#everlee diamond

[calistatkins]

Everlee’s one month pictures from last week. You are the light of my life baby girl.

[calistatkins]

Everlee Diamond / Birth Story

We had a scheduled induction for Saturday the 1st but they didn’t have room so we came in the next day at 8am (41 weeks 3 days). Again, a room wasn’t available so we went to the waiting room... that was irritating. I couldn’t sleep the entire night before because I was so excited and here we are once again, waiting. Anyway, finally got a room at 9:45. They checked my cervix to see where I was and I was only 1cm. They began induction at 11am with a foley bulb. I heard horror stories about the bulb but it didn’t hurt at all. Basically they insert a Foley catheter into your cervix and inflate the balloon behind your cervix and they pull on it and cause tension to dilate your cervix. The idea is that it should dilate you anywhere from 3-4cm once it falls out. Contractions began immediately after they put it in so I was happy about that! I planned on being really active during this to get things moving but I had major bloody show and every time I got up I would get blood everywhere. Getting up to go to the bathroom was a freakin mess. Super annoying. It took 7 ½ hours for it to fall out (6:30pm). Next step was pitocin and that began at 7:30. My midwife told me I would be on pitocin for 6 hours, get checked and then she would break my water. They started it at 4 ml/hr and the nurse would up the dose another 4ml every 30min. At 9pm we had it at 12 ml/hr and that gave me super painful contractions so she stopped it there. At around 11 I was really struggling with the pain and contractions from the pitocin. I absolutely could not have any more contractions laying in that damn hospital bed. So I asked my nurse to hook me up to the wifi monitors so I could get up and move around. I took a hot shower and oh my god, I wish I could have labored in the hot shower the entire time. I also started using the yoga ball and walking A LOT. I didn’t start this sooner because I felt like it would inconvenience the nurse to hook up the wifi/portable monitors. I hate my way of thinking. I was eventually feeling completely exhausted. I was running on 3 hours of sleep from the night before and it was impossible for me to sleep through the painful contractions I was having because they were coming every 1-2min, occasionally 3min. I knew I wouldn’t make it through the rest of my labor and delivery without some rest. So I talked to my nurse about them giving me something to help me sleep. My midwife decided she would check me first and I was 5cm dilated and 70% effaced at midnight. They then gave me something to help me rest and from there I was stuck in bed because the meds were gonna make me drowsy. I was so thankful I ended up getting the meds because I could actually shut my eyes between contractions. It made the contractions bearable honestly. Just being able to shut my eyes even for a minute felt like an hour honestly. I was that exhausted. At 1am they broke my water and then left. You guys shit got so real after this. Shae went to sleep during this time because I kept telling him I would need him later, plus it was late and I knew he was tired. An hour later they checked my cervix again and I was only 6cm. She said she expected me to be at LEAST another 4-6 hours. This discouraged me greatly because I really wasn’t progressing that fast and not only that but at this point I was having VERY consistent contractions for 15 hours. Granted the ones with the foley balloon were nothing compared to the ones with pitocin, my body was just so incredibly tired. I couldn’t get in the shower, couldn’t walk around. All I could do was lay in bed and hate my life during every contraction. My husband was asleep. It was late and nobody was awake. So I told the midwife there was no way I could make it through another 5 hours (and it ended up being another 12 hours) with that much pain and decided to get the epidural. I thought I could also get some sleep! By the time I got it was 7cm but I was literally moaning and groaning through these contractions and barely had any breaks. One would start, peak and end. 30sec later and it was starting over. The anesthesiologist kept trying to wait until I was done with a contraction before she started but they were coming so fast, she just had to do it. It was 3:30am and I thought I would be able to get some sleep as my contraction pain felt like it was cut in half at this point. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Everlee’s heart started to descend a lot. It went from being in the 150s-170s to the 90s-120s. So they cut off all the pitocin and did an amniotic fusion for baby. This meant no sleep for me. They were coming in every 30min to reposition me to try and get her heart beat back up. Finally at 5:30am they put me back on pitocin slowly. At this point I literally felt like my body could not function. I had slept all of 3 hours and a few minutes of shutting my eyes in between contractions in 48 hours. I ended up getting an hour and a half of sleep and woke up at 7am to excruciating back labor. And let me tell you all, I had NO IDEA that I had a button I could push to give me another dose of the epidural. I was completely mobile and was repositioning myself and best of all, feeling every damn contraction again. My new nurse told me about the button and said I could push it if I wanted but I decided not too and was gonna do the rest of the birth naturally. They told me that the epidural would most likely not help with my back labor anyway. A new midwife came in that morning and I thought she would check me but she told me I hadn’t been having any contractions during the night so she was gonna wait 2 hours. Bullshit. I told her and the nurse that couldn’t be right because I was having bad contractions the last few hours. She still didn’t budge because the monitors weren’t picking up a single one of my contractions. I was irritated but when they left I started really struggling with my back labor and ended up moving myself to being on all 4s and leaning on the top of the bed. This helped me tremendously and I don’t think I would have survived if I didn’t get in that position. It felt like my back was on fire. I kept having Shae push as hard as he could into my back. Not gonna lie, tears were coming. Then came the throwing up. I was puking and puking and puking some more. It was awful let me tell you. At this point my nurse was like okay you seem like you’re about to have a baby (even though I still wasn’t having contractions according to the monitor). She went and got the midwife and she checked me at 9:40am - I 9cm & 100% effaced. She told me I would probably be pushing in the next hour. She was right. I started pushing at 10:40am. I’m not gonna lie, at the beginning of pushing I straight up kept telling myself “I cant do this. I literally can’t do this for 2 hours.” I was in so much pain I thought a c-section would be better. Haha! Because of my back labor, and because I wanted gravity to be on my side, I pushed on my knees facing the head of the bed. Every push I would squat down and push as hard as I could. I absolutely hated pushing in lithotomy position (the position you see in all the movies). My nurse was a rockstar and was giving me so many different positions to try. She had me do this tug-of-war type thing where I laid on my back, and she and Shae held my legs, and I grabbed onto a sheet she tied to the squat bar above the hospital bed. I would basically climb up the sheet during every push. It helped me SO much. I was making great progress like that. The midwife asked if I wanted a mirror to see her and I said yes. I could see her head and her hair!!! It gave me so much motivation. I kept telling Shae and my mom “she’s right there. She is almost here.” Once she was about to come out, I pushed and pushed and pushed with everything I had with no breaks. I was so close to meeting my baby! After 90min of pushing, Everlee Diamond was born at 12:15pm on July 3rd (41weeks 4days). They gave he right to me and she didn’t leave my chest for over an hour. Shae and I both were bawling. She was so unbelievably perfect. 8lbs 7oz, 19 1/2in long. Brown hair. Long toes and feet. Chubbiest cheeks and cutest button nose. She was so beautiful. It’s all I kept saying. And I will keep saying it forever.

