April 2, 2009

Aunt Kathryn and Me



Aunt Kathryn brought mom and dad McDonalds AGAIN today. I think that she was just using it as an excuse to come by and see me! :)

Kathryn really was great, I'm glad that she took the time to come up and spend time with Wren.

Oh, her nickname for Wren is WrenRee. That way she could be named after both of my sisters, KathRYN and ValeRIE! :)

April 2, 2009

13 hours after delivery



This was after Wren's 3:00 a.m. feeding. She was so alert and being so perfect that I had to snap a few photos of her. Her eyes look so dark but they are actually a grayish blue (at this point).

She is so tiny and precious! My heart hurts with how much I love her!

I love this picture because her nostrils are flared! It reminds me of those pictures of puppies where their noses are HUGE and the rest of them look small!

April 1, 2009

After Delivery:

This was the first time that I got to hold my baby. I was sooooo very happy. She was absolutely perfect! She weighed in at 6 pounds 14 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long.

We were taking pictures and passing her around and just celebrating in general when the nurse looked at her and said, I don't like her coloring. All of a sudden she had gone all ashy so they took her to the NICU and put her on oxygen for about 20 minutes and then she was just fine. Jeremiah went with her and came back to report that there was nothing wrong with her, she was just a little stressed out from delivery.

I have to say here that Jeremiah was AMAZING during labor and delivery! He was so supportive and just there for me. I know that I shouldn't be surprised but I really didn't think that he would be Mr. Supportive and I am so very grateful for everything that he did and that he was totally there for me! He did everything perfectly right for me and I so love him for being who he is. I don't think that I would have done as well has I had without him there.

I am also grateful for Valerie and mom for being there. And for Kathryn and Grandma Aldridge coming when they did. They were all so great and said all the right things also. I have a wonderful family and I am so lucky to have had the support that I did.

Grandpa Mike showed up at 2:30 p.m. right before they took the baby to the NICU and got to hold her for a couple of minutes. He said that she is a beautiful little girl.

They had kicked all of the family out of the delivery room by the time they brought her back to me to try to breastfeed. She was having none of that so they had me go to the bathroom and then wheeled me to my room (103). All of the family was there and the nurse kicked them out of there so that she could do her exam and get me comfortable. While she was doing that, Jeremiah went to the nursery and gave the baby her first bath. Valerie let us use her camcorder so we were lucky enough to get that on video. They they brought her back to the room and everyone held her and loved her again.

Everyone left for awhile and Jeremiah and I decided that her name was going to be Wren Lorraine Martin. It was up in the air between Wren and Stella and she just looked like a Wren to both of us!

Later that afternoon Kathryn left to go and get us some McDonald's and Kali came with Drew, Jaxon, Daria and Trey while they were there Valerie and Justin came with Bella Isaac and Ethan. All of the kids got to hold the baby and were so good with her. Even Ethan held her and hugged on her and was very gentle with her, we were ALL surprised by that! There is a reason that boy is called monster after all! Everyone left and Valerie called us at 8:30 to see see if she could come back because she missed the baby so much! So she came back and held the baby for about an hour.

Wren FINALLY started eating at about 10:30 p.m. tonight although not very well! I had decided to have her room in with us but changed my mind when every time she would sigh I would wake up to check on her. Plus she is such a quiet sleeper that it was hard to tell if she was still alive! So we ended up taking her to the nursery at about 1:00 a.m. They brought her back at 3:00 because she needed to eat and I decided to just have her stay in the room if they were going to bring her back every two hours anyway! I got up every 3 hours and TRIED to feed her and in between she slept pretty good.

April 1, 2009

Before Delivery:


The nurse came in at 5:00 a.m. to take the cervidil out and I got to get up and take a shower. Then they started the pitocin at 5:35 a.m. and I went about putting my makeup on and trying to relax.

