As the title of this post says, we had the perfect ending to an amazing year.
Throughout the day of December 5, 2012, I was having contractions. I was at work so I tried to ignore them, until about 3pm when I (and my good friend at work) got worried that if I didn't drive home soon, I wouldn't be able to drive home at all.
That morning, I woke up and knew the baby was coming. Tyler had a final that lasted from 9am-5pm that day and he decided the night before to tell me that the baby was going to come that day. Since he always jinxes us, I woke up on the 5th and was convinced she would be arriving that day, just because it would be our luck to have Tyler in a final with no phone and no way to leave until he was done. Luckily, my wonderful mom was on 'red alert' and was ready to drive to SLC from Logan as soon as I gave her the call.
I left work around 3:30pm and made sure my hosptial bag and the baby's bag, which I prepared about a month in advance, were ready to go. Tyler got home shortly after I did and we decided to go get dinner-I am always in the mood to eat out and I figured this would be my last meal pre-baby. We were also going to run some errands and I actually had gotten Jazz tickets to surprise Tyler with but we ended up giving them away to one of his friends, since we would most likely not be able to make it. We ate dinner at Noodles and Co. and then came back home. Tyler and I played the Wii for a while (in an attempt to keep the contractions going-which they did). Tyler wouldn't let me sit down in between tennis matches. :) Later on, I was so uncomfortable that I got in the bath tub. I called my mom and told her that we were probably going to go to the hospital when I got out of the tub but I didn't want her to leave Logan yet because what if they just send me home?!
Around 7:45pm we left home and headed for the hospital-not before meeting our kind neighbors at the door that were bringing us Christmas goodies (I ate most of the treats in the car). We got to the hospital and checked in. I was only dilated to a 3 (which I had been at for around 2 weeks) but they kept me at the hospital because each time I would have a contraction, baby's heart rate would drop. So we were there and ready to go. I called my mom and she and my dad were already on their way. So cute.
A whole lot of nothing happened for the next few hours. We watched TV and chatted. After many hours of bad contractions, I finally asked for the epidural, which was given to me at 4am on December 6. My nurse anesthesist (sp?) did a great job and the epidural worked swimmingly! I finally went to sleep after that. When I woke up, they notified me that they would break my water around 12pm and would wait for baby to come. My parents and Ty got to go eat yummy food (something I couldn't do) so I was jealous...and hungry most of the day. They broke my water and found out that the baby had gone to the bathroom in my belly so they notified us that the nursery team would be in the room during the birth to make sure that the baby didn't inhale any merconium (Tyler later saw a sign in the nursery that said 'Merconium happens' - he thought that was quite humorous. Around 3:30pm, they checked me and I was dilated to a 9 and they said it was go time!
We had an awesome nurse named Sandy that took very good care of us all. I started pushing around 3:50pm and our sweet Stella Raymond weighing 7 pounds 6 ounces and 19 inches long arrived at 4:49pm. It was, hands down, the most amazing experience of my life. I get emotional just thinking about it because it was such a miracle to experience the 9 months of being pregnant and talking to and falling in love with a little person that we had never met and then suddenly having her there with us. My first thought when I held her was how beautiful she is and how lucky I am to be her mom. As soon as she came out, the nursery crew checked her and she had not swallowed any merconium - phew. She was perfectly healthy and has a great set of lungs. Tyler got to hold her first. That moment was caught on film and was so sweet and special.
She already has us wrapped around her finger and is honestly the best part of our lives. At her 2 week doctor appointment, she had gained 6oz. and grown 2 inches (not sure how accurate her original length was since I'm not sure she really grew 2 inches in 2 weeks but you never know).
We were able to spend the holidays in St. George with Tyler's family and after Christmas we spent time with my family as well.
We hope you all had a wonderful 2012 and wish you an even better 2013.
Love
Cam & Ty
