Lexi's Story

On Monday 11.11.13 Davis and I were watching “The Voice” and I was sitting on the ground while he was rubbing my neck and back.  So randomly I felt like I peed my pants, it as like a small gush of water.  So I said, Hm that was weird.  And then I leaned forward and another gush came and I yelled Davis! I think my water just broke!  So as I'm running to the bathroom by my kitchen it really gushed and soaked my pants.  It was so cool!  Which might sound so weird but I didn’t think I would get to experience having my water break and I did!  Totally not like the movies portray it though.

I was officially 4 days past my due date.  But I do wonder about my real due date because it was originally 11.13.13 and they moved it up to 11.8.13.  So who knows if I was really 4 days late or just 1 day early.  Anyway! We drove to the hospital and we were both calling our families freaking out that it was actually happening.  We got checked into the hospital at 8:40pm and I was only dilated to a 2 but since my water broke they had to keep me there.  So we get into our room and my mom and dad came and stayed until like 11pm.  They said I wouldn't have the baby until 11 am the next day so dad was like Lis we are going home.  Ha ha mom was so bummed cause she brought a blanket and her pillow... of course only mom right ha ha. So they left and we just chilled.  They would come in and check me like every hour to see how I progressed.  They put me on pitocin right when I got admitted so my contractions started right from the get go and man were they painful.  I only lasted 3 contractions before I asked to have an epidural.  Holy crap that thing hurt like the dickens!  I nearly bounced off the bed cause she didn't let my numbing shots set in before doing the big epidural needle and so I totally felt it.  Worst feeling ever.  And they make you grab your knees and arch your back like a cat would.  So your spine is 100% exposed to this massive needle.  Ugh I can't even remember it cause it makes me feel it all over again.  Gross nasty ew ha ha.  So at about 2 in the morning I was dilated to a 7 and then at like 3 they came in because I was having contractions like a minute apart which was putting stress on lexi.  So they gave me this shot that slowed down the process.  It didn't work very fast and I went from a 7 to a 9 in like 15 minutes.  So they really watched me close.  I started to get a fever too at about this time so they started me on antibiotics.  Finally around 6 am I was dilated to a 10 and the pushing started.  Holy biggest work out of my life.  The way they made me push was by holding my breath, trying to do a crunch and holding it while they counted to 10.  I was like, MY HELL COUNT FASTER!  They had to put me on Oxygen too to help Lexi because her heart rate was all over the place.  I pushed until 6:57 am and then she was born! Her birthday is 11.12.13 isn't that so cute! She was a whopping 9 lbs.  

Then came the scary part.  When Dr Enlgand pulled her out I didn’t hear anything.  I kept thinking “Hm… maybe they just need to spank her to get her crying”.  Then he plopped her down on my gut and she was arching her back way big and her mouth was wide open as if she was crying really hard but no sound came out…. Just gargling sounds.  I will never forget that sound.  I just sat there and starred at her sort of in shock at what was happening to my brand new baby.  It took the nursing team 2 seconds before they grabbed her and started suctioning her.  As I was getting taken care of I just sat there and watched as they worked on her.  It’s never good when you see one nurse give another nurse a look of nervousness.  They had her on CPAP right away.  They took her to the nursery and Davis went with them.  Of course the nurse tried to explain that they were just taking her away to help her and look into why her Oxygen levels were dropping and she acted all nonchalant about it.  And I’m like, Yeah girlfriend I am not an idiot I’ve been around the medical field long enough to know there is something really wrong.

I didn't get to see her until like 9 am.  She looked awful.  She still had all the gross stuff all over her and had a nasal canula in.  She was so swollen and just looked limp and was really struggling for air.  She didn’t have a normal cry until later that day.  It was so sad.  She had swallowed and inhaled amniotic fluid and Meconium.  She struggled to get a full breath all day on the 12^th.  At like 5pm Dr Duffy came into check in with us before he went home.  He prepared us for her needing to be transferred to a NICU if she didn’t do well through the night.  I knew that was coming anyway, I just wasn’t emotionally prepared for it.  But he also said that he didn’t really think she needed it and he wanted her to be able to pick herself back up and fight through it.   For the rest of the night on the 12^th we just had visitors and would go see her in the nursery.  I didn’t get to see her a ton so I didn’t know how good or bad she really was doing. 

