So as you can see, Alexis has arrived, and yes, it does say that she has 16 more days to go on the freaky baby ticker thing. She was a tad early but actually perfectly on time! Here's the story. A few weeks ago the doctor pretty much checked and knew she was heading out a bit early. But at that point, it was
too early! I still had 5 1/2 weeks until my due date so 2 1/2 weeks before she would be full term, meaning she was fully cooked and safe to come. My babies have all been late-Skylar 4 days, Nick 2 days, & Kade 1 day so this was so unexpected! Anyway, without necessarily being put on bed rest, I was told to "take it easy" and do my best to not go into labor until the 20th of September.
Taking it easy with 3 little kid is much easier said than done. I honestly did my best to not do too much. I was, on the other hand, trying to get ready for the baby to come. Pretty much anything I did do set me off into having awesomely painful contractions. On the 12th Ben and I went out for our last date (Thanks again Adrianne for babysitting all the kids all by yourself!!) and the whole night I was having contractions. It made for a pretty exciting date. The doctor told me that if I had more than 6 contractions in an hour I should head straight to the hospital. That night I made it to five. Anyway, this is how the two and a half weeks were. So much fun!
Finally on the 19th, I was spent. Pretty much everything was prepared and I kept telling Ben that we should be ready because I'd almost reached my term date and she was on her way. Skylar had a birthday party she was really looking forward to on the 20th at the Hanamaikai's in Ogden. She was very insistent on going and kept telling me that we couldn't have the baby until later Saturday night after the party and BBQ. This was my goal. But....
Friday night I started having some contractions about 5 ish and once again, made it to five in one hour. We decided to go get some pizza since I was not up for cooking at all. After we got home and put the kids to bed, I once again started with the five an hour contractions until about midnight when Ben and I finally decided to try and get some sleep. At this point, I was happy I'd made it to 37 weeks-my term date and ultimate goal at this point! At 2:30 am I woke up with the killer contractions. I tried to just breathe through them for awhile and finally woke Ben up about 3:15 when they were consistently five minutes apart. He tried calling his mom but didn't get an answer and then we called my mom and dad to come down. My mom was so confused! I guess anyone being called in the middle of the night is confused! Anyway, they made a quick trip down, my dad and Ben gave me a priesthood blessing, and we got to the hospital around 5 am.
At the hospital they got me all hooked up to the machines and then the nurse checked me. I was only dilated to a 2 and not very effaced but she was not feeling a head coming down the birth canal. So she went to get an ultrasound machine and gets a nice clear picture of the baby's foot there, not her head. She was breech! She told me I was headed for a c-section since once you're in labor and the baby's breech, there's no going back. This was actually kind of nice. Within minutes of getting to the hospital, I knew how it was going to end up instead of my usual 10 hours (24+ with Sky) of labor with the warning of a c-section that I had gone through with all of my other kids. So, although I wasn't too excited about getting a c-section, I was glad I wasn't going to have to be in labor much longer.
They called the Dr. and got me an epidural pretty quickly. The Dr. was held up a little by another delivery but as soon as he showed up, everything went really fast. He checked me again and found that one of the baby's feet was already on its way out! They took me straight to the OR, Ben got dressed in his cute little OR clothes, and the c-section began. I was so out of it at this point from lack of sleep and the pain meds that I was totally falling asleep while it was going on! I didn't feel a thing. I just remember that it seemed like there was a ton of people in the room. I guess there was a bunch of nurses, aides, etc. in training and the Dr. was explaining the whole process to them. One of the nurses later told me that it was the coolest c-section that she'd ever seen. I honestly wish I could've seen it. Ben watched a bit and snapped a pic or two but I'll spare everyone those pictures. He actually did get a cool one of Alexis as her headed popped out. The doctor told me that she actually moved after he checked me so she was horizontal across my belly and instead of the usual breech bum coming out first, it was her head. Crazy baby!
So, at 8:04 am Alexis made her debut. She was teeny for one of our babies at only 7 lbs. 2 oz. but still a pretty good size. She had a little fluid in her lungs and her blood sugar was a little low but other than that, she was fully cooked and healthy. I only saw her for a few seconds and then they took her to the nursery to watch her for awhile. She had to have a little IV to get her blood sugar up. Poor baby! Ben went with her and I pretty much snoozed on and off for the next few hours. I finally got to hold her around 11 and instantly fell in love. which accounts for my stoned look in the picture, I guess.
Later on, Ben brought the kids to come see her. They were so excited!! I think Kade was a little weirded out by all the tubes coming out from me and that I was stuck in bed but he was okay. The kids all brought her a cute little cat they had made at Build-a-Bear for her. Skylar couldn't wait to hold her and said she completely forgave her for missing out on her friend's birthday party!
Here's
some shots of some of her visitors:
Of course, it took us a long time to actually name her. We always take a long time!! This was a record though. Since you have to stay in the hospital longer for a c-section, we had more time to work on the name. I was pretty much ready after the first day but Ben was still deliberating. We finally were down to two names-Alexis or Elise. The kids and I were rooting more for Alexis and Ben finally agreed. We finalized her name on Monday night (we came home Tuesday) to everyone's relief, especially all my nurses who were going crazy-they really wanted to make her a nametag! Camille is Ben's mom's name so she was named for her Grandma. So Alexis Camille is the name. We love it!
She's quite the cutie. She has dark brown hair and pretty dark eyes so I'm guessing they'll be brown. Her head is perfectly round since she came out the "easy" way. She looks a lot like my niece, Marisa, who everyone says looks like me and a lot like Nick, who is a mini-me, so I guess she looks like me. So far, she's got Ben's temperament and is pretty mellow. Of course, she mostly sleeps, but when she's awake she just kind of chills and looks around. She's very sweet and we're so glad she's here!!!
Our first family picture!
Anyway, so Ben thinks it's about time that I take the freaky baby ticker thing off but I'm leaving it on because it's kind of cool to see how much of the last dreaded weeks of pregnancy that I'm missing!!
It all started the Saturday before Skylar's birthday-Alexis was 1 week old. We headed up to SLC and went to the circus! Now, Ben & I are not big circus people and actually felt a little guilty taking our kids because of the whole treatment of the animals. I shouldn't condone this but Ringling Bros. & Barnum Bailey will actually give you a free ticket in the first 12 months of your baby's life that they can use anytime before they are twelve. 
I had signed up all my kids for this but we'd never used the tickets. The circus always comes on the weekend of Skylar's birthday but we'd been involved with other things. Anyway, this year, we promised her we'd go. So, even though we had a new baby, I was recovering from a c-section, and the circus is evil, we went. Our seats were totally in the nose-bleed section but the kids didn't seem to mind. Skylar and Nick loved the acrobats (Nick-because Robin was in the circus, of course), Ben and Kade loved the tigers, Alexis enjoyed the nap, and I thought the elephants were totally the coolest but saddest thing! We all had a pretty good time, celebrated Skylar's birthday, and Alexis' first outing!
So we went out to eat at Olive Garden and then came home and had our little "party" with Millie and her family. It wasn't much, but it was hopefully sufficient for Skylar. 
Of course, there were also presents-isn't that the best thing? Skylar really wanted Pancake Puffs this year. She has had the TV commercial memorized for months and it was on the top of her wish list. We have yet to try them out but she sure was excited to get them! She also wanted art stuff and Aladdin and Pocahontas "barbies". She lucked out and got it all. Hope you had a happy birthday Sky!! 
