She's here!

She's here, She's here, She's finally here! On Monday the 8th I was convinced I would stay pregnant for the rest of my existence on this earth.  I felt the same as every other day, same routine and I was almost ready to fast for help (just kidding I would have never done that, but it tells you how desperate I was.) We REALLY needed her to come before next week. There was no way  Mike would have been able to spend the kind of time he did with me in the hospital as he did this week and I thank Heavenly Father for the help he gave us with her coming early.

Tuesday I woke up as normal and gave Mike a kiss goodbye as he left for work around 6:50 and usually I just go back to sleep. I got up to potty and laid back down for a couple minutes and then I really started to get some pain. I thought it was just something that maybe I ate or something because surely I felt fine yesterday and it couldn't possibly be anything more. The pain went away after less than a minute... and then it came back...and then it went away.. and then it came back. This went on for about oh an hour and half, so I called my mom and asked if contractions felt like you were being stabbed in the guts. Well sure enough, contractions feel like you're being stabbed in the guts (but for those of you who have babies, you knew that.)  I had a monitoring appointment that day and called Mike to see if he could take me, you know, just to make sure they really were contractions. He rushed home to help time them and finally they were getting so bad, we just decided to go strait to the hospital.

When we got there they checked my cervix and I was dilated to a 4 and they told me I was in active labor! They checked a couple hours later and I was at a 6. The doctor left to perform a C-section, and then came back to break my water. When she broke my water, she discovered meconium (baby pooped in utero) which can be really dangerous, so they told me they had to take her right away when she came out and had to check and suck out her lungs. She also discovered that I was still at a 6 and not dilating anymore and said Layla's heart rate was dropping and that's when they told me I was going to need a C-section and they rushed me right in.  I was scared to death and between the epidural I got early (because they thought I would have a vaginal birth) and the anesthetic I was SO SICK.  I honestly couldn't even see after that, I was numb and shaking. Between that and being so sick, I couldn't hold her at all or even barely see her on Tuesday. When I was finally coming around in the middle of the night on Wednesday I couldn't stop holding and staring at her. I finally got a few hours with her, just us!

Wednesday morning was just bliss, I couldn't put down my little 5 pound 12 ounce bundle of joy! Then, the pediatrician came in to do a the routine check up and informed us she was breathing too fast and it was a real concern. They took her to the NICU to check her oxygen saturation and it was too low, so they had to do an X-ray to see if there was anything wrong with her lungs and found a small leak in her lungs due to the merconium being stuck and her trying to take a deep breath and making a small tear.  The doctor also, told us she had jaundice pretty severe, and her blood labs came back slightly abnormal (which means she had some sort of infection probably due to the tear), so they put her on antibiotics for the infection and put her in an oxygen dome for the leak in her lungs.  Thank goodness by Thursday the leak was gone, however, they still have her under photo therapy for the jaundice. We talked to the doctor yesterday and he said Layla should be able to come home on Tuesday or Wednesday!  It sure didn't feel right driving home without her and doesn't feel right that she's not home with us now; but we get to visit her every 3 hours or so if we want. We are so lucky the hospital is just right down the street from us and that she's improved so much.

Mike has been seriously amazing this entire week.  I feel infinitely blessed to have him. He's been incredibly patient and supportive.  Friday morning the nurse came in to check my vitals and Mike was sitting next to me rubbing my arm and she asked how long we had been together, I told her we have been married for almost 7 years and she was shocked! She said he was the most attentive and supportive husband and thought we were newlyweds for sure. LOVE HIM!! Also, having my mom here has been such a blessing. She has helped us so much.

So, there is the update of our week! Here are some pictures of our precious angel baby.  I really do think she looks SO MUCH like Mike.

Baby Update!

I have decided to be better at blogging because this is where I will do all the family updating and picture sharing once Baby Layla finally arrives.  I'm not going to bombard everyone's news feed on Facebook and Istagram with pictures of my family; they can come to our blog if they so choose to be updated!  

As I'm sure everyone knows, shes due in less than 2 weeks! I can't believe how soon we are going to be parents.. I am gonna be a MOM! Is anyone else as terrified as I am about this? Not only am I scared to death of the process of giving birth, I'm scared to death of being responsible for a whole human life. To teach her all she needs to know... about.. EVERYTHING! How to be a good kid, responsible, well behaved, strong in the gospel, smart, independent, oh the list goes on! And I'm sure that's every parents goal.  I know, I know, there are millions of people out there that have kids and it's just a part of life and you do the best you can to teach them, and then it's all up the them. I think that's the scariest part, for me anyway.  

So, I know most of you have seen a lot of "status updates" on Facebook about what a great, grand wonderful time I have had these last few months. I am going to try to keep it brief because I tend to be really long winded!  Here's the gist, I have seen about 10 different doctors (literally) and none of them seem to communicate with each other. Some are from my OB clinic and some are from a clinic called "High Risk Pregnancy'' (doesn't that just SOUND scary?? It does to me, even more so at the beginning of my pregnancy) It started out with I have a "heart shaped uterus" so I was sent to High Risk for ultrasounds every 3 weeks, and also I was high risk for preterm labor. A few months later after my glucose test at 20 whatever weeks I was told I had gestational diabetes, which is cause for preterm labor, high risk for a stillborn birth and it causes slow development for her lungs. Oh and not to mention she could be fat for the rest of her life, and of course that If I don't lose the baby weight I could develop type 2 for the rest of my life.  I thought they were being a little over dramatic with this one, seeing as how my levels were barely borderline. However they put me on medication and have me testing my blood 4 times a day.  Still, being told your baby can be in danger or die is a scary thing to hear. 

Here is the bottom line, I have been told time and time again, by multiple doctors there's no way I am making it to 40 weeks. When you hear that, you kind of expect to give birth before 40 weeks. They scheduled me for a C- section on the 11th because she was breech and the way my uterus is shaped it is extremely rare for the baby to turn head down, well my baby did it! So they canceled the c-section and said just last week that we will wait for her to just come on her own. Let me tell you the 2 reasons why this is a concern to me that she's not budging yet. Number one, Mike has a HUGE event at work, it's the biggest event of the year for his company, he is speaking and selling at the MGM Grand the very week Layla is due. This is an event he can not miss and I wasn't concerned about it until recently because I was told again and again shes not making it to 40 weeks and I just "knew" she would be here before that. I also "knew" she was a he before the ultrasound... I expected my "mothers intuition" would be better than this! The other reason, I get an anxiety attack at the doctors office every time I go. My blood pressure goes very high and they send me off to the hospital only to find  Layla and I are in perfectly good health.  I don't know how to calm myself down when I get there, so this happens every time! I can't stand it anymore! This last visit, I was at the office for 2 hours because they checked my blood pressure 4 times, I told the doctor I was not going back to the hospital one more time. Finally I had to lay down on a bed for 20 minutes and someone had to come in and check it again for the last time while I was laying down.  I was told with one of my blood pressure numbers someone had a stroke! It is always fine when I leave the doctors office though! I know I sound over dramatic and kind of like a baby, but this has been a huge challenge for me. I really don't want to have to go to the doctor one more time. 

I was considering going into the back story of why I get an anxiety attack every time I go to the doctor, but that would take a really long time and a lot of typing! 

I guess that's it for now!  Hopefully I will have some exciting news sooner rather than later!