so I called Michael again to check in. He had been looking at flights home. The earliest flight back was at 10am, but it was already overbooked. The first available flight would have him arriving around 2pm. So he was going to checkout of his hotel, touch base with his employer, and head over to the airport.
After about an hour of consistent contractions, I called the Midwife back and updated her around 9:30am. She scheduled an appointment for me to come into the birthing center for a check up at 3:00pm. Dominic woke up about the time I got off the phone so I began making him breakfast and getting him ready for the day. I called my mom and she said she was already on her way. I had a few more contractions at 10 minutes apart, and then they dropped from 6 minutes to 5 minutes to 4 minutes, and then two, two, two minutes apart!! I called the Midwife back immediately and she told me to get to the birthing center and she would meet me there. I called my mom to see how close she was and if she could pick us up, or if she should just meet us at the birthing center (and I would have my neighbor drive us over). Fortunately she was only a few blocks away and in a whirlwind raced up to our apartment, and helped Dominic and I outside to the car.
In the meantime Michael had notified me that he had gone to the airport early and miraculously made an earlier flight and would be landing in Salt Lake City around 11:30am. Great News!
Dominic, my mom and I left the apartment a little after 10:30am and got to the birthing center around 11am. After a quick check up, the midwives anxiously asked how soon Michael would arrive informing me that I was fully effaced and dilated to an 8! They decided to have me take another warm bath in hopes that it would slow my labor just enough that Michael would make it! Gratefully, the plane landed a little early and Michael arrived at the birthing center via taxi by about 11:30. I started pushing about 10 minutes later and by 12:44pm our little girl was born.
I was grateful to have my mother show up just in the nick of time to get me to the birthing center and be with Dominic while I gave birth. It was so precious to see him interact with the new baby once she arrived.
Michael's mother, Deb and his siblings were able to come and meet Grace before heading to the airport to pick up Alyssa (the youngest sibling who was returning from an 18-month spanish-speaking service mission). Michael and Dominic went with them while my mom took care of Grace so I could get a little rest.
After grabbing some dinner, Michael and his family headed back to the birthing center to introduce the rest of the family to baby Grace (and so I could see Alyssa).
We checked out of the birthing center that evening and spent the night in our own bed. The next day I came down with a fever (uncontrollable chills and shivering) and ended up in the ER that night as per the recommendation of our midwife (and both of our moms!). Apparently a fever so soon after labor can be indicative of an infection that can even be life threatening! All the blood work and tests came back ok so they sent us home.
Fortunately things have been pretty smooth sailing since then! Grace has been fighting some major congestion issues (sometimes interfering with sleeping and eating). We had a pretty good scare one night (about 1 week after she was born) and almost took her to the ER because she was fighting so hard to breath. (Anyone have any suggestions on how to clear her up? - I've been trying the bulb syringe and it hasn't been very helpful).
Anyways,
We are happy that little Grace has joined our family and that she arrived healthy. I'll post more pics soon!
We checked out of the birthing center that evening and spent the night in our own bed. The next day I came down with a fever (uncontrollable chills and shivering) and ended up in the ER that night as per the recommendation of our midwife (and both of our moms!). Apparently a fever so soon after labor can be indicative of an infection that can even be life threatening! All the blood work and tests came back ok so they sent us home.
Fortunately things have been pretty smooth sailing since then! Grace has been fighting some major congestion issues (sometimes interfering with sleeping and eating). We had a pretty good scare one night (about 1 week after she was born) and almost took her to the ER because she was fighting so hard to breath. (Anyone have any suggestions on how to clear her up? - I've been trying the bulb syringe and it hasn't been very helpful).
Anyways,
We are happy that little Grace has joined our family and that she arrived healthy. I'll post more pics soon!
