Our Little Angel

We are proud to introduce our daughter

Hailey Michelle

May 8, 2009, 11:53am

6 lbs. 2 oz.

18.5 inches long

She surprised us and decided to come three weeks early. You can read about the delivery here. Enjoy the pictures.

Moments after delivery

Getting Checked Out

Warm and Snuggly in Daddy's Arms

We are so happy she is finally here. These past few weeks have been very stressful due to a lot of sickness in our home. You can read about it here. I think we are finally over it though and are working on getting into a routine. We love having this precious baby in our home and the loving spirit she has brought with her. And of course Sarah LOVES being a big sister!

"Ready or Not Here I Come"

We went to bed peacefully on Thursday, May 7th. I was 37 weeks pregnant and was not due until May 29th. I was sound asleep until about 1am when I woke up having pretty painful contractions. I had been having contractions for a few weeks before this but they were never very painful. I laid there for an hour to see if they would go away but they didn't so finally at 2am I woke up Kevin and told him I was having contractions and we needed to start timing them. They were coming about 5 minutes apart and were lasting 30 seconds or so. We called my doctor and told her what was going on. She told me to go to the hospital if I felt like I needed to. After we got off the phone with her I had Kevin give me a blessing and we both felt that we needed to go in. The only problem was that we didn't have our hospital bag packed yet. With all the nesting I have been doing over the past few months I was leaving the hospital bag and Hailey's room until last. Of course I thought I had a few more weeks to get those things done but Hailey had other plans.

So there we were completely numb and in shock about me actually being in labor at 37 weeks and we were trying to keep our heads together enough to think about what we needed to bring to the hospital. On top of that I was also working through contractions that were getting more painful. We did a lot of laughing a lot of panicking and a lot of silent praying as we gathered what we needed. (After we got back from the hospital after delivering Hailey I was unpacking our bags and in my things I had packed my Calvin Klein Obsession perfume. I don't know what I was thinking when I packed that, obviously I wasn't.)

We called a neighbor of ours who had told us she would take Sarah whenever I went into labor. By this time it was 3am and luckily we were able to get a hold of our neighbor. She said to bring Sarah on over. So we grabbed our bags and carried Sarah down to the car. I explained to her that Mommy was going to the hospital to have the baby and that I was going to be there for a few days but she could come and see me while I was there. I also told her she was going to our friends house to stay with them for a little bit. She was so great about the whole thing. So we dropped her off without any problems and off we went to the hospital.

We got there about 3:30am and they hooked me up to the monitors right away. They watched my contractions for a bit and then checked me to see how dilated I was. The nurse that checked had a hard time finding my cervix and she eventually had to push down on the top of my uterus from the outside to get to it. The whole process was extremely painful and when she pulled her hand out I felt a big gush of fluid...my water broke. I really feel that the only reason it broke was because the nurse was being so rough. Anyways, I was at a 3 and 90% effaced.

I told the nurse I would like to labor on my own for a while and then when I needed it I wanted an epidural. Instead of staying in bed through the labor I got up and went in the jacuzzi tub for a bit. After I was done with that it was about 6:30am and my contractions were no different than when we arrived at the hospital. Kevin then informed me that he forgot to grab clean garments and he wanted to go home to get some and take a shower. Since I wasn't progressing at all I was ok with him leaving for a bit. After he left the nurse told me my midwife wanted me to start walking the halls to get things moving along. I didn't want to walk without Kevin so I rested in bed for a bit. Then things started happening fast. My contractions doubled in intensity and they got so bad I was screaming and crying. Kevin got back about 7:00am and told me the nurse had told him she wanted me to start walking the halls. I looked at him and told him there was no way I could even stand because they were so bad.

Just then a new nurse came in the room. She had just come on for her shift and she introduced herself. She said she had been listening to everything that was going on and she called my midwife to tell her I wasn't going to do the walking and I needed an epidural now. I was still crying from the pain and I thanked her. I ended up waiting about 10 minutes for the anesthesiologist to show up. By this point the contractions were coming every few minutes and were still extremely painful. I kept hyperventilating and the nurse had to work hard to get me to slow my breathing. Luckily I only had to work through three or four contractions while the doctor was inserting the epidural. After it was in I was in heaven. Kevin and I were able to get some rest and watch the monitors to see the progress and watch the baby's heartbeat.

After a while we noticed with every contraction the baby's heartbeat would drop below what was normal. The nurse came in and said she had been watching the heartbeat as well and told us that she suspected the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck. I was pretty worried when she said this but then she informed us she wasn't worried. It happens in about 40% of deliveries and it's usually not a big deal. She told us she would let us know if she did get worried and she had me wear an oxygen mask for the baby's benefit.

