Hush-a-bye Mountain

I'm going to try to keep this short and non-gory but here is the story of Gideon's birth.

On the morning of the 13th, I went to Intermountain Medical Center for my weekly appointment where I realized I had come a day early, so they put me through anyway. My blood pressure had been rising the past couple of weeks so they were watching me pretty close for preeclampsia, and my doctor checked the Labor and Delivery schedule and decided that we should induce that day. So instead of going to work, I went over to Rubio's across the street, at my final meal before being admitted to have a baby (Steak tacos, gourmet style, and a vanilla coke). I called Nate and he met me at the hospital. They pumped me full of oxytocin and waited for the contractions to begin. For the majority of the time I had this nurse that wouldn't let me move from laying on my left side because it would move the monitors and they'd lose the baby's heartbeat. My hips hurt so bad. I haven't laid on my left side since then because of how traumatic that was. I wasn't progressing very much and around midnight they gave me an epidural in case the medicine suddenly started working or I needed to get a c-section. To make a long story short, after 33 hours of labor it was decided that I would get a c-section and five minutes later I was in the operating room.

Having the c-section was really scary for both Nate and I. I had never had major surgery before and I was already loopy from the drugs that had been given me before they decided to do the surgery. Nate was scared of something going wrong and potentially losing both his wife and his first child, but he was really brave for me. I started shaking and getting nauseous from the anesthesia about halfway through and I kept saying how cold I was. I could barely talk. I was really worried but Nate started singing Hush-a-bye Mountain to me over and over. He learned the words so he could sing to our first child back when we were first engaged. It was a magic moment that I will always remember. He just kept singing to me and it calmed me down emotionally if not physically. And when we heard our baby's first cry, we both started smiling and bawling. I remember thinking, "Wow. There really was a child in there." After the surgery I went into shock and the shaking got worse and remained so for two hours, but with the help of the nurse I was able to hold my baby and breastfeed him for the first time.

We then were moved upstairs to the maternity ward where Gideon and I were poked, prodded, measured, and questioned every hour for the next four days. They tell you to get some rest, but then they bug you every hour between 5:30am to midnight so it's impossible to get some.

Gideon's jaundice count was borderline worrisome so he spent some time in the billi bed getting blasted with UV rays. They put hat, goggles, and a binky in his mouth that made him look like a muppet baby. I couldn't help but laugh. But it was really sad not being able to hold him whenever I wanted for two days. But on Sunday, we got to have him with us in our room and we spent the whole day listening to music and writing messages to Gideon in a journal and some people came by and even gave us the sacrament. It was the most perfect Sunday of my life.
Lots of family and friends came to visit and bring gifts. It was nice having all the support in the hospital (not to mention someone bringing me all of my meals) but I am uber grateful to be home again. It has taken Gid and I a couple of days to establish a sleep schedule that doesn't require us to be woken up every hour. But I have almost completely recovered from my c-section and Gideon is getting over his jaundice. We've had to go to a few doctor's appointments throughout the week, but things are settling down. I am excited to have Nate home with Gid and I tomorrow since he had to get back to work the next day after we were released. Life is pretty perfect right now and I couldn't be any happier.