Deja Renee

If you're into the birth stories here we go!! it's pretty detailed, mostly so I can have it for my own memory ;)

Pre-story:  My doctor decided it might be a good idea to induce me on Monday night the 9th so we could plan accordingly around my platelet level, however, our little girl decided to take matters into her own hands for her birthday...

9/8/13 (Sunday):

7:30 a.m.- I Woke up and went to the bathroom, and felt more “wet" than normal.  I changed and put on a liner to see if I was still leaking or what not.

10:30-I didn't sleep much after that, I just laid in bed waiting for John to wake up so I could tell him of my suspicions.  It was pretty funny because the first thing he said was, "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" I explained that nothing was going on down there (with liquid or contractions), so I was in denial as to wether my water had broken or not!!  We finally decided to call the on-call nurse at my Dr.'s office and get her opinion.  I was surprised because when she answered she didn’t really ask any questions about my situation, she just encouraged me to come in and be tested.  So John and I started getting as ready as possible.  He started cleaning and doing dishes while I finished some last minute packing.  And by last minute packing really I just walked from room to room feeling lost and not knowing what to do with myself.  I just kept thinking, "This is all supposed to happen tomorrow!  I'm not ready to go in today!"  After I was done "packing" I ate a PB and J just in case.  Pretty awesome final meal, right?

12:00-Went to Alta View Hospital and told them our situation.  They assigned us to a room and the nurse performed a "fast test" on me which came out negative.  After that, I was convinced this was all a waste of time and money :(  But the nurse took a swab of my insides for the next test and said it would take about an hour to get the results.

12:30-1:00-So half an hour later, a new nurse comes in wanting to start an IV and draw my blood.  However, by the way she was talking I thought she definitely had the wrong room and we told her we were waiting on our test results.  She then explained that they already got the test back and it was positive so I would be staying!!  I was in shock and just started crying, haha.  Prego Hormones much?  I was just so convinced we were going home and couldn't believe I was in labor.  They handed over all the paper work, started my Pitocin, Penicillin, and drew blood to see how my platelets were.  They were nice enough to say that the whole staff was praying that I could get an epidural!!

4:00-The nurse came back with good news!  My platelets were at 117 which was the highest they’ve been!  Good to go on the Epidural, Yahoo!!  The nurse told me to hold off as long as possible on getting it because it was most effective for the first 6-8 hours.  I still wasn't feeling contractions, but wasn't worried about it.  They also gave me the famous ice chips with snow cone flavoring, but I didn’t eat too many because going to the bathroom was a pain with all my IV’s.

7:00-Posted this on my facebook family site: “Well, I've been on Pitocin since 1:00, but I'm still only dilated to a 1 and still can’t feel any contractions.  They said if I go much longer without dilating they'll start it over again and hope for the morning.... so that's kind of rough. Mostly I'm worried about starving. Luckily I did eat a sandwich before I left the house. John and his dad will be giving me a blessing here soon. Oh also, I guess there are 2 other girls here who are in the exact same situation as I am (first babies and all), haha. We're thinking it's because of this morning's rain storm.”

8:30-Kara and Wayne came to visit and bring John dinner.  After chatting for a little while,  John and Wayne gave me a blessing and said I would feel lots of prayers from family and friends throughout the labor.  It was nice to talk to other people after a monotonous afternoon.   I also talked to my family and friends about how 9/9 was going to be a better date for a birthday anyway.

9:30-The nurse took me as far on Pitocin as she felt comfortable, I could tell my uterus was working hard, but still couldn’t feel contractions.  After calling and talking to the Dr, she shut off the Pitocin, gave me some dinner (Food had never tasted so good), and unhooked me so I could get up and walk around for real. 

10:30-Round 2 of Pitocin.  I was really hoping it would work this time... John and I watched the Incredibles and Toy Story 3.

1:25-Finally felt my first contraction and was dilated to a 3!!! (nurses didn’t want to check me too much  so I would have a lower the risk of infection)  A little while later I finally decided I needed something for the pain and got some Fentanyl, as soon as I got it I wished I had gotten it hours before!!  I felt like I was in heaven :)  

2:30-Decided to try another round of Fentanyl hoping it would work its magic again, but it wasn’t as effective so we decided to give the epidural a go!