So this is the shortened version from here on out.... at 1:30am that night (so technically we are now into the 13^th) we were praying together and during the prayer I started crying.  I just had this overwhelming feeling of missing her and a feeling of being cheated of all the cool things with a new born baby like skin to skin time and having the baby in the room with you.    After Davis finished the prayer I asked him to go check on her one more time because I had an uneasy feeling and I had to know how she was before I fell asleep.  Well he left and didn't come back for over an hour.  We knew the whole time that there was a possibility that she would be transferred to the NICU at IMC.  When he came back into the room around 3 am he was crying.  I could tell he had been crying hard for a longer amount of time too.  The news he had for me was that she wasn't doing well, she couldn't breath and was declining fast.  She also was showing signs of an infection but the results wouldn't show for 48 hours with what type of infection it was.  So his news when he came back was that she was being life flighted to the IMC on 5300 south and would be in the NICU.  Life flight was already on their way.  The sad part about all of it was that Davis had to fight for our poor little girl's life.  They didn't want to transfer her, they wanted to keep her there for 3 days and see if she could get through it on her own.  As the mom that really hurts my heart cause I know she could've died if we let them do that.  I have never been so grateful for Davis and his ability to listen to the spirit and do what he thought was right.  He made the nurse call the doctor that was on call at home to wake him up and come in and look at her so we could show him that she was declining.  Anyway, when life flight came they talked to us and wheeled her into my room so I could say good bye.  The head nurse said we did the right thing and made the right decision because she was on her way to tanking.  Ugh it just gives me the chills knowing she was doing that bad. So she was admitted to the NICU at 5am on Wednesday the 13.  I was determined to get let go early from the hospital so I didn't take any pain meds.  I would only let them give me ibuprofen.  So the day after having my baby I went home ha ha crazy right!  It's amazing how your adrenaline can pump when you know your child is in danger.  The story from here on out gets pretty normal, she did the usual NICU thing that our family have seen so many times.  She had to be on oxygen because she got pneumonia from inhaling all the fluids. She also got a blood infection called Strep B.  One of the NICU nurses told us it is a very lethal infection if it isn't caught in a timely manner.  Dr Duffy also said later that if I had delivered her at home like with a midwife type of thing that she would have died because she wouldn’t have had antibiotics in time.  What is crazy is I tested negative when I did get my test done so sometime in the last month I developed Strep B and she got it when she was pushed out.  So sad.  She was in the NICU for 10 days and was released to us on the 23rd!  She is so precious and I love her more than I can describe to you.  I don’t wish a NICU stay upon anyone with a new baby but for once I was beyond grateful for the NICU.  Having her at the Riverton Hospital was awesome but they don’t have a NICU and that was scary for us.  When we heard she would be life flighted we both felt so relieved because we knew the NICU nurses and doctors would save her life and get her healthy.  Excuse the overload of pictures but it was just a really cool and trying experience. 

Having a baby is the craziest thing I’ve ever gone through.  I love her more than I can describe.   I miss her more than I have missed anyone besides my husband.  Like she will nap for 3 hours and by the 3^rd hour I am ready for her to wake up cause I miss her active cute personality.  I think she is beautiful and I honestly would say if she was funny lookin ha ha my poor child.  I want the best for her always and want her to be happy and healthy.  Bring on motherhood!

Officially a Warnock with that skull bow

 The day we got to take her home!!!

Officially full term!

One more milestone down for us!  I am 36 weeks now and officially considered full term, woo!  I feel like you have to create milestones for yourself during pregnancy cause it is such a long process and can go by so slow sometimes that if you don't you go crazy!  I can't believe I have made it this far with out any complications.  My mom and sisters have all had high risk pregnancies so I thought for sure I would go through something weird like they did but nope totally a 100% normal pregnancy.  My mom went full term with me so maybe that is why.  All my others sisters were born way early like at 30 weeks and 27 weeks... and then there is me, the cow of the family.  Even Davis came early and was only a 6 pounder ha ha, So.... I prefer to be called big boned thank you.

On to doctor's check ups.  This was my first big check up where they do pretty invasive stuff so I was excited to hear if there was any good news like oh maybe being dilated or something fun like that.  The doc says everything according to my body is working great like my kidneys and blood pressure and all that.  Lexi's heart rate is strong and was 129 when they checked her.  I had my Strep B test done so lets cross our fingers that the results from that are good news and then Dr England checked to see if I was dilated or effaced at all and I am only dilated to a 1 and not effaced....at all... not even 3%.  Ha ha yeah I was sort of bummed that I didn't have more to hear but at the same time I am glad that Lexi will get to grow more and just get fatter.  And then my doc booked me for another two week appointment instead of switching to weekly which  bummed me out too, I don't know about other pregnant girls but sometimes the appointments are fun cause you get to find out more about the baby and I was so looking forward to having weekly news.  So now I don't go in until October 22 to see if I have progressed any further. So I have to have patience until then.

