Almost 9 months late, but here it is!

Phebe's birth story as told by her mother. Ask her father, and it's a bit different.

As I neared my 38th/39th week of pregnancy, we still hadn't chosen a name for our Little Miss. We had it narrowed down to Phebe but we couldn't agree on a middle name. Also, we were so excited to have Adrianne (Ammon's sister) come to town with her family and spend time together! I couldn't do much, but we had fun going to the zoo on Oliver's birthday, November 22 nd. Then we went to the park and had pizza and let Glen run around with one relative or another.  Everyone kept asking me how I was doing. I felt fine...almost great! I was eating pizza! Yummo!

Monday night we spent FHE putting lights in our trees. I have video of the boys totally enjoying themselves while I sat and tried not to feel too big.

This pregnancy had gone pretty well. I didn't have that much morning sickness, mostly just really tired. I didn't even throw up until laboring, and that's saying something! With Glen I was throwing up until week 18, which was NO FUN! Plus I had to go back to work and that caused all sorts of other issues. Such a relief to be a stay at home mom now! Anyway, during this whole pregnancy I had been praying to have a VBAC, vaginal birth after caesarian. I really wanted the experience of being the first to hold my little girl and smell the wonderful baby scent of her.  With Glen, I was induced when my body wasn't ready for it. I didn't progress very quickly and the doctor had me start pushing when I wasn't ready. All of this combined to me not being able to have the strength to push out my little baby. So c-section. I didn't want this repeat c-section.  Plus, anytime the doctor would check me, it was very painful. So I took some measured this time to have that not happen.

I changed doctors. I changed hospitals. I didn't let my doctor check my cervix. Our Little Miss was going to be late (Glen was) so I would not let her check me until 40 weeks (full term). So I blissfully had no idea if I was progressing towards labor or not.  I liked it this way. I wasn't worried if I wasn't progressing and I wasn't getting anxious if I was progressing. Ignorance really was bliss! I loved it this way! Will totally do that part again next time! I also prepared for labor by drinking raspberry leaf tea to strengthen the uterus and taking Primrose oil pills to soften my cervix. (both of these won't need to be repeated, and I get to why later).

Back to Monday the 24th. We finished putting lights in the tree and went to bed. I, of course, get up every 3 hours to pee, so at 1 am, after peeing, I couldn't sleep due to a few contractions. Phebe was not due until Wednesday, and she was going to be late, so I got up and read a book hoping to be able to fall asleep. By 2:30, the contractions had not gone away and I was really starting to feel them, I woke up Ammon. He was not happy about that. He told me if they got worse to wake him up. At 4:30 I woke him up again and told him we are 5-6 minutes apart. We needed to finish packing our bags (hadn't since I was going to be late) and we needed to get Glen to someone. Ammon took a shower and was trying to decide if he should go into work early, on time, call in, etc...when I practically yelled at him that we were having a baby! He needed to take care of work ASAP and get me to the hospital. We texted Ammon's mom to have her come pick up Glen. We also texted Adrianne since she was staying in the driveway at their mom's in the camper with her family. At about 7:15 she finally says she's on her way. We get Glen gone, wrap up a few things at home and head to the hospital. By this time I'm having pretty strong contractions and having to use breathing techniques to get through them.  After what seemed like an eternity we got the hospital and checked in at 9am. I remember this because I had to write the time and sign my name during contractions. Rediculous!

By the way I reacting to contractions the nurses had no problem putting me in triage and checking to see if I was progressing. I was a little annoyed that things took so long though.  I got there at 9 and I don't think I was checked until 10:30am. I was a difficult hour and a half. But when I finally got checked (which hurt so much) I was at a 4! Woohoo! I also need to add that every nurse who saw me up to this point asked me what I was progressed to at my last appointment and ALL of them were shocked that I had not been checked and I was 40 weeks the next day. Instead of explain my story, I just let them wonder. I was trying to get through contractions and that seemed like too many words at the time. Still seems like too many words.

