:The Rodericks: : Pregnancy & Birth Story: Baby Scout

**Warning: this will be long**

My pregnancy was fairly easy.

I got sick the first trimester, not horribly ill, but enough that sometimes i just laid around. don't judge. It was mostly at night which i did not anticipate because it's called morning sickness, but that's a big fat lie, because you get sick at any time of day. just because.

haven't eaten in an hour? nausea.

haven't eaten in 10 minutes. nausea.

talk/sing when you haven't eaten in 2 hours puke.

It was an adjustment to say the least, but i was grateful to be having a healthy pregnancy.

Before getting pregnant i had forced my husband to sign up for a half marathon with me that we were going to run in June. We had been training and were running everyday with our long runs at about 8 miles. good, right?! I was stoked. but I went to the Dr and he axed running because i had a small tear under my placenta. he said if i didn't want to be on bed rest the rest of my pregnancy then i had to stop all activity until it healed...wah wah...so i stopped. and never really started again..eek!

At 13 weeks I had another ultra sound that showed my placenta had healed and i was cleared to exercise. I was excited, but working out is hard when you're gaining weight! so it all ended pretty quickly and i took time off from the gym to just be pregnant.

The rest of my pregnancy was pretty smooth. i continued working up until the beginning of December (my due date was December 28). I always felt like I would deliver earlier than my due date, but everyone always told me that i was just hoping and i thought they were right, until contractions started on December 13.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

I woke up at 5am uncomfortable but that really wasn't new. sleeping at 38 weeks pregnant is just hard. i fell back asleep but then woke up again a half hour later with more pain. kind of odd, but it wasn't super intense so i went back to sleep. the pains kept coming back, but weren't really regular. the day wore on and i downloaded an app to time contractions after my mom warned me that this could be it. (for thinking i was going to deliver early, i was pretty unprepared for when contractions started) i started timing when i was getting "really uncomfortable" and they were fairly regular.

**disclaimer** i had no idea what pain level was considered worthy of going to the hospital for, and i was terrified of not getting there in time for an epidural. consider that as you continue**

We ended up going to the hospital in the late afternoon because i was having contractions every 5 minutes or so. They checked me in and monitored me. When I got there I was 90% effaced and 3 cm. When they checked me again in an hour i was 100% effaced, but still only 3cm. The nurse said I could go walk around to try and get things moving, or they could send me home. I did not want to be sent home so I went and walked. Even did stairs! But no progress. So they sent me home with some pain meds to help ease the contractions.

Monday, December 15, 2014

I woke up at 3am with contractions. They were twice as bad as the day before which made the fact that I had gone to the hospital already super embarrassing (i can admit that now, but would have killed anyone who asked) ;) We timed them again and they were still really regular at about 5-7 minutes apart. I didn't want to be turned away a second time, so I was waiting as long as i could before going back to the hospital. Tay made me walk for a bit and I had to stop during some of the contractions to breathe through them. After a few more hours of this, and timing these contractions to ensure they were regular we went back to the hospital. To save myself some brain damage, and your already tired eyes, I will keep it short in saying we got sent home. again. i was dying of embarrassment. we went home with more pain meds and me praying that the pain would end or something would happen.

Tuesday, December 16,2014.

I woke up at 2am with horrbily painful contractions. I couldn't sit still through them and I didn't want to wake Taylor up because of them so I went to my little brother's bed (we lived with my parents at the time, and Ethan was on his mission in London so the room was available.) I tried to go back to sleep but kept waking up every 20 minutes with contractions. Hard ones. I forced myself to stay in bed until 5am before getting into a warm bath. I was hoping to take some of the pressure off my body and relax a bit. It didn't really help because the contractions started coming on every 10 minutes. At this point Tay woke up and came and sat in the bathroom with me while I contracted and cried because I was hurting. I was determined to make it to my 10am Dr appointment to have my OBGYN check me before I dared walk into that hospital again. It was the hardest and longest wait of my life! A piece of advice: if you start having contractions, don't go to the hospital until they make you cry they hurt so bad. Anyway, I make it to 10 am and waddle into Dr. Haskett's office with sweats on and tears in my eyes telling the receptionist that i think i'm in labor. They call me back pretty quick and Dr. Haskett checked me and said I was 4cm and my water bag was bulging and to go to the hospital! I cried. I was so happy and so ready to not be in pain anymore. Tay drove the car across the parking lot and I walked over to the hospital to check in. We tried to take a picture to document this, but i started having another contraction and ended up propped up on the wall breathing through while Tay smiled.

^We're both happy to be having this baby!

^ Contraction...

We walk up to labor and delivery and they put me in a room so the nurse can check me. When she does my water breaks and she told me I was there to stay. More tears..I was going to have the baby! Five minutes later the anesthesiologist comes in to give me the epidural. Best experience ever! I didn't feel an ounce of pain and had relief from contractions a few minutes later.

At this point we called mine and Tay's mom so they would be aware we were having our baby. We had decided that we wanted them both there for her delivery. They got there and Tay and I were just watching TV and i was drinking dr pepper to my hearts content. I was on an all fluid diet but wasn't mad a bit about it. My nurse came and checked on me about every hour to make sure I was progressing, which I was so I didn't need to be put on pitocin. Finally at 6:30 the nurse said I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. I don't know why I hadn't really thought about this moment that day, up until this point, but i hadn't. Not once. So when she said that I had a small freak out. pushing. actually pushing this baby out of my body. It was terrifying, but it had to happen eventually.

So i focused all I could and started pushing. hard.

I was doing well for the first 15 minutes-ish. But then fatigue started setting in. The not sleeping for 3 days and then working that hard was completely exhausting. And to top it all of Scouty was stuck on my pubic bone. (apparently this happens a lot to first time moms and you just have to push through it, literally, and you'll be fine for all the rest of the babies. who knew?) So that was a real bust. At this point Dr. Jones came in (the man who was on call with my OB's office) and started feeling things out. He stayed about a half hour before telling us that he had to run to Orem to deliver another baby real quick and would be back.

Ugh, didn't know that was a possibility!
"hey, your babies' head is chilling right in your pelvis and we can all see it, but hang tight and i'll be back in 40."

The only thing i could think to say was "i really hope you have a fast car!".
He drove a Tesla.

As soon as he left, the nurse called the anesthesiologist back to top off my dose to make sure I wouldn't feel the contractions coming back (bless her heart) and then we waited.
Although I wasn't in pain I could definitely feel Scouty moving further and further down into my pelvis because the pressure was mounting. After about an hour Dr. Jones came back and we got back down to business.
I pushed...
and pushed...
...and pushed.

She was making slow progress and Dr. Jones kept trying to stretch me to give her a little more room. I did end up getting an episiotomy which I felt- should have hit the epidural button to give me more!

But...

After an hour of pushing Scouty made her debut:

Scout Austen Roderick
Born at 8:36pm
6lbs.14oz
18.5inches long

She was perfect. I was exhausted. I had to work to open my eyes to look at her after she was born. They laid her on me for a minute so I could see her before taking her to get her cleaned up, weighed and measured. After about 10 minutes, they brought her back to me and we laid skin to skin for quite some time before I would let anyone else take her. It was amazing. All that time being sick and uncomfortable was rewarded with the most perfect baby girl I could have asked for. She is amazing and perfect in every way and has changed our little family forever.