~Thanksgiving Baby~

Here's the story!

Twas' the night before Thanksgiving when all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a.... oh wait, YES I WAS!

Wednesday November 27th was a normal day. I worked all day, no issues.. went home, I started cramping a little bit in my back, which was normal, so I put a heat pad on it. We went to bed around 10, and between 10 and midnight I had like 2 contractions. Now up to this point I hadn't had any contractions at all! I hadn't even felt like I had had braxton hicks contractions from how the doctor described them... but when I had these 2 contractions I was like oh ya I think that's a contraction! haha

Well at midnight I woke up to another contraction, got up out of bed and (might be TMI here so read on at your own discretion 😜), got up out of bed and had a bit of fluid.... which I had had a little bit more than pregnancy normal through out the day, but it wasn't an alarming amount, and neither was the amount when I got out of bed. It wasn't a gush of fluid like they describe. I had the thought that it could possibly be my water breaking, but I was 34 weeks... normal-non complicated pregnancy... it wouldn't be my water breaking! Anyways the contractions were coming pretty close, so I started timing them, and in between midnight and one o'clock they started at 3 minutes apart, then went to 2 minutes apart, then to less than a minute apart.... in an hour! Some of them were right on top of each other with no time in between! And they were getting more intense and painful-almost unbearable so I finally told Kameron that we better go in. For one,, this was baby #1 and I didn't really know what was going on, if I was contracting or not, and for two, I am a really hard person to talk into going to the hospital, Dr. exc. haha "I am tough, I can get through this, I don't need medicine, I don't need a doctor" haha that's what I always tell myself,, and being a nurse may not help either haha but the pain was too much to handle! Aaaaaand it's a good thing we went in!

When we got into the ER they asked me if my water had broken and I was like "I don't know.. I had fluid but ??". They wheeled me up to L&D, which was the longest ride EVER!!! The CNA that was wheeling me up there was just taking her sweet time, non shalontly wheeling me on a joy ride up to L&D and I was about to scream!! Haha and it was very obvious that I was super uncomfortable.. but she didn't pick up the pace at all! Haha heck I could have been having the baby and we probably would have just been takin it easy, takin our time getting up to L&D! Haha Anyways..... (off my soap box 😜) We got up to L&D, I signed papers in between contractions (my signature looked great!👌 haha), the nurse attempted admission questions, in between contractions, and then after a few minutes of attempting she called the doctor and said could you come in here haha Oh and I forgot to mention, when I first got up to L&D, the nurse did a little swab thing and verified that my water HAD broken! So I was like, so at this point is there anything we do? Or are we just havin a baby? And she said ya you aren't going anywhere. We're having a baby! And honestly I was kind of releaved because I really couldn't handle the contractions anymore! I didn't want to try and stop them (if that was an option) because I did not want to go through this again! haha and I was in so much pain that I couldn't really think, was kinda in shock, and really didn't care haha I guess it like didn't even phase me that my baby was 5 weeks early. I just wanted the pain to STOP!

But anyways.... so the doctor came in and checked me... which was NOTHING! Haha compared to my contractions... it was nothing! haha but anyways, I was a 4. So at this point it's probably like 1:30 in the morning, and about an hour later-if that, I was an 8! At some point they moved me from the triage room to an actual delivery room and when they checked me and I was an 8 they called the NICU, Respiratory Therapy, got all set up and ready to go, but must have called everyone a little prematurly because then everyone left for a little bit haha