Shortly after that my midwife showed up. It was about 10:00am. She had been watching the monitors from her office and decided it was time for her to be with us. She checked my progress and I was dilated up to a five and 100% effaced. I had been at a five for a while so they gave me pitocin to speed things up a bit. At about 11:30am I started feeling like I needed to push so I told my midwife. She and the nurse calmly broke the bed down and got all the instruments ready. We kept the room lights off and just had the natural light coming in from the window. The atmosphere was very relaxed and calm. The nurse reminded me how to push properly and the pushing began. The nurse kept the count while Kevin held my hand and calmly encouraged me. I had the baby's head out in two pushes. As soon as her head was out the midwife affirmed the cord was wrapped once around the baby's neck and she quickly unwrapped it. I gave a third and final push and she was out. It was 11:53am.

They immediately put the baby up on my chest and Kevin and I just looked at her in awe. As soon as I saw her I knew her name should be Hailey. She was very calm and just looked back at us.

Shortly After Birth

The Proud Daddy

My birthing experience with Hailey was so much more enjoyable and easier. I have been seeing the same midwife for five years but when I delivered Sarah the hospital was not allowing midwives to deliver so I had the on-call doctor from the same practice. With him I had to wait almost an hour to push because he was with another patient and the delivery felt much more rushed and impersonal. With my midwife it was a very calm and relaxed atmosphere and she took her time making sure the baby was positioned right so I didn't tear. She was also there a couple hours before I was ready to puch so she could personally monitor the situation.

Sarah came to the hospital later that evening and was so excited to see Hailey. I asked her if she knew who the baby was and she said, "my sister." She got right up on the bed and gave Hailey a big hug and a kiss.

Holding Baby Hailey

We have a tradition in our family of always getting a Dairy Queen ice cream cake on your birthday. When Sarah was born Kevin got one for her "birth day" and served it to all the nurses. He did the same with Hailey.

We went home from the hospital on Sunday. It was so special to bring this little baby home on Mother's Day. I am so thankful we have this new little spirit in our presence. It's amazing how much she has changed our family already. When I stop and think about how recently she was with our Heavenly Father it makes me realize what a precious gift children are and how blessed I am to be a mother. Bringing a new little life into this world is such an amazing experience and I am grateful for the privilege.

Terrible Tuesdays

As you read earlier we were able to bring Hailey home on Monther's Day. We spent Monday adjusting to life with her home and even ran to the grocery store for some badly needed supplies. Tuesday morning Kevin's parents arrived to help us out for the first two weeks. Everything was going fine until Tuesday night, May 12 when Sarah started throwing up. She threw up all night and had a fever of about 102. Wednesday morning she was looking a little better and we were able to get some saltine crackers and Gatorade into her. For a while we thought she was over the worst of it until she woke up from her nap in the afternoon. Her fever was over 104 and she was still throwing up. By this time she had also developed a dry cough and I kept telling myself "she has the flu". She also had not had a wet diaper in 24 hours so Kevin's dad and I took her to the doctor late that afternoon. I told the doctor all her symptoms and she looked Sarah over. At that point the doctor was not too concerned about dehydration because Sarah was crying big tears and her mouth was moist. But she did look at me and said she thought Sarah might have the flu. I told her that's what I thought it was and she asked if she could test Sarah for both the flu and strep throat. I told her to go ahead. 15 minutes later her flu test came back positive. Sarah had type A flu. They couldn't tell us whether it was Swine flu or not but she did have the flu. So the doctor wrote out a few antiviral prescriptions for Sarah and advised all adults in the house to get on Tamiflu which would help prevent us from getting the flu and lessen symptoms if we did get it. I looked at the doctor and asked her what would happen if Hailey got it. She said it would be really bad because there isn't much they could do for her except take her to the hospital, hook her up to ivs and do a lot of blood work on her.

As soon as we left the doctor's office I called Kevin and had him call my OB to get me on Tamiflu. Kevin also called our Bishop who is a doctor to have him call in Tamiflu prescriptions for Kevin and his parents. In the mean time Kevin's dad and I went to the nearest Walgreens to get Sarah's prescription filled and pick up mine which had been called in at that point. With the scare of the Swine flu lately our Walgreens was out of the Tamilfu. By this point I was in tears and told the pharmacist that I had a five day old baby and my two year old had the flu and I really needed the medication. She checked in her system and found another Walgreens not too far away that had plenty of the medication we needed. So I fought rush hour traffic on the freeway trying to get to this other Walgreens and waited for about 20 minutes for it to be filled. We finally got back home about 5:30 in the evening. All of us sat down together and talked about how we were going to minimize exposure to Hailey. We decided to have Dad and Kevin take care of Sarah and Mom and I take care of Hailey. We wouldn't have them in the same room together and if any of us touched Sarah we would change clothes before handling Hailey again.

