Welcome to the World Sydni

Unlike Carson's induction this time around with Sydni's birth we finally came to a decision to be induced this past Monday. Throughout this whole pregnancy we had always thought we would let the whole labor and delivery process happen naturally, but in the end we still decided on an induction for the following reasons

• At my 37 week appointment I found out that I would need to be on antibiotics during the labor preferably for at least four hours prior to delivery
• It would make it so much easier to drop Carson off before then induction rather than being in a more rushed situation when natural labor would kick in whatever time and place that could have happened.
•  I personally did not want Carson and Sydni to share birthdays and my due date was the day before his birthday
• I wanted to be home in time to celebrate Carson's first birthday on his birthday if everything went smoothly and delivering on Monday would allow that to be possible.
• I was just done with being uncomfortable and ready to be done with pregnancy.

On Monday we received a call about 8:30 in the morning that they were ready for us at the hospital. We decided that if it was alright with the hospital we could be at the hospital at 9:30 after we had time to drop Carson off to my dad to spend some time with them during the delivery process. Immediately after hanging up with the hospital I called my Dad who said he would be able to meet us at the hospital for the hand off of Carson. Unfortunately as luck would have it on the way to the hospital my Dad called and said that he was stuck at the point of the mountain and would not be there for some time because of it. 

Robert decided that he would wait for my dad with Carson in the hospital parking lot while I checked into Labor and Delivery and got things rolling with the induction. I got checked in and in my hospital gown waiting for the nurse to come and start the rest of the induction before Robert arrived about 10 am. Not sure others who have had more than one child have felt this way but, I shed a tear or two leaving my sweet little boy as I went into the hospital, I had never been away from him overnight and was missing him dearly already.

I was glad Robert was able to be there from the beginning of the induction, at about 10:30 Brittany our nurse got me all hooked up to pitocin, the antibiotics and we were set for labor to being. 

During early labor we were able to find out some cool coincidences in talking with our first nurse Brittany and the resident who broke my water, trying to remember his name at the present moment. After talking with my nurse Brittany about her family and how many kids she had we found out that he youngest was turning 2 this very week, turns out that she had a c-section the day before I was induced with Carson, so we were on the Mother Baby floor in 2011 together and did not even know our lives would pass only a few short years later, interesting and fun to learn. Shortly after being induced the resident came in to introduce himself and let him know he was working closely with Dr. Harrison if she needed his help while she was over at her clinic, to make a long story short we later found out that he lives in our Stake her in Springville in the Kelly Grove ward, small world and made the experience even more exciting to find these connections with these wonderful people who helped in the process of welcoming our daughter into the world. 

The next part of the whole labor seemed to take forever, needless to say it took me what seemed like an eternity just to get to 4 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. In the meantime to pass the time we watched the TV show Reba and toyed around on the laptop, I know what you are thinking isn't labor supposed to be hard, and yes it was, but not for a while in my case.

Labor is really hard, can you tell?

While we were waiting for labor to progress, a nurse from the Fetal Medicine came in to discuss a study that they were doing on babies heart rates during labor. Because I was being induced and had to be monitored round the clock I was a great candidate for the study. The study required the baby to be hooked up to an internal monitor. Randomly the computer would either choose to only measure the baby's heart rate or measure the heart rate and also record an EKG on the baby. I thought it was cool and so I decided to participate in the study, later on we learned that because we decided to do the study they thanked us for the data they received by giving us 160 diapers, sweet! 

To help speed up labor it was decided that they would break my water, so at about 4:15 my water was broken, he said that breaking my water was one of the smoothest ones he had ever done, especially because my cervix was still very posterior at this point of my labor. After my water broke I went from 3 centimeters to 4 centimeters in a half an hour, success I would say.  By 5:00 pm my labor went from not painful in the slightest to extremely painful and I was ready for and an epidural, and it was a good thing I decided to get it when I did because labor began to progress even quicker. While I was in the middle of getting my epidural Mama(Robert's mom) gave us a call to see how things were going, and because we missed the call we know exactly when I got the epidural about 5:14 pm. 

When my nurses changed at 6:30 I told my nurse that I was shooting for 7:48 pm for little miss Sydni to be born, because I thought it would be interesting to say that both my children were born at 7:48, one in the morning and one at night. At this point I still did not believe this was going to be possible, but then labor really took off.  I progressed from the 4 to a 10 in under and hour a half and it was started to look very possible that I might just have her at 7:48. 

 Right before Sydni was born, I always get very cold during labor!

Dr. Harrison arrived shortly before 7:40 pm after closing up her practice, if she had been there just a tad bit sooner I would have had her by 7:48, but we ended up missing that time my just a few minutes.  We had quite the room full of participates and observers for the birth. Including Dr Harrison, her shadow Mia, two nurses from UVRMC, the study nurse, and I also let a student paramedic come and participate we had 6 medical people. Afterwards talking with family and friends they were shocked that I let so many people see the delivery, but I see it as a learning opportunity, one day I hope someone will give me the opportunity to observe as I go through nursing school. 

I started pushing just before 7:48, pushed 3 sets and she was out. After the first sen of pushes Dr. Harrison remembered that I had wanted the mirror to be able to see Syndi being born, so glad she remembered it was a neat experience. I was also able to touch her as she was coming out of the birth canal, another neat experience.  With Carson both of these experiences would not have been possible, I was just too exhausted, but this time around I felt like I had a lot of energy which was refreshing to say the least. 

At 7:55 pm our princess little miss Sydni was born, weighing 7 pounds 7 ounces, and measuring 20 inches long. I was able to hold my precious little daughter on my chest as they cleaned her off, we instantly fell in love once again with another child.  It is hard to explain how you can love this new little one as much as you love your other child, but I can say I love both my children just as much as the other.  As Sydni was on my chest, Dr. Harrison asked Robert if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord which he declined, so I asked if I could and that is exactly what I did. It was pretty cool being able to cut the cord that tied my little girl to me for 9 months, I think I will do this from now on if I am able to that is.  We are truly blessed to have two beautiful children that our Heavenly Father has entrusted us with, and we hope we can teach them and help them return back to their Heaven Father for the eternities. 

Like I mentioned I had exponentially more energy once Sydni was born

Proud and less nervous Daddy

Our first family picture with our baby girl!

Carson didn't get to meet his baby sister until the following day, we just didn't think it would be a smart choice to mess up bed time to have him come meet his little sister. When he first arrived he didn't want anything to do with the baby nor us, he just wanted to go outside and play again in the dirt with Grandpa. However, once it was just the four of us he started to warm up to the idea of having a baby sister and started to get to know her.

 Love my babies

 Carson loves to help get her "bink"

 Our little family of 4

 Sweet picture of my babies holding hands

 I can tell Carson is going to be a great big brother. 

Despite having a great delivery Dr. Harrison wanted us to stay close to 48 hours after Sydni's birth because I tested positive for Strep B at my 36 week appoint, it made for a long stay for sure. To pass the time this is what Carson did while he was at the hospital with on Wednesday morning. 

We thank all who made the stay great as well as the delivery. We also appreciate all the visits from family during our stay. We finally were able to break out of the hospital at 5 pm on the 26th of June which was great!

Homeward bound!

Sydni we are glad you decided to come to our family and we are already deeply in love with you!