Twelve hours...

...because every baby needs a photo shoot before they're a day old and before leaving the hospital. :)

 

Nicole Marie

Our daughter has finally made her debut! What an experience it was. The delivery definitely did not go as I had expected or planned, but it is THE most rewarding experience I have gone through. So without further adieu, the birth story...

 

It all started Wednesday evening-the 15th of October. I was supposed to be at work that week, and the Wednesday was supposed to be my last shift before maternity leave, but I developed a cold over the weekend before and I was just barely recovering on that last day, so I had to call in sick for that last week. Which was probably for the best, because I had also developed some pretty significant SI joint pain related to the pregnancy, it was getting more and more difficult to walk. Devan was out helping a family in the ward move. I started feeling contractions around 8 PM. Pretty sporadic at first, but got more and more regular throughout the night. We stayed up the entire night as I went through contraction after contraction, timing them as they came and went. We decided to call our OB office in the morning to see how much I had progressed. We went in around 10 AM, and the on call OB told us that I was 3 cm dilated and 90% effaced. She told us to go home for a few hours and go back to the hospital because by then I would have progressed far enough to be admitted. We ended up walking around the hospital rather than going home to save on the driving. A few hours later we went to get checked and nothing had changed. I was pretty exhausted at this point and in a lot of pain still. I got some medicine to make me sleepy and went home. I was still having pretty significant contractions, so the pain would not let me actually get to sleep. We waited until about 9 PM to go back to the hospital. I still had not progressed. By that time, they gave me a shot of morphine and Phenergan to help me sleep, which did help quite a bit. I had Devan go to bed because he had been up just as long as I had. I slept for a couple of hours before the medications wore off and continued contracting throughout the night. The next morning we went back to the hospital and I *still* hadn't progressed far enough to be admitted. I got another pain shot and was sent home again. I was feeling pretty discouraged and exhausted at this point. After another couple of hours, we made an appointment with my OB to see what the plan was. As it was a Friday, I knew I couldn't go all weekend with the way I was feeling, so we needed to know a plan. I felt like my contractions were getting further apart at this point, so I wasn't feeling optimistic when he checked me-but miracle of miracles, I was 4 cm dilated (now, I'm not sure if he just said I was 4 cm dilated, or if I actually was 4 cm, but either way, I was pretty happy and excited to get this show on the road!), so we went to the hospital to be admitted. And I was so ready for that epidural!!

 

I can't believe I managed to smile before getting the epidural, haha.

 

And this is me post epidural-feeling so much better! I got the epidural around noon.

 

So we spent most of the rest of the day just hanging out. The nurses never needed to put me on Pitocin because I was contracting well enough on my own, which was nice. I got a nice 2 hour nap in and I was feeling pretty good. Still tired, but much better. However, around 6 PM I started feeling pain again. The anesthesiologist came and gave me another bolus of numbing medicine. It helped a little bit, but not much. The evening anesthesiologist came in and tried to reposition the epidural since it seemed to be wearing off, but that wasn't working. So they sat me up again about an hour later (again, in quite a bit of pain) and noticed that the right side of my back was quite swollen. At some point, the catheter dislodged and the anesthetic was going into the tissue in my back instead of in my epidural space. Big Bummer. So, the anesthesiologist tried to put another epidural in. Because of the swelling in my back, it was really difficult for her to put it in and it took a long time for her to finally get it. Not to mention the fact that I was hurting a lot at this point. However, again, the epidural did not seem to be working. At this point, my awesome nurse, Sue, decided to check me and see what was going on. She had me start pushing because I was 9.75 cm dilated. Before I really knew what was going on, I was in hard labor, pushing, feeling nothing but pain and exhaustion-also very confused because I was pushing yet there was no doctor in the room! Devan was counting to 10 super slow (it seemed) every time I pushed. Luckily, blessedly, after only 10 minutes of pushing, Nicole was born at 11:09 PM on her due date of October 17th! They put her on my chest immediately after she was born, and it was a very bizarre sensation to have this baby on me-brand new, laying there-overwhelmed from everything that had just happened, and then realizing that I now have a baby. It was really hard to process, but it was very sweet. And here she is... 

 

 

Personally, I think she's a pretty darn cute baby. And I am totally unbiased.

 

 

 

The Baker family with my parents.

 

Daddy.

 

Nicole with Devan's parents. I love Shauna's smile in all her pictures-I think she was very excited about having a new grandbaby :)

 

Aunt Amy

 

Cousins-Kiana is holding Nicole, with Alyssa, Eleanor and Abby looking on. Also Aunt Kathie.

 

Aunt RaeAnn and cousins Jenna and Katie Ann.

 

 

 

 

Devan's new neck rest.

 

Baby's first bath!

 

More pictures to come!!

Baby Shower Time!

So, wow. I was super blessed to have many people I love throw me baby showers. I did not have to buy a single piece of clothing for my baby! I had one of my friends from the single's ward, who is now in the family ward with me, throw me one with my Lake Hills ward. It was a great time with yummy food and getting to know the sisters in my ward a little bit better. No pictures, but it was a really great time. My sisters threw me a shower with my home ward after my parents got home so my mom could be there with us. I was so impressed with everything they did to prepare for it. It was a "Welcome to the World" theme, with maps, food from various countries that I have visited, and so many people that I grew up with that I love. What a great time it was!

 

 

We played a game where I had to guess which person provided which onesie. It was a good game-I probably guessed about 50% correctly :). So thankful for my sisters for planning this for me!

 

I also had a "virtual baby shower" with some of my old roommates from college. We did a google hangout and they all sent me baby gifts in the mail. It was so fun to see them and "hang out" with them from all over the country. I have the best friends!! Above is one of the packages that was delivered.

Finally, less than a week before my due date, my coworkers threw me a shower. It was a great time! And wow, I have talented coworkers. I received 3 different handmade blankets, a few cute hats, and burp cloths. There was talk of them all going into business together!

 

So now it's time for this girl to make her debut!!

Welcome Home!

My parents, Elder and Sister Arnesen, came home from their mission in Ukraine on September 30th. It was fun to go to the airport and welcome them right off the plane. It's so nice to have them home!

 

One Year!!

OK, I have some catching up to do on my blogging. I'll start out with our one year anniversary!! Hard to believe that a year has already gone by since we got married. It really did fly by! I must say, I'm really lucky to have such a great husband. I feel so blessed to have Devan as my eternal companion. I mean, he's so great that he took a day off from work so we could celebrate our anniversary :) It was a really fun day that started out with us going to the Maltby Café. I've been wanting to go there for a while because I've heard such rave reviews about it, and it did not disappoint. No pictures from there, but we did buy a giant cinnamon roll from the café that we shared with Paul and RaeAnn's family. The picture below is for size comparison. It was a huge cinnamon roll!

 

Later on in the day, we decided to go to the driving range. I don't know why I wanted to do this, but I had never been before, and I thought it would be fun. I'm glad we went, I was terrible at it (golf has never really been my thing), but it was fun to just try and hit the ball as far as I could! I was actually surprised at how sore I was the next day, haha :)

 We then used our gift certificate from my brother, Brad (thanks, Brad!) to the Chihuly glass museum at the Seattle Center. It was really fun-he really is a talented artist.

 We had dinner out, and then I came back to our cake top from our wedding. Devan chose not to partake. I had a few bites...for tradition's sake :) It was actually pretty good considering it was a year old!

It was a really fun day and a great way to celebrate our one year!