Baby Cake

Ryan can't quite say her name so he calls her Baby Cake and I kind of love it! :) Here's her story.

At my weekly appointment the Wednesday before Kate was born, my doctor recommended that I consider being induced. She said that the baby was measuring big and that the longer we waited, the more at risk I would be of having a uterine rupture since I was hoping to have another VBAC. She told me that 39 weeks would be the very earliest they would induce me, so if we chose to go that route then I could call and schedule to have the baby on Friday. The thought of having a uterine rupture terrified me, so Russell and I decided to schedule the induction.

It turned out that they didn't have any openings to be induced until Sunday, so I took what I could get and scheduled an 8:00 AM appointment with Ogden Regional. I made arrangements for Kirsli and Ryan to stay with our sister-in-law, Leslie, and my mom told me she would be there for whatever I wanted or needed her for. I've said it before, but my mom is the best!

Anyway, the timing of everything made it so we could go to Bryce and Katie's wedding in Bountiful on Saturday, so that was cool. My mom came up to our house Saturday afternoon just in case stuff started happening sooner. I think she was as anxious as me to get this baby here!

Blaine was performing the wedding ceremony for Bryce and Katie, so the Bassetts were at the wedding. After the ceremony Krys and I were hanging out in the nursery with all the kids until the reception started and the boys went shopping for supplies to decorate the newly-wed's car. I got a call from the hospital, and I answered because I thought they must be calling to give me instructions for the next morning.

Boy was I wrong!

The nurse told me that they had to cancel my induction because there were no rooms available. She said that they had cancelled the last 4 days of inductions because there were just so many babies being born. I argued (and cried) on the phone for a good 15 minutes, but it didn't do any good. She told me that there was no way they were going to do anything with me until my due date...which was July 7th, but that if anything changed they would let me know. I was SO upset. Not only was I nervous about a having a uterine rupture and dying or losing my baby...or ending up in another c-section, but Jacer was scheduled to have his major chest surgery on Wendesday, and I knew he would need my mom more than me. I am selfish, I guess...I wanted my mom to be there for me too! I cried and cried and stayed in the nursery for the entire reception. I pretty much wasn't in the mood to celebrate at all.

So instead of leaving Kirsli and Ryan in Bountiful, we loaded them up in the van and took them home. The Bassetts and my mom all stayed at my house, which cheered me up a little...but I was so sad that I wasn't going to be having my baby on Sunday! We made a late night Ross run, where I looked at maternity clothes because I was convinced that I was going to be pregnant forever. Haha!

The next morning I was just being lazy because I was so bummed out. We were all hanging out at my house, and had decided that we weren't going to go to church since we had a house full of people. I was feeling guilty for sluffing church, and about 20 minutes before church was supposed to start my mom said, "Do you believe that you will be blessed if you go to church?" I wasn't sure, but I thought it was worth a shot! :) I quickly got dressed and my mom and I headed off to sacrament meeting.

Later that day everyone was starting to think about going home, and then around 3:45 my phone rang. It was the hospital! I answered it, and they told me that if I could be there by 5:30 then they would be able to induce me! I told them I would be there, and I started pacing back and forth and walking aimlessly around my house.... Russell gave me a blessing, I made sure I had everything we needed, and then we just waited until it was time to leave.

We got to the hospital early because we were super anxious and I couldn't just sit at home and wait any longer. We filled out all the paperwork and answered all the questions. We waited some more, and while we were waiting I decided to text Krys and see if being there was something she might be interested in. I wasn't sure if that would be too weird for her or not... Then it was finally time! We got settled into my room and I got hooked up to all the monitors, but they couldn't start things until they had at least 30 minutes of the baby's heart rate. I was only at a 3, so we all figured we would just settle in and wait some more. Russell sat down on the couch and started watching a movie on my mom's ipad, and I started to have some contractions show up on the screen, so that was cool. What wasn't cool was the constant and intense lower back pains!