Everything happened so quick! I can't even remember what came first haha but when they checked me and I was an 8-it was too late for an epidural! 😫 I don't recommend it! haha They did still try and give me a spinal block or something like that I can't remember for sure what it was, but it didn't work either 😭 So all nat-ur-al it was!! I can truly say it was the hardest, most pain thing I have ever done in my life!! I wanted to give up! It was so tiring and painful... but you already know that if you've had a baby! haha Anyways, lucky for me I only pushed for an hour, which was hard because I didn't even feel pressure or the urge to push but had to anyways.. and when I finally got down the "right" push, it took 3 pushes and then the nurses told me to stop and got the Doc, who was luckily just outside the door! Because at that point I WAS feeling pressure and wanted to push this baby out! Haha Just a couple more pushes and she was out!! It was the BIGGEST relief I have ever felt in my life!! Pain wise that is! The pain was instantly gone! It's so crazy to think about! The whole processes is really. (And you know like in movies all the screaming and yelling and hollabalu that goes on when in labor and giving birth.... that's for real people! haha if you don't have pain medication-that is not dramatized in the movies! 😜) I was actually a little embarassed when I was going to be wheeled from L&D to postpartum because when I emerged from the room I was in.... all the nurses and such that were out at the nurse station were going to know that that was me making all that rucus 😬🙈 haha

Back to the story... since she was early, I got to see her while the doctor held her up and Dad cut the cord and then NICU took her and got her on the pap (I can't remember if it was cpap or bipap) and took her to NICU. Definitely not the labor and delivery I was expecting, hoping for, prepared for. No skin to skin, immediate birth mother baby bonding, breast feeding, cute pictures, hugs and tears between Mom and Dad... you know, the goods, But you do what you got to do... 

Dad and Grandma King went with baby and I stayed in L&D for about an hour or two before I got to go see her. The nurse said she had to keep me to make sure the feeling in my legs came back and I was safe haha I was like sister the feeling in my legs is all there! It never went a way-not one bit! haha but I know they have to keep me anyways to make sure I recover ok, it just cracked me up a bit 😂

I was finally able to get wheeled down to NICU to see my baby!

It was hard to see my baby hooked up to everything- the pap over her nose, IV in her poor little hand 😢, as well as not being able to hold her, but we did at least get to put our hands through the port holes and hold her that way, letting her know we were there! 

After being in the NICU for a little bit, we went to our post partum room and rested for a little bit before heading back to the NICU. 

Later that day I finally got to hold her!

Only 13 hours after she was born, she was able to be taken off the pap! And did so well with it off-it never had to go back on! So then they took the feeding tube out of her mouth and put it in her nose.

Big brother and sister were able to come see her later that day as well! They were able to come see her 3 times before they shut the unit down to kids for RSV season.

And they even got "Big Brother" and "Big Sister" wristbands!

Early the next morning.... like 2 o'clock early! We went in to do Marley's cares which included a bath! She absolutely LOVED the bath! Her favorite part was getting her head rubbed, it was so stinking cute!! I wish we would have taken a video of how much she was loving it!

Don't mind us.... it was 2 o'clock in the morning!

 And I got to hold her for the first time without the pap! It was so much easier! haha

Later on that morning Dad got to do skin to skin with Marley while I was resting, and then I got to again as well! We love skin to skin! 💗

And they put her in a turkey hat since she was born on Thanksgiving

It was a little big for her 😜 She looks like a kid in the Tom Turkey school play 😂

Marley Kameron King

Born 11/28/2019 @03:41AM

Weighed 5lb 4oz & Measured 19 1/2inches long

Delivered by Dr Packham (who also married her Mommy and Daddy :)

First two days ✔

Update/timeline on her medical condition/journey coming soon.... hopefully, haha it took me 2 weeks to get this post done! 😜

'Why The North Pole of Course! This Is The Polar Express!"

We hit our one year anniversary this month!!
We had talked about a lot of different options to do for our anniversary... Vegas, San Diego, but were not sure how I would be feeling at 32 weeks pregnant, so we decided to keep it safe and go to Boise.
Kameron planned the whole weekend <----- The best!! Haha

Our anniversary was actually on Sunday, but we went up to Boise on Friday and went to Dave and Busters and let our kid side out and played all the games, and then went to Tucanos! I was so excited! I had always wanted to go there! And we were actually going to go there for dinner on the night that we got married, but since I had just had surgery and my stomach was still full of CO2, I could barely eat anything and I was full, so we didn't end up going that night. 

It was so good!! I am a meat lover though! I could live off meat!

