Baby Mary is Here!

Well, a new little angel has arrived on earth! Mary Louise Watters was born Saturday September 19th at 2:00 pm. 21 inches long and weighing in at 9lbs 12 ounces. She is named after her great grandmas Mary Selman and Louise Brown. Here is her story:

I was very anxious the last week. After all Caeleb was born at 38 weeks and 5 days and Elva at 35 weeks so why was this baby not coming? (silly, paranoid me).
Chris was expecting the baby to come on his birthday September 14th. He was just joking of course but somehow when baby did not arrive, I became anxious in the days after. That did not spoil Chris and Caeleb's birthday though. We went to Spruce Meadows on Saturday with Mom and Dad Smith and had a birthday picnic and cake. We had a small family party with just the 4 of us on the Birthday Monday with homemade pizza and leftover cake. I made cupcakes for Caeleb's kindergarten class. Caeleb got a couple of Elefun games and some books. Chris got a date night to the Calgary Tower sky restaurant. On Tuesday, I was all ready to go to the hospital just because of anxiety but I held off (did alot of kick counts that day though) and at my 40 week (due date) OB appointment on Thursday September 17, Dr. Fahey, Chris and I planned for an induction Saturday September 26th. With a plan in mind, I had a lot more peace of mind. Dr. Fahey stripped my membranes for the 3rd time in the last 3 weeks and I had regular painfulish contractions up until I feel asleep that night (I had had a lot of them in the last few weeks and had several moments where I thought that this might be it). I woke up the next morning feeling contraction free and perfectly fine.

Friday, Mom called in the morning to say she was coming to take the kids after Caeleb was done school that day. I know she was inspired to do so. I love my mom and how she lives close to the spirit. I met Mom and Dad in Okotoks after school and Caeleb and Elva went to the farm (which they are always excited for). I came home and rested a bit and tidied the house a bit. I made plans to do more tidying and organizing the next day. Not many contractions were happening that day. My cousin Kamille had given me some herbs to help bring on labour so I took those. (she was a jule and had watched Elva the day before while Chris and I went to my appointment). At 9:00 at night, I was craving some Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt so Chris and I took off to the nearest Tutti Frutti and had a little date night. And we brought some back for Nathan of course. I was asleep by 1130 pm after watching some Sister Act 2.

At about 3:00, I woke up automatically like I had been doing most nights, and did some kick counts. At about 3:15, I felt a big pop and a few seconds later I felt a gush of water come out all over the bed. I woke up Chris and calmly told him that "either my water broke or I have really peed my pants." I went to the bathroom and it was still coming, changed my clothes, got off the toilet, another gush came (pads don't help a bit), changed my clothes again, went downstairs and sat in the rocking chair while Chris hurried around and got dressed and got the hospital bag. I felt fine, just uncomfortably wet and a bit worried as I was not feeling baby. So off we went to Calgary South Health Campus to check on baby. (Sorry Chris for being a bit sharp as we searched for a parking spot close to the nearest elevator in the underground parking) As I got out of the car, another gush came and I was soaked again so off Chris went to find a wheelchair to bring me up to Labour and Delivery. I did not want to present a fall hazard by leaving a trail of fluid on my way up to the unit.

