Bailey May Farnsworth

I have seen everyone posting their birth stories lately, and I decided that I wanted to go ahead and write down Bailey's story too, while it's still fresh in my mind.

I guess to tell the whole story, we will start back at 28 weeks.

We were having a garage sale one Saturday when I noticed that I was experiencing some contractions. Nothing bad, but enough for me to know what they were. I experienced pre term contractions with Carter too, but his started around 32 weeks. This time, it was an entire month earlier. Luckily, this time around, I knew more about contractions and full blown labor, so I knew that I didn't need to go to the hospital, but decided I better schedule an appointment to make sure they weren't doing anything. I went to my appointment a couple days later and they checked me and told me I was just partially dilated- not even to a one yet. They went ahead and ran a test to see if I was at risk for pre term labor. The test came back negative. They told me to just take it easy but that I didn't need to go on bed rest. That was a relief because with an active 2 and 1/2 year old, that would be really difficult for the next 12 weeks...

Everything seemed to go pretty well after that point. I was still experiencing some contractions but I could tell they weren't close enough together to be doing anything. My sister came into town while I was 33 weeks and I spent just about everyday over at my parents house with them. On a Thursday morning, I woke up and threw up (which isn't uncommon with my horrible heart burn), I didn't think too much of it. My mom text me that morning and asked how I was feeling. She said that both my dad and sister had been throwing up all night. I told her that I thought I was fine, that my throwing up was just related to heart burn. I went ahead and went out to my mother in laws that day and around lunch time I started throwing up again. Slowly, I started to just feel crummy. I called Keith and told him what was going on and explained that I thought it was just best to go home. He left work a few minutes later and took us home. On the drive, I just started getting worse and worse. I knew I was going to be sick again but just wanted to wait until we got home. I could feel my head and hands start getting tingly. I asked Keith what that meant, and he said he didn't know. I told him I just wanted to go home and lay down. As soon as we got home, I threw up again and went and laid down. We both knew that we needed to get me hydrated but by that point, it was too late. I couldn't even keep a sip of water down. I still felt tingly, so I decided to take a shower. My hands started losing feeling and at that point, I knew we needed to go to the hospital. We packed up and started driving. (Now you must know that I LOVE my OB doctor. The problem is, he's in Gilbert. Which is about an hour drive from our house.) We knew we wouldn't make it to that hospital, so we started driving to the closest hospital- Banner Thunderbird (which is still a 20-30 minute drive). I did alright for the first 10 minutes of the drive, but by the end, I was a disaster. My hands clamped shut into a fist and I could slowly feel my entire body going numb. I could barely breathe. This is the scariest thing that has ever happened to me! We got to the hospital and they were able to get fluids back in me. This hospital was a nightmare- that is why I will never deliver there- but that's a whole other story. They went ahead and checked me and found that I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. They ran the test again to see if I was at risk for pre term labor and it came back positive. I had no choice but to be put on bed rest.

The next few weeks were not much fun. I had AMAZING family and friends that helped out with Carter so much, but it was really hard to not be able to watch my own child. I was counting down the days until I turned 36 weeks, so I could be taken off of bed rest. I had things I wanted to do to get ready for the baby and Keith was about to go through a big merge with his company. He was running a large part of the transition and told me that the baby just couldn't come from May 1st- May 8th. I thought, "Great!" That will make me 37 weeks and then she can come.

