Sometimes Kirsli likes to use my iPad to make facetime calls. When she heard that Grandma would be coming to stay at our house when Baby Bob was born, she kind of turned into the little girl who cried wolf! I caught her on more than one occasion calling my mom to tell her that "Baby Bob came out!" in hopes that she would get a visit from Grandma. I thought it was funny--Kirsli is a clever little lady! Seriously, what 2 year old does that? haha. Anyway, this is the story about the day Kirsli became a big sister. I'm writing this mostly for myself, so you don't need to feel like you have to read this novel! :)
* I WON'T BE OFFENDED IF YOU
JUST SKIP TO THE PICTURES! *
As soon as I found out I was pregnant again, I started my search for a new doctor. I wanted to try for a VBAC, and needed a doctor who would be supportive of that. I found Dr. Horsley, and he explained the pros and cons as well as the risks. He had a lot of experience with VBACs, and seemed confident that I would be able to do it. He told me that he would be there for my delivery no matter what, so that was cool.
At my 36 week appointment I asked if I was okay to go down to Nephi for my niece's baptism, but Dr. Horsely did not recommend it. He said that he would not tell me not to go, but that I needed to understand that if something happened and I had the baby at a different hospital then chances are they would take me straight in for a c-section. So I made the decision that I would not be leaving town again at all until the baby was born.
Stuff started happening right around noon, just as we were leaving church on April 12th. There was a birthday party in Bountiful that Russell was wanting to go to, but I told him that I really wasn't going to leave Logan until the baby was born. He wanted me to come, but had decided that he would just take Kirsli and leave me home. I started having some major back pain in the car as we drove home from church. I laid my seat back to try to be more comfortable, but it didn't help much. It hurt SO bad, but Russell thought that I was just being overly dramatic so he wouldn't go to Bountiful. After all, my due date wasn't for a few more weeks! Silly Russell.
Things kept getting worse, and soon I was sweating, shaking, and throwing up (sorry, tmi). There was a constant pain in my back unlike anything I had ever felt before, and I started having contractions every few minutes. I seriously was balled up on the couch with a bucket because it hurt to even move. This went on for a few hours until I finally decided to text my friend Lauren to let her know that I was probably going to be needing help with Kirsli in the very near future. I tried to get ahold of my mom, but she was at my Grandma Lofley's house visiting for the weekend. So I called the home phone and I called her cell phone, but she didn't answer! Yeah, I know... Why did I call the home phone if I knew she was visiting my grandma? I wasn't thinking clearly, okay?! So I called my dad who was on his way home from St. George with my Grandpa Cook and he told me to call my mom at my grandma's house. Duh! Why didn't I think of that?!
I called, and she told me to get to the hospital. She loaded up and headed to Logan from Elmo, afraid that she wouldn't make it in time. We took Kirsli to Lauren's apartment, where she basically had a blast with Duke...
Lauren texted me this video so I could see how much fun Kirsli was having. :)
I went to the hospital and I was only dilated to 3. Lame. The nurses told me that I was not in labor, and that they would monitor me for a little while and then they would probably send me home. I called my mom and told her that she didn't need to come after all. She kept driving. Since I was "not in labor" the nurses saw no point in bothering Dr. Horsley... They were picking up some contractions on their monitor, but the majority of the pain was in my lower back. So painful, and constant! Russell was a trooper. He pushed on my back every time I asked him to, even though it was making his hands hurt. Just for the record, I did not feel sympathetic at all when he said his hands hurt. ;)
The nurses could tell that I was obviously in pain, so they did not want to send me home quite yet. Because they had given me three full bags of fluids and they monitor gross things when you are in the hospital, they suspected that I had kidney stones. WHAT?! I did not go there to have kidney stones--I went there to have a baby! And I told them that several times. The ultrasound man came in and confirmed it. My left kidney was completely blocked off and we could see several stones in my right kidney. Awesome, right?
No. Not awesome. Painful.
The nurses set me up with some medicine that was kind of like morphine but not. I liked that. I was still huring, but it helped a lot. :) They made it so I could push a button as often as every 15 minutes, but I didn't want to push it very much because I didn't know how it would affect the baby.
