(Pronounced Ja-lee-ah)
It’s already been 5 weeks with our sweet little girl and I still feel like I’m dreaming!! I literally spend most of my days just staring in awe of her while mountains of laundry pile up (like to the point the laundry room door won’t close… haha it’s bad) but I don’t care… I have my little girl and my heart explodes every time I hold her tiny snuggly self…God knew I needed her. So right now I’m just soaking up all her sweetness and all the baby snuggles I can. Time is already going too fast for me…
I thought I’d share her birth story with you all because from the beginning of my pregnancy it has been rough and the day I had her was very much so too… but thankfully God was in control. If you been following me on my Instagram during my pregnancy, you’ll know that I suffered with major morning sickness for the first 6 months… sometimes I got sick 5 times a day.. I felt like I lived in the bathroom! I was always making Robert pull over the car, he would be so sweet about it and pull my hair back while I dry heaved my life away. Once I got sick in the middle of a Sonic drive thru haha poor worker probably only heard me calling dinosaurs when Robert was trying to order and I’m sure the people behind us no longer wanted to even order after they saw me hanging out the passenger door haha I can’t even imagine what they thought…. I’m so gross!! For some reason my prime hours to get sick were between 10pm and 4am… I was a complete zombie and didn’t even have newborn yet! Thankfully it settled around month 6 but then surprise!!! Insomnia hit me like a brick wall… I was no longer hugging toilets at night, I got to catch up on all my tv shows and online shop instead haha but honestly it was soooo terrible I would get an average of 3-4 hrs of sleep a night and then watch two wild toddlers the next day. Sometimes I wondered how I even functioned on no sleep with those two jumping off the walls.. and Jett constantly taking his diaper off!! (kids gone wild, knock before you come to our place) Parenthood is no joke… but I’m sure I made God laugh a few times. Was he preparing me for a colic baby? Thank goodness Gelia is the sleepiest out of the three!!
Okay jumping to her birth story…
(FYI I’m going to share some TMI details so if your not feeling like reading that then you may wanna skip this!)
*two weeks prior I had a false alarm and stared bleeding (not a ton but more than just a little and enough for my doctor to put me on bed rest for a week until I hit 37 weeks. (which that week felt like another 9 months in itself… I also devoured my weight in donuts I’m sure that week because what else was I suppose to do?) Every check up, my doctor would say “how are you still pregnant?” I would get so frustrated because for two weeks she would say “I doubt you’ll make the weekend”… and I’d make the weekend. Then, “I give you only a couple of days”… then I went a week.. then she said “you are almost halfway dilated… I can feel her head.. it could be any minute!”. Umm… what?! Guys I was so annoyed because I swear it just made me that much more on edge. Like is it safe for me too walk… is she going to fall out? How am I not in labour if I’m almost halfway dilated? Legit thoughts that ran through my head…
Sunday, February 10th… I was getting ready for church and putting makeup on when all of a sudden… I was soaked… I didn’t feel a pop though like I did with the boys when my water broke with them but yelled out loud to Robert “IT’S HAPPENING!!”
“See this green line? it should be blue if it’s amniotic fluid…. BUT it should also stay yellow if it’s not…. I have never in my career seen a green line” said the nurse to me so confused. After doing more tests and getting a green line back each time she looked more complexed than ever.. and here I am just laying there anxiously like “Yo!! we getting this baby out of me or what?”. But after a healthy ultrasound to check my fluid levels she gave me the dreaded news.. “you get to go home, your not in labour, we aren’t sure where the fluid came from but go get some rest”. I’m sure my face said said not so nice things to her… I was so excited and my adrenaline was pumping to meet our little girl and now had to go back to feeling pregnant for life. To be honest I was so emotionally and physically drained…. mostly because I was told so many times it’s happening any day, any minute just feel frustrated and helpless in return. As soon as we got home and snuggled up with Jettler and took a nap… I was so over that morning!
When I woke up from my nap I had this undeniable gut wrenching feeling that something wasn’t right. I didn’t know what, but I remember thinking… something was wrong. I couldn’t shake the feeling. I laid in bed for a few minutes and then as soon as I stepped out I thought… “she hasn’t moved in awhile… ” and then I began to tell myself, don’t be the crazy pregnant lady, theres no way your going to show your face back at that hospital until she’s halfway out (kidding obviously but you get the point). Every so often I’d feel her little kicks and movements throughout my pregnancy but I was never one to track them, maybe I just subconsciously tracked them? I didn’t think much of it.. some days she was more active than others.
