wow time has flown again. and most of it isn't even my own time. i now have a little one to take care of. that is our biggest piece of news. our baby boy is here! Kyan John Smith was born April 1, 2012 at 4:58am. he weighed in at 6lb 12oz and was 19in long.
i should probably back up a little and fill in march and now april. okay:
march 2012- i was still working my usual schedule. zach got full time with diamond ranch academy. baby didn't want to come early. i kept working. zach kept working. and really that is about it for march. at least, that is what my brain remembers. (i have a hard time remembering things now...baby took it all)
well march 31, 2012 was to be my last scheduled day of work. i decided that if kyan hadn't come before then, that i would be too miserable to give quality massage. so i worked until the last day of the month. i woke up that saturday morning not feeling very well. at all. but with it being my last day of work for a while, i figured i could just cowboy up and go in.
i should explain that my not feeling well was more than just the uncomfortable feeling you have all the last month or 2 of pregnancy. i did however feel like i should just work the last day. so i did. well when zach & i got home saturday night, i really wasn't feeling well. i was worse than when i got up, but zach has had to work every other sunday, so i sent him to priesthood session of conference. (he needs some religion in his life :)
zach got back from priesthood session and i was even worse. i just wanted to go to sleep and hope that i felt better in the morning. the only problem with that was that i couldn't get comfortable. at all. i was hurting and aching and nothing made it better. dad (smith) finally said that we should just go to the hospital and see what was going on with me. i wanted a priesthood blessing first, so they (zach, dad, & miah) gave me a blessing.
i am so grateful to have the priesthood in my home!!!
so we grabbed my bag & went to the hospital. this was around 9pm saturday night. my pain had gotten worse and more constant. we got to the hospital and were put in an observation room. they said we had to wait an hour and see what was going on. well the hour came and went. and i guess they had a shift change or something because we had to wait another hour in observation. finally a nurse or an aid came in and said to follow her.
we were confused. our reply was "oh, you are in labor and are going to have your baby tonight. didn't anyone tell you?"
i know now that i was in labor all day saturday. i just had no idea that is what labor felt like. i do now. so the nurse showed us to our labor/delivery suite and there we stayed. the contractions were getting stronger and lasting about 30 sec to a minute and coming every 2 to 3 minutes. they hurt! i wasn't dilating fast enough though, so it was going to be a very long night. finally i couldn't take it anymore. i wanted the epidural. i was really not wanting it for 2 reasons: #1- i am a pretty tough girl and don't like to admit when i am hurting because there really isn't any point in complaining because not a whole lot will take pain away. #2- they had already blown the iv in my right arm and it was black, swollen, and hurt and another needle stick was the last thing i wanted.
zach talked me into getting the epidural. well, brooke too. she wasn't there, but we were texting her. she said that once she had got her epidural, that she went from a 1 to a 10 in an hour. once she was able to relax, the rest just took care of itself. i have that same problem... i can't really relax. so i did get the epidural. i do not regret it at all. in fact, i think that is the way to go. i was able to calm down, and my body was able to rest a bit. the epidural was at midnight and i was at a 3.5 so the going had been slow.
i was fully dilated at 4am. they called our dr at 4:20 and he was there by 4:45. i pushed for 10 minutes and kyan came at 4:58am.
pregnancy and delivery could not have been better. i only had gained a total weight of 10lbs... i had weight i could have lost before, so i really probably was about 15lb total gain. our dr wasn't concerned, so we weren't either. delivery was really smooth too. i didn't tear or have to be cut. kyan did have the cord wrapped around his neck, and had a bowel movement in the placenta, but the dr was able to take care of it and kyan is healthy.
being a mom is a tough job. i love it, and i love my baby. i can't explain that automatic love that washes over you when you first hear your baby cry or when you first hold you baby in your arms. i do have to note that they had zach help hold my leg, so he watched the birth. he didn't say it out loud but told me later that when he first saw kyan, he thought "ah, an alien!"
i am glad he didn't say it out loud right then, but i think it is funny that is what he first thought. he loves being a daddy. i am going to have to end this soon because kyan is waking up and is going to be hungry.
i will end with a few things i have learned and want to remember for next time:
#1- it is totally ok to get the epidural. you aren't less of a woman. you aren't a wimp. you are doing your body a favor and relaxing and resting so you can be awake enough to hold your baby when he/she comes.
#2- it is totally ok to let them take your baby to the nursery so you can sleep. that's why they have a nursery. you won't get sleep for the next 18+ years after your baby is born, so it is ok to have the hospital watch baby while you sleep while you can.
#3- nursing is hard. if you take to it easily, good job. if you don't, it is ok. it is hard! the important thing is to get the baby breast milk. it doesn't matter how you get your baby breast milk, just so long as you try to give your baby breast milk.
#4- give your body time to heal. don't try and do everything like you used to before baby came. take it easy and learn together as a family.
and now i need to leave it... kyan is awake and i need to care for my little one :)
