Lyla Jayne's birth story

LYLA  JAYNE  DELAHUNTY
June 20, 2017
5:05 pm
6 lbs. 12 oz.
20 in.

At 33 weeks, my doctor diagnosed me with preeclampsia. My lab work showed that it wasn't causing imminent danger to me or the baby so I went in twice a week for monitoring and lab work.

Week after week things were looking good. Just a few days before I hit 37 weeks, I noticed Lyla wasn't moving as much as she normally did. She was still moving, thankfully, but just nothing like normal. I also noticed a sudden increase in my symptoms. It was the weekend so I just had to wait it out until our appointment on Monday. At my appointment on Monday, I went in and told the high risk nurse, who was very familiar with me by then, that something was wrong. I explained to her my symptoms- I was seeing spots, having a super strong headache that wouldn't go away, I had been vomiting, and I just felt tired. She hooked me up to the non stress test and Lyla's heart rate was within normal range, but was about 25 beats per minute faster than it had been for months. She also barely moved in her NST which was out of the ordinary for her. The nurse went to talk to a doctor and they decided to induce me the next morning at 37 weeks. 

I walked out of the office and got in my car and started crying. I was so worried. I was worried something would go wrong that day, I was worried her little lungs weren't fully developed or that something else would go wrong during labor and delivery. That was a long day full of nerves and stress. I was so grateful for a priesthood blessing from Mike, my dad, and brother that night. The blessing talked about me having the faith and courage of Nephi as we went in the next morning to deliver the baby. It was one of the most powerful blessings I have ever received. 

On Tuesday morning June 20, we got to Mountain Point hospital at 6:30 am. We got all checked in and went up to our room- which was huge and beautiful! (I love Mountain Point!!!) After we fully checked in and got adjusted the nurses came in and started prepping me for everything. They started the pitocin around 8 am and Dr. Bean came in to break my water around 8:30 am. Things really started moving after they broke my water. The contractions were coming about every 2-3 minutes and they were lasting at least a minute each. I was really happy when the anesthesiologist came in at 9:30 to do my epidural. Once my epidural was in life was GOOD! I only felt the really strong contractions a little bit after that. The only problem with the epidural was it made me super itchy. I started to really get uncomfortable around 2:30 pm and I was only dilated to a 5 at that point! Thankfully I had Mike, Mike's mom, my mom, and my sister there to help distract me. We watched Beauty and the Beast, The Incredibles, and played Charades to help pass the time. Finally around 3:30 I had dilated from a 5 to a 9 in 45 minutes (thanks to my amazing nurse Paula and her peanut exercise ball)  At 4:30 I called the nurse back in because I was feeling a lot of pressure and thats when it was go time. I was at a 10 and they could see sweet Lyla's hair on her head!! 

The nurse explained to me  that it normally takes a first time mom at least an hour to push so to really prepare myself for an hour to an hour and a half of pushing. If only she could hear what I was saying in my head. I thought to myself- I was blessed with the courage of Nephi, AND I AM NOT pushing for an hour! haha!! I pushed with the nurse for 10 minutes before she told me to stop because the baby was crowning! We had to wait 5 minutes with no pushing for the doctor to show up while she was crowning. I was so mad. After about 4 minutes of waiting I yelled- "Where the freak is doctor Aagard?!" just as he was walking in haha! He was probably so annoyed with me, but there was a lot of discomfort from the baby crowning in my southern region... so who can blame me? It was less than 5 minutes later when I was holding little Lyla. 

I get emotional just thinking about those first moments with her. They were electric. The spirit was so strong and I just felt so much love and relief that she was finally here! Heaven was incredibly close and it was a moment that I will never forget. It is amazing how love (and God's divine plan) can create life! All I wanted to do was hold her. I didn't want to share her with anyone. I am so grateful that she is here and so healthy. The whole day was so special. I am so grateful that the Lord has trusted us to be her parents. She is such a joy already!

lots of love,
Brookeydee

Lyla's Newborn Photos

We did some newborn photos for Lyla Jayne this morning. The lighting was doing us a real favor. I love them!

lots of love, 

Brookeydee

Pregnancy Pros

This is what happens when you let your sister come to the doctor visit with you.. such an embarrassing yet real photo of how life has been lately. 

