I guess now that I had another baby it's time to update my blog!
The past 4 years have been amazing and also full of ups and downs but we have absolutely loved being parents to Jane and have grown so much as a family. (I realized I need to update my last blog post and mention that we changed her name from Matea to Jane) Matt was ready to have more kids a long time ago but I kept putting it off. I didn't feel ready in so many ways and especially with Matt's job where we moved every 6 months I couldn't fathom the idea of doing that with two kids. Some people can handle it but I know my limits and I knew I'd go crazy (or I guess even crazier that I already have). We had not been trying to get pregnant and I was not on birth control but I know exactly when I'm ovulating so we used that and condoms as my birth control. (btw, I'm a very open book!) Anyways, one time we didn't use a condom and I knew our chances of getting pregnant were high because of when I was ovulating but I guess I wasn't too worried because with Jane we tried diligently for 8 months to get pregnant so I didn't think it would happen the first time with this one. On Friday, August 19, 2016, when I realized I should have started my period I went and bought some pregnancy tests after work. I remember being on the phone with my friend Lindsey as I was peeing on the stick and told her I just took a pregnancy test and am waiting for the results. She said, "Wouldn't that be crazy if you were pregnant and I was the first one to know?" Sure enough, the two little lines appeared and I couldn't believe it! I can't remember if I took another one right away (pretty sure I did) but I took so many tests over the next few days. Matt was selling pest control at the time so he wasn't home much at all so it was easy to not bring it up. I wanted to feel ready and excited to tell him because I knew he would be thrilled. The following Monday, Jane and I went to the mall after I worked and found a cute outfit for her to wear that said, "This is what an amazing sister looks like" and I bought a piece of his favorite cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and wrote a note on it saying, "Eat up! Mommy doesn't want to be the only one with a big belly!" When I got all of this ready to surprise him I was actually really excited to be pregnant and for Jane to have a little sibling. I took lots of pictures and a video of surprising Matt. I loved his reaction! He is seriously an incredible father.
The pregnancy was about the same as with Jane except this time I had major anxiety which I'll go into later. I didn't throw up (ok well except when Matt ad I were on the Road to Hana in our convertible and Matt was whipping around those switchbacks. I had ginger oil the next day that we drove on Road to Hana again and it helped so much and I didn't get sick! I know I would not have thrown up if we hadn't driven the Road to Hana-but I love it too much so now we've driven it 3 times!) We decided to announce the pregnancy while we were in Maui since we had just found out the gender through a blood test. Another girl! I had a midwife named Paula at first and then had to quickly go in to see a midwife the day we got back from Maui to talk about Zika because I got bit about 30 times from mosquitoes despite me using bug spray (mosquitoes LOVE me) and I also wanted to check on the baby. Paula wasn't in that day so I saw a midwife named Jennifer and I felt like I instantly connected with her. She also reminded me of a teacher from hygiene school name Leciel so I felt like I already knew her. I ended up switching to Jennifer but towards the end of my pregnancy she mentioned how she is most likely going to be out of town when my baby comes because she has to go to St George to help her mother who is sick. I was so bummed 🙁 So after that I started seeing Paula again which I felt a little awkward at first since I switched to another midwife 😬
The pregnancy emotionally was much harder. I had so much anxiety and some depression that I was scared of how I would feel towards my baby. I cried so much and ended up quitting my job because I couldn't handle the stress of work, being pregnant and mothering Jane and this was all at the time that Matt was selling in Texas and I was in Utah. I took a hypnobirthing course which seemed to help me relax a lot more, (except the first few weeks of the course the relaxation techniques made me stress out instead of relax!) even Matt noticed I was more calm, and we also got a 3D ultrasound since I was worried something wasn't going to be right with our baby. And I was trying to soak up as much one on one time with Jane that I could.
I was craving cookie dough one night so Matt being the awesome husband he is went late at night and got me some gelato with cookie dough! I dug through that whole carton to find every piece of cookie dough that I could.
My friend Stefanie is in cosmetology school and she colored my hair. I loved it!
