Ella, Milee, Cienne, Haven, & Hazel: September 2013

Guess what I got for Mother's Day!!!

Couldn't have asked for a better gift!!!

Cienne Marjorie was born at 1:49 am on May 12, 2013. My little Mother's Day baby! She weighed 7lbs 4.6oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. Here is the last few details of my pregnancy as well as her birth story:

Cienne's birth story:

I had some ladies come over and shop for some jewelry on the evening of May 11th. I had also decided that that day I wanted to re-vaccum the entire house. I was able to vacuum the whole top floor and the main floor, but still had the downstairs to do. I decided that I needed to clean up my Paparazzi stuff before I could vacuum downstairs and my mom offered to help. This was about 10pm. She was in the unfinished room taking care of something when I was having a braxton hicks contraction and bent over (while sitting down) to grab something. It was then that I heard and felt a "pop". I immediately returned to my sitting position and my mom, who was unaware of what had just happened, continued to talk while I just started at her. When she asked me what was wrong I said that I bent over and heard a pop and may have broken my water but maybe it was just gas. I then determined that I was not going to vacuum that floor and instead was going to have a snack and then I would go to bed after taking a shower. I hadn't felt any real gushing at this point, maybe just a small trickle but that could have been in my head. We walked upstairs and I counted and filled a small bowl with some animal crackers and got a protein shake out of the fridge. It was then that I started to feel small gushes, 10:30pm. At first I tried to ignore it, but after a few minutes I realized that I really had broken my water and that this was it. I texted Jared and let him know that it was probably "it" and he responded with "it?" and I said "it! I think my water broke, no, I'm sure my water broke". He then called me and asked why I hadn't called and instead texted, and honestly I don't know the answer. At this point I wasn't feeling any contractions. I was terrified to look and make sure that the amniotic fluid was clear and my mom offered to check for me. She finally got me to go from standing like a statue in the kitchen to sitting on the couch on a bunch of the girls beach towels they had used that day to swim in our small pool, but beforehand we checked and made sure that the fluid was clear, and it was. We sat on the couch and she tried to keep me calm. Jared ended up calling and my mom ended up making me laugh of which I had a hard time stopping. All the while I could feel the gushes continue.

When Jared finally got home, I kept saying that I had wanted to take a shower because I had planned on shaving my legs. This was when I had it all planned out in my head that we were going to naturally induce me Monday morning after Jared got home from work and after my doctor was back from vacation and on call. Jared convinced me to take a shower which was nice. I even shaved my legs! I started having contractions at this point and they were about 5 minutes apart. I had used the bathroom prior to my shower and recall that there was some pink discharge (bloody show) which indicated my cervix was dilating. After my shower I got dressed and we made sure that we had all of the stuff we wanted to take to the hospital. My contractions were probably every 3-5 min apart and were increasing in intensity. Here is a picture of me after my shower, water broke, consistent contractions...not interested in smiling:

We left for the hospital after 12am and I remember asking Jared to not hit any bumps on the freeway. He responded that he would put the car in hover mode just for me, lol. When we got to the hospital we sat in the car for a few minutes as I continued to labor. I remember that we had the radio turned to 100.3, which with it being a Sunday, church music was playing. I found this soothing and asked Jared to turn it back on when he turned the car off. I believe we also said a prayer before we headed into the hospital. When we got into the hospital it was around 12:30am. Jared paged the nurses to let us into the labor and delivery and at that moment I started to have a contraction and had to just stand there and ride through it. The doors opened as I stood completely still and then they closed, and the nurse opened them again, and they closed. Finally she decided to wait until we started moving again to open them. It was kind of humorous. There were some people in the lobby that were outside when we drove up. They were extremely obnoxious and making flatulance noises and just being rude.

I stood at the desk and continued to have contractions as they went through the whole admittance process again, even though I had already done so. When we finally moved they took me to a triage room where I was to get into a gown and wait for a nurse. They were aware that my water had broken and I had told them my contractions were 2 minutes apart, but despite the facts, they did not come back into the room for 30 minutes. I finally asked Jared to find someone because I was concerned that nobody was going to be there to help us birth our baby. Finally a nurse came in and she wanted to put the monitors on me and check me and make sure my water was broken. She kept saying she needed to lay me down flat and I kept telling her to wait until I wasn't having a contraction which had increased 10 fold in intensity. I was doing really well breathing through them and because I was a 4 dilated before my water broke, I knew it wasn't going to take much to make me complete. When the nurse was finally able to check me I was an 8+. It was then that I knew I could do natural birth again because I knew it wasn't going to get any more intense than it already was. At this point a nurse came in with a wheel chair and said that they wanted to move me to a labor and delivery room. I took a look at the chair and asked if they could deliver in there because I didn't think I could move. I tried to be compliant and was able to move my right foot but that was as far I could get. They scrambled to find a warming bed for the baby and told me to tell them when I felt the need to push. I recall breathing through a contraction then I started breathing down. The nurse immediately got on her vocera and said to call the doctor.

After that first breath I asked the nurse to check and make sure I was complete. She didn't even need to feel as the baby was near crowning. They yelled to find the topical cream but I breathed down again and her head was crowning, in two more quick breaths she was out. I never felt the "burning ring of fire". I never felt any pain. I do recall telling Jared that I didn't want to do this for much longer but based on the photo below, I was only monitored for 5 minutes. Jared did tell me to do what I wanted (with Milee I wanted to squat for her birth and wasn't allowed to) but I felt just fine in the position I was in and didn't have the desire to move.

