Mary's Post Birth Story

So it turns out that I had a partial placental abrubtion which was causing all of the bleeding. That means the placenta was already separating from the uterus and if it came all the way off then the baby would not be getting any oxygen. We are so grateful that I was able to have a c-section or Mary would probably not be with us right now.


I could still not move any of my lower body when they took me to a recovery room. Brian and I just sat there for a long time while the nurse did a lot of paperwork. It was actually taking longer than expected for the drugs to wear off enough to get myself into another bed. Mom arrived shortly after Mary was born and came to see me. I was getting so anxious to hold Mary that I kept trying so hard to move my toes so the nurse would let me go to another room. Brian kept taking trips to the nursery to see her and found out that she had low blood sugar. Eventually she got better though and they finally moved me to a regular room where we could bring Mary to.

I was so happy to hold Mary for the first time. We were both happy to be with her. She is such a good baby. Then Mom and Brian's parents came in and saw her too. Over the next few days at the hospital there was a lot going on. It seemed like once a nurse left the room somebody else would come in with a survey or to take pictures or for the birth certificate. That was so tiring. Brian was there most of the time except for a little while when he went home to study but then Mom stayed. We even watched conference on my tablet while Mom made some really nice hats. I couldn't really get out of bed for the first two nights so Brian was very tired from getting up and handing me the baby to feed and then changing her diaper. He has a lot harder time getting back to sleep than I do. It felt so good once I was able to walk around a little and to even take a shower.

Well Mary passed all her tests except for the bilirubin test on Sunday which meant that she needed to be kept for 24 hours for the phototherapy treatment. Brian and I went home Sunday afternoon and got some nice sleep after returning to the hospital a few times to feed her. Monday morning we came to feed her again and were happy to hear that we could finally take her home. Yeay! Mary enjoyed being in her car seat and was so good the whole ride home. We felt so happy to have Mary at home with us.

Mary's Birth Story

Thursday I woke up after a nice night of sleep disappointed again that things had not progressed enough to keep me awake. I got up and took a shower because I was bored lying in bed. I ate some cereal and a lot of orange juice because the last time we went to the hospital they said I was dehydrated. Brian was still in bed so I layed back down to be with him for a while. I was feeling a little tummy sick and thought maybe it was from drinking too much oj. Not many minutes later I felt a ton of liquid shooting out while I was laying down and told Brian that my water broke. That was about 7:45am. I ran to the shower to let it drain out a bit before we got in the car and that is when I noticed that it was very bloody.

We got to the hospital and I was hooked up to the fetal monitor in their evaluation room where they decide whether to keep you or not. After testing the fluid they knew it was amniotic fluid and then took me to a delivery room. We sat there for a while waiting for the doctor to come. The nurse was noticing that the baby's heart rate was dropping a lot every time I had a contraction and that was not good. The doctor got there and decided to order an ultrasound. The ultrasound did not show any reason for the baby's heart rate to be dropping. It was at that point that the doctor decided that I needed a c-section.

From the time the doctor decided to do the c-section to when the baby was born was so fast. It seemed like there were so many people doing different things to all of my body parts and I had no idea what was going on. It wasn't until they put the curtain in front of my face that I asked where Brian was because I was getting worried that he was not there. I think they forgot to go get him. Mary was born at 12:34pm and a few minutes later the nurse let me see her as she held her to my face. I was so happy. She weighed 6lbs 14oz and was 18 1/2" long.

Mary Pre-Birth Story

Tuesday morning I started to feel contractions. Before I had never really felt any and weren't sure what they felt like. It was not painful, just a tight feeling. They started at an hour apart and throughout the day got closer and closer together. I went with Brian to school at noon for an ultrasound workshop. It was to let students get a bit of hands on with the ultrasound machine and I was used as a patient so they could see the baby. By 3:30 they were ten minutes apart and still not painful; it stayed like that for the rest of the day. We had dinner at Hometown Buffet because I really did not feel like cooking. I slept well Tuesday night and was a bit disappointed that things did not progress and keep me awake.

I had a doctor's appointment Wednesday morning so Brian and I went to that and the doctor told us to go to the hospital to have them check how far along I was. We headed straight to the hospital and stayed for a few hours on the fetal monitor and after a cervical check I was not even dilated at all. So they sent us home. We decided to go for a walk because Brian already skipped school so we walked around The Block and outlet stores in Orange for a while. We also went to Toys R Us for fun to look at girl toys. I even got Brian to walk down the pink aisles. I was really tired of walking and it didn't seem to be progressing much except that it started to hurt a little. But that may have been from being tired. After dinner Brian realized that he needed to go to mutual and drove off a little worried about leaving me alone but i just sat and watched Netflix. I slept very well that night also.

Camping at Puddingstone Lake

Brian and I went camping for 2 nights at Puddingstone Lake in San Dimas. We had a very nice time. The first night we had steak and potatoes by the fire and played a few games of dominoes and horseshoes. We enjoyed egg sandwiches and hashbrowns in the morning after a night in our nice tent with our new cot I got for Brian's birthday. I slept fairly well, about the same as home. We went for a walk around the lake and it was a bit too long for me. I was tired! After our walk we laid down on the bed and watched the old parent trap movie on my tablet. We were planning on taking the boat out but this weekend it was closed because there were boat races going on. We watched canoe races on Friday and Saturday they were having jet boat races.

Rees' family joined us Friday night and we had chicken kabobs, corn on the cob, texas toast, chocolate lava cake, and homemade ice-cream. All of the food was so good. I enjoyed making and eating it. We had a great time sitting around the fire.

So it was a nice trip and I enjoyed going for 2 nights instead of just 1 and the only bad things were the lake was closed and we parked our car under a tree so it got a lot of bird poop on it but we washed it so it is clean now.

Green Dress

I like this new dress I got for a good price and I like the longer sleeves and longer skirt. Also, it isn't a maternity dress. It should fit fine after the baby.

37 Weeks Pregnant

Not much has been happening lately. I have found it harder to get from laying down to sitting up and whenever I walk it feels like I have already been walking all day. I have also been really hot at night but the weather has been getting warmer too. Brian isn't burning hot so I think it is probably just me. So now I am just waiting around and trying to find things that I can still do. It seems like I always want to be moving heavy things around but I can't like I used to.

Oh, and we moved the crib into the bathroom/laundry room so we wouldn't have to leave our room when she is taking naps. So she will be sleeping next to the washing machine.

Baby Booties

I made these booties for our little girl. I am so excited for her to wear them. I made the purple ones to match a nice church dress someone gave us. These were so easy to make from some scraps of fabric I had.