Sadie's Birth Story

I apologize for the length of this post, but it was important to me that I wrote this down for Sadie to have someday.

My pregnancy with Sadie had been planned about nine months before we started trying. I wanted a spring baby, in March or April, so we decided to start trying a month early to make sure it didn't turn into a Summer baby. Obviously, we didn't need to since her due date was February 28th. We weren't patient enough to wait until we were supposed to and started taking pregnancy tests early. We never got a positive test, but had enough tests with a VERY faint extra line that we knew we had to be pregnant.

I was so sick with Kylie and expected the same thing with Sadie. I was still very sick, but was much more successful at keeping my food down. I only threw up 8 times, 5 of which were right after eating pizza. You would think that I would have learned, but instead I kept craving and eating more pizza. I would switch pizza chains after an "incident".

We waited until we were over ten weeks pregnant (and had our first doctor's appointment) to tell our families. While in Vernal at my parents cabin we put Kylie in a tee-shirt that said "Big Sister" because my parents put me in a similar tee-shirt to announce my mom's second pregnancy to my grandparents. I was so glad that we were able to surprise them since the dinner we had been making was so offensive to my pregnant nose I almost ruined the surprise. Once we got back to Salt Lake we were going to tell Jared's family together but he got impatient and called them all while I was taking a nap, one of my favorite pastimes while pregnant.

I don't remember exactly when I first felt her kick, but I think it was around 15 weeks. I loved feeling her first little kicks since this time I knew what I was supposed to be feeling. That is my favorite part of being pregnant.

Since Kylie had been a girl we just expected that the next baby would be a boy. On October 9th, two days before my ultrasound, I got a phone call from my dad saying that my cousin Luke had just been killed in a repelling accident. For those two days I really hoped that the baby would be a boy so that his middle name could be Luke, although I think that was when I really started to know it was going to be a girl. Sadie's ultrasound was on October 11th at LDS Hospital. When we went in the first tech that helped us couldn't stop talking about what a perfect baby we had. She said that if she needed the baby to turn she would. If she needed another angle, the baby would cooperate. Over and over she used the word perfect. And beautiful. She was also able to tell the sex of Sadie almost immediately. We were both so excited for another little girl.

Around this time my parents sent us a full page ad from the Vernal Express looking for employees to work out in the oilfield, including a nice signing bonus. We had talked for years about possibly moving to Vernal and this seemed like a great opportunity to move there and let me be a full time mom. At the time, home prices in Vernal were so much less than Salt Lake. Right after Thanksgiving Jared started his new job in Vernal, leaving me behind 6 months pregnant and with a two year old. The last three months of my pregnancy were spent with him home every other weekend.

One day during the last half of my pregnancy I started to cramp really badly while working. The pain got so bad that I was doubled over in agony and crying. My doctor was out of the office that day, but I was told to come right in and see another doctor. Once I got there I was given the cup for my routine urine sample. As I was filling the cup I heard a weird noise, like something fell into the cup. I looked down and saw a little "stone" in it. The little stone turned out to be a very large kidney stone. I was just happy that there weren't any problems with the baby. And I felt much better after the stone had passed!

Up until my final trimester I had no idea what heartburn was, but was VERY familiar before I was done. My doctor told me to take Tums, but I don't think he ever understood just how bad it was. I took so many Tums and got so sick of them that the sight of them would make me gag. Literally. I turned to drinking chocolate milk since I was told to drink milk and I hate regular milk. I averaged 4 gallons a week for the last two months and gained plenty of weight. On Christmas Eve in Vernal, I spent the night in my uncle's bunk house with Jared. There was no chocolate milk and he insisted that I take a Tums. We fought about it, he won, and the Tums made it halfway down my throat before coming back up with dinner. I will never take another Tums for the rest of my life!

At my final appointment the week before I was due I tested positive for Strep B. This turned out to be a great blessing because I now needed to be induced. The doctor needed to get some antibiotics in my system for at least four hours before delivery and didn't want to chance me going into labor and not having time for them. I was able to schedule my induction for three days later on the 25th of February and give Jared a heads up so that he was in town for the delivery. We had been so worried that I would go into labor while he was in Vernal out in the oilfield and he would miss the delivery. The bad news was that I called my parents on the way home from the doctor's office and they were already on their way to Salt Lake for an unrelated trip and weren't going to be able to stay an extra day for the delivery.