He then reserved the Sleeping Beauty Castle at the Anniversary Inn and we stayed there for the night! 

The next morning we were planning on going to the temple, either Meridian or Boise but I had forgotten my temple dress and we really wanted to go the Meridian one since neither of us had been there-and it was closed. So we ended up not going, instead we were lazy and just layed in bed alllll morning! It was great! haha

Two weeks later we went to the Polar Express in Heber City. We got into Heber early so we could do a couple things before the Polar Express that night. We met up with one of Kameron's Dad's mission companions named Kameron haha that's actually where Kam got his name :) But anyways his family owns one of the two dairys left in Heber and a cheese factory, so we got to tour both the dairy and cheese factory! And me being a small town girl at heart LOVED the dairy tour! Reminded me of the good old days when we would milk cows, as soon as I walked into the barn! I told Kameron this is what we would come home smelling like after milking! Haha I hadn't smelt that smell in a long time!

The kids got to see all the calves and let them suck on their fingers, and then he gave us the tour of the barn... bare with me... I'm getting nerdy here for a minute because I thought it was soooo stinkin cool!! So their barn is all automated! They don't have people that actually do the milking and the scraping and the feeding... it's all done by machines!! So when the cows are eating they kind of push the hay out away from them so then it gets too far for them to reach, but they had a robotic sweeper that would come along and sweep all the hay back to the cows! They also had a robotic poop cleaner! It looked like a big metal V that went back and forth scraping the floor! No scraping with shovels! Haha we would have loved that back in the day huh Mac?! Especially in the winter! And then all the cows have like an ID hanging around their neck that the robotic milker will scan and see if they need milked or not, I think just depending on how many times each particular cow is supposed to milk each day, and then either let them in or not if they don't need milked. I think he said it would let each cow in 2-5 times a day depending on their milk supply and how often they were needing milked... and then the robotic milker does it all its self! I was so super sad that we weren't able to watch that part. They were self cleaning while we were there so we weren't able to watch them milk. But it was funny, Kameron (Dan's companion) was saying that when they go into get milked they get good grain while they are being milked, so he had a cow try and come in 150 times in one day! Haha (Besides the Polar Express... the milk barn was my favorite part of the trip! haha)

Grandma showing Bentley how to let the calf suck on your fingers

We didn't get to see the live birth of this calf (which was probably ok 😜) but we got to see it minutes after it was born and watched it take it's first few wobbly steps

After we left the dairy, he took us to the cheese factory they own and we were able to tour that and then get ice cream! And after that.. he took us to Homestead Crater which is so super cool! It's a crater that is like a local swim hole now and they do scuba diving lessons there too because it's like 70 feet deep! Oh and is like 104 degrees. The hole at the top you can usually climb up to and look down in, but it was closed so we couldn't 😔

^^ Internet picture if you can't tell 😜

Later that night we got aboard the Polar Express and rode the train while singing songs, eating cookies, drinking hot cocoa, dancing, visiting with Santa and having a ton of fun! The kids loved it! Bentley couldn't stop thanking Dad for taking them on the Polar Express and said "Best Day Ever!!" After the train ride we ate pizza and went swimming before going to bed to head home the next morning.

We all had matching Polar Express Shirts! Everyone loved them!

Alex, Morgan, and I are all due within a couple weeks of each other, and all with baby girls!! Alex is due on January 22, I am due January 4th, and Morgan is due January 24th with twins!

It was a fun trip!!

Baby Update!

We are officially down in the single digits counting down until our baby girl is here!

I haven't done an update for a bit because everything has kind of been the same so I'll kind of just throw in a couple quick things that have happened in the last month!