Dr. Hall came in at 7:20 a.m. to check me and I was dilated to about a 1 and he was able to break my water. Immediately after he broke my water I started having contractions one on top of the other. It was pretty painful so I had Jeremiah go out and ask the nurse (whose name was Heather) to please give me some drugs! She came in and gave me staydol through my IV at 8:15 a.m. That stuff is weird! I slept for about an hour and then after that it was like my entire life was consumed by contractions. I would sleep and forget where I was and what was happening until I started to have a contraction and it would feel like a week until I remembered what we were doing then I felt like I had JUST had a contraction, what was another one doing coming so soon! At one time when I was awake for a contraction I told Jeremiah to please call Valerie and my mom because I really needed them here.

At 9:30 a.m. Valerie showed up and asked the nurse to please check me because my contractions were coming so fast and hard. I was only dilated to a 2.5 At this point the nurse called the anesthesiologist to come and give me an epidural. I was in so much pain and was not sleeping at all anymore. It felt like every time one contraction would end another would start right on top of it. I was holding Jeremiah's had so hard that I am surprised that he was not bruised the next day. I kept flopping from one side of the bed to the other and gripping the hand rails to the bed. I was gripping them so hard that Valerie told me later that she thought I was going to rip them off the bed and I had a bruise where the IV was in my hand from the pressure that I had put it under. I also had bruises from my blood pressure cuff on one side and my gown on the other. I had Valerie rubbing my lower back so hard that it was also bruised later. I remember telling Valerie that she had lied to me and told me that labor was not that bad! I was ready to just give up at this point. I was in such pain and there was really nothing that I could do to ease it. It felt like years ago that we had asked for the epidural and where the heck was that guy anyway. The nurse kept telling me to let the pain take over my body and I just wanted to yell at here that I really had no choice in the matter, that the pain was taking over whether I was letting it or not! The only reason she did not get yelled at or hit was because I was just in to much pain to have to move for any unnecessary reason! There was a lot of crying on my part and it totally ruined my makeup!

Mom came in at 10:40 a.m. and everyone (but me) thought that it was FINALLY the anesthesiologist. I was kind of grateful that it was mom but I do have to admit that there was a lot of swearing going on at this point! Each time a contraction started I would say oh my he** or Oh Sh** or Son of a Bi***! It really hurt, okay! I'm sorry!!!! There really are worse things that I could have been saying and was trying to hold back on account that mom was there and there was a student nurse who was still in High School there also! I have to give mom kudos for not yelling at me to stop swearing! She did tell me later that she was pretty worried about me and didn't think that I would have been able to have this baby without an epidural. I completely agree with her!

Finally I received the epidural at 11:00 a.m. and instantly felt like I might live through this pain! Probably because at this point I was not feeling any!! While I was getting the epidural everyone left the room and Jeremiah went down to the cafeteria and got a hot dog and fries. Mom said that it looked DELICIOUS! I was completely trashed by now but just so grateful to not have to be feeling anymore contractions so everyone came back in the room and we just chatted for awhile and I tried to do a little damage control with my makeup but I knew that I would probably cry again when the baby was born so didn't put more mascara on!

At 1:00 p.m. the nurse came in to check me and said okay you're at a 5. I said, well that's better than a four and she responds with "April Fools, your a 10!" So she called Dr. Hall and he came down and checked also. He had her start me pushing since she was not crowning yet. Jeremiah held one leg for me and the student nurse held the other.

Kathryn came in at 1:45 p.m. and Grandma Aldridge showed up about 5-10 minutes later. So we had a FULL house! Dr. Hall came in at about 2:00 p.m. and the baby was born at 2:08 p.m.

March 31, 2009

Today is the day that we are going into the hospital to start the cervidil to get things going on delivery. Jeremiah worked most of the day but was home by about 3:30 p.m. so that he could shower and finish up the list of things that I had for him to do. We then decided to go and get something yummy to eat since I probably would not be eating again for awhile. We called the hospital to let them know that we were going to be a little late getting there because we didn't want to have to eat fast food. We ate at Johnny Carinos which was delicious and ended up at the hospital at about 6:30.