3:00-Anisthesiologist came up and explained what I needed to do in curling my back.  Right before he stuck the needle in, the nurse must have put in my next dose of Penicillin because I think I was having more pain in my wrist than my back.  John said I got really white and was afraid I might pass out.  I could hear a “Popping” when the needle went into my back and was concerned because I could mostly only feel it on my right side rather than my left.  As soon as everything settled down I slept as much as I could!!  The epidural felt awesome.

John probably slept for 2 hours, I probably slept for 3.

9/9/13 (Monday-Birthday):

7:30-Been in “labor” for at least 24 hours.  Contractions were about 3 min apart, waiting for my Dr. to come in at 8 for them to “check” me again.

8:00-Dialated to a 10!!!  Ready to start pushing.  Dr. warned us she was going to have to leave and go to the dentist with her son around 9:30, so we had 1½ hours to see what I could do....Ok what?  At the time, John and I were fine with that, but looking back on it now, why didn't they check me at like 6 a.m. rather than 8?!? I was probably dilated to a 10 for a while before they checked me, oh well... Anyway... Trying to figure out pushing… haha that was....  fun?

9:30-The nurses decided to have me stop since the Dr had to leave for the dentist and nothing was really happening.  They also explained that during the mean time my body would "rest and descend" (the contractions would help bring the baby down naturally without me pushing.)  They also assured me that people do this all the time....  Again looking back, what?  If people did this all the time, why was it the first time I had ever heard of it?  Can't we just keep going and have another Dr. step in if the baby comes?

11:00-12:00-My lower back was absolutely KILLING ME with constant pain, and it felt like the Epidural wasn't even working anymore.  Had another emotional break down and just WANTED TO BE DONE!!!  The nurses tried to make me as comfortable as possible, but couldn't really do anything to help me out.  It's a good thing John was there or I would have never made it through the whole process :(

12:00-Dr. still wasn’t back, but the nurses finally got the ok to start pushing again.  As soon as I started they said they could see her dark brown hair!!!

1:00-ish John asked if he was seeing the baby’s forehead, but the nurses assured us it must be a bald spot, because the baby was face down. (Found out later they were wrong)

2:00 Still pushing, felt like it would never end.  Started getting a fever so they gave me more medicine.  Dr. came in to help get the baby out.

2:53 DEJA RENEE SOUTHWICK OFFICIALLY BORN!!! 8 pounds, 21.5 inches, major cone head, face up, purple, lots of dark hair.  I'll always remember how happy I was when I saw her little face for the first time.  It was really so exciting and such a relief that she was finally out!!  John cut the cord and then looked like he didn’t know what to do, so I told him to take some pictures!  (He told me later he just kept thinking, "I don't want to take pictures while she looks like an alien!!")  We did skin to skin then they took the baby away for more testing because of the fever.  They got me cleaned up and the Nurse instructed me on how to switch beds to be taken to the other room, (I probably could have walked because I definitely had full feeling of my legs).  

Crystal Skull Alien Head!!!
(As my dear friend Melanie calls it)

After we were settled, John really wanted Café Rio (we had planned on going there before I got induced), so his family brought some for us when they came to see the baby.  My sisters Jeannie and Debbie also came in that afternoon and brought us shakes. It was awesome.  We loved our hospital stay and milked it for all it was worth :)  I also loved having John with me so much.  He was honestly my personal CNA and did way more for me than the hospital staff.  I'm so lucky to have him.  It was also nice living so close to the Hospital so I could just send him home to sleep at night.  

 

Other memorable parts about the hospital included skyping with my parents, having our "fancy dinner," spending time with family and friends, learning how to breastfeed, and just getting to know our little girl!! 

Cousin Love!!

Half way through our meal, I remembered that I really wanted to take a picture!!
John didn't want to, but finally agreed :)

Cousin Love!!!  This is Deja's cousin that she's closest in age with!
He's about 4 months older than her :)

Deja had an IV in her wrist so they could give her antibiotics throughout our stay, however the very last day it ruptured, so they had to put it in her head instead!!  Poor baby :(

Getting ready to go home!!

