Our Baby Story

Okay. The baby is sleeping right now so I thought I would sit down and try to write out what has happened to us the past few days. This is a warning to all reading this. I will try not to be too graphic for anyone but be prepared that the following is the story of my baby's birth and you are free to stop reading now if you do not want too much information! :)

Last week I had come to the conclusion that I would never go into labor on my own and I would have to wait to be induced by the doctor. With my other two kids I had to have pitocin and I wasn't really sure that my body would know what to do. I also continued to have many contractions throughout the day and night. Sometimes they would be very regular for a couple of hours but then stop completely. I had convinced myself that I would have to wait for some help with modern medicine before I would have this baby. I hate that as women we have to place this magical "date" in our heads. Of course every woman hopes that she doesn't make it to that date and so as it gets closer, we just get more and more upset! Why do we do this to ourselves? If I am ever pregnant again I am going to tell myself that the actual due date is two or three weeks later than it really is so that I may avoid the very frustrating last week!! I should learn my lesson though as Kaydra was born the day before her due date and Kanyon was born two days before, and now Miranda was the day before her due date. I don't vary much!

So, as I was putting my depressed self to bed on Saturday night I said to my husband -- "I wish my water would break or something so that we would HAVE to go to the hospital!" He just smiled and started going to sleep. I am not kidding that I started having contractions right then! I layed there for awhile, assuming that they would go away like ususal but 30 min later they were getting stronger and I didn't want to lay there anymore. I got up and went downstairs and watched television for awhile. They continued to get closer and stronger. I debated about calling my sister (Markell) to come over just in case we decided to go to the hospital but I was sure that they would stop again just like they always did. Then about 2:00 am I finally decided that this was actual labor so I started trying to decide if I needed to go in now or if I could wait until morning so I didn't have to wake anybody up. The mind of a pregnant woman doesn't work so well sometimes. At about 3:00 I finally decided to wake up my husband and tell him that I think we need to go. For the record, he said "Do I have time to take a shower?" and I told him that would be okay (my mind!) so he got in the shower while I continued to have contractions about every 3 minutes! When he got out I called my parents and they sent over Markell to stay with the kids. Len gave me a blessing while we waited for her to come over (so grateful for my husband). I am now starting to get kinda scared and thinking -- I remember this! WHAT ARE WE DOING?! It is so wierd to be waiting and waiting for a moment to happen for weeks and then when it does to start thinking "When will this be OVER?!"

So we drove to the hospital and they wheeled me to Labor and Delivery. They put me in a room and hooked me up to the monitor. I was having contractions every 2 minutes and baby was doing well. They checked me and I was 4cm and 100% effaced. This means that I was not going to be sent home -- I was in actual labor! I got an epidural (LOVE THEM) and then we rested for a few hours. I was Group B strep positive so they wanted me to have two doses of antibiotics four hours apart before the baby was born if possible. I got my first dose at 4 am and then we rested. I continued to have contractions every 2-3 min and continued to progress every hour. I couldn't feel the pain of the contractions but I could feel pressure with each one so I knew when they were. This kept me from sleeping but at least it didn't hurt (too bad). At 8:00 they were able to give me another dose of antibiotic and they checked me and said that I was fully dialated but we needed to wait for the antibiotic to go in (thank you again for the epidural!). At 8:30 the nurse said she was calling the doctor and at 8:45 she came back and said, you may want to push that epidural button again because the doctor is delivering another baby at the other hospital and she will be a little while! WHAT!!! At this time I am REALLY feeling pressure/pain with every contraction and I keep telling her that I feel like I should push and she keeps telling me that I should wait if I can but if I can't then to let her know. Again, thank you for the epidural! The nurse was really awesome but I was so READY!! I managed to wait and wait. The nurse set up everything in the room so when the doctor got there at about 9:25 she just had to put her gown on and sit down. My baby was the third baby she had delivered since 7:00 am that morning! I was SO glad to see her! I pushed for about 10 minutes and Miranda was born at 9:42am on Sunday. We didn't know if she was a boy or girl. The nurses and doctor were rubbing her down and I could see her on my lap and the doctor said, "I haven't looked yet -- are you ready? It's a GIRL!" I was so surprised! I looked at Len and he looked surprised as well. We had kinda thought that it was a boy! I was crying and we were just so excited! It took her a bit to take a breath but then she let out a great big scream. Len went with the baby to the warmer and put a diaper on her and watched her while they checked her out. Her apgars were 8 then 9. (FYI those are good numbers) They wrapped her up and brought her over to me. I held her with Len over my shoulder and they finished cleaning me up. Then we just sat and held her. I nursed her for about 15 minutes and she just stared at us. We just held her and looked at her for about an hour. I ate some breakfast. Then Len went with her to the nursery where they assessed her and gave her a bath. They let Len give her the bath. I was cleaned up and then moved to the postpartum room where we stayed the rest of the time. Len stayed with her in the nursery for about 2 hours and then came to see me and then he went home to take a nap because he had to work that night. I tried to rest but was very unsuccessful because of people coming in and out (mostly staff) and I had too much adrenaline from delivery still. I ended up not really sleeping until that night about 9:00pm so I stayed up about 36 hours before finally falling asleep. Sorry this is so long and if you made it this far, you are a real trouper! Things are still going well. Miranda has a bit of jaundice which we are going to recheck tomorrow but otherwise things are going well. The kids are so excited and actually very helpful. It feels good to finally have her here safe and sound! Well, time for another feeding so I best be going. We are so happy to have Miranda in our home.

