Delivery

Delivery:

After a while, the nurse came back in and examined me again. She decided that I was dilated enough to start doing some practice pushes. She told me that I needed to listen to my body and once I felt a contraction coming to start bearing down to push and if I wasn't able to feel my contractions she was going to have to have the anesthesiologist come in and take me off of the epidural. This terrified me. I did not want to be in pain again. I liked the epidural. The epidural was my friend. But this scared me so much that I started to stress myself out! I was so worried that I wasn't going to be able to feel the beginnings of the contractions and they were going to make me deliver my baby without an epidural! Luckily, I was able to start to feel the pressure of the contractions. Thank goodness!! So we kept doing our practice pushes and the baby started crowning, so she sent for the doctor and his team to come in. It was show time!! The doctor came in and got himself all situated and had me push for awhile. I pushed for about 15 minutes and then f
inally I gave one last push and our baby girl was out!

On August 11, 2015 at 5:21am, Amina Elaine Whipple was born!!! 

I looked at her when the doctor lifted her up and she was purple! I knew that wasn't a good sign but I wasn't feeling so great. I couldn't find the energy to ask why she was purple and if she was okay. Then I heard her cry. She was okay. The nurse asked Justin if he wanted to cut the cord but the doctor had already done it and had handed her over to one of the other nurses to get her cleaned up. There was so much going on and so many people in that little room, I couldn't comprehend all that was happening. I kept hearing nurses say something about both the baby and me being warm and that they would need to take the baby to the nursery. Then the next thing I knew they were laying my precious baby on my chest. At that moment, time stood still. I only got to hold her for about 5 minutes before they shipped her and Justin off to the nursery and I was left in the room with the doctor and a few nurses. The doctor started to stitch me up but only got a few stitches in before he was called in to deliver another baby. The nurse that was in charge of the epidural machine decided that I'd had enough and unplugged it when the doctor left. So when the doctor came back in to finish his stitches 30 minutes later the epidural had all but worn off and I could feel every single stitch. I was so uncomfortable. But I sucked it up and tried to think about my baby. Once he was done he left and my nurse came in. She told me that the reason they had to take my baby to the nursery was because the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck when she was born and that is why she was purple and because we both had spiked fairly high fevers during delivery. So they were going to have to put both of us on antibiotics just to be sure we didn't contract any kind of infection during delivery. This meant that I wasn't going to get to see my baby for awhile. She told me to get some rest and that everything would be okay. By now it was almost 7:00 am and that meant it was almost time for shift change. She told me that another nurse was going to be coming in to take care of me and that she really enjoyed being my nurse. 

Active Labor

Active Labor:

