WOW! Has It Really Been Seven Years?

Today Cecily turned 7! It doesn't seem possible. Seven years ago at this moment, I'm sure I was probably nursing our little 6lb 80z. baby girl. The previous day and early hours leading up to this had been quite an adventure. Cecily was born @ 12:18 on a Monday.

It is funny, because Mike wanted all of his babies to be born in April. I guess it is some sort of tradition: he and his siblings are all April babies; therefore, he wanted April babies? I don't know the logic, really. Ariel was born in April and then Cecily came along and my due date for her was May 15th. I was happy (okay my next point is very materialistic) because she was going to be a May baby, so that meant I might actually have a chance of getting an emerald ring one day--even if only as a Mother's Ring, because that is the birthstone for May. However, Mike kept telling me we were going to have an April baby. Even though I thought he was a bit crazy for saying so, I couldn't rule it totally out because I remembered that Ariel did come two weeks early. Guess what? I was meant to have April babies because Cecily was in a hurry to get to earth. She arrived a whole 3 weeks early!

Cecily always likes to hear the story of when she was born, so I am going to put it in writing. For you to get a complete picture, I must go back to the Sunday afternoon after church. Church that day, was normal like any other day. At the time, I was the Primary President, so I know I went to sacrament followed by two hours of primary (this was before our ward had sacrament mtg. last and we met in the afternoon because we shared the building with Theodore Ward). I remember a lot of people not at church that day because they were sick. That afternoon, when we were driving home, I remember telling Mike that I was not feeling well too. When we got home, I made a chicken and rice casserole for dinner and I ate a little, and shortly after, that's when it hit (to this day, I can not eat that chicken and rice dish). I was sick (nausea and having to use the bathroom, if you know what I mean). I really thought that I had the flu. I began having what I thought were contractions. It was hard for me to tell because when I had Ariel, I never had contractions (my water broke, I wasn't in labor, so they induced me. I got an epidural at 2cm and felt absolutely nothing).
I remember calling my friend Susan around 8:30pm and asking her if she thought my symptoms could be that of labor. She said that they could be and advised me to call the OBGYN, which I did. When I called the doctor, she said, "that throwing up was a sign of labor, but not diarrhea (or it may have been vice versa, I can't really remember that) and that unless my water broke, or if I had contractions that were 5 min apart or less and regular that I was not in labor--it was probably Braxton Hicks. She advised me to take some Imodium AD and get some rest, which I did. However, I started having contractions, which felt horrible but they never were regular. Very sporadic. They might go from 2 minutes to 15 minutes. I felt absolutely horrible. I now know, that I was definitely in labor and that you don't have to have regular contractions to do so. I also know that all the "sickness" was just preparing my body to have a baby.

I remember sitting on the couch and poor Ariel watching me. Around 10 or 10:30pm I asked Mike to call Lee so that they could give me a blessing. I just wanted to feel better. I wanted the stomach cramps to stop. I wanted to stop throwing up, etc. Mike gave me the blessing and I remember afterwards being so mad because of what was said in the blessing. The only part of the blessing I remember is that Mike said that I would be "fully aware". I didn't want to be fully aware". I wanted to be knocked out and feeling NO PAIN! I yelled at Mike a little for that and he reminded me that blessings come from the Lord and not him--something that I was not in the mood to hear at the time. After the blessing, I just laid on the couch praying to Heavenly Father that he would just let my water break because the "Braxton Hicks" were killing me. Finally, about 11:30-11:40pm, my water broke. I remember just saying , Thank you to the Lord. I got up and called my OBGYN and she said to come in.