Cienne was delivered by a resident doctor in a triage room! What a story to tell! After she was delivered the doctor took off. I remember asking if I tore or anything because normally a doctor would stitch you up, etc before leaving. That wasn't the case this time and I came to find out that it was because the attending doctor was on her way. This was the same attending doctor that delivered Milee! I was actually grateful she wasn't there for the birth because some of the things I wasn't allowed to do made my experience a little regretful with Milee. I had no regrets this delivery! They even allowed me to do delayed cord clamping! Cienne's cord was much longer and thinner than the other two girls so it made it so I was able to comfortably hold her during this time. I do recall, however, that when she was born they began to rub the vernix off of her before we could tell them to stop. Jared says that he asked them not to do that and I did as well and they said that they needed to, absurd. The first thing I noticed about her was that she has her daddy's dimples! Yay! Also she looked nothing like her older sisters. She didn't have the scrunched nose, nor the apparent eyebrows and lashes. She does have the beautiful full lips that I saw in the ultrasound photo, however!

And here Cienne is just after birth!

Look at those lips!!!

Once the resident doctor showed up I recall her telling me that I should have given her more notice, since she wasn't able to get there in time. However, being at the hospital for nearly an hour was plenty of notice, I just think the nurses were busy and didn't realize that I was as close as I was. She mentioned that I was bleeding more than they'd like and proceeded to put some tablets in my bum to induce contractions of my uterus in hopes of detaching the placenta. She stitched up my first degree tear and then left for a few minutes. When she returned she once again mentioned the bleeding and then proceeded to "massage" my uterus to make the placenta detach. THIS HURT! I kept asking her to "please stop" and to "please don't do that" and she would stop and give me a speech that I couldn't take the placenta home with me and that if we didn't deliver it, she would likely have to come back in less favorable circumstances (meaning I might need surgery to stop the bleeding). Finally the placenta was delivered and my bleeding decreased. I am impressed at how calm everyone seemed. I had no idea that I was bleeding more than normal except for the occasional comment here and there. I felt great!

I love this picture because it shows Grandma Smith's reaction to meeting Cienne!

DIMPLES!!!

They gave us plenty of bonding time before moving us to our room. It was so cute because Jared shared a bed with us while getting the minimal amount of rest that we got while at the hospital. Because my mom knew that I was in labor before we left for the hospital, she was still awake and once again surprised at how quickly the baby was here. We asked her to not tell the girls the gender and to dress them as if they were going to church so that they, and especially Ella, would be surprised. Ella didn't realize that we weren't home until right before they left for "church" (the hospital). My mom told her that I had gone to visit Daddy at work. While driving to "church" Ella proceeded to tell Grandma that she was going the wrong way. Little did she know, she was on the way to meet her newest sibling!

I believe it was before the girls got there that we revealed her name to Grammy and Grandpa Winston. It may have been me but I think that Grammy teared up a bit when she heard that Cienne's middle name was in honor of her mother. We have loved doing this with each of our girls. Ella's middle name, JoAnn is after my Aunt Jo Ann and Milee's middle name Bren is after her grandpa's middle names Bryan and Glen. So fun!

When the girls arrived, Jared was hiding Cienne in his arms. Ella soon realized what he was doing and her eyes lit up. We had quickly dressed Cienne in her "little sister" clothes so that Ella could read whether the baby was a boy or a girl. I guess I didn't think this through very well because the "little sister" outfit has hot pink pants that go with it, so that gave it away. We uncovered Cienne and Ella noticed the pants and when asked said that "it" was a sister! I might be wrong, but I could see a slight disappointment in her face. She was excited to have the baby finally here but she really wanted a brother, side note, she love love loves her sister and is such a big helper with her! Just before the girls arrived Cienne was given her first bath. I had wished the girls could have seen her be bathed that first time, but they got there just a little bit afterwards. I was glad to have her given a bath because sad to say, I thought the amniotic fluid that was still on Cienne smelled kinda funky. Jared claims it was the eye ointment that they put on her. Regardless, she smelled funky :).

Grandma Smith and Cienne

Grandma Smith and her 3 Utah granddaughters!

Both girls enjoyed doing this to me!

My version of the birth story just hours afterwards

Glued to the electronics! It's an important event we have to share with everyone!

I decided that I wanted to stay one night, even though the on call doctor said I could go home that day if I wanted, at the hospital in hopes of getting some rest so we decided to do the photos the next day. The girls left for a bit but returned in the evening to see their sister again.

So TIRED!

I did not get any rest during my one night in the hospital because despite the fact that they told me that they would leave me alone if I was sleeping, they proceeded to come in and check me and "need" to do testing on Cienne at all hours of the night. The next day we had the Bella Baby photographer come. This time I had more time to prepare so I wasn't spending time getting ready while she was taking the photos and I was able to ask for some specific poses that I wanted. So sweet! The big girls wore their "big sister" shirts and Cienne her "little sister" shirt. Love it!

After photos my mom and the girls went home and we patiently waited to be released. My doctor was so behind after having been out of town so it wasn't until after 2 before we were finally able to go home! YAY!