[calistatkins]

I left for work this morning and said goodbye to Shae and he woke up all groggily and said, "I felt her in the middle of the night?" And I asked what he meant, and he got so excited and said, "I was cuddling you last night after I woke up and started to rub your tummy and she was kicking away!!" He thought maybe she had the hiccups. But ugh, my heart. ❤️

[calistatkins]

How far along - 23w + 2d 
Due date - June 22nd 
Bump ? - Growing so fast. I've really popped these last couple week! Total weight gain - 7lbs. 
Maternity clothes - None yet but some of my pants are feeling preeeetty tight these days. Sleep? - Pretty good. Still waking up several times to pee and am having crazy dreams. 
Food craving and aversions - Craving waffles at all times, cherries and grapes. Not really any aversions thank god. 
Symptoms - Lower back pain, starving all the time, shortness of breath. Doctor’s appointment - I have one coming up March 7th! 
Belly button in or out ? - In. 
Movement - Lots!! Nothing I love more then straight jabs to my bladder. 🙄😂 
What I’m looking forward to - Getting to viable week (24 weeks)! Almost there! 
Ring on or off ? - On. 
Happy or moody most of the time - Happy! 
Best moment of this week - Shae lighting up when he felt her kick him 😍 
Baby in veggie/fruit terms -i quit doing the fruit/veggie ones bc they didn't seem very accurate. She's the size of a Barbie doll! 
Next appointment - March 7th!

[calistatkins]

How far along - 21w + 2d 
Due date - June 22nd 
Bump ? - Growing fast! By the end of the night it's ginormous 😂 
Total weight gain - 1.5lbs as of my last doctor appt last week. 
Maternity clothes - None! I still fit in my regular clothes. Sleep? - Pretty good. I keep waking up in the middle of the night with my arms asleep, Charlie horses and having to pee. But ya know, could be worse. 
Food craving and aversions - Craved Chipotle like I've never craved it before yesterday. But mostly fruit! Not really any aversions, but I walked into the break room at work yesterday morning and almost threw up because I smelled someone's food. No idea what it was but it was instant and it was terrible. 
Symptoms - Nausea is for the most part gone THANK GOD. Just really tired and exhausted, lower back pain, hormonal breakouts, giant ass appetite. 😂 Doctor’s appointment - Had my anatomy scan and 20w appt both last week. She's still a girl and she's measuring perfectly! Standard heart rate of high 140s for her. I go back at 24w. 
Belly button in or out ? - In. 
Movement - She is so active!! I love nothing more then feeling her move. It's the most amazing thing. Seriously I can lay in bed for an hour watching and waiting 😂😂 
What I’m looking forward to - feeling more movements, baby girl hitting 1lb, getting to 24 weeks. 
Ring on or off ? - On. 
Happy or moody most of the time - Happy! 
Best moment of this week - Just spending a lot of time with shae today. We've been on opposite schedules so it was great being able to spend an entire day together today. 
Baby in veggie/fruit terms - Baby bok choy or a pomegranate. Which seems weird bc I had no idea pomegranates were almost 11in long?? 
Next appointment - March 7th!