So I got checked and was so excited that I was progressing on my own! I was going to get my VBAC. We had monitors on Phebe and everything was moving along. Contractions were getting worse and I was ready for the epidural. With a VBAC, my doctor wanted me ready in case we needed to have a c-section, so the epidural is pretty much required. The drug doc (anesthesiologist) was working with someone else and so I had to wait. I ended up waiting for about 30-45 minutes for him to get to me. Then it took a few tries to get the needle in the right place. I was feeling all sorts of pain in weird places. Ammon was coaching me through contractions using bi-lateral stimulation which worked pretty well until he got really dizzy and almost passed out.  He took a breather, they finished the epidural and we relaxed a bit. Ahh! But then they couldn't find Phebe's heart rate with the external monitor. So they asked if we would be ok with an internal monitor. Sure! Glen had one, no big deal. At this time my doctor also checked dilation and I was at a 7! Oh my goodness!! I made it to a 7 without drugs! That was right along with my birth plan. Everything was going great! I was so excited to be getting my VBAC. Then they broke my water to place the internal monitor on Phebe's head. The nurses were concerned that there was so much water. They kept saying that over and over! It was like Niagra Falls! What!?!? Nurses who see this all the time were surprised by something! Not a good sign! With all this water also came the umbilical cord. Not a good sign! Babies are supposed to come first then the cord. The cord was now between my body and Phebe's head. With each contraction it got pinched. The doctor tried for a few minutes to push it back in, but it wouldn't completely move back in. I was so glad at this point for the epidural since my doc was pushing again everything in my baby escape path and that would have so painful! So my doctor informed us that she did not like the way her heart rate was going and decided to surgically birth the baby. C-section. Even now I get weepy thinking about how much I wanted the VBAC and prepared for it and didn't get it. (But now I can pick our babies' birthdays; only scheduled surgery births from here on out) I cried the whole time they were prepping me. I cried when the drug doc came back in to prep me for surgery. He was amazing. When I got nauseated during prep, he held the barf bucket under my mouth. He kept my head slightly elevated so I wouldn't get as sick. He checked on me and really cared for me. Thank you drug doc!

Finally Ammon came into the OR, I got cut open and our little Phebe was born around 1:30pm on November 25th. It was so nice to not be as tired as I was with Glen, but I had no feeling in my arms so I couldn't hold her. Ammon got to hold her and I cried. I did a lot of crying. I still do. But I have a wonderfully healthy, happy baby girl! Ammon held her up to my breast and we tried nursing with her supported by pillows and Ammon. Eventually I got the life back in my arms and legs and Ammon went to class. He had one class left that night. Phebe and I were being cared for by nurses, so he went to class and got to tell them all that we had our little girl a few hours before. They were all surprised he was there, but it was good for him to go and keep up with his school work.

The nurses weren't great about being prompt to help me get Phebe out of her bassinet, so most of the night she slept on the bed between my legs. When she wanted to eat I fed her. She seemed hungry after nursing and so one of the nurses fed her a bottle while I slept. Most of the rest of the time inthe hospital was spent watching movies and eating cafeteria food, which is pretty good. I requested to leave the hospital on Thursday, got all check out, went to the 24 hour Walgreens since it was Thanksgiving day and got my drugs to keep the pain at bay.  In the hospital all the aunts and uncles and cousins came to visit that could but some were sick and did not make it. But I know Adrianne was the most excited that she got to be in town was the little one arrived.

While in the hospital I found myself calling the Little Miss, "Annabelle" which did not make any sense to me since her name was Phebe and I really wanted her middle name to be Ann, like mine. Glen got Curtis as a middle name from Ammon, so it only seems right that she gets mine. Well, Heavenly Father has a plan, and he lets us know it when it's really important. After the 3rd time of calling her Annabelle, I was convinced that she should have that middle name. So Phebe Annabelle came into the world on November 25, 2014 at 1:30pm weighing 8lbs 1oz and was 20?? inches long.