Don't worry, she wasn't screaming.  This was just a yawn.

Once we got home we had a lot of our close friends and family come visit.  

I tried to take a pictures of everyone when I remembered!

Cousin Love!!

My sister and niece came up from Arizona to come help us out!

Cousin Love!

and more Cousin Love!!  :)

All in all it really was an amazing experience bringing this little girl into the world and becoming a mother.  I'm so blessed to have a perfect, healthy child and a husband and father who loves and takes care of us.  Having a baby really opened my eyes even further on the plan of salvation and importance of families.  We are so excited to start this next part of our journey together and are so thankful for all of the people who are a constant support to us!  

  

The Final Countdown!!

Well, so much for August, Ha! I must be getting ready to have a baby because I haven't posted for a while!  The most exciting thing that has happened since last month is that my platelet count has actually been improving!  As a frame of reference Normal Platelets range from 150-400.  At my very first appointment back in January I was at 148, and throughout the months dropped to as low as 94.  However, my last two appointments showed I was up to 109 and then 110 a week later.  Still not fabulous, but the Doc thinks if we're over 100 (depending on the anesthesiologist of course) we'll get the ok to get an epidural!  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers just in case though ;)  At my most recent appointment (Aug 29^th) the doctor actually asked us if we wanted to induce labor on Labor Day!  After going home and thinking things through, we decided it would be better to wait it out another week, so we hope that’s the right decision for our family.  In our minds we’ve been aiming to go into labor after the due date (Sept 7th) to coordinate with our work schedules, yes this probably sounds selfish, but because I’ve had my mind set on not going into labor as long as I can, I wasn’t emotionally ready to have the baby as early as Labor day…. Which looking at it now seems funny because in reality the baby could come at any minute anyway.  Long story short, if I don’t go into labor before my due date, I’ll probably be induced Monday or Tuesday night next week!  

39 Weeks 

In other news the past couple weeks were all about getting as many things done on my "to-do list" as possible!  Some of the things I was able to accomplish were: Going to the Temple, going to lunch with the Southwick Sisters, going to my baby showers, washing and organizing gifts and clothes from said showers, packing my hospital bag, figuring out insurance, and updating this blog, haha!!  I'm actually feeling pretty prepared thanks to the friends and family who have helped me out!  Other than that life is great and John and I are excited to become parents!  Be excited for hospital stories and baby updates coming soon!!!  5 days till due date  CRAZY!! 

Sarah and John

Getting Organized

                            

                                                     Hospital Ready... I hope! 

     

32 and 1/2 week apt.

So my last appointment was in the middle of July and the doctor said everything is looking good!  John and I reminded her that I had gone to talk to the "Blood Specialist" so she left the room to go grab the results he had sent over.  As soon as she was gone, the first thing out of John's mouth was, "So...remember how she's pregnant, too?"  I thought he was kidding because I hadn't noticed anything, but sure enough when she came back, I realized she totally is!!!  I must be a little self absorbed or something, because I had no idea till that moment.  I thought about asking how far along she was, but I didn't want it to get awkward... maybe I will at my next apt.  Anyway when she got back she told me I probably have Gestational Thrombocytopenia aka platelets getting low during pregnancy.  I guess it happens in about 8% of pregnancies.  Again I asked if there was anything I can do about it and she said no, but then she stated "but if your platelet count is too low the day you go into labor, we won't be able to give you an epidural."  WHAT?!?!?!  That was something the specialist failed to mention.  The shock on my face was probably priceless and the most entertaining part of my doctors day.  She then went on to explain that my platelets have always been above the cutoff, so I shouldn't worry too much, but to plan on going natural just in case that's what ends up having to happen.... Great....  To look on the bright side, at least I know now that it could happen, so I'm more mentally prepared.  Plus I do know people who have done it before, so I'm sure I would survive "going natural".... but I really don't want to!!!!  Anyway Long story short please pray for my platelets to stay at a good level.  They'll be drawing my blood again in about two weeks to check my levels, so we'll hope they've gone up instead of down!!

