Happy Birthday, Lindsay Jane

 Check out Jeff's birthday present this year.  You spend so long pregnant and anticipating the arrival of your new baby.  Now I can't believe that day is over and 6 weeks behind us (to date).  The births of each of my children have reminded me of how great of a blessing being able to bring children safely into this world really is.  Now that Lindsay is 6 weeks old, I figure it's high time I should document her big debut.

Friday, May 10th.  After Jeff got home from work, we wanted to have a little early birthday dinner for him.  We picked up Rumbi and brought it home, ate, and then had my mother in laws red velvet cake (Jeff's favorite).  I had the girls get their pillows and blankets and we all watched The Rise of the Guardians.  Jeff and Alayna liked it, Becca was mostly just messing around, and I struggled paying attention thinking about getting everything ready.   

 Saturday, May 11th.  My due date was 1 day ago and it was time for Lindsay (who we had been calling baby Ariel, thanks to Alayna) to come out.  We woke up around 5am in order to be at the hospital at 6am.  We were quickly given a room as I was the only induction that day.  It's rare for elective inductions to be done on a Saturday, but I had asked Dr. Bean on an earlier appointment if he would approve it, and he did!  We thought it would be cool for a dad and daughter to share a birthday, if she wanted to wait that long.  My nurse in labor and delivery was a lady I recognized from the day I was induced with Becca.  She had administered my non-stress test.  I liked her a lot and was glad I had her! 
6:45am: IV in and blood samples taken. I made sure to tell the nurses I wanted an epidural and I wanted it to work (I did not want a repeat of Becca's labor where the anesthesiologist wasn't in the hospital and by the time I got my epidural it was very ineffective)
7:25 am Pitocin in and ice chips
8:25 Dr. Bean breaks my water, and I'm surprised I'm still only dilated to a 2-3.  Contractions more frequent and more painful.  Since things had gone so quickly with Becca's labor after my water broke, I didn't want to miss my window to get my epidural in and working.  My nurse told me she would check me again after my epidural and catheter were in. 
9:45 Got my epidural
10:15 nurse checks me.  I am still only 3cm but more effaced.  I am disappointed, baffled, and frustrated.  Did I REALLY just get my epidural when I was only 3cm?!!? I was afraid the epidural would slow things down and that I'd be in labor for a long time, and even a little afraid something might be wrong.  The epidural is helping with the pain.  The nurse cranks up the Pitocin and tells me she'll come check me again in an hour.
That next hour was hell.  The contractions were so painful and close together.  I didn't want to pump myself with anymore epidural stuff because I didn't want to slow down my labor, and finally Jeff did it himself because I wouldn't.  But it didn't help anyway.  Towards the end of that hour I was feeling feverish and shaky, and something in my lower left hip felt like it was going to burst.
11:15 Debbie comes in and I tell her how miserable I am, and she says "well maybe you're complete" and I said, "Yeah right, no way would it happen that fast, I'm not getting my hopes up!"  She checks me and I am dilated to a 10.  The Dr. is not there because no one expected me to dilate from a 3 to a 10 in an hour, so Debbie goes go call him.  I beg her to turn off the Pitocin which she did because we didn't need it at that point.  The contractions were much less intense after they turned it off, and I was happy.  They had me lay almost flat till the doctor got there.  He was at his son's soccer game.
11:43am.  She's here.  It was beautiful.  Dr. Bean came in, I pushed for 2 big pushes and a few little pushes and she was out.  I couldn't believe it.
The cord was wrapped around her neck once but didn't cause problems in delivery.  Her APGAR was 8-9. 7 lbs 7 oz, 20" long.

The rest of Saturday went great.  We were moved to a recovery room around 2-ish and we all had a nap.  My parents brought Alayna and Becca to meet the baby around 5:30.  Becca didn't want much to do with me but was very interested in the baby and was very gentle.  Alayna warmed up to me with a little more time.

  We had some more visits that day from my brother and his family, Jeff's parents and sister and her family.  Lindsay slept her first night from midnight-1:30 and then from 2:15 to 6:15am.  The next day was Mother's Day.  A memorable one to spend in the hospital with a new baby.  Jeff and I were able to take turns getting cleaned up, then the on call pediatrician took Lindsay back to remove her skin tag on her jawline, while I slept.  Jeff said it took a while to get everything sterilized and ready, but only a quick snip to get the skin tag off.  No biggie.  That afternoon, my parents brought the girls back for a visit.  They brought me flowers and chocolate dipped strawberries for Mother's Day.  Then Jeff and the girls gave me cards and a new charm for my Pandora bracelet.
   On Sunday we decided to officially name her Lindsay Jane.  We were pretty sure that we were going to name her that, but wanted to see her first.  When I was about to deliver Becca, she was either going to be named Rebecca or Lindsay, and I was having some stronger feelings about the name Lindsay so  I was leaning that way.  But when she was born, we both thought she was Rebecca.  It made me wonder if we would have another girl that would be Lindsay, but I brushed away that thought thinking, "no way, we already have 2 girls, it's time for us to have a boy next!"  Lindsay, if you didn't know, is Jeff's mother's maiden name. 

 We brought Lindsay home on Monday.  We left around 11:00 but stopped in American Fork to visit our old Bishop en route.  It was a very warm and sunny day.  My parents had taken care of the girls at my house and had even made sure dinner was ready for us to have that evening.  Jeff took the rest of the week off, which was fantastic to have him helping and spending time with us.  My recovery was SOOO much easier this time around. 

She's here now, and we are very grateful everything went so well.  To me, she really gets more and more beautiful every day, so I'll have to post more updated pictures soon!