By that time, my mom had come and life was better. Sometimes a girl just needs her mommy! I was still not progressing at all, and the nurses stuck with their story that I was not in labor. My mom pushed the issue a little and they finally asked the on call doctor to come in. I did not like that man at all! He was irritated to be there, irritated that I was hoping for a VBAC, and pretty much annoyed with life in general from what I could tell.
He basically gave me 2 options....
Option 1: They would take me in for a c-section right then, then take me immediately in for surgery on my kidney stones.
Option 2: They would wait until morning, do the c-section, then take me in for surgery on my kidney stones.
Again, not awesome! None of us felt good about our options or the grumpy pants doctor.
We called our home teacher, Mason, and asked if he would come help Russell give me a blessing. I felt bad because it was almost midnight! But he was a very good sport about it, and was in my hospital room in a white shirt and tie within minutes! Russ gave me a blessing, and then we decided that I would try to pass the stones on my own during the night and stay on the medicine to monitor the pain. Dr. Benedict was bothered, but I wanted to talk to Dr. Horsley before making any decisions and the nurses told me that they would call him at 7 am. My mom told Russ that she would stay with me through the night so he could get some rest before his classes in the morning since I wasn't in labor anyways.
So Kirsli stayed with Lauren, my mom stayed with me, and Russell went home to sleep. Why does he always get to sleep when I am in pain?! Anyway, it was a long night! I didn't sleep much, and I'm pretty sure my mom didn't either. I kept waking her up to help me go to the bathroom and stuff. In case you don't know, I have the best mom anyone could ever ask for!
At one point during the night, I had a pretty awesome dream. In it, Nana (who passed away in December) was sitting by me on my bed. We talked for a while--she told me that I was doing great. She told me that she was proud of me. She told me how much she loves me. She told me that I would meet my baby soon and that everything was going to be okay. She told me she had to go, and I begged her to stay with me. This whole time I was apparently talking out loud and my mom heard me. She woke up to come help me, but quickly realized that I was not talking to her. She tried to talk to me but I was not responding to anything she said. My Nana helped me make it through the night, and I will never forget that experience!
Morning came, and the pain medicine was no longer working. I had not passed the kidney stones, and at 6:30 I was still only dilated to a 3. Super lame. The nurses decided not to call Dr. Horsley, and told me that they would call him up to check on me as soon as he came in for the day--probably around 8. GREAT. More waiting. He came just before nine. He told me that he had read over the reports from the night and that they would most likely send me home with pain medication since I was still determined that I wanted to try for a VBAC.
Russell had come back to the hospital to check in before he went to class. My mom, being the smart lady that she is, requested that the doctor check me. So he did, then he started laughing, and told me that there had been a change of plans--I was dilated to a 9! AWESOME! Russell did not go to class. :)
They gave me the giant shot in my back, and life was good. The epidural wasn't quite as awesome as it was when I had Kirsli because I could not move my legs or feet at all this time. It was a really strange feeling, but I was already feeling better about life!
At 11:00 am, they told me that they were going to have me rest for an hour and then start pushing. So I rested for about 15 minutes before the monitors started telling us that the baby was stressed. They nurses said that I needed to start pushing right then if I didn't want to end up with another c-section. So that's what we did. 45 minutes later I was holding my handsome little fella!
Anyway, here he is!
Ryan Vance Coons
April 13, 2015
7 lbs 14 oz
19.5 inches long
We got to bring him home on April 15, 2015.
(2 weeks before his due date.)
with us for almost a week. Did I mention that she is the best?!
This little guy is strong, he has been able to hold his head up since the day he was born, but he would much rather just relax. He is so content!
Sometimes we just sit and stare at each other....
Then he gets tired. :)
I just can't get enough of him---I think he is adorable!
It is also adorable to see how much Kirsli loves him. Kind of terrifying, but definitely adorable! ;)
When my mom was staying with us for the first week, we tried to take some pictures just like we did when Kirsli was a baby. Some of them were weird, but some of them were pretty cute... We took tons again, but I'll just post a few. :)
I may be slightly biased, but I love these kids! Naturally we had to take some shots of Kirsli while we were at it. :) I think we got some keepers!
I can't believe it's been seven whole weeks! Time flies!
