As much as I wanted to write throughout my pregnancy, you
can see that never really happened but once or twice. It’s amazing how fast
time flies, even when you don’t have a kid in stow. My goal now is to update frequently while I
am on maternity to document my time at home with Aspen and how fast he grows
right in front of our eyes. My first
objective though, is to complete my pregnancy journey with narrative from my
final few days before, during, and after Aspen’s birth, so that one day, Aspen
may read his amazing journey into this world.
We shall rewind to Christmas break. As you may already know, John Deere shuts
down between Christmas and New Years. It has to be the best perk of my job as
it always allows for rejuvenation, relaxation, or travel. My break started on the 19th, as
my line was finished with their builds and our department was going to be laid
off the following two days. Knowing my
situation, my boss told me to not come into work the next two days. I gladly acceptedJ Last minute Christmas shopping and the likes
were completed in the days leading up to Christmas. As I had my heart set all along on having the
baby the 22nd, as the days drew nearer, I knew in my mind it wasn’t
going to be the case. Christmas’s were
celebrated early on my side due to other family obligations with Brian and
Jackie, so Ted and I had a few days between Christmas celebrations at each of
our parent’s house which was quite strange to us. Movies were watched, games were played (Britt
dominated Settlers and Ticket to Ride), we attended movies, made 9 different
freezer meals, cookies, cleaned house, took down Christmas decorations, you
name it, we did it. If we hadn’t had the
baby by the 26th, we were scheduled for another doctor’s appointment
to check progress. An 8:30 appointment
which first entailed an ultrasound, followed by a visit with the doctor
confirmed, we had not made any progress.
I was still 50% effaced and 1-2 centimeters dilated. Doctor Hines wanted us to come back Monday
and check in again, then discuss an inducement date. The days dragged on, although I wasn’t in any
discomfort, more just anxious for the Baby to make his arrival and our lives to
be flipped upside down. By Monday, I
still didn’t “feel” any different and figured we were no further along. My assumptions were true, as Dr. Rassmussen
confirmed. We started talking inducement
and what we would prefer. I would have
preferred to have him before the New Year’s, mainly for the tax breakJ But, I knew, it was better to wait incase he
would make his natural arrival. She
checked with the hospital anyways, and they wouldn’t allow us to come in on the
30th, rather, they scheduled us for a 11:00 inducement time on
Friday, January 3rd.
New
Year’s Eve found us at Ted’s parents to eat, play games, and hang out. Everyone
was passed out by 10:30 as Megan had to work the next day, so Ted and I headed
home. I managed to stay awake until
midnight while I listened to the guy next to me snore away. As the clock hit midnight, I quickly fell
asleep myself. Ted decided to go back to
work for part of Thursday, so I ran last minute errands around town and decided
to stop and pick up a few cupcakes in town at the local cupcake shop and visit
one of the girl’s I coach basketball with.
I invited my parents to stop over later that night and surprise them
since my mom enjoys sweets so much. When
they arrived, I had this not so good feeling and didn’t really recognize at
that moment in time what was going on. I
just thought maybe I had an upset stomach or just wasn’t feeling well. It wasn’t until after they left that I then
realized I was starting to have contractions.
I decided it was best to start tracking the contractions on my handy
dandy cell phone app to see their length and time between. Within two hours, they were already ranging
anywhere from 8-12 minutes. It was such
a strange feeling as I had back labor too.
Did we start packing things up???
By midnight, Ted wanted us to try and lay down, and luckily, I was able
to sleep through some of the contractions for a few hours of sleep. By morning, miracously, they had
disappeared. As we were to be at the
hospital by 11, Ted let me sleep in until 9:30 while he prepared pancakes and
breakfast in bed for me. Just as he came
into the room, my phone rang. I
recognized the number as one from the hospital.
And as I answered, I knew it wasn’t going to be good news. Britt, they said, “We’re going to have to
push back your inducement date another day. We had too many people come in last
night and this morning.” Talk about a
major letdown. Not only had I gone
through 12 hours of on and off labor, and two weeks of Christmas break shutdown
where I thought I was going to poke my eyes out, but now I was forced to wait
yet another day. I think it was God’s cruel
way of punishing me for my lack of patience.
Friday turned into a major blur for much of the day, but Friday evening
Ted’s sister and family wanted to stop over and say hi. Just as they did, I again started having
contractions. Hooray, what a joy! They stayed for an hour or so and hung out,
after which Ted and I decided to pass time by playing board games. Ticket to Ride. I was out to beat Ted for the fourth and
fifth time in a row, but he wouldn’t have it.
While I managed to win the fourth game, by game five Ted and I ended in
a tie on points. Time to go to the rule
book and that we did. Tie breaker number two still resulted in a tie, in which
tie breaker number three allowed Ted to win.
You can imagine the joy on Ted’s face and the disappointment in mine.
I’ll blame it on the pain and also not wanting Ted to get sick of losing to the
point of never wanting to play me again.