DRUMROLL PLEASE....

It's A Girl!

For those that haven't heard, we finally had our baby! She arrived Sunday, February, 17. She weighed 7lbs 15 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. Her name is Miranda May FitzSimmons. Miranda is the name of a friend of mine in high school and I always liked her name. May is my Grandma Fuller's maiden name and we thought it went really well with Miranda. She is beautiful and we love her so much. We just came home from the hospital today and I promised some people that we would post some pics. I am tired but I thought I would quickly post these pictures and then maybe tomorrow I will post again with a little story to tell about her birth. Enjoy these pictures ... Until later!

Another day as a mom

So, my husband bought these new bindings for me for Valentine's day. I know I won't be able to use them right now but I am hoping for at least one day of spring skiing -- maybe in April. I am excited about the bindings because they are much easier to get into and out of then my old ones. We are looking for a new snowboard for me too -- for my birthday. Anyway, they arrived in the mail yesterday. They came in a box that was about four times the size that it needed to be in. Needless to say, my kids thought that was the best part. They can both fit in the box and they have colored it and they played with it for a long time yesterday evening. Anyway, last night I was up with contractions AGAIN. I was awake for about an hour and a half and was just about to call Len (he was at work) to let him know that I was going to take a bath and that I would call him when I got out. The contractions were close together but not especially painful. Anyway, I got up and noticed a light on downstairs. I went down to the t.v. room to find the television on and Kaydra awake sitting in the box. Mind you, it was 4:30 A.M.!!! I couldn't believe it! I said, "Do you know what time it is?" She said, "No." I said, "It's 4:30 and the sun won't be up for 3 more hours. You need to go back to bed!" She did go back to bed and eventually fell asleep. For the record, my contractions slowed down after this and I was able to go back to sleep. It makes me wonder though, if she has done this before. I wouldn't have known she was awake if I hadn't already been awake. Crazy kids! :)
Continuing on with the theme, yesterday I had to put Kanyon in time-out. I am not really a time-out mom. I prefer to be a "go to your room" mom. I don't know why, but it always worked really well with Kaydra. Kanyon, on the other hand, will not stay in his room and I usually resort to holding the door closed while he pounds on the other side. This has brought "time-out" to our house. For some reason, he understands this concept better. We have a rule in our house that if the kids don't listen when we ask them to do something, then they have to go to time-out. Usually I ask them to do something three or four times before I warn them about time out and then if they still don't listen, the punishment is enforced. They are both very aware of this rule. Yesterday when I went to the doctor we took the kids to Courtney's to play. We told them both that we had things to do after and so when we came to get them they needed to come right away and not hide or run away like they (mostly Kanyon) sometimes do. Both kids agreed. Well, long story short, Kanyon was not listening at all when I went to pick him up. I finally said, "when we get home, you will have time-out". This upset him but not enough to listen. Finally, we made it out to the car and in car seats with Kanyon crying, "I don't want time out" over and over. He also managed to throw in, "I am not your son" a few times too. He was pretty mad. I mostly ignored him and reminded him that he had made his choice when he didn't listen. He then yelled, "MOM, EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES!!" That is family home evening coming back to haunt me!! I thought it was pretty smart of him to think of that by himself -- however, he still got time-out!

