i am a mom

My baby is here. No longer in my tummy, he is here!

I love him

and so does his dad

We love him.

The story.

(warning not complete yet)

Monday, at my last doctors appointment my blood pressure was higher than it normally was. It was not high enough for concern but higher than my normal.

My dad has high blood pressure so he has a machine that he uses to check his blood pressure every night.

Wednesday night he suggested that we check mine. It was 165/90-something, I didn't know what these number meant or where they should be (I now know normal is 100-130/70-85) but my parents said it was high.

My mom asked if I had eaten a lot of salt, I guess salt can raise your blood pressure. I had eaten roman noodles so I had had a lot of sodium. My mom suggested that I drink a lot of water and recheck it in the morning.

In the morning I checked it twice it was 150-someting/80-something then it was 135/85. Still high but I didn't know. I thought it went down quite a bit so I did not call the doctor.

I went to work, in the afternoon I ran into an aid and a teacher I use to work with. She was asking how I was doing, I showed her my huge swollen feet. She asked if I had hyper-tension. I didn't know. I told her about my blood pressure being up. She informed me of the risks of high blood pressure. The teacher said she had been put on bed rest when her blood pressure was at 147. After talking to them I decided to call the doctor.

It was a weird day at the doctors office so instead of going into the office they told me to go to the hospital to be monitored. Plus my doctor was there so he would be able to check on me if needs be.

I drove to the hospital right when I got off work. I called Graden to let him know what was going on (he was in Seattle, working). I also called my dad to let him know.

I got to the hospital and checked into a room. I was looking out the window and saw my mom walking in and my dad driving up with my grandma. I thought, "oh geez, why did they come? this is not a big deal"

The nurse came in and hooked me up to some monitors so we could hear the baby's heart beat then checked my blood pressure. This time it was 175/100-somthing. They kept checking it every 5-10 minutes. I don't think it ever went below 160/90.

They drew some of my blood and did some testing. I guess a lot of my numbers were low and my kidneys were starting to fail.

The nurse told me to call Graden and tell him to get on a plane right away. I said, "wait, what?" she said, "you are not going home tonight" in shock I asked "what?" again. She said, "you are having your baby tonight."

I called Graden. I said, "the nurse says you need to get on a plane now, I am having the baby tonight." He seemed more in shock than I was. He said, "wait, hold on. What does the doctor say?" We hadn't talked to the doctor yet because he was in a delivery. Graden said he was not going to get a flight until the doctor confirmed that I was really going to have the baby. Graden is very level headed, I'm not and he knows it.

About a hour later the doctor was finished, he called Graden and confirmed that if the baby did not come in the next 24 hours, his wife and baby would have a high chance of not making it.

My sister had already looked up flights so we gave her the go ahead to book the next flight out. She texted Graden the information and he got in the car and headed to airport. He called me to tell me he was on his way. I was very grateful!

The doctor checked me and said I was as hard as a brick. If I was induced it would have taken a couple days for me to have the baby. So we decided to do a c-section. I was confident that a c-sections was the best decision and was comforted that Dr Judd would be the one to do it. The doctor agreed to wait until Graden arrived.

At this point I was glad my parents were there and I no longer thought they were silly. While we were waiting for Graden I had visitors come. My father-in-law came, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Grandma and Grandpa Graves came. My neighbor Jared came. Of course my sister, her husband and baby were there, my cousin was there and my parent's best friends came. I felt very loved and am so grateful for all the support. I received a blessing and felt at peace.

There is a missionary (Dr. Taylor) that my parents work with in the Spanish ward that is an anesthesiologist. My mom called to see if he was on that night so he could give me the spinal block. He was not but willingly come in to do it for me.

Around eleven Dr. Taylor and the nurses came in to get me prepped for the c-section. They took me back into the operation room. I was so scared and could not stop shaking. My nurse and Dr. Taylor were so great and kind to me. They laid me down and the rest of the doctors came in. I was still so scared but Dr. Taylor kept reassuring me that everything was fine.

Right before they started cutting Graden walked in. I was so relieved to see him, he came and sat by my head and held my hand.

I don't remember this but this is what Graden says. The doctor said, come on dude, come out. Graden asked, is that a dude boy or girl? The doctor said, I don't know yet, we are almost there. The he said, "dude boy".

We were shocked. Although we never confirmed what the babe was, we all really thought it was a girl.

They took him over to clean him up a little and to get him all wrapped up. He was so little and had a head of hair. I took one glance at him and started to cry. When he was all wrapped up they brought him over for about 2 minutes and laid him on my shoulder while Graden held him. It was an amazing feeling, all I could do was cry.

They took him out to get him to the nursery, I asked Graden to go with him. The doctors finished working on me. I could wait to see and hold my baby so I asked when I would be able to see him. They told me I would be numb for the next six hours so six hours would be the soonest I would be able see him.

I don't remember what happen for the next few hours. The medicine they gave me for high blood pressure made me really sick. I was so anxious to see the babe so I was up around 4:30 and waited awake until 6 so I could go see my babe. Because the baby was 5.5 weeks early he had to have an IV so he could not leave the nursery.

The nurse came in, I tried to get up with her help but every time I sat up I got nauseous. For the next twelve hours every time I tried to get out of bed I would throw up. I was not able to see my baby until that night.

I can't describe what I felt when I held him. I couldn't believe that he is mine.