The Ottingers agreed that when the time came, they would keep Ariel for us. So I called Susan and told her we would drop Ariel off on the way to the hospital, which we did. But, on the way to Susan's, I had the sudden urge to push and I started feeling like Cecily was going to be born in the car. I told Mike that he needed to hurry because the baby was starting to come out on her own. He went in complete panic mode. When we got to the Ottingers, he literally threw Ariel in Susan's arms and ran back to the car without saying anything to Susan and from there, he ran EVERY red light. I kept telling him to hurry, hurry, hurry. Luckily because of the time of day, there was very little traffic.
When Mike pulled into SHM Hospital he told the guard, "MY WIFE IS HAVING A BABY". I guess the guard has heard that several times , because he was taking his sweet time getting the wheelchair. I told Mike, "I'm pushing. The baby is coming." Then he yelled, she's having the baby now!" From then on, it seemed to me that everyone was in panic mode. It was very surreal. They did not have time for me to change, to check into the hospital, nothing. They put me on a stretcher and a nurse started wheeling me into the elevator to take me upstairs. I remember her saying, "Stop pushing, stop pushing." As a side note, any of you who have had a baby--do you know how crazy that is to tell someone in labor? My body had taken over and I was going to have that baby. I did try to force myself to stop pushing, but it was extremely difficult. When the nurse was pushing me off the elevator, I was PANICKING! I WAS SCARED! With Ariel I felt absolutely nothing and with Cecily all I could think of was, "This is going to hurt, just like you see when those women are screaming on TV. " So I started screaming as the nurse kept telling me to stop pushing (Mike was downstairs checking me in). All I could say was, "Give me the DRUGS! I WANT DRUGS! I CAN'T HAVE THIS BABY WITHOUT DRUGS" Let me just say, I really was not in any pain, really, I wasn't. I just was so scared, because I did not know what to expect, and I have a low threshold for pain--which I just knew was coming at anytime. I remember as the nurse was pulling off my pants she said, "Sweetie, drugs aren't going to help you now, not even Tylenol would help. We aren't going to give you anything." Remember that blessing about being "fully aware"? Boy was I!

After several attempts at them telling me to stop pushing, I remember saying to the nurse, "What will happen if I keep pushing?" I kept trying my hardest to stop because I thought I would hurt Cecily if I didn't. But the nurse replied, "Nothing, we just want the doctor here to catch the baby." Once I realized it would not hurt Cecily, I responded in my yelling voice, "I don't care who catches this baby, a monkey can do it for all I care, I'm pushing." And PUSH I did! If I of not tried to stop pushing earlier, Cecily definitely would have been born sooner. My doctor just made it in time to catch the baby. Mike told her if she had been just a minute later, she would not have gotten paid. LOL.

It was quite an exciting night. One I will never forget. And I must admit, natural child birth was not a bad thing, for me. After I had Cecily, I had a rush of energy. I literally felt like I could get up and do a cartwheel. I think my doctor, Dr. Ringhoffer, felt really bad because she said she was sorry she didn't have me come in sooner. She said that when I called and told her that my water had broke, I seemed so calm. She had no clue how close I was to having Cecily. She said that when she was called to deliver, she did not even realize it was for me. Another women had been laboring all day and she thought it was her and went to her room. When she got to the other room, the nurse said, no it was me. Dr. Ringhoffer rushed into the room just in time to catch Cecily. Dr. Ringhoffer actually sat with me after Cecily was born for about 1 hour.
The bad part was, I only saw Cecily for a quick moment. They had to rush her to the nursery, because she came so fast, that they did not have time to warm the heating lamps. Plus, she came through the birth canal quickly and they had to check her over to make sure all was well.
The next day another doctor came to check on me and had the audacity to get onto to me for not coming in sooner. He told me that that was a dangerous thing to do (like I planned it).

The natural child birth thing was good for me--it probably helped that Cecily was so small. The recovery time was quick. I actually went home after one day. Plus, I think Mike was really proud that I was able to go completely without any drugs! I would definitely go natural again. Cecily was and is such a blessing in our lives over the past 7 years. She has always been really easy going and laid back. She was such an easy baby. I love that about her. Happy Birthday, Cecily!