I found out I was pregnant on April 24,2009. Wow, hard to believe, almost a year ago. John and I were both so overwhelmed with all different emotions. It was the day our lives started to change forever.
My pregnancy was the best 9 months of my life. It was such a special time for me. Feeling my body change and perform such a God given miracle had me in awe every single day.
I got morning sickness for the first two months, but it was not all day and pretty much once I ralphed I was okay. There was only two things that made me sick to my stomach the whole pregnancy, Jack in the Box and the state of Arizona. Sounds strange but we took a trip to AZ right after I found out I was expecting, and I had J in the B like 3 times that trip. Whenever I thought of the trip it would make my stomach do flips. Weird, I know. I am not sure why either.
I never got any cravings. I got heartburn towards the end of the pregnancy. I was pretty much in a good mood the whole time.
We only had one scare. I say scare, but we were pretty calm knowing that God had his hand on us the whole time. When I had my 20 week ultrasound not only did we find out we were having a boy, but we found out that a part of his kidney was enlarged and needed to be looked at again. It was nerve racking but we prayed over the baby and trusted that the Lord would take care of it. The day after we found out we went to get another ultrasound with my childhood-second-mom, Deanna, who said the baby did have a dilated ureter but assured us that it was very common in baby boys and usually corrects itself once they're born. My doctor, Dr. Wan, had us see a specialist once a month until he was born, which was okay with us because we got to see our little nugget even more! Finally at our last appointment with the specialist he let us know that it was all better! Isn't God great?
For the last month of my pregnancy I had to sleep on the couch, sitting up. I don't want you to get the wrong impression, I am in NO way complaining about any part of pregnancy. That is one think I made sure I didn't do the whole time. I am not big on someone complaining about something they knew they were getting into. Anyways, I had a little baby foot in my ribs and couldn't lay down. At that point I was already starting to dilate at a steady pace and was going to the doctor every week.
Now to Christmas Eve. It was the most uncomfortable day of my entire pregnancy. My hips were achy and I could feel things moving. I swept and vacuumed the whole house. Family came over, we went to dinner, and the night went fast.
I woke up at 4 am with pretty bad cramping but tried to change positions to see if it would go away. Around 5 am I had called my parents to let them know we were heading to the hospital. My contractions were 2 minutes apart during the whole drive. Got to the ER around 5:45 am and was wheeled to the maternity ward. At first they were deciding on if I was going to stay or not...I knew I was not leaving there without my baby.
They checked me and I was at 5cm. We decided that it would be good to go walk around. So I put my robe and slippers on and walked to the waiting room to say hi to our family that was there. From then things started to progress quickly. I could feel the contractions start getting stronger and closer together.
After the walk I got a new nurse. Her name was Teresa and she was a tiny Asian lady who had a really thick accent. At one point she asked my mom if I could even understand her..It took me a few seconds to register what it was that she was actually saying every time she said something! but she was really nice and helped me out a lot.
I got checked a few times and was dilating steadily. They decided to admit me to the hospital and had me fill out the paperwork. Man that was hard to do. Fill out stupid paper while you are in pain. I remember one of the question.."Are you in pain?"..ummm yes. "how can one tell you are in pain?"..ummm look at me.
I went into this not having a "birth plan" or any ideas of how I wanted it to go. John and I didn't even take any classes but I educated myself with all the things that could happen so I did know what to expect. I was a little afraid of an epidural but I was new at all of this so I didn't know if I would be able to handle the pain or not.
By the time she asked me if I wanted an epidural I was at 8cm. I thought about it and decided that if I had made it that far, I was going to go all the way without it. John says, well actually John, my Mom, and my Mother-in-law (they were all in the room with me) said I wasn't too nice to the nurse when she asked if I wanted one...I guess I said, "I made it this freaking far!" lol!
I was only allowed to have 3 people in the hospital room with me. It was sucky because I would have like to been able to include my sister and sister-in-law. But what we did was called my sister's cell phone from my moms inside of the room and just left it sitting on the table by my bed. Our whole family got to hear everything that was happening. They all got to hear his first cry!
I will confess right now, because I know John likes to tell people this. I said one bad word the whole time. I said the 's' word. I repented right after I said it and didn't say any more. I shouldn't have even said anything to John because he told me he didn't even hear me...
Okay, soon after that the baby's heart rate started to drop so I had to lay on my side and get an oxygen mask. Pretty scary but I had been praying the whole time and knew the Lord was there with us. I got checked again and was at a 10..Time to push! but wait...the Doctor (not my doctor because it was Christmas and he was on vacation.) wasn't there yet. So I had a few pushes with just Teresa there..John asked her, "have you ever delivered a baby?" and she just laughed...She also had me hold a few pushes to get the baby's heart rate up a little. Man that was even harder than the pushing!
The doctor showed up, Dr. Moniac. Never met him and hello! here's my va-jay!...He had an attitude as soon as he walked in. Sort of a "you are totally interrupting my Christmas morning so lets hurry and get this baby out" attitude. I just said "Merry Christmas!" and got back to business pushing.
The hardest part for me was holding the push for the whole 10 seconds. I just didn't have the lung capacity to do it. I pushed for a little while and everyone was telling me that they could see my son's head. The baby nurses started coming in and getting ready to take the baby when he comes out. So many things were running through my head. For a couple pushes it seemed like I wasn't going to be able to do it. The doc gave me an episiotmy (without any numbing) to give the baby some more room. One of the baby nurses came out of no where and got right in my face and said "YOU CAN DO THIS." then was gone...at that point I gave everything I had. I had the feeling that if I didn't I was going to have to resort to a c-section.
Finally after 7 hours of labor and 30 minutes of pushing, my Son, Carsten Kings Rasmussen, took his first breath. 7 lbs. 5 oz. 19.5 in. long. Born 11:02 am. It was the most amazing moment of my life. They had to take him to a warming thing quickly and bang on his side because he had got some fluid in his lungs, so the whole time I was making sure he was okay. He was, and he was so beautiful. I had a little more discomfort while the doc was stitching me up and such but man oh man what a rush. I was so amazed with what had just entered this world out of me. This little perfect, swollen faced baby that my husband and I created together. The hug my husband gave me right after is one I will never forget. He hugged me and I could feel how happy he was, how proud he was of me, and how hard he was crying. =) it was so cute to see tears running down his face, especially because he said he wasn't going to cry at all.
I would not have been able to get through this experience without all of the support I had. My husband in my ear telling me how great I was doing, My mom by my side letting me sqeeze the crap out of her hand, and My mother-in-law the silent prayer warrior on the sidelines. My Dad, Brothers, Sister, Sister-in-law, and Father-in-law in the waiting room. Besides Jesus, they were my rock that helped me focus.
The rest of the day was a blur. It went by so fast. Family came and met the baby and John and I were exhausted. The first night we felt like we were thrown to the wolves. The nurses just pretty much left us to our own, only coming in to check the baby and my vitals. Everything was so new but was so exciting to be doing together. Didn't get much sleep but we were so in awe of out little nugget that we didn't pay much attention to it.
Carsten was born on Friday and we were discharged from the hospital on Sunday. I think it was the first time John drove under the speed limit. We got home and the family was all outside waiting for us, and of course, my postpartem self, balled my eyes out. To see everyone at the house just made us feel so loved. Carsten got to meet his sister, Ruca, who had been at home waiting for us. That made me cry too!
We were home. Our family. Dad, Mom, Baby, and Dog. The Rasmussen's.
God is so good!
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