The birth story

I have had several requests for the birth story so here it is!

She was born Friday (the 20th) in the morning, the night before at about 11:30 I started having pretty intense contractions to the point where I couldn't get comfortable in any position. At about 12:30 I woke Joe up because I was pretty confident that this was the real deal and I was at the point where I needed some help. He helped me try and find a comfortable position and started timing my contractions. At this point they were about 5-6 min apart and lasting 40 seconds - 1 min. Within an hour they were about 3-4 min apart and still lasting the same amount of time. By 2:30 I'm pretty sure all I was saying was "get the bowl" (I was puking a lot...) and " I can't do this." Joe was a great help but I wouldn't let him touch me I guess so that made it hard on him. By this point my contractions were 2-3 min apart but only lasting 40 sec and I was in an incredible amount of pain so we finally went to the hospital.

When we got there we had to go in the emergency entrance because it was the middle of the night, thankfully there were girl nurses working that desk who saw the amount of pain I was in and got me a wheelchair to take me up to Labor and Delivery because I'm not too confident that I could have walked any more at that point. From this point on don't ask me what anything looked like because I think that my eyes were closed most of the time just trying to get through the contractions. The admitting nurse was the slowest nurse that we worked with through the entire process ( I don't think she realized how much pain I was in), thank goodness we had pre-registered! But they still ask you a bunch of questions before sending you to triage, frankly at this point I don't think I even remembered my birthday (good thing Joe was so with it!). Once they handed us over to the triage nurse things went a little better, she could tell I was in pain and tried to work efficiently but they still have to ask you a million things before they can even check to see how far along you are. After she was with us for a couple minutes she realized that my contractions were right on top of each other and tried to go faster but the contractions were making it hard for her to get a normal blood pressure on me. I was either way high or practically dead. When she finally got to the point that she could check me I kept thinking that I better at least be at a 5 by now. I was at 9cm. No, I am not joking. I was in extreme pain and serious LABOR! I remember the first thing that I said after she checked me was " Can I still get an epidural?!" And you better believe there was some serious desperation in my voice. Thankfully I liked her response. She said that if that was what I wanted then yes.

Then man alive did the nurses start to move fast!!! They rushed me through the rest of what they had to do before putting me in a labor room and even saved some questions until later. One nurse tried to make me walk to the labor room- ha ha right.... not happening but they ended up wheeling me- thank goodness. When we got in there they were already unpacking all the sterile equipment (kinda surprised I even noticed this). At this point I was basically mobbed by nurses all trying to get stuff done so that I could get an epidural. I think I had two trying to get a normal blood pressure on me and two trying to get an IV in a vein that kept rolling away ( I had to have a full bag of fluids before I could get the drugs), as well as one putting bands on my wrist- now it is entirely possible that some of these were the same people, honestly I have no clue. Once they got the IV in they pumped it to full blast and gave me some paperwork to "read" so that I could get the epidural. At some point the doc on call from my doctor's office came in and introduced himself and then I guess he decided to let them do a spinal instead of an epidural (thank you!). A man named Joseph gave it to me and it was working within seconds- ahhhhhh.... =) It was while he was giving it to me that I started to feel the urge to push but that quickly went away. For me I never had any doubt that I could have done it naturally, I just had no desire to and even though the pain relief may have come a little bit later than I would have liked I was grateful for it.

At that point they let me rest a little bit, for which I was very grateful. A little after five the doc came back in and after four contractions (about 12 pushes) later Michelle Aubrey Bidwell was born at 5:25 am, 8lbs 2.5 oz and 20 in long, with a full head of dark hair!!! I was shocked at having such a big baby but more shocked that she had hair!!!! In total my labor was about 6 hours- big surprise to me. If you are wondering why I waited so long to go to the hospital here are my reasons- everyone says that first time labor is long so don't go too soon, my contractions weren't consistently lasting a minute they were more like 40 sec., but the biggest one was that I did not want to be that first time mom that goes in too early and gets sent home. So it was quite the adventure but now we have our little cutie pie!!!

And now a few pictures ( I promise more to come):

Joe got to cut the cord.

Big Girl!

Daddy's first time holding her

Our Little Angel

Michelle Aubrey Bidwell was born January 20, 2012 at 5:25 am

8lbs 2.5 oz

20 in. long

Adorable as all get out!

I will start working on another post with the story of her arrival and first week as well as more pictures ;)

The waiting game

today I am 37 weeks and 5 days.... playing the waiting game. She is most welcome whenever she feels so inclined =)

But hey it's a long weekend so that is fun!!!!

took this on Sunday.

Christmas Break

Disclaimer: please attribute any misspellings etc. to a baby in my belly that will not stop kicking the computer.

For Christmas Joe had two whole weeks off of school! It was awesome having him home. We really didn't do anything terribly exciting but it sure was nice having him around, I'm feeling a little annoyed that he had to go back to work but ya know that whole pay the rent and medical bills and food stuff, yeah we are just glad he has a teaching job =)

Although he had two weeks off he ended up being given the opportunity to participate in a two day inservice on new technology the state is putting out and getting paid for it- so with a whole lot of doctor's bills coming our way what do you think Joe spent Tuesday and Wednesday of his first week off doing? If you guessed inservice you were right! But he said it was actually pretty fun and if being a teacher was that easy all the time there would be a lot more teachers!