Still Pregnant

I thought I would write a little post to let you all know that I am still pregnant. It seems people have stopped calling me now because they don't want to bombard me with "Have you had the baby yet?" questions! I am also leary to call anyone else because they think we are calling to let them know we had the baby. I have to start every conversation with "No baby yet" and every time I call my mom, if she doesn't answer, I leave her a message that starts with, "I am still doing fine." This is because she will most likely be the one we will call to watch our other kids when I go to the hospital. I don't want her to see my number on the missed calls list and think that she missed something big! Anyway, I am progressing and I have another doctor appointment today so we will see how things go. I am leaning toward asking for an induction later this week if the baby hasn't come on its own. I am not sleeping well at all and my back/pelvis/belly are REALLY starting to hurt now. This past week I woke up a couple different nights with contractions every 5-8 minutes that lasted about and hour and then went away. The other thing is that Len has Thursday thru Monday off and I know that if I don't have the baby by then that he will just be staring at me for 5 days wondering why nothing is happening! I don't know if I can stand that! : ) Plus it would be nice to have him home full time for a few days after the baby comes. I also worked my last shift on Friday so this week starts my 12 week maternity leave and I would like to spend as much of that with the baby as possible. But, I don't want to do it if the doctor thinks there will be a problem. Any opinions?

Edited later: So my appointment went just fine. For those that are curious I am dilated to a 3 and I am 80% effaced. She said that she would induce me next week if I haven't had the baby by then. So here we wait....

Growing up

This past week Kanyon started preschool! I had signed him up to start next fall in the district co-op preschool. It is really hard to get into. Basically, I had applied and we were waiting to hear if he was randomly selected by lottery drawing. I had told them that I would be interested in putting him in to start now if they had an opening. Anyway, that was about a month ago. Last Tuesday I got a call from the preschool saying that they had one opening right now and that if I put him in now, he would be guaranteed a spot next fall. I jumped at it! The school is an Early Intervention program so it is funded by the state for kids that are developmentally or behaviorally behind their age group but they integrate it with other children that are not delayed. These children have to pay a mothly fee (only $25) and the parents are asked to help with classroom time once per month (that's why it's co-op). Anyway, for those that don't know, that is really cheep for preschool around here and it is really a good school. They focus mainly on learning through play and that is perfect for Kanyon. We were so excited to get him in! He could hardly wait to start. I was called about it on Tuesday last week and his first day was Friday. Every night he would ask if he got to start school the next day. When the day finally came he was smiling from ear to ear. I had to work on Friday so I took him to Courtney's house and then picked him up on my lunch break to take him to school for the first day. Thanks to Courtney for having him all ready to go! He was SO EXCITED. It is so fun to see your kids enjoying life! Today was his second day of school and he again was very excited to go . I hope the excitement of school continues throughout his life (yeah, right!). It will be a great opportunity for him, and also for me to have a little 1:1 time with the baby (once the baby gets here) a couple times a week. They grow up so fast though and I said to Len today, "It's kinda sad that my baby is so excited to be away from me." I am sure I will feel needed again very soon! :)


On a completly different note, this past weekend my sister-in-law Michelle came over from Boise and blessed our lives! She came over on Friday night and stayed the night then we woke up Saturday morning and started cooking. We cooked all morning, stopped for lunch and then continued for about another hour. My freezer is now full of meals ready to pop in the oven whenever I need them after the baby is born. The freezer looks so awesome that I wanted to take a picture of it but decided that would be a little wierd. Either way, I am truly grateful to her, to her husband who stayed home to watch their children, and also to my husband who took the our kids with him to Salmon for the day to go hunting with his brother and a friend. It was so nice (and really quite fun) to have an empty house with just the two of us cooking all day. It felt VERY productive. So THANK YOU Michelle!!


I feel very ready for the baby to come although the past couple of days I have felt disappointingly comfortable. Not much going on and I have come to start to face the fact that the baby will probably not be here until my due date (or later!) This is my last week of work so I am looking forward to having that behind me for now. The kids are excited as well. Well, I guess that is all our news for now.