By the time we got to the hospital (it takes about 45 minutes to get to the hospital from our house) I was soaked. Justin ran in to get me a wheel chair because at this point my contractions were now 5 minutes apart and were starting to get a bit more intense. So he wheeled me up to the birthing center and I was admitted. They didn't have any empty rooms when we got there so they put us in an over flow room. I was roomed with another girl who was scheduled to have a C-Section at noon but the genius didn't show up until noon and had eaten lunch before she came. (You are supposed to show up 2 hours before your scheduled c-section and not eat anything. She wasn't the smartest cookie in the cookie jar.) Since she ate before she came she wasn't able to have her C-Section until 5:00 because she had to digest her lunch. So, they kept us in that fun little room until about 3:00 pm. We had to wait for a room to open up for me. Finally we were moved to an actual room and my doctor examined me and I was only dilated to a one. My contractions started to come even faster and harder. I wanted to try to go as long as I could with out any pain meds. After about an hour I was ready for some medication. I asked for the epidural but my nurse told me I couldn't have it yet because I wasn't dilated enough. About another hour passed and I was wanting the epidural again the nurse examined me and I was at a 3. She told me I couldn't have the epidural until I was at least dilated to a 4 but she offered me some IV meds. I graciously accepted the IV meds. At this point, I didn't care what they gave me just as long as I could have something to make the pain subside. So she gave me the meds and they made me feel SO WEIRD. I couldn't even keep my eyes open. It was such a strange feeling but I was so grateful to get something to help with the pain. Unfortunately the IV meds only last for an hour before they start to wear off. So by the time the hour was over my contractions were super close together and quite painful! I was watching my contractions come and go on the little paper that it prints out on and they were completely off the charts at the peak of the contraction. I was hurting. So I asked Justin to go find a nurse and ask if I could please get the epidural now. He came back with a nurse but she said that I couldn't have an epidural now because the anesthesiologist was in doing a C-Section. So she gave me another round of the IV meds and left. About 45 minutes went by and the IV meds started to wear off again. I asked Justin to go find the nurse again. She came back in and said that the anesthesiologist was still in the C-Section and she gave me one last round of IV meds. She informed me that the more I was given the IV meds the faster they would wear off. (Uh, yeah. Figured that one out on my own. Thanks.) But I didn't care. I couldn't sit there without something to ease the pain. After she gave me the meds she left again. This time they only lasted about a half hour. By the time they wore off this time I was, well, less than amused. I wanted to beat that girl that came in late for her C-Section! At one point I looked up at Justin, who was stroking my hair trying to keep me calm, and said, "I hate that stupid Mexican girl! Why did she not come when she was supposed to!?!" I'm not sure how Justin kept a straight face for that. But he did and I was grateful. It probably would have made me even more mad if he'd laughed at me at that point.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural. At this point, my body had already been through so much I could barely move. The nurse asked me to sit up and hang my legs off the side of the bed. I asked Justin to come and help me sit up but the nurse wouldn't let him help me! My stomach muscles were so tired from all of the contractions, I couldn't sit up by myself so I looked at Justin, grabbed his hand and insisted that he help me. I, eventually, was able to sit up and get myself all situated. The anesthesiologist gave me the epidural. Once the epidural was in my system I immediately started to feel cold. My feet and legs were so cold and I could not get warm. I told the nurse and she kept telling me that I wasn't cold, my legs and feet were just numb and so it felt like I was cold. I called bull crap on that one. I was freezing! She was right in that I couldn't feel my toes but that's because they felt so stinking cold I could barely feel them. At one point Justin came over to sit with me and try to help me warm up, he touched my arm that was covered in goosebumps and said that my arm was really hot. How could my body be hot when I was feeling so cold? The nurse walked in when he was telling me this but she didn't seem to think that it was strange and kept on insisting that I wasn't cold, just numb. She examined me again and decided that I was at a 5 and not ready to push yet. She then turned off the lights and told us to try and get some rest since the epidural was doing it's job making it so I could only feel slight pressure from my contractions.  I'm not sure how much sleep Justin was able to get but I know for a fact that I didn't get a whole lot. Between the pressure from the contractions and the stupid blood pressure cuff going off what felt like every 5 seconds, sleep was hard to come by. I was able to rest a little and save up a bit of energy. 

"Let's start at the very beginning..." Early Labor

I want to write down Amina's birth story. I'm not really one to read birth stories, I just wanted to write it down for myself mostly so that I can remember all of the craziness that happened. Instead of writing one huge post like I usually do, I decided to break it up into sections.

Early Labor:

It all started on Sunday, August 9. I started having regular contractions that were about 10 minutes apart at about 10:00 pm. They lasted the entire night but didn't seem to get any closer together. So we didn't really worry about going to the hospital. The next morning (Monday, August 10) Justin and I decided that we were going to go to the store to get some food to make ourselves a yummy lunch. So we went to the store and did a few other errands. After we finished our errands we went home and put our groceries away and sat down to watch a little tv. I was feeling a little hungry so I got up to get myself a snack and sat back down. A few minutes later I stood back up to throw my trash away and I got about half way to the garbage can and suddenly I felt wet. Something was running down my leg. My water broke!! (10:15 am) I looked at Justin but couldn't get any words out. All I could say was, "Uh. Oh man. Oh man. Justin! Oh man." Since my husband knows me so well he was able to figure out that something was wrong and he asked me if my water had broken. I told him it had and that we needed to get to the hospital. So he called the hospital and let them know that we were on our way. On our way to the car I couldn't tell if my water was still leaking or if I was peeing my pants. So I had Justin run back in the house to get me a towel to sit on and another pair of pants. Not that changing my pants would make my water stop leaking. haha My brain wasn't exactly working at that point. So we headed to the hospital! On our way we called our parents to let them know what was going on. They, of course, were so excited. My parents were on their way back from Salt Lake City and had decided that they were going to drive straight to California from Utah with a little pit stop at home to grab their clothes and things. Justin's mom started planning when she was going to come and visit. It was all starting to feel very real now. This baby is coming and we are officially going to be parents!