Wednesday night Joe's immediate family came up which meant 7 of us in our 2 bedroom apartment- good thing it is on the roomier side (or at least I think it is but maybe I am just comparing it to student apartments). We have one air mattress and they brought one and we pulled out the crib mattress for Samantha (we didn't want her teething all over our pretty crib). So everyone at least had a place to sleep! That night Katie and Trudy threw us a surprise "baby shower" with just us but lots of fun little presents and there was even Snickers cake (joe's favorite) and ice cream.

The next day we took it pretty easy, John and Trudy went and visited some family and some of us went for a walk in the park that is practically right next to where we live. I seriously love having that park right there. And the walking loop is just about the right length for me (well i'll be honest at the moment it is getting a little bit long and I don't go on very many walks. Although earlier on in the pregnancy I went about three times a week and would lengthen my walks by doing some of the pretty neighborhoods around too). Then that night John took us all out for dinner at Famous Dave's. I got brisquit which was pretty good (but every time I get brisquit I think of Rudy's- you've ruined me papa!) Then that night we got pretty wild and crazy- we got a free redbox and watched cars 2. In the morning Joe and Trudy made the fam Norwegians for breakfast (one of their family traditions) and off they went to West Yellowstone for Christmas.

This year for Christmas we had decided to just stay here since on Christmas day I was 35 weeks along we didn't think it the wisest decision to spend 4-6.5 hours in a car one way depending on what family we went to. (Of course we made this decision a while ago, ya know when I was less pregnant and emotional) This was my first Christmas away from my family (even though it was our fourth Christmas as a married couple, let's just say I care more about holidays and Joe loves me, and who in their right mind would say no to Singapore and Thailand?) and it was rough for me- I am super obsessed with traditions and pretty darn attached to my family so it was hard to not be with them. Christmas eve I was getting ready to make us a pumpkin pie and ended up sitting on the floor crying because I wanted to be in Utah making pie with my mommy and then spending the evening with our family instead- the worst part of that moment was that it was still early enough and the roads were good that both Joe and I really did consider jumping in the car and just driving although neither of us said it at the time. So I cried for a while and then made pie (which tasted yummy the next day but not as good as when mommy and I make them together). That evening we had pizza for dinner (if you think that sounds pathetic then you don't know about how my family does Christmas) and then we drove around the neighborhoods in our ward looking at all the Christmas lights.

We have a fireplace in this apartment and so we bought a log and burnt it just cuz. Then Joe read us the Christmas story- we may not have acted it out but rest assured there was all of the traditional "wait, where do we start? no we skip that part" and of course when we got to the angel bit Joe even couldn't help but chuckle, and the rejoicing dance still took place ( i guess that Joe is pretty indoctrinated into our family's ways huh?). And when we were done we made s'mores! and they were yum.... and Joe ate a lot of marshmallows. It was sad not being with my family but we still had a fun Christmas eve.

Even though Christmas was on a Sunday this year our church wasn't until 1pm so we still had a pretty lazy Christmas morning. I told Joe the night before that it was his job to make sure all the lights were on before we went out in the morning which worked out well anyways because it gave him a chance to start the muppet christmas carol (his family has one part they always play). We got into our stockings which had magically been filled by Santa (and made by me! I couldn't find any in the stores that I liked and this way was about half the cost).

Then we had some cereal before we started opening presents because thanks to little miss I wake up STARVING. Then of course it was present time! It was fun, we didn't do anything extravagent but our presents were fun/ needed. I think what makes me chuckle the most though is that I have wanted a garlic press because I love cooking with garlic but hate having garlicy hands for days after so Santa got me a garlic press (Joe was very careful to point out that it was from Santa not him).

Then we made traditional Christmas breakfast (about the only time we have bacon in the house) and got ready for/ went to church.

Funny side story- I was taking care of the waffles and had Joe cook the bacon and then the eggs, he couldn't get over the fact that I was really going to let him cook the eggs in the bacon grease (what little you get from turkey bacon). Finally I just said- It's Christmas! and he was ok with that =)

After church we made Christmas dinner- It was yummy =) Turkey breast, baked potatoes, cooked carrots, rolls, etc.

Isn't my china pretty?!

Joe had the next week off too which was nice. He got a lot of planning for school done and some grading and we also squeezed in a dentist appointment before the benefits expired with the year. Guess what? No cavities! we were both surprisingly proud of that fact (Maybe it's all those years of going to Dr. Farley's but I kinda felt like I was a good girl and wanted to choose a toy from the bin!).

For New Years Eve we were kinda lame but who cares? We pulled the "it's midnight somewhere" thing around 9 pm, drank some Martinellis and went to bed.

Now Joe is back in school =( lame because I miss having him around during the day but awesome because he has a teaching job (happy dance). I will be 37 weeks tomorrow and am progressing smoothly so pretty much we are playing the waiting game. Will she be early? Will She be late? Who knows. And for those of you that keep asking- we are reserving the right to change our minds so we are not sharing any names that we may be considering =)