Coraline Lee

She has arrived!

8 lbs 7 oz 21.5 inches long

All Natural - 1st Hospital Birth

Midwife - Ruth Ann Misler

IU Arnett Hospital

Born 

9.18.2014

2:37 PM

Due Date 

9.12.2014 

Start Labor: 6:30

Weight Gain - 41 lbs

We went in to see our midwife last Wednesday who determined I was dilated to 2 cm so she decided to scrap my membranes to see if that would get anything started. We also had to do a non stress test on Coraline to make sure she was doing fine being overdue - everything was great. 

As we left Ann told us to eat a good dinner go for a walk and if she didn't see us before that she would do this again on Friday. 

Family of FIVE

That night after we went to bed I was feeling really uncomfortable but I just thought it was due to her 'messing things up' so I thought nothing of it because I had been having contractions for weeks at this point. Once we got up to get going for the day I changed my mind. By around 6:30 I decided that Levi and I should both stay home for the day or at least the morning and take the kids for a hike at Happy Hollow to see if we could get things going. We ate breakfast and left for Happy Hollow. 

We stayed there and walked the trails until I began to feel uncomfortable with people around. Then when leaving Levi decided that a hot dog sounded good so we went to Dog n Suds - he sat on the patio with the kids and ate ... I made an attempt to get out of the car but that was only a few feet until I decided to just wait for them in the car. At this point I had lost all appetite.

When we got home I decided it was time to determine where Clairana & Nephi should go. We had called Levi's aunt but had not heard back so we decided to take them to their daycare. I stayed home to pack our bag and labor and Levi drove the kids over. On the way over he got a phone call from Woody and decided to take them there instead. 

Once Levi arrived back to the house I was ready to go - I knew that I was getting close and my contractions were about every 2 minutes. At this point, the thought of natural child birth again for the third time made me crazy. I told him maybe I was up for an epidural and to just stay in the bed. He just said - "Oh babe you can do this" and left it at that.  

He paged the midwifes at 12:45 as we were heading down the driveway. There is a team of three midwifes but it just so happens that Ann was who we saw the day before and she was on call the following day - I had told her that I was very nervous about going to the hospital and laboring around people and I wasn't coming in until transition (when you are in the last stages - I normally always get sick during this time so I would know.) She said she remembered this when she got the page she told the other midwifes she wasn't messing around and heading out and changing her clothes as soon as she got there. 

Once we got to the hospital, I was barefoot and barely had my pants on - I was really attractive but I was really in labor and didn't care to tell anyone my birth-date or my maiden name. Anyways, I didn't want to use a wheelchair I wanted to walk which got some weird looks. Please tell me why a person who is getting ready to push a human being out of their body wants to sit down. Not me. 

We got to the room and a nurse checked me and said I was around 5 cm. Then Ann showed up I labored a few more times and then she wanted to check me (she wasn't thrilled that another nurse had already done so) I was now at 9 but was not fully effaced so I had to do a few more contractions on my left side to get her head down. After this I could tell she was ready. I got unto the bed on my hands and knees and started to bare down to get her to come. Levi was right there like always. It was so nice to have him with me and not have to say a word he knew. I wanted ice water and ice cold rags and to have him help me moan low and bring her down. He told me when he saw hair which was very encouraging and when to look down so I could see her coming. I was very nervous about tearing after my 4+ degree tear with Nephi. Ann knew this and made sure I pushed slowly. Laboring backwards on the bed made it so I could not see anyone in the room which was really nice because once my water broke we had several nurses. 

When my water broke NICU was called in because Coraline had had several bowel movements before being born and they were needed to take her away as soon as she was born to drain her lungs and make sure she could breath. Once she arrived it was pretty fast they didn't have time to let Levi cut the cord - Ann just did and they swept her over to get checked out. After a few seconds she started screaming and you could tell even Ann was relieved saying 'she is good to go now listen to those lungs they are cleared' NICU didn't stay but a few seconds and were gone. 

Fastest Labor - which also means it was the most intense (beside pushing with Nephi)

Then there was the placenta....now this whole pregnancy we have had trouble with this placenta. I have been put on partial bed rest, had a few extra ultrasounds, had my due date changed from a scheduled c-section to being able to deliver natural all because of the placenta. Well it didn't end there. After you deliver a baby who wants to deliver or mess with anything else - not me. At this point, my mom had arrived and because Levi was watching Coraline she was able to help me work through getting my placenta to come out - benefits of having a mother in the medical field. Ended up after about an hour of trying they prepped me to have a DNC (normally this is given when someone has a miscarriage to make sure everything is out of the body) Everything went well and besides being exhausted from it all we eventually ended up back together and in our room. 

Girlie Swing from Gramma Moni

Yes we did not give her a bath in the hospital and we still haven't and we also requested to take our placenta home - we plant a tree. Coraline will have a peach tree. Clairana has an apple tree and Nephi has a hazelnut tree 

SISTERS

BUSTED Sleeping with the Baby!

Nephi is in LOVE

Last Pregnancy Pictures

Last Day of Work

First Night with Number Three

Who would have thought!?

Levi ready to go home

She LOVES to suck so after nursing for over an hour we decided to introduce the pacifier. 

I really don't know how women take great photos after childbirth.

We ended up having to stay 48 hours which we were very disappointed for both of us to be monitored and make sure we didn't get an infection. We were also not able to have visitors due to a respiratory infection going around. We did get the exception to have Clairana & Nephi come up for a short visit. 

We are all home now and enjoying life with three!

Special thanks to Woody, Heather, & G&G Brigham for helping with Clairana &Nephi!