Justin bought me some Jimmy Fallon ice cream while we were running errands. :)

We are SOOOOO blessed!

So much has happened since I last posted. About 3 weeks after I posted last we found out that we were pregnant again! This pregnancy has been so great! I don't really have anything to compare it to other than the 11 weeks I was pregnant before but from what I've heard from other people, I've had it pretty easy. And for that I am grateful!!

Justin and I have been so blessed these last 8-ish months. We have so many generous and caring people in our lives! We received so many wonderful gifts and warm wishes at my baby shower in Bunkerville!  And my sisters and Mom put so much time into making it perfect and it really was! We have the best family and friends anyone could as for! I feel like every time we go home someone shows up at either my parents' house or Justin's mom's house with a gift for us! We are so blessed! We were also both thrown baby showers by our co-workers! It was so sweet and they really didn't have to do that for us!

So, I've always known that pregnancy makes you all nest-y and crazy but I never thought that I would be that kind of person. I do NOT consider myself a decorator by any means. Most of the stuff on the walls in our house were put up by Justin because he has such a better eye for that kind of stuff than I do. So he decorates the house and I pretty much just hold stuff for him and try to look pretty doing it. But before we found out the sex of our baby we decided that if it was a boy Justin would decorate the nursery and if it was a girl that I would decorate. Well, we're having a girl! So I got to decorate! I was actually pretty nervous about it because like I said, I feel super insecure in my decorating abilities, so I took to Pinterest. After looking at nurseries for what seemed like FOREVER I decided that I wanted her room to be pink and grey with little elephant accents. Justin really wanted the nursery to have an African theme because her name is African. So I thought that the elephants were a nice little touch. And it turns out that elephants are really in right now. I had no idea. So slowly but surely I started gathering things here and there for the nursery. A lot of the pictures and things I printed off of Pinterest and all of the picture frames were given to us. So I was able to keep the budget pretty low, which made Justin happy as well. :) Here are a few pictures to give you a little bit of an idea of what her room looks like. (These pictures were taken on my phone and I am also nothing close to a photographer so you get what you get. haha)

  

 

I'm really happy with the way her room is turning out! I'm pretty sure I'm done but I thought that the last time I went to Target and then left with all sorts of things for her room. haha We are just so excited for her to get here next month! I just pray that I can get through this last month without going too crazy.  But we sure are blessed!!

-What's that thing happy people say to make a bad situation seem good? -A blessing in disguise? -Yeah. Maybe this is that. -Maybe. {Grey's Anatomy}

I don't even know how to start this post. So I guess I'll just jump in. From the beginning…

About 2 months ago I woke up one morning realizing that my period was almost a week late. So I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom to take a pregnancy test. I did my thing and waited the appropriate 3 minutes for the test to finish. When I looked at the test IT WAS POSITIVE!! I was so excited! I ran back into the bedroom and immediately told Justin. We laid in bed for a little bit talking about how excited we were. We were both on cloud nine. We couldn't believe that we were actually going to have a baby!

As the days progressed, like most pregnant women, I began to experience the joys of morning sickness. (It should be called all day sickness. That crap is awful!) As well as a few more pregnancy symptoms that don't need to be discussed.