Triage took me in right away. I was starting to have some contractions but they were not very painful and so I asked if they would send me home for a while. They said no as I had had a previous C-section. Baby was okay on the monitor so I breathed a sigh of relief. An IV was started, they found me a room and we were settled right in by about 5:00 am. We walked around the unit a few times to get things going faster and MD Fahey came to see us at about 0900. (She was on call this weekend -what are the odds). I was about 75 % effaced and 4.5 cm dilated by then and was having regular, quite painful contractions. I was trying to distract myself by watching rugby on TV. Not sure why I thought that would help. Rocking in the rocking chair and bouncing on the birthing ball helped a bit. Laying down in bed on my side was not helpful!! I had to be sitting up straight or bending forward and rocking side to side. The contractions continued to get worse and closer together until I was not having much of a break at all. At about 1000 I asked for laughing gas. It did not help with the pain much but it sure made me loopy and so I laboured quietly (whimpering a bit) in La La land for a while, wondering if I could possibly survive the next few hours - like I said, I was loopy - not thinking clearly). I held onto the laughing gas mask for dear life and was trying to focus on a happy place (horse riding) but my loopiness, pain and nausea (from the laughing gas I figure) were not making that easy. I asked to be checked again at 1100 and was thoroughly disappointed that I had only progressed to 5.5 cm in two hours. And so at 1130ish, I asked for an epidural. It was in by 1215 and I got almost immediate relief. I feel so blessed to live in this modern time of epidural bliss. By 1230 I was already 10 cm. My nurse said that I most likely jumped to a 10 so fast because I was finally able to relax and that she sees this kind of thing happen. I was left to rest for an hour to get my energy up for pushing. MD Fahey joined us at about 1330 and everything was readied for pushing. I only pushed for about 15 minutes - 3 or 4 contractions - before out popped big, beautiful, full head of dark hair, Mary. I guess the cord was wrapped around her neck once, one shoulder got a bit stuck and her heart rate may have  dropped a bit (the scalp fetal heart monitor that had been put in earlier due to some scattered heart rate drops had come loose so it was hard to tell) but MD Fahey was amazing, took it all in stride and all those kinks were smoothed out quickly. The Nurse laid a quiet Mary on my chest and it took some rubbing to get a good cry. Apgars were 9,9 so she did well. It took a bit for the placenta to pop out and MD Fahey joked that last time my placenta didn't want to stay in and this time it didn't want to come out. I had a second degree tare so I became her sewing project for a while with 10 stitches in total. I didn't feel a thing then but I am sure feeling it now.

We stayed in the hospital a day and were home by 4:00 pm on Sunday. Mom, Dad, Caeleb, Elva, Camellia, Doug, Sterling, Liam and my friend Lindsey visited us Saturday afternoon. Caeleb and Elva seem happy to have a baby sister (Caeleb wanted a brother but he does not seem disappointed). Chris was able to stay Saturday night as this new hospital is incredible and has a bed in the room for the husband. You are in same room for labour and postpartum care, the rooms are new and big and you can order up room service with a selection of about 6 meals. I felt pretty spoiled. In fact, it felt like the hospital I worked at in Idaho.

It is Wednesday today and Chris has been able to take this week off of work. Monday, Mary had her first appointment with the Postpartum Health Nurse. Tuesday was her first Doctors appointment and today she goes to get her tongue tie fixed. Tomorrow I have an appointment and Friday is Caeleb's first parent teacher interview. We are keeping quite busy this week but I am getting my resting in too. Mom and Dad brought Caeleb and Elva up Tuesday morning so Caeleb could go to Kindergarten. We have received supper from ward members every evening since we have come home. Like I said before, I feel so spoiled. The Mahogany ward is awesome. I feel so blessed to be in that ward. I feel blessed to have Mary here safely. I feel blessed to have wonderful family who are such a support. I feel blessed to live in Calgary, in a cozy little home in Copperfield and I feel like we could live in this city for our whole lives and be happy. My mom has told me that it is important to be content in life and I feel like Heavenly Father is helping me with that. I love it here. I pray that others can have the blessings they desire and I hope to be used as an instrument in helping with those blessings for others.

 

Caeleb has started Kindergarten!

Caeleb started Kindergarten on Tuesday September 1. He is going to the Spanish bilingual school - Eugene Coste. The bus picks him up at a nearby park at 1210 Monday to Friday and then drops him off at 4:10 PM. He looks adorable with his spiderman back pack on his back (with a snack inside) and looking so handsome in his "new" school clothes. I would be lying if I said he has had no problems adapting to Monday to Friday school. He is  sensitive and anxious at times but he has hopped on that bus each day like a trooper ready to face that big old world on his own for a few hours. He waves and smiles at me as the bus takes off and I feel so proud of my little boy who is growing up so fast! I have also shed some tears - it is hard sending kids off into the world and this is only kindergarten. I hope that he is kind to his classmates and that he listens to his teacher. I think he does.

Well, tomorrow I will be 39 weeks. To tell you the truth, I thought baby would be here by now as he measured so big on the 31 week ultrasound. And Caeleb was born at 38 weeks and 5 days and was 8 lbs 8 ounces so he was a decent size for a week before his due date. And Elva was born at 35 weeks (then again, she was a different story). My outlook has now changed. I need to enjoy this last week or two with baby inside. I need to enjoy the moment. I plan to do that.