By 11:30, Ted decided we better try and get some rest. I wasn’t feeling it. I felt if I laid down then the contractions
were worse. But, I tried anyways. Ted was fast asleep, while I rolled around in
pain timing my contractions. 7, 8, 6, 5
minutes apart they were coming. It
wasn’t that they were as bad as I thought contractions would be, they were just
quite uncomfortable. By 12:45, I had had enough. I hadn’t slept and decided we may as well
make our way to the hospital. I woke up
Ted, told him, and asked if he could call the hospital and let them know we
were coming in. He made me do it. The
conversation was short and sweet. They asked how soon we would arrive and I
figured 45 minutes. The remainder of our
stuff was stowed into the Trail Blazer and off we went. I grabbed some animal crackers and lemon
cookies to eat on the way because I knew once I arrived there would be no more
food intake. As we left our house, I
knew life as we had known it for so long was about to make a drastic
change. Oh what a feeling!
The drive to the hospital was uneventful. Of course Ted wanted it to be a high speed
chase with the police in pursuit so he could tell them he had to get his
pregnant wife to the hospital. But, no
such luck. I managed to down my animal
crackers, but left the cookies. We
pulled into the parking garage, left our bags incase they would send us home,
and made our way to the 3rd floor.
We dialed the front desk so they could buzz us in and off we went. To the front desk we went and they took us to
room 371. The first thing I remember was
the halogen light which wasn’t functioning properly. I thought I was going to
puke from it blinking. Ted asked a nurse
if we would be staying, and she said yes, so Ted went on back downstairs to
grab our bags. Our nurse, Lisa, who was
on call, was called in early since we arrived before our 7:00 time slot. I sat on the couch, patiently waiting for Ted
to return amidst my contractions. When
he finally did, I made Mr. Handyman stand up on a chair and fix the darn thing
right away! It wasn’t long, and Lisa
showed up. Quick introductions ensued
and she had me change into the lovely hospital nitey so she could check my
progress. Up on the bed I jumped, all
the while trembling from excitement.
“4-5 centimeters dilated” was her response. WOW! I figured I was a wussy the whole time and
I’d only be 1-2 still. I believe it was
before she even checked me, but I don’t quite recall, that the conversation of
the epidural came up. I was informed the
Doctor who would be administering it had been called in early for other
patients and he was on the floor. If I
wanted one, it would be a wise choice to receive it then, rather then him going
back home and having to wait who knows how long before he returned. I gladly agreed. While we waited, Lisa began hooking the
monitors up to my belly to check the baby’s heart rate and my blood pressure. It was also time for her to start my IV
drip. She warned me it might sting more
for her to put the IV in then for me to get the epidural. As she inserted the needle, and Ted was
sitting there watching, a significant amount of blood started leaking from my
left hand. Ted immediately started
getting queezy and warned us. Ut oh, I
thought. If this is how he is going to
react to a small amount of blood, then I am in really big trouble when this
baby finally comes! Off came his
sweatshirt as he began to profusely sweat.
Lisa and I tried to make light of the situation to help him as
well.
As we waited, Dr. Lipinski came in . We had been informed she would be on call all
weekend, but when she spoke to us, she informed us there was a change and Dr.
Rellihan would be relieving her at 7:00.
Usually, said, a doctor will work the entire weekend, and it wasn’t
until the day before, it was brought to her attention she was only working a
partial. She called Dr. Rellihan, and
she didn’t even know she was to be working!
Good thing they figured that one out earlyJ
Shortly thereafter, in comes Dr. Shockey, the
anesthesiologist. A man who liked to
talk, we shared great conversation about football, the Green Bay Packers (as he
is originally from Wisconsin), someone we both mutually knew, his 8 kids, his
wife’s position at the hospital, you name it.
Ted sat a ways away, and I made sure he didn’t turn pale in the
face. The epidural was a breeze and I
can’t even remember feeling a sting.
Whew, another thing out of the way!
Somewhere in the midst of all this slight chaos, Ted called
both of our parents. It wasn’t long
before my parents showed up with bags in stowe so they could anxiously await
the birth of their sixth grandchild. Ted’s
mom wasn’t far behind either, nor was his sister who showed up early morning.
Now that I had my epidural, pitocin had been started, it was
a sit and wait game. The family sat in
our room with us until it was time to check on my progress. This occurred around 8:00. By that point, I was already 7-8 cm
dilated. Lisa told me she wouldn’t be
surprised if I delivered by noon. SAY
WHAT? I didn’t believe it. Could it really be THAT easy? After all, in my mind I had how it would all
play out, and it wasn’t nearly as nice as this!
By 10:00 am, Ted and I decided we better take a snooze, after all, there
was work to be done in the very near future and since I had only gotten maybe
five hours of sleep in the past 48 hours, it might be good to take a nap while
I could. Ted was out like a light, while
I think it may have took me some time to fall asleep. I was way too anxious knowing what the future
held.
Around noon, Lisa checked my progress again, and I believe I
was very close to 10 cm. It was about
that time that Lisa wanted me to practice pushing. We had a few practice rounds and I couldn’t
feel a thing. By the second one, Dr.