I called the hospital like I was supposed to the morning of the 25th, but it took HOURS for a bed to become available. I was started on the Pitocin a little before noon and progress was slow until late that night. Right before I started pushing my doctor told me I'd probably push about half as long as I did with Kylie, which had been 45 minutes. I was so excited to have a short push time. But soon after that he realized that the baby was effaced. I asked what that meant and he said "looking up" and for a second I thought he said "look it up". I couldn't believe he had just said that to me! Three times he stuck his arm up in me and rolled Sadie over, and THREE TIMES she rolled right back over. Each time he rolled her over it hurt so much and I was so frustrated that the baby would roll back over. He finally said that she was coming one way of the other and we would just have to push. I pushed and pushed and pushed for over an hour and she wouldn't budge. Her little head was lodged on my pubic bone and couldn't get past it while facing the wrong direction. My day nurse was relieved by the night nurse and when she heard that Sadie was facing up she said that these deliveries are 100 times harder. That was the last thing I needed to hear! My doctor finally suggested using a vacuum and I agreed because I was desperate to stop pushing. After using the vacuum to help get her unstuck I pushed and suddenly both Jared and our doctor yelled out it excitement. They both were excited because as I pushed Sadie rolled over on her own, like she knew she was supposed to. I couldn't believe that they were happy about this accomplishment. I was so mad at her for not doing it earlier! After that she came right out. I knew she was bigger than Kylie because her body didn't just slide out quite as easily as Kylie had. She was 7 lbs, 15 oz and was 21 inches long. She was so mellow and quiet. I remember being shocked because she looked nothing like Kylie had. She had much fairer skin, and such light hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes. I was so exhausted and shaky from pushing that I was afraid I was going to drop her. I gave her to Jared to hold and every time he tried to hand her back I would insist that he keep her. I feel silly for admitting this, but I was really upset with her for her little "rolling" stunt she had pulled. We commented on how calm she was and the nurse said she probably had an awful headache from the vacuum and I suddenly felt so guilty and completely forgot that I was angry with her. She had such a cone head that first night from the delivery and the vacuum.

During the pregnancy I spent countless hours online looking at baby names. Jared was the first one to suggest Sadie. I had known a Sadie when I was little that I wasn't particularly fond of so at first I said no, but then kept coming back to that name. After much thought we both decided that was the her name. The hard part was her middle name. The day after she was born we still didn't have a middle name, even though the records clerk kept calling to see if we had a name yet. We were throwing names out but couldn't agree. I knew I wanted it to start with a vowel, preferably an A. One that I really liked was Alivia, but Jared said no (I would win that one a couple of years later) so I suggested another one...Alyssa. It wasn't a name that we had considered before but both of us immediately liked how it sounded with Sadie.

The delivery had worn her out and she slept a lot for the first few days. I would have to wake her or have a nurse wake her for her feedings. My sister Annie was my only family in town and she brought Kylie to visit us the next morning. It took several minutes for Kylie to even decide to look at Sadie. I think that she was really overwhelmed, but did warm up eventually and was really proud to hold her new baby sister. On Jared's side of the family we had tons of visitors all day and late into the night on Saturday.

Sadie had jaundice so we had to make a couple of extra visits to the doctors office that first week, but everything was fine after that. She was a very healthy and happy baby that rarely cried. She loved to take long naps, sleep through the night, and was content to just watch the world around her. Whenever Kylie would walk in the room she would follow her with her eyes and then as she got older she's turn her head to watch her. Anything that Kylie did fascinated Sadie.

Sadie is such a wonderful addition to our family. She truly does have a sweet spirit and is our most loving and affectionate child. She is such a great snuggler! Lucky for me, she was also a great traveler. With Jared living in Vernal and our house for sale in Salt Lake we drove out to Vernal almost every other week. It was an interesting time of transition and Sadie was the perfect baby during all of it. Our family wouldn't be complete without her. We love you Sweet Sadie, so so much! Happy Birthday!