The wonderful day arrived. I turned 36 weeks. I had my doctor's appointment scheduled for that afternoon and was looking forward to being released from bed rest. My mother in law drove me out to my sister's house in Mesa to hang out for the day before my appointment. We had a fun normal day just letting the boys play. It was time to go to the doctor and I was so excited to hear what he was going to say. We got in the car and I poured some water from a water bottle into Carter's sippy cup for him. I replaced the water bottle between my legs and we kept driving. We were just about to the doctor's office when I felt this tingly sensation between my legs. I went ahead and felt down there and could tell it was a little wet. I picked up the water bottle and could see a little puddle in the seat. I looked at my mother in law and said, "Either this water bottle is leaking, or my water just broke..." She just smiled and said, "I'm sure it's just the water bottle." I handed it to her and looked down and could see the puddle getting bigger and bigger. At this point, we were pulling into the parking lot. I looked at her and said, "I don't think that's the water bottle." She told me to go in and explain what happened. I walked in the door and told the lady at the front desk, "Hi, I have a scheduled appointment right now, but I think my water just broke..." Her eyes got huge and she told me that she would go grab someone. She came back and asked if I was sure. I could hear this dripping sound and I looked down and could see a puddle at my feet. I told her "I think so. I'm making a mess on the floor. I'm sorry.." She told me not to worry about it. One of the nurses came running out to get me and told me to go ahead and get undressed and that my doctor would be in to check me. At this point, I knew I needed to let Keith know what was going on, but everyone was moving so fast. I knew a text would freak him out but I didn't have enough time to call him. I think I sent him a text that said "My water just broke. Dr. Huish is about to check me know. I'll call you in a minute." I barely hit send when the doctor came in. He said I still had a lot of fluid in me so he wasn't sure if my water broke or not. He tested it and it came back positive. He told me I was dilated to a 4 and that I should head down the street to the hospital. I guess my mother in law had called Keith while I was getting checked so he had already left work and was heading to the hospital. I got to the hospital around 2:45. I wasn't really experiencing any contractions at that point. Around 4:00, I started having contractions but nothing too painful. They were about 3-4 minutes apart. After about an hour and a half, I told them I was ready for the epidural. They went ahead and called my doctor to make sure that was alright and he told them to start me on pitocin to get the contractions a little closer together. My doctor came in at 6:00, right after the epidural and pitocin were given to me and checked me. I was dilated to a 6. He told me that we were having a baby tonight and that he'd see me in a couple of hours. I went ahead and text my mom and told her I was dilated to a 6. She said she was on her way. I told her that she didn't have to come yet because we were still a few hours away, but she said she couldn't wait. The nurse came in at 6:45 and asked how I was doing. I told her I was doing good but for having the epidural, I was sure experiencing a lot of pressure. She said she was going to go ahead and check me, even though my doctor did less than an hour ago. She checked and said, "It's time to have a baby." I was shocked. In 45 minutes I had dilated from a 6-10. She went and called my doctor and told him to come back. I text my mom and said, "Just kidding. I guess it's time to push." This epidural was a lot different than with Carter. With him, I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't move my legs, feel any pressure or contractions. This time, the pain was numbed but I could still feel pressure and the tightness of the contractions. I think it took less than 30 minutes of pushing and only 4 contractions to get her out. The problem was my contractions were about 2 minutes apart. I would push during a contraction and then we would have to sit there for 2 whole minutes and wait for the next one. It was the most awkward and uncomfortable minutes of my life. No one said a word between the contractions and I just wanted the pressure of the baby coming out to be over. It wasn't so bad while I was pushing, but just sitting there was horrible. But out she came. The doctor said, "Oh we are glad she came early, she's a 9 pounder!" I thought, "What???" My barely 36 week old baby? But sure enough. She was 8 lbs 8 oz. 21 inches long. She was absolutely beautiful. They put her skin to skin on me and she started lifting her head and looking for food. They told me to go ahead and feed her if she was looking for it. She latched on within minutes. I couldn't believe it. We're still thinking that my due date might have been off, because she seems like she was a lot further along then 36 weeks and 0 days.

She has hair! :)

They still treated her as if she was a premie though, since she came a little early. She was being really noisy, just grunting and moaning. Carter was the same way, but since it's a sign of respiratory struggle, they wanted to take her back to the nursery and have her monitored. After 12 hours of monitoring her, all of her vitals looked great. She wasn't showing any sign of respiratory distress but she was still moaning and groaning. The pediatrician decided to go ahead and admit her to the nursery and have some tests run to make sure there wasn't any infection. As soon as she was admitted, she started doing great. The noises were dying down. But since she had been admitted and tests had been taken, we had to wait the 48 hours for the results. I was a little worried because I knew that our discharge times would be off by 12 hours. She would have to stay longer than I would and I was not alright with that. It was hard enough having her 2 doors down from me, but I didn't want to have to go home without her. Luckily, we were able to have a "nesting room." We got to stay in our room for the extra night with her. The tests all came back great and we were able to take her home the next morning.

Now we are just working on getting back to normal. Poor Keith.. Remember how he said we couldn't have the baby May 1st-8th... Yeah.. Oops! She came on the 1st. He worked from the hospital. A baby in one hand and a computer in the other. Changing diapers while talking on the phone. I seriously don't know how he did it and is still doing it. I'm so lucky to be blessed with such an amazing family. I love them all so much.