Going Home

All packed up and ready to go home! We are excited to take Pieper home to her brothers and sister and to be in our own space together as a family. We had great nurses and great care while we have been here, but we are just ready to be home, (and lets face it, why pay for more use of the hospital than you need!)

Bathing Beauty...in Blue

The night before we were planning on leaving the hospital, we noticed that Pieper was looking a little jaundice. So we had the nursery take her back and check her levels. And sure enough, they were in the 14's! Which is pretty high, high enough that they wanted to keep her in the nursery under the blue lights for the entire night. Which, allowed me to get a fairly good night of rest, but I was worried about how my little girl was. In the morning, after I had eaten breakfast, showered, and watched some TV, I was wondering when they would bring her back to my room. They finally showed up and said that her levels had dropped a little bit, but that they wanted her on a portable light for the rest of the day. I had been cleared to go home, and now we were waiting to see if the baby was going to be able to go home as well. After talking to the pediatrician, he agreed to let her go home on the condition that we take a bili light home with us and keep her on it as much as possible. After making arrangements for the light and doing all the paperwork to check out we were finally on our way home at about 2:30.

Photo Shoot, 1 day old

I couldn't resist taking a bunch a picture of Pieper when she was just 1 day old! How sweet is this new precious baby! I wanted to make sure and capture her teeny tiny features right from the start. I am so in awe and amazement with this new miracle we have have been blessed with that is straight from heaven!

More Visitors

Aunt Tara and Macee and Race came to visit on the second day as well as

Aunt Lydia and Makayla

Grandma Linda

Uncle Josh

 

We also saw My friends Melissa Pariona, and Karla Hillier. It was so fun to share our sweet little angel with our family and friends. We are so in love with her and cant wait to show her off to everyone!

The Visitors

Grandma and Grandpa Christiansen were the first visitors we had. They were super excited to meet their newest granddaughter!

We had to get a picture with Mommy

Tiny toes!

Grandma Yancey

Big brother Parker

Proudest big sister Paige! She was so excited for a girl!

Auntie Charyn

Grandpa Yancey

 

Paxten, checking Pieper out, deciding if he likes her.

He does like her after all!

My 4 kids with Grandpa Yancey!! I have 4 kids!!!!

The Delivery

After finding out that we were indeed going to have the baby in that morning it was a crazy rush to get me into the operating room. Matt and I hadn't brought in any of our things from the car because we didn't know if we would be staying for sure. After finding out that we would be here for a few days he made a trip to the car to get clothes, the camera, and all the things we would need while staying in the hospital. Meanwhile, while he was gone, the nurses got my IV in, I talked to the Anesthesiologist, signed the paperwork for the C-Section and Tubal, and talked to my doctor. They were just about to move me from the room to the operating room when Matt finally walked back in the door. For a minute I thought he wouldn't make it back for the delivery. While he was changing into his scrub clothes, I was in the operating room where they put in my spinal block, which I think hurts less than the IV. It took affect pretty quickly and I was numb from my chest down in a matter of minutes. Dr. Leavitt came in, painted my belly with  iodine, and was ready to get started. A minute later Matt came in to sit by me. They pulled the blue sheet up and the surgery began. This time it seems like it went more smoothly than the precious C-Sections. it seemed like it was quicker, less painful, and I didn't experience the nausea or light headedness like I have before. Within a few minutes, the Dr. said they were about to pull the baby out, Matt stood to watch and she seemed to be a little bit stuck in there. They had to use a vacuum to help pull her out, and she had so much hair that the vacuum didn't get a good suction on her and slipped right off. After the second attempt she was out and they pulled her out and said "Happy Birthday" and showed her quickly to me before handing her off to the nursery. She was born at 7:30 A.M. As the surgery was beginning Matt and I took guesses as to what we thought she would weigh. I said 6 lbs 14 oz. Matt said 6 lbs 9 oz. She ended up weighing 7 lbs. and was 19 inches long. After they got her cleaned up a bit Matt was able to take her and hold her right by me as they were finishing up the surgery. She was so beautiful and I couldn't wait to hold her. It took the Dr. about 30 more minutes to do the tubal and get me all sewn back up. After that I was wheeled into the recovery room where I was able to hold our new little girl for the first time. Pieper Jo Christiansen. She was absolutely adorable! We were able to feed her for the first time and Matt was able to go with her back to the nursery to help with her first bath while I recovered from the Anesthesia. It was about another hour before I was taken into a regular room and almost another hour before I was able to move my toes. It is the weirdest feeling to be telling your feet to move and it not responding. After getting settled into our room we were able to let friends and family know our good news. I was completely exhausted after being up the entire night and then having to go through the surgery, but I was not able to sleep because of all the excitement. Pieper got her first set of shots, passed her hearing test and everything looked perfect! She spent the majority of the first day in our room meeting friends and family as they came to visit. The kids were so excited to meet her, Paxten was a little hesitant at first, but then he decided that he wanted a turn holding her as well.

