Audrey Grace

The days leading up to my C-section were so intense, counting down the days and knowing your life is about to change! I had contractions on and off for the last 2 weeks or so. Since Brent was in Utah until Sunday night and the c-section was scheduled for the following Thursday morning, I tried extra hard to lay down and rest so as not to go into labor when he wasn't home yet.

Brent made it here on Sunday evening with his mom and kids and I was so happy to see them after 2 1/2 weeks!

(Last picture as a family of 4)

The night before my c-section I didn't sleep very well. I woke up quite a few times, looking at my phone to see if it was time to go yet. We had to be to the hospital at 5:30am. I also was having minor contractions which I was feeling in my back. I was pretty nervous for the surgery, but not nearly as nervous as I was for Coen's. I was more nervous if the baby was really going to be healthy and OK. I had a huge fear that she was going to come out and just not be OK. In my morning scripture study before going to the hospital, I read in Ether 1. The verse has nothing to do with newborns, but these words spoke such peace to me "...And there will I meet thee, and I will go before thee into a land which is choice above all the lands of the earth." Going to the unknown is always scary for me, but I felt I needed to just trust, and this baby girl would be even better than we had imagined. Brent gave me a blessing and we left our house at 5:20am.

It's hard to explain how strange it is to drive to the hospital and know that in just a couple hours you will be meeting this little being that has been moving inside of you for so long. Our nurse, Bev, was awesome and we chatted and had fun as she prepped me for surgery.

When it was 7:30am, I walked across the hall to the operating room to get my spinal.

Brent had to stay in the hall for that part, but Bev came in and held me during it. The anesthesiologist was a female of Asian descent, and if I'm going to judge a book by a cover, I'll say I felt totally confident in her abilities :) She looked like she knew what she was doing. The spinal felt like two normal shots in my back- not a big deal. As soon as that was over and I was starting to go numb, they brought in Brent.

After cleaning my stomach, putting up the drape, and making sure I was good and numb, my doctor (who I love) began the surgery. I think it was about 2 minutes from the time she started cutting to the time we heard the baby cry. I heard the doctor say "oh, she's already starting to be born!" and then a second later, those glorious first baby cries- which made me cry a bit.

 (Brent stood up and watched the whole thing over the screen. I kept saying eew, don't watch them cut me! He thought the whole thing was fascinating though.)

I got a glimpse of the baby as they took her to the side for a second to suction out her mouth and wipe off some of the goop. Brent followed them while they were doing this, and I'll never forget, after looking at the baby, his huge grin back at me and two-handed fist pump like "YES!!!"

They brought the baby to my chest and I got to cuddle her for the next 20 minutes or so while I got stitched up. This was a super nice distraction since although you're numb, you still feel tugging and pulling, and it's not so pleasant to be cut open and then stitched up.

While my doctor and the other assistant were working on me, they were chatting, and then my doctor said to me "we're just admiring your abs. You have so many less layers to stitch up." Haha. I felt overwhelming gratitude for this sweet baby on my chest. We were surprised by her chubby cheeks and her rolls!

After this, they took the baby to be weighed and she weighed 7 lb 9 oz. There was an audible "wow!" in the room since we all (including the doctor) had guessed she'd be about a pound lighter. She was 20 inches long. Brent finally got to hold the baby and I loved watching him stare and smile at her.

We then went to the recovery room where I was surprised at how good at breastfeeding the baby was right off.

(Dr. Schnapper- love her!)

 After recovering for about 2 hours, they moved me to my hospital room. Pretty soon after, I got really nauseous and my body couldn't stop shaking, which I guess is a reaction that can happen after giving birth. I was pretty miserable for the whole afternoon, stuck in the hospital bed as I couldn't walk yet. Luckily Brent was there to hold Audrey since I felt too sick to hold her for a while.

Later that afternoon the kids and Tammy came to meet the baby. When it was Coen's turn to hold the baby, he did the same little excited fist pump that Brent had done earlier that day, haha.

I had been soooo excited to see the kids meet their little sister and I was kind of sad that I still felt so yucky, but it was still cute to watch.

Luckily Tammy was here to watch the older kids so that Brent could stay at the hospital with me over night and help me. (Thank you Tammy!) It was fun to have time with just the three of us in the hospital, and to get to know our new little daughter. Brent brought old movies with actresses whose names we were considering for the baby- Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Nick & Nora. The next couple days were wonderful, I kind of love my time in the hospital, being taken care of, and having the excitement of the new baby! Every time I would wake up in the night, I would see her and think ohhhh yes, I have a cute baby!

On Saturday night we decided on the name Audrey Grace for her. The nurses were helping us out and voting on names, and being kind of funny about it. One nurse was calling the baby Audrey, and one was calling her Nora. When they called her Audrey, it just seemed to fit!

We left the hospital just after lunch on Sunday. We felt so blessed to have a beautiful, healthy, sweet baby girl. I felt the sweet assurance I had felt when reading my scriptures the morning of her birth was more than fulfilled with this sweet girl.