Rellihan came in and had me practice once for her. She then took a look at my epidural and said
Dr. Shockey had it turned up way too high. Therefore, she wanted me to labor
down and turn down my epidural so I could feel the pushing. I was mortified that I would regain all the
feeling back in my legs. This occurred at 1:00, just as Iowa State was coming
on TV. It was a good distraction for Ted
and I as we played the wait game. By
1:46, it was “go” time. I could tell
when the contractions were coming on and there was a very weird pressure
feeling down low. Lisa and Ted were both prepared to help me push. I would take a deep inhale and exhale breathe,
another inhale, and then it was time to push until Ted hit “10”. We tried a few
different positions, at one point in which a towel was used and Lisa and I were
playing tug of war. All I remember
thinking was I better not let go as she would split her head open when she fell
over backwards! About an hour in, baby
started experiencing some stress and his heart rate would drop into the 80’s
before making his way back up to 130-150 beats per minute. I tried deep breathing, but that didn’t seem
to work at the time. At 3:00, it was
time for Lisa’s shift to end and Jene to come on. While the two were discussing my stats, I
would feel a contraction coming on and couldn’t resist pushing, so the two of
them would have to hold off their conversation and tend to my needs. It wasn’t long before Jene gave me an oxygen
mask and Dr. Rellihan was called in.
About 3:45, Dr. Rellihan told us her concerns with proceeding and
allowing baby’s heart rate to dip so low.
It was discussed whether to use the forceps or the vacuum and we chose
to use the vacuum. Once that decision
was made, it was bam bam bam. The room
was filled with nurses, the doctor put on her scrubs and it was go time. An episotomy occurred to assist the doctor,
she got her instrument suctioned to the babies head, and two contractions later
baby Aspen Lee Foote Mikels was welcomed into the world at 4:06 pm. Unfortunately, he had swallowed some of the
micornium and would need to be suctioned, at which point, they had some issues
with their equipment. It seemed like an
eternity before I could hear him cry. During this time, Lisa reappeared even
though her shift had ended and hour ago and she was holding my hand telling me
everything was going to be alright. The
doctor was busy stitching me up while Ted videotaped everything going on with
Aspen. It was all such a surreal
experience, that I couldn’t even cry happy tears because I was more in shock
then anything. What took over nine
months to occur was done in a blink of an eye.
Our lives would be forever changed for the better and I couldn’t have
been more thrilled for the miracle that just occurred.
After the crew (nurses, doctor, whoever else appeared in the
room) finished everything up, Aspen was put on my chest for me to say hi to our
beautiful baby boy for the first time.
What an incredible and humble feeling.
Ted and I had created a miracle and now that miracle was alive and
well. Before we invited our family in,
we wanted some alone time. I fed Aspen
for a bit, then wanted to clean up so I had Ted bring me my make-up bag so I
could freshen up. I wanted to look
halfway decent for pictures! When we
were finally done, my parents, Ted’s mom, and sister all came in. They had been waiting outside the door
FOREVER they said. Unfortunately, when
they all came in, Steve was absent. He
had to take Ted’s brother, Stephen, back home so he could catch his flight to
San Diego. I made everyone wait another
15 minutes before he came back before we made the big reveal. As Ted videotaped, I announced Aspen’s name
and stats. Then after that, it was
pictures galore with the grandparents.
Pretty soon, Aspen wanted to eat again so we had everyone wait outside. My brother, Brent, and family had arrived at
the hospital, as well as my best friend Mary, and her husband, Adam. It probably took an hour before we were ready
to invite them in. We also had to Skype
in my brother, Brian, and family from Denison, so we could tell everyone at the
same time. Again, Ted videotaped, but
this time I believe he announced to everyone the newest member to the Mikels’
family. Again, more pictures were taken
and hugs and kisses given. Happiness was
bountiful. Once the commotion was over,
and everyone had left for the evening, Ted and I decided we would leave the
baby in the room overnight. I really
don’t recall much of that evening, but we may have had to feed him once, and
then asked for a bottle to give him as he seemed very hungry.
Sunday was another fast and busy day at the hospital. Between our families coming back to visit
again, Ted’s sister and family, half of my basketball girls, plus soaking in
the tub numerous times, our day flew by.
At the end of it, we witnessed our little bundle of joy go through his
first official “surgery”. Yes, we had
him circumcised. He was a champ and
didn’t cry a lick, but it probably helped that the nurse put a baba in his
mouth with sugar water on itJ The best part, was when the doctor told us
nonchalantly, “I don’t mean to compare sizes, but I’m glad I picked the bigger
packet for this little guy.” Rock on
buddy!
Monday was scheduled to be our discharge day. Knowing me, I figured I would be up and ready
to get out of the hospital. But, I
decided I wanted us to take our time getting around. And, so, we took our time on Monday. We had Charlie’s Angels come and take photos
of Aspen late in the afternoon which turned out beautifully, I soaked in the
tub 2 or 3 times, Ted napped, we ordered room service, I was poked and prodded,
we did laps around the hospital floor, packed our bags (which happened to be
way too many!), and went through our discharge paperwork. By the time it was
all said and done, it was 7 pm. As luck
would have it, it happened to be one of the coldest days on record. With windchills reaching -40, it was a beautiful
day…kidding!
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