I just can't believe I am this close to having a baby.  It blows my mind.  I keep wondering if I have everything ready which I don't think you can ever be totally organized so of course not.  Her room is pretty much ready to go and I still need to pack a hospital bag.  I have been so excited to do that!  Lame I know but it almost feels like packing for a trip! I went through some outfits to put her in and got so excited, I mean those little things are tiny!  I can't wait to see what she looks like too.  When I was 32 weeks I had the 4-d ultrasound done so we got to see her face which is sort of creepy cause the way the ultrasound shows her is sort of alienish and she looked really squished so I'm not really going off of those ultrasound when I picture her face in my mind.  But they do this thing where they switch back to 2-d so they can tell if she has hair or not.  The ultrasound tech started and when she zeroed in on her head she said, "Wow she has a ton of hair!  Like a lot more than normal".  Woohoo!  Nothing better than a load of baby hair to put bows in right!  I made her promise she wasn't playing a trick on me cause what if I totally am thinking my baby has all this hair and then she comes out bald, right!  But she said "No no your baby has a mop of hair."  Sweet, I'll take it! I'd love her either way but I have a thing for babies with hair.  When I was born I had a lot of dark hair and actually so did Davis.  So maybe between the two of us we can produce a hairy little thing :)

This is a picture of Davis and his brother Jensen this week when they were boar hunting in Texas.  It's too bad Davis has a hat on cause he has really long hair right now but it just goes to show you that this guy has to produce a hairy kid! 

And this is a picture of me on my blessing day so I had lost some of my hair cause I was like 6 weeks old I think and below is a picture of Davis after he was born and had come home from being in the NICU- I'm not sure how old he is but he is a newborn and has super cute dark hair!

Excuse the quality they are old pictures and I took a picture of a picture. 

Baby Showers

Last week I had two baby showers, one with my family and one with a group of my friends.  They were so much fun! And holy cow people are so generous it blows my mind.  My little Lexi is already so spoiled and then I go to a shower and am blown away with how kind people are and how generous they are.  Here are some pictures from the shower that was held at my Aunt Jodie's house-her house is amazing and we had it in the back yard by her fire pit which was so much fun.

Then my friends Robyn and Whitnie threw me a shower with some girl friends.  It's a really fun group of girls-they are all the wives, fiances, and girl friends to all of davis's life long friends.  It was a blast and they decorated Rob's house sooo cute!  Love these ladies!

Lexi's Room

When I was first pregnant and even before when we were trying I was so not into doing a nursery.  I thought it was a waste of money cause the baby can't really appreciate it it's more for the mom.  But then I got pregnant and some nesting thing came over me and hello I totally am a sucker for it now.  I was going to do all white in the nursery which I still love the idea of that but my cute neighbor Danica was brilliant and suggested adding in a accent color and she helped me come up with doing White, Silver and Plum Purple.  It has turned out so cute and been so fun to go shopping for!  We still have a few things to put in there and somehow I need to get like a panoramic of the whole room when it is done but it's still fun to see it come along.  I still am waiting to buy her rug and this cute wooden bench that is also storage for her toys.  But other than that I think we've got everything in terms of decorations.

This is the crib I was copying with the flowers.  I still need my crib bedding but I think it turned out pretty cute!

The changing pad will go on top of this dresser.  I'm in love with the dresser, it looks off in this picture cause it is made out of mirrors and is reflecting the carpet.  And this is a picture of the whole room so far but much more to come!

This is the rug and bench/toy storage thing I want to add still

......

Last Saturday we got to go to the Motocross race at Larry H Miller's new track out in Tooele (thanks to my awesome cousin Russ!)  It was a blast and anytime Davis is within 2 feet of a motor he is in seventh heaven so he had so much fun.  He also has been dirt biking since like elementary school so of course we never miss events like motocross when it is in Utah, or when it is in Cali, Vegas etc etc oh and on the Speed channel on Sunday afternoons.

And then to top it off with a cherry my sister Megan is in town from Arizona!  It's always so fun when she comes to visit and brings us good news, like that is pregnant again! I've always wanted to be pregnant with my friends and my sisters and this year has been great for that! I have like 6 friends that I've grown up with that are all due within a month of me, lots of girls in my new ward that are all due in Oct and Nov, my sister in law Katie is due 4 days before me which is so fun and now my sister Meg is pregnant too!  Meg isn't due until April but it still counts! It's so fun to be pregnant with family too, Katie and I have been able to compare stories the whole pregnancy which is awesome for me since I've a newby at this and being due 4 days apart is just the coolest thing. We keep joking that we will deliver on the same day and both Davis and Jensen will be running down the halls ha ha.  We are also delivering at the same hospital and didn't even plan it! I still have to get a belly picture with Katie too but we do have this super cute picture from Switzerland.  Not that it shows our bellies but we at least know we were pregnant together! 

And here is me and Meg in comparison- 7 months pregnant vs barely pregnant ha ha

And here is me and my best friend Aubrey, due a month and a half apart...both having girls

And this is Aubrey, Sarah (Hammond) Branca and me.  Sarah and Aub are due 2 days apart!