We got Sarah ready for bed and gave her her medicine at about 7:30pm and put her to bed. At 8:30 she woke up throwing up in her bed. I freaked out at this point because here we had the medicine to make her better but her body was rejecting everything. Her fever was really high again as well so I got a bunch of towels wet with cold water and had to sponge her off to cool her down. Kevin called the on-call pediatrician at Sarah's pediatric office and told him everything that had been going on. We were hoping he could prescribe a suppository to stop the vomiting so we could get the medicine in her that we needed to. The doctor told Kevin we needed to take her to Children's Hospital about 15 minutes from our house. I was balling uncontrollably at this point because I was so afraid for Sarah. I wanted so bad to hold her and comfort her but couldn't because I had to take care of Hailey and couldn't spread the germs.

Kevin and his dad took Sarah to the hospital and I went to town cleaning the house because I couldn't sit and do nothing. So I spent two house using Pine Sol to disinfect the house and cleaned it top to bottom. About midnight Kevin finally called to give me an update. When they got to the hospital they had Sarah wear one of those medical face masks to contain the germs. They had to wait a while until a room was available but they finally got into one. The doctors put an iv into her and gave her two bags of saline to rehydrate her. They also gave her some Tylenol for her fever and medication to stop the vomiting. Kevin said Sarah was very brave when they put the needle into her hand and all the doctors and nurses were amazing with her. They gave her a big Tinkerbell blanket, three books and stickers all to take home with her. I was able to talk to Sarah over the phone and as soon as she heard my voice she started crying because she wanted to see me so bad. I told her the doctors were going to make her better and how much I loved her. I also told her she would be able to come home soon. She fell asleep right after we got off the phone and was still asleep when Kevin and Dad got home with her at 3:30am.

Sarah greatly improved after that. We were able to start giving her the medication and she pretty much slept for three days making up for all the sleep she lost the previous few days. By the following Monday she was pretty much back to normal and we were able to interact with her again. I had taken Hailey to the doctor for her 10 day checkup that morning and he told me Sarah would be fine to be around Hailey again. Children's Hospital called and told us Sarah did not have the Swine flu but a strain that was worse. We were so greatful that Sarah was feeling better. So things were starting to get back to some sense of normality...or so we thought.

The next day, Tuesday the 19th Kevin came down with the flu. He had come home from work early that day because he was so tired and couldn't concentrate. He took a nap when he got home and when he woke up he had a fever of 102 and felt really nauseous. We were all stunned because we thought if anyone else was going to get sick it would have happened already. Well, I now had to take care of Sarah, Hailey and Kevin. Luckily Kevin's parents were still in town and helped out with the girls. Kevin just stayed in our room for a few days so it was easier to contain the sickness and keep it away from Hailey. I couldn't sleep in our bed though so I ended up sleeping in the recliner in Hailey's room for two nights. Because Kevin had been on Tamiflu it never got as bad as Sarah had it. He had a fever, body aches, some nausea (he never threw up) and was extremely tired. Well he was sick for a few days and went back to work that Friday. Kevin's parents left that same morning as well. All weekend Kevin and I focused on finding our "normal" routine as a family of four. Things were going well until I came down with the flu on Tuesday the 26th.

Once again Kevin had to take off work to stay home and take care of the girls while I stayed in our room and pretty much took care of myself. I ended up getting the flu a little worse than Kevin did but not as bad as Sarah. By Friday I was pretty much back to normal again. We are hoping that we are totally done with the flu in our house now.

I think the hardest part about all of this is the emotional toll it took on Sarah. It's been really confusing for her because first Mommy went away to have the baby and I wasn't home for three days, then we brought Hailey home and most of my time was spent taking care of her, then Sarah got sick and I couldn't touch her, after that Daddy got sick so Sarah couldn't be around him and finally I got sick and once again Sarah couldn't be around me. She has also had to adjust to having Hailey around and our attention turned to her a lot of the time. Luckily Sarah has not been acting out with Hailey. She loves her so much and is always trying to look at her, hold her and touch her. She gives her hugs and kisses all the time and it's actually a challenge to keep her away from Hailey sometimes. We have caught her in her crib with Hailey a few times now and once we caught Sarah trying to pick up Hailey by herself.

Anyways, things are much better now and we are once again trying to find our new normal. I still feel like things are out of control because this is a big adjustment having a second child to take care of but I just need to give it some time and I know it will settle down.