This entry is taken from two entries that both Josh and I wrote. He put them together the best he could so the timeline would flow well.
This year has started out in whirl wind! At the end of December I decide that it would be better to go ahead and take nursing state boards (NCLEX) exam. I was able to listen to an audio study program for the NCLEX and took the boards on January 23rd, 2012. I then found out on the 25th at 2 a.m. that I had passed the boards, I am now a registered nurse! It was just in time because my LPN license expired on January 31st. So I didn't have to pay to get that renewed.
Josh started this school semester on January 2nd. Weber State University lets out earlier in the summer, so they start earlier in January. Josh had to make sure that all his books and school supplies were in order before news year eve. It's hard to want to focus on school when we are still dealing with the holidays. This semester he is taking two advanced spanish classes, a trigonometry class and a microbiology-Tropical Diseases class. I am so proud of him because he's doing so well in his classes. He is studying hard.
Once my test was out of the way and Josh had started school, I had no more worries about our baby girl coming into the world. The only thing that we weren't decided on was a name for our baby girl. The due date for our daughter was February 9th. on February 3rd I started having very irregular contractions, they were very different from what I had been feeling (the Braxton Hicks).
On Saturday the contractions started to happen more often, but still irregular. That night we went to the temple with Lyn and Larry and it seemed that my contractions were becoming more regular. That night I went to bed and my contractions were making it hard to fall asleep, I was having to listen to my hypno birthing cd and control my breathing and then I was able to become relaxed enough to fall asleep. I then slept until about 2:30 a.m. My contractions at that time were coming every 10 minutes. From then on, when Josh had a chance throughout the day, he wrote down the events of the day. From here on is his account of the day since I was a bit preoccupied with birthing our child.
This morning I woke up at 5:30 to a call from someone living in our building who had pipes leaking. I called someone to fix it then went out of the bedroom to find Cambria in the front room. Cambria was out there because she couldn't sleep very well last night. She has been having contractions for a few days which worsened yesterday around noon. Since I woke up her contractions have gotten closer together. I left to go down and get the plumbing thing resolved quickly and when I came back I asked if I should go back to sleep. Obviously I didn't understand how close to labor she really was or that our baby would even be coming today. She thought it would be better if we got our stuff packed. We had sort of planned to get our stuff together at the last minute so Cambria could spend more time laboring at home and less time at the hospital. Cambria's stuff was mostly ready but I had to gather together all of my things. Luckily Cambria had a list prepared for me.
It has been helpful to her during the contractions for her to lean against something with her forearms and for me to apply pressure to her lower back. She said it relieves a lot of her pain.
I got the car packed and off we went to the hospital with Cambria's contractions coming every 3-5 minutes. Their power is off here at the hospital so we took the stairs to the second floor and checked in. Cambria's nurse just took her back without me due to some sort of HIPPA stuff. It's fine with me but you would think the government should allow for the legally and lawfully (as well as eternally) wed husband to accompany his own wife no matter what. Oh well, I understood.
So here I am waiting for them to get back. I'm feeling a bit anxious and my stomach is churning a bit because of it. All in all I am quite excited and looking forward to the next few hours. At least I hope it will be only a few hours. I will write again later when I have time.
Well Cambria was fully ephased but still only dilated to a one. They had her walk around for a while to see if it could get her going. If not, we would maybe have to go home for a while. Well, after an hour of walking she went to the bathroom and thought her water broke. The nurse came in and tested her and sure enough her water broke and she was dilated to a three. That was enough for them to admit her. They got her a room, #525, and in she came contractions and all. Her contractions quickly became closer and more intense. From my perspective her pain was quite extreme but she handled it very well. They then had her sit on a birthing ball, which is just an exercise ball.
While sitting on the exercise ball, my dad and Monty arrived to help me give Cambria a blessing she had asked me for. I hadn't given my wife a blessing for a while and it was a very spiritual time for me. In the course of the blessing I said to her that our Heavenly Father knows her perfectly and that He knows our daughter perfectly. He knew what both her and our daughter would need in the next few hours, and above all else to trust in Him. I spoke only a few other things but I myself was very touched as well as comforted by the words that came to my mind for me to speak. I know without a doubt that in such an amazing time, and with the beginning of a new life that our Heavenly Father cares and was watching over us. Later, when I held my little girl, I was able to feel a portion of our the immensity with which our Heavenly Father loves his children.
After we were done with the blessing the nurse then ran a warm bath which Cambria tried that for a while. She said that each position, whether it be on the bed, on the ball, or in the bath, came with it's own different style of pain. I tried as well as I could to support her throughout the whole thing. She wanted her hand massaged so hard to counter the pain I swore I was going to put a hole right through it.
Her pain was quite intense and nearly unbearable so she decided to get an epidural. We had come in wanting to go natural but with an open mind for an epidural so she wouldn't feel disappointed with herself if she decided to get the epidural. She also wanted to be able to be the joyful and happy person that she is sp she decided that she wanted to get the epidural. She had to endure a few more really rough contractions before the anesthesiologist came in and then a few more before the anesthesia set in.
She felt so much better and is now the happy, life-loving woman I'm used to. She is very glad she decided to do it but said she will try natural again with our second child in the future. The last time the nurse checked Cambria is dilated to a six and all is well.
Things progressed very well and soon Cambria was dilated to a 10 and was ready to start pushing. She ended up pushing a few times before the nurse told her she could take a break and wait for the doctor. Dr. Bierer, who would be there soon. We like him and he did great when it came to the delivery. Only a few more pushes passed before our little girl was born at 5:03 p.m. They put her on Cambria's chest and she got to hold our beautiful little girl. It wasn't long before I was handed a pair of scissors and they let me cut the umbilical cord. It's a pretty tough little cord but I was able to get it cut quite easily. I followed the nurses to a little table in the room where they cleaned up, weighed, and measured our baby. She was 20 inches long and weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces. They had me put her first diaper on her before they swaddled her and handed her to me. I took her back over to Cambria who was now all cleaned up as well. Cambria and I shed tears of joy as we looked at our beautiful little girl. We had had it in our minds that a good portion of babies are a bit ugly and they only get cute once they grow up a bit. With this in mind we were quite surprised to see such an amazingly beautiful little girl, with a full head of thick black hair, dark eyes, and olive skin. I guess when both of us were born we had dark hair as well. Once the poofiness around her eyes went down she was even more beautiful. Every day since she seems to get prettier and prettier. Below are Cambria's comments on naming our little girl.
One very special part of our daughters birth was once I had received the epidural we were able to work on deciding our daughters name. While I was in labor we discreetly decided on a name. We had our few ideas but still needed to play around with a full name. Josh would type out variations of our ideas into his ipad and show them to me. I would comment on them and he would change them accordingly. We finally decided that our daughter would be named Lynlee. We had other names that we really liked but Lynlee has very special meaning. She is named after a combination of mine and her grandmother's names. Her middle name, Isabell, is my maternal grandma's name. Once Lynlee was born we then anonced her name to our moms, who were in the room throughout my labor. I couldn't say it without getting very choked up. It is a very special name to me.
Here is what Josh wrote to finish up this entry:
Words cannot express the way I felt that day as a new dad, sitting next to my best friend and eternal companion, while holding our little gift from God. I now understand in a way once unimaginable just how much a parent can love their child. My love for Lynlee has only grown since that day along with an increased love and respect for her mother.
Life has never been more beautiful, my joy never so complete.