Around 7:45 they gave me some medicine to get things going. My nurse recommended that I wait as long as I could before getting an epidural since I was wanting another VBAC and sometimes epidurals slow down the progress. I figured I still had a while to go, so that was fine. My pains were getting worse, but I was still handling them...

Roxy, the nurse, told me that I would have to wait a few minutes for an epidural because the anesthesiologist had just gone in to a c-section. She told me that if I wanted something then she could give me a little something to take the edge off. I said that was fine...I figured I could wait a few more minutes until the guy was done taking care of the c-section momma. Roxy left, and all of a sudden I needed to use the bathroom. AWKWARD. Russell and my mom helped me get all the cords that I was hooked to unplugged, but when we got in there I couldn't go. Even more awkward! So I tried and tried and it just wasn't happening. But then I couldn't move. Literally. I was stuck on the pot! Krystle called for Roxy to come back. Roxy came quickly, and told me that no matter what I did I could not push or else I might end up having a toilet baby. UHH...REALLY?! We were able to get me back into bed, Roxy called for a triage team.

She told me there was a change of plans. There was no time for an epidural, and I was going to have this baby.

No time for an epidural? NO!

But that was that. I made my peace with it and just wanted to hold my baby. Roxy said that they could still give me a shot that might help a little if they did it right then, but they could only give it to me if I could hold COMPLETELY still. I told her that I could. Fingers crossed! I turned on my side and they gave me the shot...right as I had a huge contraction. I was so focused on holding completely still that I didn't even know that I was digging my fingernails into Russell's arm. Sorry about that, Russ!

When they finished with that, I sat up to see that my bed was slightly turned from where it had been and my entire room was FULL of people. And tables of equipment. And Dr. Houpe was suddenly there. It was time! My mom was stuck across the room and couldn't even get through everything and everyone to be by my side.

I pushed about 5 or 6 times, and our little sweetheart was here! The cord was wrapped around her neck a couple times, and her little body was completely tangled in it...but the doctor handled it amazingly! She cut it several times, and then little Kate was okay. :) She was born at 9:44, just barely over 2 hours after they started me. It was an intense 2 hours!

Krys took it upon herself to take all sorts of pictures, which I am so grateful for! I'll share a few of them...

 

 

As always, my mom and I did a photoshoot once the baby was home. We are getting to be a little bit better with each baby I have.... 

We love her. She is such a good baby! We tried to get some pictures of Kirsli and Ryan, but they were not very cooperative...

 

Kirsli and Ryan adore her. Possibly a little too much? Ryan makes sure that he always has a binky handy in case she needs it, and Kirsli never wants to put her down. I love them all so much! :)

Baby Bob. Er, uh... Ryan

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!

Kirsli was SO excited to meet Ryan. Don't watch or listen to me in this video, just listen to and watch my cute daughter! :)

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.)

We were lucky enough to have my mom come stay

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! 

31 Weeks

My mom pointed out that I have been a slacker with taking pictures of my pregnant self this time around...so sorry Baby Bob! (that is what Kirsli calls this little fella....)

AWWW!

As you may have noticed, for the past few months I posted only belly shots of myself. You probably think that I must have really liked the way I looked or something. If so, you're wrong! The main reason I showed a profile shot every week was so my sister Jamie could see what I looked like pregnant... But then I stopped posting because my baby was born. Here's my story. :)

 

* I WON'T BE OFFENDED IF YOU

JUST SKIP TO THE PICTURES! *

Less than two hours after Russell shocked me by showing me his self inflicted bald spot, I started feeling pretty uncomfortable. We had some friends over watching a movie, so I kept my pain to myself until they went home, and then I told Russell that something might be happening. I didn't think that I was actually going into labor or anything like that, but I decided to time the contractions just for the fun of it. Don't worry, for over three hours they were consistently 3-5 minutes apart. And I still didn't think anything was happening. Silly me!