When I was about 6 weeks pregnant I had to go in to the doctor to have my blood drawn to verify the pregnancy. I didn't want to drive our truck to Bakersfield because it doesn't get the best gas mileage and Addie and Scott were going to Bakersfield to take their daughter to her doctor's appointment. So I told Addie the good news (one because I needed to tell someone! I couldn't keep it in anymore. and two because it just made sense for us to go together.) So we all drove down to Bakersfield together. I had my blood drawn and the next day I got a phone call from the doctor's office to let me know that the blood test came back-still positive. I was really pregnant!

A few weeks later, all of my sisters, my mom, and I took a short trip up to Salt Lake City while the guys went hunting. While we were in Salt Lake, my mom could tell that I wasn't feeling well so she asked me if I was pregnant. She'd asked me before and I tried to talk around her question, I couldn't do that this time. So I told her. She was so excited! On Saturday we all headed back down to Bunkerville for my baby brother's mission farewell. (He did a great job by the way.) By the time Justin and I left Bunkerville, my parents, Justin's mom, my grandpa, and all of my siblings knew our good news. I was 9 weeks at this time.

The next week I was supposed to have my first doctor's appointment with the actual doctor. Unfortunately, I had to reschedule because while all of this was happening Justin and I were in the process of getting me on his insurance. It was quite the ordeal and way too much drama than was necessary. But long story short, I still wasn't on his insurance by the time my appointment came around so I had to reschedule for 2 weeks later. I really didn't feel good about having to reschedule but there was nothing I could do. The same day my original appointment was scheduled for, I noticed that I started spotting a little bit. It worried me a little bit but like every 21st century woman does, I checked the internet to see if spotting during pregnancy was normal. Everything I read said that if I wasn't experiencing any cramping then I should be fine. So, I tried not to think about it too much because if I sat and thought about it then I would over think it and then freak myself out. The next day I was still spotting. Again, I tried not to over think things and just wrote it off as normal. The next day-still spotting. So I decided to text my parents and ask them what they thought. They both said the same thing the internet said-spotting without cramping means I should be fine, if I experience any cramping I should call the doctor. The next day I was still spotting but again tried not to stress about it. Then on Friday (Halloween) I was still spotting but this time it was a lot darker and I noticed a bit of blood. This scared me. I got ready and went to work. I tried to ignore it while at work but failed miserably. I went into work at 8am and by 8:30am I was on the phone with the doctor's office. I told the nurse what I was experiencing and she suggested that I come in that day and get checked out. Now I was really freaked. I started crying on the phone. I eventually finished up with the nurse and continued to cry. After a while I pulled myself to together and went back to work.