38 Weeks

I went to the Dr. on the 29th of August. I was 37 weeks and 6 days. Past the days that I deliverd Paige and Paxten. I hit 38 weeks on Friday the 30th and each night I kept hoping that my water would break like it did with Paxten. The 31st rolled around, the first day of the fair, and I was feeling pretty good, big and tired, but normal for 38 weeks pregnant. Carla, Rachel, Sarah, Blake, Sophie, Caleb, Laura, Evelyn, and Adam came for the fair and I decided that I felt well enough to go with Matt and the kids. Charyn and Zander came down as well and we went to the fair. My thoughts were that if I went and walked around the fair that I would put myself in labor and have this baby sooner than the 10th. Or wishful thinking at least. As we were walking home from the fair I was thinking that I might regret walking around in the hot sun all day if I didn't go into labor and that I would be so sore the next day. After we got home we rested and visited with all the family, had pizza cooked on the trager and had homemade popcorn. We enjoyed the cool fall weather that evening and then said our good byes and Matt and I got the kids into bed.

As I was laying in bed I began to have contractions. Nothing new at this point during the pregnancy. I had regularly been having contractions, especially during the evening when she is most active. After they had been steady for over an hour I told Matt that it felt different from the other nights. We started to time them and when they were happening every 2 minutes and lasting about 45 seconds we decided to call the doctor.

When I called the doctor, he had transferred the phone lines to the on call doctor at the hospital. After telling him my history and what was going on, the only advice he gave was to go into the hospital and have them check me. It wasn't at all what I was expecting to hear, and I knew that if Dr. Leavitt had been the one that I talked to he would have given me better direction and advice on what to do. Do I had mixed emotions about whether or not to go in, I didn't want to drive all the way to Idaho Falls and have them tell me it was false labor and send me home. Yet I didn't want to wait too long and then something happen on the way to the hospital. So at about 1:00 in the morning we made the decision to head to the hospital. I called my mom and woke her up and told her that all that walking did something because I was having regular contractions. So she came over and Matt and I got all our things together just in case this was it. I had had my bag packed for over a month, Matt had to frantically get his packed and he insisted on taking a "quick" shower before we left. I was kind of annoyed that here I am in labor and he is the one that wants to take a shower. I just finished getting last minute things together, making sure we didn't leave anything behind that we would need. Matt gave me a Priesthood blessing before we left and I was comforted in knowing that the Lord was watching over us and our family and the doctors that would care for us. I was nervous and excited at the same time. Anxious and also worried. Matt had to stop on the way out of town for a drink to help him stay awake and then we were finally on our way to the hospital.

We walked into Labor and Delivery and got right into a room. I got my hospital gown on and they hooked me up to the monitors to see how the baby was doing and the timing and strength of the contractions. At this point we heard that Dr. Leavitt was back into town and would be available if anything happened. Yay!! We had arrived at the hospital at about 2:00 A.M. After answering the pleathera of questions for about an hour, I was left to just sit there in the bed waiting....wondering....waiting.....to see if anything was going to happen. I had been checked and was only dilated to a 1 and my cervix was very thick. Not really what I wanted to hear. At this point Matt has now been asleep in the chair in my room for about 1/2 an hour, so much for a drink to keep him awake! Hahaha! So the rest of the night I sat there contracting and playing Candy Crush and Facebooking on my phone (What did I do without and IPhone before with my other kids?!) The nurse came in about 4:00 AM and said that she had talked to Dr. Leavitt and he wanted me to get hydrated and see if that would effect the contractions. I drank 32 oz of water over the next 30 minutes and then we waited some more.  The contractions kept on coming and were becoming a little more intense. The nurse checked me again, still a 1, but my cervix had thinned out quite a bit. At 6:30 She came back in and said that Dr. Leavitt had decided that I really was in labor and I had progressed enough to convince him to go ahead and do the C-Section. After that things went very quickly.