We hit the third trimester on October 12th! Only one left! We had an appointment on the 8th and when we got home we tried to listen to her heartbeat with our stethoscope since we had seen exactly where the heart beat was with the doppler..... and it was a success! We had tried several times before but were never able to find or hear it, but we did that night! So much fun!! And I've listened for it about every night since then! 😜 Sometimes I can find and hear it, sometimes I can't but it's still fun! Especially when you DO find it! And it's always fun because as soon as you put the stethoscope bell on my belly, she immediately kicks it! 💕

{28 Weeks}

About halfway through the second trimester, or maybe a little earlier, I got my appetite back and ate ALL the time! I was seriously SO hungry ALL the time!! And seriously ate about 6 meals a day! Haha that has since changed! I have reverted back to my first trimester days where I am nauseous (not as bad as 1st!) and don't have much of an appetite at all! NOTHING ever sounds good! 😝

I don't really have much to complain about though! This pregnancy has been pretty good to me! Something else that did occur in the second trimester also was I would cramp really super easy! Like just walking fast-I would start cramping... That has since gone away though! 🙏 But ya'll! Varicose veins are no joke!!! That's what took the place of cramping in the 3rd trimester, and luckily it is only one! Because OUCH!! 👎 I wear compression socks at work, but now I have to wear one on my left leg when I'm home too haha or that leg hurts so bad when I'm on it that I can't get anything done!

{30 Weeks}

Just trying to get the best angle of Baby!

Since hitting the 3rd trimester I feel like I have definitely popped more and am DEFINITELY getting uncomfortable! Sitting gets uncomfortable because my belly pushes into my ribs. Baby has gone as far up as she can (Yes she has!!) so the Doctor says she should be pushing outward now! At our last appointment Baby is head down and I'm pretty sure her little bum is on the left side of my belly because it gets really hard there and just feels like a little bum that I can cup my hand around 💗 And as for her feet they are sprawled over in the right side of my ribs! Always making that side of my ribs uncomfortable and sore haha sometimes I wake up and I feel like my ribs on that side are bruised! I have to sit with my right arm up over my head a lot of the time to stretch out those ribs haha And every once in a while she'll really get me and it feels like she wraps a toe around my rib and then pulls her foot out away from my rib snapping her toe off my rib! haha It does not feel good!

{32 Weeks}

So I mentioned in my last post that we had a little scare with Baby Girl a few weeks ago.... Little Stink!

It was actually the 25th of October, I worked all day, and through out the day the baby just wasn't very active.. I only remember feeling her move a handful of times during my 12 hour shift. And I was training a nurse that was basically doing everything herself, so it wasn't like I was busy and just didn't notice, in fact I was sitting the majority of the day. But she always gets more active at night, so I figured I would get home, settle on the couch and have some Netflix and baby kicks... but we didn't 😬 After getting home she still wasn't very active at all! And my belly was just flaccid, meaning just squishy, where it usually is pretty hard and formed. So that had me worried! And we got the stethoscope out because she always kicks it when we put in on my belly, so we tried that.... and nothing! We pushed and poked and prodded and she may have moved a couple times, but I felt like they were very weak little movements, and a definite change to her norm! And we had just had a doctors appointment a week earlier and the Doc said that her pattern of movement shouldn't be changing at this point and to come in if she wasn't moving or even if it had changed and she wasn't moving as much! So still in my scrubs, in to the ED we went. Which first of all.. first time mom here! 🙋 And second of all this baby is waaaaaaaaaaay to precious to risk anything! Any baby is! But this baby in particularly, to me!!

After blubbering out my name, birth date and "decreased fetal movement" to the receptionist, TWICE! Because she couldn't understand me 🙈, we got wheeled up to the L&D department and got checked in. The nurse told us that a lot of the time when the mom feels like the baby isn't moving very much and come in, that all they have to do is strap on the two monitors that go around your belly and the baby starts moving because they don't like that.... and sure enough!! Little stink!! As soon as she strapped on the monitors we could hear her strong heart beat and she started moving like normal! Kicking and rolling 😠 Haha just had to give Mama a little scare I guess! I felt silly of course but the nurse and Doc both of course said better safe than sorry, and I definitely slept better than I would have if we wouldn't have gone in! haha 

So that was our little scare we had, but thankfully nothing major! And everything was all right and turned out just fine! 💗