In other news, I'm still working at America First.  However, I knew I wouldn't be able to make things work to return to a 40 hr position after maternity leave.  So... after weeks of dragging my feet, I finally applied to a 30 hr position at a branch that's a little closer to home.  I will be starting at the new branch on Aug. 5th!!!  I'm actually pretty nervous, because I've been at the same branch for just under 2 and 1/2 years, so it's pretty much all I know, but how different could a new branch be...?  Right?  Oh well it'll all work out hopefully...  At least I'll have experience under my belt, that's for sure.

As for John, he is doing well.  He still works at IMC in the heart and lung building.  He enjoys what he does and has even learned how to do Tele-Tech (watching the heart monitors and making sure the patients rhythms are normal) and HUC (Scanning/Ordering prescriptions and other paperwork for the doctors).  This gives him a little more variety in the work place.  I can't believe he's almost been there an entire year now!! (I think he started August 6th 2012).

Anyway sorry for the long, wordy post.  Hope you enjoyed it if you made it this far!!  I'll try to post again after my next appointment :)

The month of June

The month of June sure flew by quickly!  Things have been going well with my pregnancy, and I had 3 different doctor appointments during the last month.  The first was my glucose blood test to see if I had Gestational Diabetes.  That part of the test came back negative, but when they drew my blood, they did notice that both my Iron and Platelets were low.  So right now I'm taking Iron supplements everyday.  As for the platelets, I went and talked to a specialist at IMC, and the only thing the Doctor really had to say was "They're low, but now low enough to worry."  I also asked him if there's anything I can do about it, and he just scoffed and said "No."  So that's, that.  We also decided to do a Fetal Echo for the baby, just to make sure everything was ok with her heart.  All the results came back looking good and so we don't need to worry about that!!  Overall the pregnancy is going great.  I've notice my hands and ankles are starting to swell, but there's nothing really to complain about there.  The heat on the other hand has started taking its toll, but luckily I work in a nice Air Conditioned building, so I'm comfortable most of the time.  

26 Weeks

28 Weeks

30 Weeks

For work, I helped throw a summer social for the staff.  We just had a BBQ in one of my co-worker's back yards and played water balloon volleyball, regular volleyball, had a pinata, and socialized.  In June, I also had the opportunity to go to part of our wards youth conference.  The youth were challenged to read the Book of Mormon live in 3 days, so it was a neat experience for a lot of them.  I only went on the last day, but it was pretty great because we got to read about Jesus coming to the America's and all those other great chapters at the end of the Book of Mormon.  It was interesting because some of the chapters they took turns reading, other parts they acted out, and some of the more popular sections were assigned to designated readers.  It basically felt like a huge read-a-thon...well a spiritual read-a-thon, haha.   As for John, he's been trying to work more hours since he doesn't have school this summer! When he's not at work you can probably find him Bowling with his brothers, Kyle and Brian.  It's fun for him to be able to hang out with them when I'm not around, plus he sure loves to bowl and they get to bowl one free game a day because Kyle's still in High School.  John also got summoned for jury duty during the month of June!  It was kind of stressful just because every time he called in to get the schedule they would tell him to call back the next day around 7.  Finally he was able to go and only ended up having to stay for a couple hours because they didn't choose him to be on the jury.  So that was kind of nice that he got paid just to go to the court for a couple hours!  Other than that, life is good for us!!  I'm now at 30 weeks along, so we're excited to meet our daughter here in about two months!!!  Crazy :)

John and Sarah

Baby pics and St. George!

So.... again it's been a while.  I thought being pregnant would help me blog more, but that hasn't really happened, so rewind back to April :)

John and I both celebrated our birthdays at the beginning of the month, but we didn't really do anything exciting because we're trying to save $$ for the baby, also... we kind of over did it at Christmas, haha.  I didn't even blog about it because of how out of control it was...  Anyway.  For my appointment on April 9th the baby wasn't cooperating all that well to take a peak at the gender.  Luckily after a little while, the doctor was able to get it to roll over to a better position.  The doc told us the baby was most likely a GIRL!!!  She said she was 85% sure, but we would get a better look at the next appointment.      Two weeks later, on April 22nd, the Ultra Sound Tech confirmed that it was indeed a girl and that everything looked normal and healthy.  John asked the tech if the baby looked "Tall" at all, and she actually said that the Femur was measuring a week ahead, so there you go! She also told us "Good job making a healthy baby," I thought that was pretty funny for her to say.  Here are some of the pics from that appointment.  They're also on Facebook, so sorry, nothing too new :)

Before the ultrasound, people kept asking me what I thought the gender was going to be.  I told them I really didn't have any gut feelings, but if I had to guess it would be "boy."   However, on my way to the ultrasound I told John, "Now that I've said 'boy' to so many people, it'll probably end up being a girl."  So I guess I was right in the end, haha!!


During the Month of April, John's Little Brother got home from his mission in Mexico, so it was fun hanging out with the Southwick Clan!  After a couple of weeks, John and I had the opportunity to go to St. George with his Dad and two younger brothers.  It has been a while since we've had any sort of Vacation, so we were pretty stoked!!  While we were down south we swam, shopped, relaxed, played games, watched movies, ate good food, and hiked :)

Boys being silly
(They actually ran up this  hill and John was feeling his heart pumping, so he made the others do the same pose.)

These two went the rest of the way up

Gotta be Color coordinated ;)

I just love the Red Rock!!

We weren't able to get down the mountain before the rain came...  

Hate that my eyes are shut, but still a great pic!

We were pretty soaked by the time we got to the car.... John had fun styling his hair afterwards.  

Overall it was a fun getaway.  We're actually going back in July, so we're looking forward to more family fun!  I guess the only other exciting thing is that I just got called to Young Women!  I'm over the Miamaids, and so far it's been pretty fun.  This is the first time I've been back in YW since I graduated HS, so it's interesting to be on the "Leader Side" instead of being one of the girls.  I still feel pretty shy around them, which sounds silly now that I typed that, but I'm looking forward to spending the summer with the youth!  Peace out!

Big News!!

Well the word is finally out, We’re Pregnant!!!  Baby Southwick is due September 7, 2013.  Today I’m 18 weeks along and we will be finding out the gender this coming Tuesday.  We were supposed to find out on March 27^th, but John wasn’t going to be able to make it, so we pushed it back. 

So far the pregnancy has been pretty easy.  I was probably the most nauseas in January after eating dinner, but I never threw up or anything like that. 

We waited until week 12 to tell anyone we were pregnant and started with family using this little prop.

For John’s dad we actually bought some pickles and ice cream and displayed them on his kitchen counter, but it took him and his little brother Kyle about 10 minutes to even comment about them, haha.  It was pretty funny.

At work I gave these to people during a staff meeting, so that was kind of funny.

Our favorite was this video we posted.  John and I are big fans of the Office, so we really wanted to make this happen. 

Things I've learned about pregnancy that I couldn’t tell anyone about till now!!

-Sometimes you crave Pringles for weeks.  Then when you finally adhere to the craving, you eat half the can and make yourself sick.  Also, whenever you see another can of Pringles, even if you only make “split-second eye contact” with it, you’ll be nauseous for the next three hours.  

Aka Yesterday’s craving is Today’s (and the next 3 week’s) Aversion. 

-When your friends are complaining about birth control, you just nod and try and match their emotions, and then it suddenly hits you that you haven’t had a period in 2 months and you couldn’t be happier about it!

-When people start talking about how they gag when they brush their teeth, you’re trying not to gag while listening to them talk about it!

-You have sudden urges to tell random people that you’re pregnant because although you’re waiting on telling your close friends and family until after the risky weeks are over, you just want people to know already!

-You lie about being prego pretty much every day. 

-You have no control over “bed time.” As soon as you start getting tired there is a dark slippery slope to orneriness and irritability that you can’t get rid of till the next morning.  Also, almost coincidentally, sleeping in is not an option anymore.  You pretty much have to force your body to keep sleeping and you don’t get the satisfaction from it like you once did.  So much for catching up on ZZZzzzz’s!!

Things I’ve craved: Pringles, Doritos, Skittles, Café Rio, Cheeto’s, Rice Crispy Treats, Subway, Chocolate, Oreos, Girl scout cookies, Fries with Fry Sauce, and Cheeseburgers