Anyway, Russell kept falling asleep and I was SO annoyed! Afterall, why should he get to sleep when I was feeling so uncomfortable?! I didn't think that was fair, so I woke him up for the millionth time. He went and warmed up the car, and we headed to the hospital. I still didn't really think that it was the real deal, but I called my mom anyways to tell her what was going on. I told my parents to wait until morning to see if it was real, but they were too anxiou--so they jumped in the car and headed up so they would be here for me. My parents are the best, just in case you were wondering... :)

I got admitted into the hospital, and the nurse confirmed that I actually was going to be having a baby sometime within the next several hours. I lasted a few more hours before giving in and getting the drugs, and then life was good again. Seriously, my epidural was amazing!

 This is me in the delivery room...

 

 

And this is Russell in the delivery room. After I got some

medicine in me I wasn't so annoyed that he was snoozing. :)

 

Don't worry, he didn't nap until my parents arrived, then I

gave him permission to sleep. So he did. For six hours!

 

 

Long story a little shorter, everything was going perfectly. But after nearly three hours of pushing things changed. The baby was turned wrong and she was stuck. I asked Russell and my dad to give me a blessing. They did, and when they were finished I turned to Russ and told him that I was going to have to have a c-section. He thought I was weird for saying that, but I just knew. Sure enough, a doctor just happened to pop in a minute later, and about a minute after that they had thrown some clothes at Russell and were rushing me away for surgery.

 

Awesome.

Finally, 16 hours after things first started, our sweet little baby girl was born. It didn't happen exactly like I had hoped, but it was a relief to have her here and healthy! Later that night after all our visitors had left, I was just hanging out in my room thinking about food and how much of it I wanted to consume. Don't judge me--I hadn't eaten anything except for ice chips in over 36 hours!

Anyway, I heard the nurses talking outside about the baby who had almost broken her neck... I listened in because I am snoopy like that. One nurse asked which baby it was, and another answered, "Twenty-six."

I think my heart stopped for a minute. That was MY room! They were talking about MY baby! I may or may not have cried a little, because apparently my baby almost died and I hadn't even known it! I called for the nurses to bring her to me, and then I just held her and loved her until a nurse came and told me that I had to get some sleep. I feel so blessed to have her! I never knew you could love a person so much so quickly!

I was going to be amazing and post about her the second

I got home, but I am LAZY! It's way more fun to just lay on

the couch and hold her. Or sometimes I just stare at her.

 

Anyway, here she is! 

Kirsli Coons

January 5, 2013
8 lbs 12 oz

20.5 inches long

  



We got to bring her home on January 8, 2013.

(Her due date.)

We were lucky enough to have my mom come stay

with us for almost a week. She is so wonderful!

This little girl is STRONG! Only eight days old and already

trying to escape the boppy!

Russell likes this little girl a whole lot. This is his
first time feeding her.

At first she hated bathtime, but now she's getting the hang of it!

She pretty much sleeps all the time. I change her clothes and

bow and take tons of pictures. It's what I do!

Russell and Kirsli love hanging out together on the couch. They look a lot alike, don't you think? They even hold their mouths the same when they sleep! I think it's funny. :)

 

 

  

Russell likes to tease her, but she still likes him. :)

This is what I found when Russell was suppose to get

her ready for church... What a stinker!

She wasn't sure what to think about her dress. I think

she liked the tights better on her head than on her legs!

Kirsli's first jeans. She looks so grown up!

She thinks I'm weird when I do her hair with gel. She just stares at me!

I just can't get enough of this girl! Love her!

She likes our bed a lot more than her bassenet. We've

got a little side sleeper on our hands!

I couldn't resist buying these fun socks for her. I thought they

were super cute!

This picture makes her look tiny, huh?

 

When my mom was staying with us for the first week, we tried to take some pictures. Some of them turned out pretty cute...We took over 400, but I'll just post a few. :)

 

I can't believe it's been a whole month! Time flies!