Thursday January 8th I had a full day planned with lots of errands. I stopped working as of January 1st so Brooklyn and I had been getting things ready for the baby and just playing until Harper arrived. This day started at my work with a little baby shower for me. It was so fun and nice of the girls at work to spoil me and the baby. After, Brooklyn and I went shopping at a few stores and ended at the grocery store. I walked a lot that day and by the time I was checking out at the grocery store my whole body was cramping up. Not really a contraction but just everything was so tight and I could barely walk. I knew I had overdone it that day. So we headed home to get dinner going and rest a little bit. Then we all headed over to Liz and Matt's house for a little birthday party for Matt. I just wasn't feeling that great and Adam told everyone he was sure I would go into labor that night. I didn't really think I would because I still wasn't having contractions and I didn't want to get my hopes up but I just was feeling different. I was scheduled to be induced on January 12th (my due date was the 17th) so I knew no matter what happened she would be coming soon.
▲▲▲Last bump picture I took Thursday morning before I went into labor.
We got home that night and we all got ready for bed and I was feeling what I thought might be contractions but nothing too strong or consistent. I really just thought I had overdone it that day. As we laid down to go to sleep at about 10:30 pm I could feel the pain more and more and the contractions started get more consistent. I still wasn't sure if I was really going into labor or if I could just sleep it off. By about 1:00 am I still hadn't gone to sleep because the contractions would come every about 15 minutes and were pretty painful but they weren't really getting closer together. Adam had fallen asleep and woke up about then and I told him I haven't gone to bed yet because I was in pain. He was shocked and stayed up with me for a while longer and the contractions started getting closer and closer together and a lot stronger. By about 4:00 am I decided this is actually me in labor and it was go time. I started panicking a little bit because the pain was getting pretty intense and by the time my mom came over to watch Brooklyn and we got to the hospital and got checked in it would be awhile before I got my epidural and I wasn't sure I could handle all the pain. So we just tried to hurry as the pain got more and more intense and the contractions closer together. We called my mom and she was at our house within 30 minutes. Brooklyn woke up before we left and we got to hug her and tell her it was time to go get the baby out of our my tummy. She was so excited. I took one last picture of her before we left and she became a big sister!
▲▲▲Last picture of Brooklyn before we headed to the hospital.
We left our house as soon as my mom arrived and got to the hospital at about 5:00 am. They put me in a triage room and checked me and I was dilated to a 4. I was a 3 a week before that so that really wasn't that much progress. They told me I had to wait an hour and get checked again and if nothing changed they would send me home. If I was dilated more they would check me in. I was so worried they would send me home. I was in so much pain and there is no way I could go home and manage it. About 30 minutes later she came in a said they were about to do a shift change so they wanted to see if I was going to be checked in or not so they were going to check my cervix again a little early to see. She checked me and I was at 5 cm so she said I was good to be checked in. By this time the contractions are so painful and I have to hold on for dear life every about 5-7 minutes. It was horrible. The nurse took me to my room (which had a view of the Timpanogos Temple!) and said she would see how quickly she could be my epidural. Unfortunately there were 2 c-sections scheduled and another woman that needed an emergency epidural all before me. They were trying to squeeze me in between but it just wasn't working. So, they gave me some medicine to take the edge off the pain. They put the medicine in my IV and I immediately felt so drowsy. It was so weird but it did take the edge off enough that I could handle the contractions although I was pretty uncomfortable. They finally got me an epidural at about 8:00 am. My doctor, Dr. Watabe came in at about 7:00 am and he looked wasted. He said he had been there on call for 24 hours and he was exhausted. He was ready to go home but he waited for me to get my epidural so he could break my water. So sweet of him! But then he had to go home so he didn't get to deliver Harper. By about 10:00 am I was fully dilated and ready to push. I could feel a little bit on the one side of my body so I had them give me a little more medicine in my epidural before I was ready to push. They got everything ready and I remember telling the nurse I didn't think I could push because I was so tired and exhausted. I hadn't slept all night and was so worn out. She basically said I didn't have a choice because this baby was coming. haha!
▲▲▲Waiting for baby to come!
I started pushing at about 10:30 am and three easy pushes later at 10:33 am Harper was born. They placed her right away on my chest. It all happened so quick and in the pictures you can tell how exhausted I was but that feeling of her coming out and holding her was amazing. All of those months being pregnant and so miserable were over. I couldn't believe I made it to the end and I had my little baby in my arms. It was the best feeling in the world. It was such an amazing experience. Adam cut the cord and took pictures as they were weighing her and cleaning her off and then they handed her back to me. She had a stork bite on her forehead and red splotches on both of her eyes and a little red spot on the tip of her nose. She had a little cut on the back of her head and also on her wrist in the crease. Her little toenails here all diamond shape and her feet and hands were so purple. They stayed that way for a good day. I loved looking over every part of her and seeing just how perfect she was. She was absolutely beautiful!
Awhile later they took Harper down for a bath and Adam went with her. They got me all cleaned up and situated and then took my down to my new room. The epidural wore off pretty quickly except one of my legs was still so numb for about 24 hours. It was so weird! I stayed at the hospital for 2 days and Adam didn't stay the night either night since he could get a better rest at home. The first night I woke up in the middle of the night shivering. It took me awhile to even find the nurse button and call them because I was so achy and cold. They took my temperature and I had a pretty good fever. They weren't really sure why I had a fever but gave me antibiotics just in case. I had to have an IV put in again and kept it in the whole 2 days I was there so I could get the antibiotics every 8 hours. Not fun!
Since Harper was born in January during the flu season the hospital was on lock down and no children under the age of 14 could come visit. I was so sad that Brooklyn couldn't come meet Harper. We ended up Face-timing a few times with her. My mom and Liz and Katie were nice to take her and do a few fun things with her so she didn't feel left out. Adam even took her out to lunch one of the days but she was still so excited to meet Harper. We all couldn't wait to be all together as a family.
Harper Browning Young
8 lbs. | 21 inches
January 9th, 2015 | 10:33am
Harper doesn't have a specific meaning we just liked it as we were trying to pick out names. Browning is my dad's middle name so it is really special to us. Harper is the first grandchild to be born since my dad passed away so we thought it would be the perfect middle name. Now that she is here Harper fits her perfectly.
▲▲▲Getting ready to leave the hospital and take Harper home!
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