Since I am soooo behind in blogging, I am going to post some pictures of Ammon first:
Birth Story
This probably won’t be very interesting to anyone but me…and maybe Ammon when he gets bigger. Here goes the graphic blow-by-blow:
On Thursday, October 15, I woke at 4:15 am from real contractions. I had four contractions eleven minutes apart, at which point Abe was convinced I was in actual labor. I was terrified the hospital would send us home, so I got a blessing that helped me feel confident that I was in labor and would soon meet Ammon. We packed up our girls in the van and headed over to the hospital.
When I got to the hospital, I was 4 % dilated. By that point, my contractions were getting really painful. They were really far apart, though, and so the doctor instructed the nurse to wait an hour before admitting me. I cried at that point because my last labors went so fast that the epidural didn’t have time to help much. I cried again when I found out the doctor on call was the only doctor I didn’t want delivering my baby. Thankfully, our nurse, Julia, was the most compassionate person and reassured me that she knew the baby was coming that day. She said she would make sure I got admitted and that she would speed up the process. She also helped me feel more confident about the doctor.
Julia got everything set up for the epidural and made sure I got admitted within the hour. In fact, she was so on top of everything that by the time they got the epidural in, I had only experienced a handful of the really bad contractions.
After that, my labor was literally a dream come true. I had dreamt two months ago that I gave birth to Ammon without any pain whatsoever, but I dismissed that dream as a total fantasy. But since they got the epidural in so early, this labor ended up fulfilling my dream! I had no pain for the rest of the birth and minimal pain afterward. Because of the epidural, the labor was longer than my previous ones, but the doctor broke my water at 11:30 am when I was 6% dilated, and ten minutes later I was ready to push.
The doctor came in and helped set everything up for pushing. I actually ended up liking her a lot more than I had in my office visits. She had a fun personality that I hadn’t recognized before, and I enjoyed interacting with her. Of course, Julia continued to be an angel nurse and also made me feel so happy and comfortable the whole time. Pushing lasted only a couple minutes, and out Ammon came! It was, like I said, a dream come true.
I loooooove the hospital and enjoyed all of my time there so much. When it came time to go, I actually felt a little depressed. But we went straight to Gardner Village with Chelsea and her kids for the Wee Witches festival, and that distracted me from my melancholy for a bit.
Then I came home and started feeling pretty blue for no reason. The only reason I could identify off-hand was that I missed the hospital. I just loved all of my nurses, I love ordering food whenever I want, and I loved the peace and quiet of those first couple nights alone with my new baby.
But I started feeling better and better with each subsequent day at home, and today was really quite nice. It was Abe’s first day back at work, and I woke up praying that I could be a good mom to all three of my kids. I felt blessed all day long, and I enjoyed all of my interactions with each child. It felt like a gift. Plus, my post-labor physical recovery seems to be going pretty smoothly (so far), and that feels like a gift straight from God.
Here are some pictures from the past few days. I can’t remember exactly when each one was taken, but here’s the hodge podge assortment of them all:
