Jeff was in his last year of Chiropractic school in California. I was working full-time for National Elevator, as an Office Assistant. We had been discussing starting a family around Christmas time, but I couldn't get Jeff to commit. My thoughts were that we'd get pregnant and have the baby sometime in the fall right after he graduated, but he thought we should wait until he was completely done with school, but in my heart I knew that we should start a family before, no matter what the sacrifice might be. It took me a couple of month to convince him that it was the right time to start our family. We started trying in February and by April, I had become preggers (yep, that was fast). I found out I was pregnant right around Memorial day. I was extremely excited. I could hardly contain myself. I remember peeing on the stick right before work one morning and having to go into work without saying anything was REALLY hard. I called my Dr.'s office and they scheduled me for a blood pregnancy test to confirm. The Dr.'s office wouldn't actually schedule an appointment for me to be seen until I was about 12 weeks. I received my results the next day. We were too excited to wait to tell anyone, so I told the 2 girls that I worked with and then we called our families to tell them too. Waiting those 12 weeks were pure torture. I was lucky that I had very little nausea, especially since having to work full-time. When my 12 week appointment finally came, and were able to hear the heartbeat for the first time, it was pure joy. It all became very really for me at that moment. My due date would be January 11th, 1999.
I had my first ultrasound at 17 weeks. We decided that we were going to let our first baby be a surprise and not find out what the sex would be. Jeff claims he saw a boy part on the monitor, but I think he was just wanting his first to be a son so bad that he was hallucinating :).
The rest of my pregnancy went very routine, with no complications. As my pregnancy came to an end we went to a birthing class together, talked about boy and girl names, but had a hard time agreeing on any of them, we bought a few clothes (unisex), diapers, cradle, stroller and car seat. I loved doing all those things together. Since Jeff was nearing the end of school he was very busy studying for national boards I valued every single moment that we had to spend together. At Christmas time I was having a lot of braxton hicks, but nothing that seemed like labor. I thought for sure I would have this baby early or at least on time. My last day of work was on January 8th, just 3 days before my due date, with still no signs of labor. To celebrate my last day of work and to try to induce labor, we decide to go to this pizza place in Concord that was known for inducing labor with their spicy pizza. All it gave me was really bad heartburn and no baby yet. That following week, I tried to keep my eye off of having a baby by packing up our house for our move to Utah at the end of January. I even drank castro oil with O.J., but it only gave me bad diareah. I took blue cohosh, which is a herbal supplement also known to help induce labor. I went to my Dr.'s appt.'s hoping that there would be any signs, but I wasn't effaced and not even dilated to a 1. 9 days AFTER my due date my Dr.'s office decided to send me to the hospital where I would deliver for a stress test. They hooked me up to the monitor to check for any contractions. I wasn't contracting so they inserted prostiglandin gel, which helps soften the cervix to get things moving along. Shortly after the gel, I was having mild contractions, but nothing that was too painful. After an hour or so being hooked up to the monitor, the nurse told me that I was contracting at a steady enough rate that I could possibly have the baby that night or the next day. She sent me on my way to walk around, and told me to come back if the contractions got closer together. So, Jeff and I walked around and looked at some shops had a bite to eat. My contractions were getting closer and a little harder, but they weren't consistent enough for me to think that I was ready to go lay in a hospital bed quite yet. We both made the decision to drive home and wait and see what happens there. The drive from the hospital to our house was about 45 min., by the time we arrived home my contractions were becoming more and more painful. We decided to call the hospital to let them know that we would be arriving in about an hour. Jeff ran to the store to get some snacks for the night and I made sure everything was packed and ready to go in my hospital bag. We drove back to the hospital counting the minutes between contractions. I was checked into the hospital after finding out I was dilated to a 4, they also said that my bag of water was bulging. We were super excited, our long wait had finally become a reality. My contractions were coming at a pretty steady rate, but Ian's head wasn't engaging, I didn't have any pressure like most women to do push. They had me pushing has hard as I could to get him to engage, but after several hours of pushing, they decided that his head was too big for my pelvis, so they decided that I would need to have a c-section. I was totally bummed, but knew that it was for the best. They wheeled me into the operating room about 6ish in the morning, and shortly after I delivered a whopping 9lb 14oz., baby boy. It was the most amazing moment of my entire existence (even on a very large dosage of morphine). I wasn't able to hold him right after, which was really hard on me, I remember tears streaming down my face as the nurses took him away. I was grateful that Jeff was able to go be with him. It seemed to have taken forever for me to get out of surgery. After surgery they took me to recovery, I was in there for a while before Jeff came in. He reassured me that everything was well with the baby and that I would get to hold him and see him as soon as I was clear to go into my postpartum room. I remember the first time Jeff wheeled him into my room he was all wrapped up into a little burrito and the first words that came out of my mouth were "is he breathing?", he was so still, that it was hard for me to tell, and I was so worried about something going wrong.
Everything else for the entire week after Ian was born was somewhat chaotic. Jeff had accepted a job in Utah as an associate for a Chiropractic office in Layton. He was to start on February 1st. My parents flew in to help us pack and help with me and the baby. I wasn't to drive or lift anything, so I wasn't much help with the move. We left only a week after Ian being born and drove from California to Utah, taking 2 days to travel. We arrived in Salt Lake at my sisters house sometime in the early evening and stayed with her that night. The next morning we drove to our apartment in Clearfield. My dad and mom helped Jeff unload the truck. I was completely exhausted. I felt as thought I hadn't slept in a week, which for the most part was true. It took us along time to get settled into our place because I wasn't to do any lifting for a few weeks.
Ian was a really fussy baby and seemed to just want to nurse all day and all night, he wouldn't take a pacifier and wouldn't sleep more than little cat naps here and there. I had a hard time adjusting to our new life, I felt like I wasn't back to my somewhat normal self for at least 6 months. Going from working full time to being a mommy full time was hard and exhausting, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. When Ian wasn't fussy he was a pure ham. He loved hamming it up for anybody and everybody. Ian has always been very loving and tender hearted. I keep waiting for the day he won't give me hugs anymore, but even at 13 he still does, and I will take those hugs as long as I can get them. I feel so honored an blessed to have been given the opportunity to be his mother.
Happy Birthday Ian, I love you to the moon and back!!!
We loved spending time at the pool in our complex, on most days we'd go twice a day!
Ian turning 2
Kindergarten
Junior High