28 weeks

28 weeks is such a milestone for our family because it was when Ashlee delivered her first little girl Brooklyn.  She is a total miracle.  It's crazy to think that I could potentially deliver early too and I can't imagine delivering as early as Ash did.  Well for that matter include Megan.  She delivered Beau at 31 weeks, he is totally fine now but an early baby is just so scary because there are so many things working against them.
But I am feeling great so I have good vibes about keeping Lexi in my tummy for a lot longer.  I have started getting braxton hicks and stuff like that but they aren't too bad and not very often.  I have my next doctors appointment on the 27th and I also will do my glucose test that day, cross your fingers for me.

Some funny things to remember:
-Lexi hides under my right rib ALL DAY LONG
-Kicks the heck out of my rib-or punches I can't tell which end but she is making it well known she is under there.
-She has started rolling and my stomach will go lopsided and way hard on the spot where she is
-My feet have been swollen and not gone down since 26 weeks
-At 25 weeks I started getting sick in the mornings again so I eat as quick as I can.
-Started having braxton hicks sort of things in San Diego at the family reunion-that would put me at 25-26 weeks
-I feel like my nose is swollen and has grown, super attractive
-I totally have these lovely things called stretch marks on my hips and upper thighs.... or as I like to call them  "the little shits".
-I sleep awful now at night, and keep poor Davis up because I toss and turn since I can't get comfortable.
-I can lay on my back and breath just fine but it hurts my lower back after like 30 seconds
-Almost all the people I work with like to tell me how round or big or swollen I am and that they can't believe I am already waddling.  Ok really did kindness and just "not saying anything at all if it isn't nice" go out of style?  So in response I think to myself and pretend I am telling them that at least its a problem I can fix once the baby is gone unlike them.  And I did say to one person,  I waddle because I have scoliosis and it is really painful to walk in general for me on a day to day basis even when I am not pregnant.  No I don't really have scoliosis but they deserve to feel bad.  Hormones much anyone?
-I can now tell where Lexi is in my stomach and for the past 2 weeks she has stayed on my right side under my rib.  I never felt that bad for girls who would have babies under their ribs and be constantly pushing on them to get them to move, but now I feel their pain.  It's the weirdest feeling in the world, sometimes it kills, sometimes it tickles and sometimes you can't even breath.  Pregnancy sounds like loads of fun huh. :)

This my friends is a real case of kankles.  Davis thinks its super sexy

My feet are so swollen the only thing I can wear are flip flips and they leave indents every day.  Again super attractive. 

July

This month we have been on so many vacations to hot places I think my swollen feet might explode.  I still would rather have swollen feet in Lake Powell than at home though!  I'm getting really big and swollen so I really need to try and get the right pose down so I don't look massive in every picture, like how come no one told me that when you are pregnant you should never take a front on picture, hells bells someone tell me to turn a little bit to the side! I shouldn't post some of these pics but I am going to anyways so don't judge my sexy rolls that I know most are jealous of.

We just got back from San Diego with my family for the Rasmussen Reunion and it was a blast.  We really missed having Callie and Devin there though!

How could you not love this little fart! Seriously he makes me happy just by saying hi to me, even though when he says hi to someone it is usually just a Hi! or Hi Beau! or Hi Gampa!  I'll teach him my name someday, I mean I am the favorite aunt.

Davis and aunt Michelle rented these beauties when we all went on a bike ride.  Quite the sight eh! Aunt shell took a spill and had to end early which was sad but she is a tough cookie and ended up being ok.  Davis was just loving his re-creation of Paul Blart from Mall Cop, I think he makes the Segway look good though. 

All the men in the family played some beach football and no lie I've never seen so many old men think they still had it ha ha it was really fun to watch.  But of course my dad, two uncles, a cousin and davis all pulled muscles or hurt something else and felt so sore the next day. 

 Yep the front facing stance is not recommended when pregnant-does anybody see a beached whale?!

Also, I was pretty swollen because we drove to San Diego which is like an 11 hour drive and for a pregnant person that is quite the journey if you forgot to buy compression tights, yes if you haven't figured out by now I am totally justifying why i look so big in every picture :) 

I am 26 weeks this Friday and had a doc appointment yesterday and everything is looking great! The doc says I need to drink more water, of course, and start taking it easier on day to day stuff because I've noticed sometimes at night or when I've been walking a lot my whole stomach gets rock hard and it just hurts.  So he says I need to take it easy.  

We are getting so excited for Lexi to be here.  Davis is getting so excited which makes it way fun.  We totally fight over who gets to hold our niece Brynlee when we see her cause babies are way fun to us since we are waiting for one and plus she is super cute.  But the other day davis got home from work and said, so i just want lexi to get here.  Ok one that is so cute and two can we go make out now?  No but for reals, I can't wait to hold her and see what she looks like and be a family of 3!