Ten minutes went by and then it really hit me hard… she still wasn’t moving!! I started to poke and push on the sides of my belly to get her to move.. nothing… absolutely NOTHING! Rushing panic set in!! I was sitting by Robert on the couch and started to really push and nudge my belly, I tried changing sitting positions, laying down, on my side.. jumping up, walking around…and then I started yelling… “Move baby girl… please move!!!!”. I looked over at Robert and I think he knew by my face and my reaction how serious it was. He immediately woke the kids up and put their shoes one while now in tears was still persistently trying everything in my power to get her to move… and… nothing. I would love to say in that moment I didn’t fear… but I did. I know God is mighty and sovereign and I wish I could say I didn’t think the worst right then, but I did. My heart was racing.
As soon as we got in the car all I thought was.. I need help!! I called my mom (who lives in Canada) and I can’t even imagine what she heard when she answered, I was screaming and crying and all I could get out was “PRAY!!!!… I need you to pray!!!”….. “she’s not moving mom, I can’t get her to move”. Honestly just typing this is really hard for me and I’m bawling my eyes out reliving that moment, it still gives me shivers. My mom though… she knew exactly what to do, she immediately started praying outloud on the phone with me… praying for the baby to be safe, praying for me to be strong… she was fierce in faith when I was weak in mine… her words are exactly what I needed. Robert was racing… like full on racing to the hospital which was only 5 minutes away but in that very moment it felt like it took forever. I remember he put his hazard lights on to try and warn people he was a crazy driver!
When he pulled up to the entrance I dove out of the car and ran as fast as I could to the maternity entrance, picked up the phone for the door to get it unlocked and all I could get out was.. “my baby isn’t moving!!” When the door opened and I saw the nurse I literally ran into her arms crying… she immediately took me to a room, sat me down and put the heart monitors on me and said lets see whats going on…. a few seconds later… “Thump thump… thump thump” I heard it…… our little baby girls heartbeat… and then I just collapsed in the bed and cried. Robert was still parking the car with our boys. Our little girl however still wasn’t moving… the nurse used a small zap machine (not harmful) and said it usually will start fetal movement…. instantly after SHE MOVED!!!! I felt her little kicks and then I was just a full out emotional mess! Tears flowed down while I had a smile on my face! She’s okay.. she’s okay I told my self… well until I looked over at the nurse who was staring at the babies heart rate on the screen… she immediately said I’ll be right back I’m going to go talk to the doctor and she took the babies heart rate sheets with her. I literally couldn’t handle this up and down mass of emotions. I couldn’t take on any more bad news or uncertainty. I was still trembling from what just happened and trying to hold it all together because I knew Robert and the boys were coming in soon and I didn’t want to scare the boys.
A few seconds after the nurse left my phone went off. I thought it was Robert texting me asking me which room I was in but I got random message from a friend back in Vancouver. (Brittney if your reading this… your message came when I needed it most) I haven’t seen her in a decade, we message now and then on Instagram but thats it. She shared her heart “God is in control, trust him, your baby will come in his timing” she had no idea what was going on right then, not a clue! I only had told my mom. Her words literally stopped time for me. God is in control. I needed to be reminded how big he is, he’s got her in his hands, he’s going to take care of her… Robert and the kids walked in and all I could do was just give him a nod… in my way telling him baby girl is alive. During all of this, Salt Lake just got hit was a blizzard out of no where which turned into one of the worse blizzards of the entire year!! It was crazy, I couldn’t see out my hospital room window! The nurse came back in with a slight smile and said “your not going home, your going to have your baby today okay?” My heart just about jumped out of me and hugged her!! She began to tell us how Gelia’s heart rate was slightly irregular and not always consistent sometimes. Nothing that needed an immediate emergency procedure but enough that the doctor didn’t feel okay about sending me home. I just remember the doctor saying “it’s a good thing you came in today, we aren’t sure whats going on so lets get your girl out”. It was 6:30pm when I got my epidural, 10 minutes later they broke my water. I was on cloud nine, no more stress, nor more scares… we finally get to meet our baby soon.