My appointment was at 3:00 so Justin and I headed to Bakersfield around 1:30 to make sure that we got there on time. When we got to the doctor's office we were seen pretty quickly. They weighed me, took my temperature, blood pressure and pee and then took us back to the exam room. When the doctor came in he asked me again what my symptoms were and then ordered the nurse to bring in the doppler (a little machine that magnifies the baby's heartbeat) after trying to hear a heartbeat for what seemed like forever but was probably only a few minutes, he found nothing. He then told us that I would need an ultrasound because sometimes the baby is too small to hear the heartbeat but I knew better. I've been doing my research. Every book I've read says that you should be able to hear the heartbeat with a  doppler at 8 weeks. I was 11 weeks. You can't fool me Mr. Dr. Man. The doctor then examined me and he said that my uterus was measuring a little small. Then he told me to get dressed and meet him outside. After meeting with him, he told us that we would need to schedule an appointment for an ultrasound that day, the schedule was full but they would squeeze us in somewhere. So we went to the front desk to schedule the ultrasound and the only available appointment they had was at 5:00. It was 3:30 at that point. So we had an hour and a half to kill. Luckily our insurance had finally gone through a few days earlier so we decided that we would talk to the financial lady about our new insurance and what all it would cover. So we set up an appointment with her right then and got all of the insurance info worked out! Finally! Then we waited. and waited. AND WAITED! We were THE LAST PEOPLE TO BE SEEN! It was so frustrating. Finally at 5:45 (they were also incredibly backed up that day) we were called back to have the ultrasound. The lady put the awful goo on my belly and then pushed REALLY hard with her little wand thing (I thought for sure that I was going to pee my pants right then and there.) We saw the gestational sac but nothing in it. At first I thought that maybe she had to do something different in order to see the baby (There was a tiny bit of me that still thought that everything was okay.) but no such luck. She took about 8 pictures of the empty sac and then told us that she had to go get the doctor. That could only mean one thing-She needed the doctor to come in and tell me that my baby isn't there. I broke down. I couldn't hold it in anymore. When she came back she said that the doctor had just run out to deliver a baby and that he should be back in about 10 minutes but there was another doctor there that could come in if he wasn't back soon enough. So we decided that we would wait for him. After 10 minutes he still wasn't back so we had the other doctor come in. They looked at my tummy again and found that it was empty. He started to tell us something about how it's possible that the fertilized egg didn't develop all the way or something but I couldn't really hear what he was saying. I was experiencing some kind of tunnel vision or something and I couldn't focus on the awful words that he was saying to me. I just kept nodding my head and trying not to cry. At one point he put his hand on my leg and told me that it was nothing that I did. I couldn't keep it together. I broke down again. He also told me that I'm supposed to get some test done before I come back in next week but I have no idea what he said. I can't remember what it's called or where I'm supposed to go. They really should write this stuff down for you because I was not thinking straight at all. Luckily, I had Justin there. He was so perfect. He knew exactly what to do. I always thought that I would be the kind of person that wants to be held when something terrible like this happens but I didn't. All I wanted was for him to be there and to touch my arm and that's exactly what he did. I know that he was devastated as well but he's stronger than I am. I needed him to take care of me and he was amazing.

We were supposed to have Addie and Scott over for a little Halloween party that night and Addie was so worried that we wouldn't be feeling up to it but I couldn't think about what happened anymore so I asked her if they would come over so I could hold the baby. I needed to hold a baby even if it wasn't my baby. There's something so reassuring about holding a baby that just makes life better. So they came over and we told them basically what had happened and then we didn't talk about it the rest of the night. I was so grateful. I was starting to feel a little better until they left and Justin and I were left to think about what had happened that day. I know it's not the end of the world and that it doesn't mean that we're never going to have any kids but it's hard. We were so excited and then in one day it's gone.

Even though this sucks and it's really hard, I'm so grateful for wonderful people in my life! My husband, my family, my friends, church members. I'm grateful for the Plan of Salvation and the knowledge that I have. I'm grateful that I get to be with my family forever! I know that we are given trials to make us stronger. Right now I can't say that I'm grateful for this trial. I don't know that I'll ever say that I'm grateful for this trial, but I know that I'm grateful for the things that I've learned so far. I feel like Justin's and my relationship has definitely been strengthened. We are more aware of each other's feelings. That's been nice. Blessing in disguise? Possibly.

Pictures of our current life.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Here is our life as of late in a few pictures. 

I'm trying to get better at remembering to take pictures of things. I'm still really bad at it but I'm hoping to get better. 

I'll start with our cute house. We moved in a little over a month ago and we LOVE it! Life is so much better living in a house than an apartment with annoying pot-head neighbors.

Kitchen

Living Room

Living Room

Bar/Dining Area (we don't have room for our kitchen table so it's in the garage)

The Hall

Guest Bathroom

Guest Bedroom (Ignore the fact that the pillows look ugly and they don't have pillowcases on in this picture. They were in the washer at the time.)

Office/Ironing Room/Another extra bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Since we've been married, Justin and I have learned that we need to make our own fun, here in CA. Our little town has very little to offer when it comes to extra curricular activities so we've come up with our own. We first tried Geocaching, we liked that but have only done it a few times because it gets kind of hot so now we have putting competitions in the house. Justin has taken the trophy twice and I have once but I'm feeling a comeback coming on. 

The first time Justin won. He couldn't believe he actually did it.

The second time he won. He started to get cocky. 

The first time I won!

This post is really random but I wanted to post all of the pictures I have as of late. 