As we are rounding up to our last week and a half of pregnancy,  I realized there are some things I am going to miss. Amidst a lot of discomfort, there are some really great things about pregnancy. Here's a list of the pregnancy pros:

1. Feeling the baby move. The hiccups, kicks, punches, scoots, etc. I LOVE watching and feeling the baby move all day and night. It makes me smile every time!

2. People are so nice! Strangers and friends are constantly asking about me and how I am doing. I am always offered a seat when in a public place. I love how everyone is just so nice to a pregnant woman.

3. Massages! I have had a free pass to get a massage from my husband just about every single day of my pregnancy. Seriously, I think I get a massage at least 5 days a week! He is too good to me, I know! I will miss that!

4. Giving into cravings. Sometimes, the craving is just so strong that you cannot talk sense into yourself. Normally I am one to just eat something I have on hand regardless of how bad I am craving something, but during pregnancy, I have gone to get exactly what I want.

5. The anticipation. The anticipation always makes things better! I have never anticipated something so intensely in my life. I am dying to see our little girl and to find out what she looks like, how she acts, etc. I am so excited to meet her!

6. The miracle of pregnancy. The miracle of life being created, and developing inside of me. It is truly amazing! I am so grateful we were able to get pregnant with our sweet girl after months of trying. And I am so grateful that she is healthy so far.

Update- My preeclampsia symptoms have gotten worse so they have scheduled me for an early induction at our 38 week point on the 27th. Yesterday I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. I was up 3 times last night with some pretty strong contractions, so we will see if she comes on her own before the 27th!

We are getting so so excited to hold her, kiss her, and love her in just a week and a half or less!

Lots of love,
Brookeydee

Pregnancy Update

We have had a crazy few weeks over here!!

I have had high blood pressure since about 20 weeks of pregnancy. It has gotten high enough that my doctor has required me to get twice weekly non stress tests (NST) and weekly Amniotic Fluid Index (AFI) tests, labwork, and doctor's appointments, and ultrasounds every few weeks. Last week we went in for our first testing that included all of the tests- AFI, NST, ultrasound, and labwork. I was at the doctor's office for over 3 hours. It was a long time. Thankfully the AFI and NST showed that the baby is doing great! In the ultrasound, they told us that she is still doing good. She went from the 90% in size at our 22 week ultrasound to 40%  at 34 weeks. So she isn't growing quite as fast. They pushed back my due date just a few days to July 11th, instead of July 7th because of her size. So the baby passed all of her tests as being healthy, and the labwork showed that I have Preeclampsia, but it is not negatively affecting my body. So that is pretty good news! They told me this morning that I am dilated to a 2 and 60% effaced. I would LOVE it if this little babe came early. I would not be sad to miss out on those final weeks of pregnancy.

The other good news in our crazy day last week was I got to see her in two different ultrasounds, one at the beginning of the morning and another at the end. They told us she weighs about 5 pounds right now, and just estimating based on regular baby growth cycles she will weigh just under 8 pounds at full term. They also showed us that she has hair on her head! I am so so happy about that! My family has a curse of baby baldness and I haven't had heart burn once during my pregnancy so I was convinced she would be bald too, but she has hair! YAY!! I am so excited to meet our sweet girl.

I want to remember a story from Wednesday night. I have come down with a cold, the symptoms are mild besides the coughing. Wednesday was the worst night and I just felt so sick that I had no appetite. I made dinner but couldn't stomach it and I tried to eat just about everything in our kitchen and nothing sounded good, not even chocolate! That's when Mikey knew I was really sick haha! A combination of hormones (mostly hormones), hunger, and sickness led to a complete breakdown. Poor Mike, sat there trying not to laugh as I cried uncontrollably because I was hungry, sick, and tried of sharing my body. LOL. I literally said between sobs- "I just want medicine and I want to be able to skip a meal because it won't affect anyone but me, but I have a baby in there!" " I have been pregnant since October! I want to just have me in my body!!" And the crying just wouldn't stop. It was so so pathetic. I think it lasted about an hour, haha! Like I said, poor Mike!! We finally ended up at the McDonald's drive thru around 11 pm so I could get a grilled chicken sandwich and a diet coke. My husband is a saint. I wanted to remember this crazy pregnant lady moment, because I see how plain ridiculous it was. I have had one other experience like this and Mikey was so sweet to me then too. I am grateful this has only happened two times and is not a frequent occurrence. I hope it was the last.