Robert is just being super dad and super husband, dealing with a emotional disaster pregnant wife, racing through traffic, watching our two boys and trying to keep them preoccupied and happy in our hospital room while also trying to be there for me. I joke that he went through more that day then I did giving birth, but I honestly I think he did. He was beyond incredible. Because of the blizzard our friend that offered to watch our boys (whenever I went into labor) couldn’t make it, and we didn’t want him to even attempt driving in that weather so thats why the boys were with us. The nurse told Robert and the kids they could grab food down at the cafeteria and I remember saying to him to take his time because I didn’t have any contractions and felt like it would be a couple of hours at least. I just laid there chomping on my big cup of ice chips (I was addicted to them) Well… at 7 pm not even 15 mins after Robert left, the nurse checked me… I was fully dilated…. I went from 5cms to 10cms in 20 minutes!!!!!! I had no clue. So here I am… laying on the delivery table calling Robert at this point telling him it’s go time haha so much chaos guys… I can’t make this stuff up, what a day!! I just need to say the nurses and doctor working that night were sent from heaven… I truly believe each one was meant to be there. One nurse wasn’t even supposed to be working but she said she felt like she needed to come in and she also told me she had a strong feeling I was meant to have that gut feeling earlier that something was wrong otherwise we wouldn’t have known her heart rate was randomly dropping. Now looking back at, I believe it was God giving me that mother instinct to be extra aware of her movements in that time frame.
Playing with their big brother presents!
[ We did the same thing when Kyden became a big brother to Jett. We always make sure the older siblings get a present to open up when they meet their little sibling because we want them to know it’s a day to celebrate and becoming a big brother is special! Also so they didn’t feel left out because they are so little they may don’t understand why mom and dad are giving this little baby attention that would normally be theirs. Kyden to this day calls his little carwash toy his big brother present that he got at the doctors… it’s so sweet. ]
Because we had our boys with us, a nurse offered to watch them in the delivery room with us. I know.. not the most preferred situation but sometimes life just throws curve balls and you gotta roll with it. They set up chairs on the other side of the curtain where our boys watched their ipads and had their toys and stack of bribing candy I had packed for emergency cases just like this. To clarify, there was a nurse with them standing at the curtain the whole time making sure they were okay and also that they didn’t see anything that would traumatize them (aka blood). If I’m going to be honest, which I know a lot of women don’t want to hear this… but it’s how it happened. I didn’t feel any contractions so I knew I wasn’t going to scream in pain or anything and scare my boys and thats why we were okay with them in the room.
” IT’S GO TIME!!!”
The doctor on call looked at Robert and I and said are you two ready?!! Ahhhhh… it was really happening now, no more waiting… lets go… I was so excited!!!! Two pushes and our Gelia was here…. safe, healthy and ohhh so beautiful!!!!!! I’ve dreamed of this moment my whole life… what would it feel like to hold my little girl for the first time ever? It was the most amazing feeling, completely unexplainable, a level of bliss I never knew existed! Her sweet little heart beating against my chest and my eyes locking on every delicious inch of her!
At this point I was covered up enough and as soon as the boys heard her litter cry for the first time, they peeked from under the curtain to see their new sister! Two protective big brothers already concerned about their baby sister… truly some of my favorite photos and glad Robert captured them! From a day with so many terrifying moments, a lot of prayers and terrible weather… there she was.. at 7:23pm our sweet 7 lb 10 oz angel girl with the cutest dimple I’ve ever seen… she’s perfect! She’s been the best little baby, she’s so content and just loves sleeping! (we are spoiled) Her big brothers loved her at first sight and call her “Gigi”. (fun fact, I’ve always wanted a little girl with a nickname Gigi) If you been watching my Instagram stories you probably have Kyden and Jettler love on her non stop, they have both been so gentle with her. So proud of our boys! How’d we get so lucky?! We are now a family of 5 and have never felt so complete. We couldn’t be more thankful.
When I look back at that day, I see it all so clearly. From the false alarm that morning to my gut instinct later to all the nurses, the doctor, my mom and the message from my friend. Without a doubt he was watching over our girl that day putting all the right people in the right places. I feel as though God knew he had to warn me in order for her to arrive safely. So if you are going through something hard in your life right now where you are feeling hopeless or stuck or terrified, I promise you he’s holding your hand and walking through it with you. He’s in control and as hard as it may be, you need to trust him. When I was weak physically and mentally, he was strong. When I feared, he was sovereign. Little did I know, he was planning our little girls birthday int he midst of all the chaos.
**Lastly if you ever get a gut instinct that something is wrong, I believe more than ever that you need to pay attention to it. I truly believe they are warnings from above to protect us. So never ignore them. I’m so thankful I didn’t ignore mine.
Here are my favorite 3 songs that remind me, he’s bigger than anything I’m facing <3
Xx, Stacey
I teared up, chuckled and cheared. What a great post. God’s so good. Glad everyone’s doing great!