Sadly, I only took 2 pictures of our Lake Tahoe trip over the 4th of July. We had so much fun! It was such a blast!

Justin was a sweetheart and pushed me around in the kayak.

Eventually I got brave and tried it by myself.

So, Sadie came home from her mission last week. Sadly, I only took one picture the entire week. Pathetic, I know. We also threw a baby shower for Addie and I'm so sad that I didn't take any pictures because the decorations were so cute. I hope someone took pictures of all of the food. It was pretty adorable if I do say so myself. 

Sadie missed being on the boat and the lake. 

When we came home from our Bunkerville trip our cute house had been taken over by ants. So my manly husband took care of the pesky ants. 

Killing the ants!

Our New Life

A lot has happened since I last blogged. I've decided that I need to start blogging again. Even if nobody reads my blog, it's good for me to blog because I have a terrible memory.

My last post was about Drill Team. I absolutely loved being the Drill Team coach! The girls and I had so much fun together and I think that we definitely grew as a team! The girls took 2nd at their competition. It was an incredibly stressful day but it was all worth it when they were able to perform and perform well! They were a little disappointed that they didn't win but I was certainly proud of them! We had our Drill Team Review in March (a week before my wedding. yeah. I'm crazy.) They performed beautifully at Review and it was such a relief to get it over with. After Review we went back to my parents' house and had dinner, which was delicious and then I sent them on their way. It was a bitter-sweet day because it was my last day as their coach. We laughed, cried, and much more. I love those girls. I think the world of all of them and wish the best for all of them!

After Drill Team was over, it was time for me to really focus on our wedding. Of course, I had been planning for the wedding while I was coaching drill team because it would have been impossible to plan a wedding in a week but the week after review was crunch time. Although, it was a little difficult for me because while we were prepping for review I came down with the worst cold! I was so sick and miserable and it didn't go away after review. I was sick all week. Fortunately, the cold went away a few days before the wedding. Can you imagine how miserable my wedding day would have been if I was sick!? Heavenly Father answered my prayers that week! 

The wedding was beautiful!! I went through the temple the night before we were married at 7:20 pm Utah time. It was an amazing experience. But once the session was over, we all had to head back home to Bunkerville so we could get to bed and get a good night's sleep because the next day was going to be a long one. 

All of our sweet nieces and nephews!

We got up early on Saturday, March 15, 2014 because it was MY WEDDING DAY!! Justin and I were able to drive up to the temple together, which was really nice. It was a beautiful sealing and we had SO MANY people come support us! Someone counted all of the people in the room with us and they counted something like 92 people! It was so sweet to have so many people come be with us on our special day.

All of the wonderful people that were at the temple with us!!

Justin moved to Tehachapi, CA a few weeks before we were engaged. I, of course, moved here with him after we were married. We honeymooned at Newport Beach in CA. It was perfect and so much fun! Our first night we stayed in Mesquite because we didn't want to drive after such a long day. Then the next night we stayed at a fancy hotel in Vegas. It was so nice!! Then the rest of the week we stayed at his cousin's condo right on the beach. It was so fun. We went to Disneyland for 2 days and then went to the beach other days and just relaxed. So fun! 

We're still in Tehachapi. I recently got a new job at the eye doctor that my sister worked at. She quit because she's going to have a baby, so I took her spot. Justin is still working at the VA in Bakersfield. It's a bit of a stressful job for him but he's learning how to adjust and deal with the stress of the job. 

We also recently moved into a house! We were living in an apartment for the first 2 months of our marriage. The apartment itself was actually really nice but our neighbors were kind of unbearable. So, we moved into our house and we love it! It is so spacious and cute! I love it! 

Well, I think that's enough for now. I feel like I've been rambling on and on forever. I will try to take more pictures because I suck at taking pictures! I didn't take any of our honeymoon and we went to Lake Tahoe with the Whipples for the 4th of July and the only pictures we have are of me because Justin took them or he had our niece take them. (so he's in like 2 haha) 

Well. Peace yo!