Our room was not ready when we got there because they wanted us to have a "big room" since we were staying the night and they could save the smaller rooms for people who were actually going into labor. So we hung out in the waiting room watching tv, making phone calls and I wrote a couple of thank you notes. They finally got the room cleaned and we were in there at about 7:30 p.m. Isabella and Isaac really wanted to come and see me when we got to the hospital so I called Val to let her know that we were in the room and she could come up whenever.

They started the cervidil at about 8:00 p.m. and got me all hooked up to the monitors so that they could keep track of the baby's heartbeat and my contractions. The chair that was in the room was broken so the nurse brought a cot for Jeremiah to sleep on. It was the smallest cot that I had ever seen. Only about 2 feet wide!! plus there were a couple of springs that were broken so if he rolled over to either side of the cot, he was going to be stabbed!! So, the nurse brought in a second chair that she said was better than the first. HA!! it had a hole in it where the lever to put the chair back in a reclining position was supposed to be and he could not pull it out manually so he ended up sleeping on the cot.

Isabella and Isaac were very cute when they got there. Valerie said that on the ride over she was explaining to them that they baby was not here yet so they were just going to be seeing me. Isaac started crying and said that he just really really wanted to see the baby! You and me both buddy! :) Isaac was also running up and down the length of the room and when he would come near the wall he would "yell" in a whispery voice "whoa slow down, ahhhhhhh!" It was hilarious! Jeremiah made them some "balloons" out of the surgical gloves they had hanging on the wall then drew faces on them so that they looked like people. Both of the kids hugged and kissed "the baby" (aka my tummy) goodbye before they left.

After they had left, the nurse brought me an ambien so that I could sleep through the night but really all it did was make me feel heavy in the head. By this time the cervidil had started its work and I was cramping pretty good. I tried really hard to sleep but had to keep getting up and going to the bathroom and Jeremiah was great. Because I was hooked up to a machine for monitoring everytime I had to go to the bathroom Jeremiah had to get up with me, unhook me from the machine, and follow me to the bathroom and then hook me back up. At one point I apologized for having to go so much and he told me just stop apologizing, this is what I am here for! :) I thought that was very sweet of him! So he did not get a whole lot of sleep between me going potty and his super comfy bed!!



Here I am hooked up to the monitors. The pink band is the monitor for the heartbeat and the blue band is measuring my contractions. They did it that way because I am having a girl so the pink band was for the baby! :) cute huh!

I look so trashed but we had only been there for about an hour when this picture was taken!

The kids loved getting up in the bed with me and jumping off or just laying there with me.
Isaac was sad when he had to leave because he wanted to stay and sleep in the bed with me!

The fun fun balloons!

reality check

Tonight as I was taking a bath I realized that I was about to be a mom... there is going to be a little tiny baby that is entirely dependent on me coming home to our house in the VERY near future. It seems so sureal to me that this is FINALLY happening. I know that I have known for 10 months that this is a reality, but it really hits me at odd moments. I think that part of the reason that it hit me tonight is that we have been "ready" for her to come for awhile. All of the bags are packed, her room is read, I haven't gotten any cute little outfits to put away so tonight, I just noticed the baby bath sitting on the edge of the tub and bam, I'm really going to be a mother. Then I start to freak out about how am I ever going to be able to do this???!?!?! I know that I will though. I have a fantastic husband who loves me and takes such good care of me and I have a Heavenly Father who knows me and loves me and only wants the best for me who will be there for me whenever I need him. These are the things that I really have to keep in mind and they are the things that keep me going when I start to freak out.

41 Week Belly Pic

Here is my belly at 41 weeks...



Yes, I know that it is a LITTLE different than the other belly pics that I have posted but I think they are cute! :P

I'm sorry if I have offended any of you by bearing myself!