My due date was May 1 and when nothing seemed to be progressing I had my membranes swept on May 5 at 10:30. I was really nervous for it because with Jane it hurt SO bad! But this time I hardly noticed it and had to ask if she swept all the membranes. She told me that since I was dilated to a "big fat 4" that as soon as I started having consistent contractions I needed to get to the hospital since things could progress really quickly after that. I went to my sister Emily's home afterwards and we walked to the park in her neighborhood and had Jane and some of her kids play for about an hour as I walked around the playground and clubhouse. It was so hot, probably the hottest day so far that we had this summer, so we walked back to Emily's and I drank a lot of water and paced her backyard and house for another couple of hours. Around 1pm I started to feel contractions but wasn't sure exactly since with Jane I never felt anything until right after my water broke and there was no leading up to it, just straight to incredibly intense contractions that were about a minute apart. My sister had me start keeping track of the contractions and by 3pm I had the most intense one yet. I called Matt around 5pm when they were getting stronger and told him to tell his boss he needed to get to Emily's just in case. He arrived at 6pm and we took some pictures with Jane- our last pictures as a family of 3. Then we headed to he hospital.
We said a prayer before we got out of the car and I noticed as we were walking up to the hospital so was Paula! I told her about my contractions and she was sure I would be admitted even though I don't think she liked that I was still able to walk through them. I could but it was hard to. Once we were in the triage room I was disappointed that I was still a 4 since I was hoping to be a 6...After an hour the nurse said that since I'm not progressing I could either walk around the hospital for an hour, go home or be admitted and have my water broken or start pitocin. We decided to walk it out for an hour and see what happens. During that walk I drank so much water but also had to go to the bathroom so many times. My body was definitely cleaning itself out to prepare for labor! We got back to the triage room and I still was a 4. 😒 The nurse thought because I had been sunburned from being outside today that I was just dehydrated and that was what was causing the contractions. With the contractions I was having though I really didn't feel like I should go back to Emily's but I didn't want to be induced so we decided we would go back, watch some Friday Night Lights (show I was currently watching on Netflix that I loved!) and eat some food. The nurse got the discharge papers ready and right before I signed them I had a big contraction and right after I signed the papers and handed them to the nurse at 9pm I said, " So, either I just peed the bed or my water broke." The nurse was sure it was just me peeing but she was wrong and my water had definitely broken! I am so glad I didn't leave! They had me walk to my labor and delivery room with a huge pad in between my legs (I was NOT happy about that. I mean come on, where's the wheelchair?!) Contractions were instantly more intense after my water broke. Matt was trying to sign all the papers (we hadn't even brought in our hospital bags since we wanted to wait to bring them in once I was admitted. We really didn't think labor was going to be so fast) and the nurses were trying to get the room all ready. I had taken a hypnobirthing class and practiced daily so I tried using the tracks and techniques but nothing was working. People who use hypnobirthing talk about pressure and not pain but what I was feeling was 100% PAIN. I finally said, "Can somebody please turn that s*** off?!" (I know, shocker, I have a swearing problem sometimes. It's a work in progress...) The nurses started laughing and said they had never heard anyone say that before about hypnobirthing. Ya, hypnobirthing didn't work for me. I tried so hard to relax and use the techniques but nope. I did my best to cope and the nurse and Matt tried counter pressure on my knees which seemed to help a little but not much. The moment I felt like I couldn't breathe and that I was going to hyperventilate was when I decided to get the epidural. The nurses checked me and I was barely a 5... They still hadn't placed the IV in me since my labor was progressing so quickly and they were still trying to get everything ready but since I was so dehydrated they kept having to get more nurses to try to get it in. (2 pokes per nurse) I think 8 pokes later a nurse named Hope got it in! Thank goodness because if I didn't get that IV in I couldn't get the epidural. Paula was helping another mom deliver a baby ( Go figure, my midwife with Jane wasn't there while I was in intense labor either 😩) and I was IN SO MUCH PAIN! Apparently my contractions get stronger but my body doesn't dilate... What seemed to take forever the anesthesiologist finally came in and then took his sweet time setting things up but then the epidural was in and started to work. At that point Paula finally came in and she felt terrible that she wasn't there for me. (I'm hiring a doula next time) Even though I had the epidural I could still feel the baby and contractions quite a bit. With Jane, once I got the epidural I couldn't feel anything. Literally felt nothing, not even pressure, even when Jane was crowning. A few minutes after Paula came in, at 10:45pm I started feeling a lot of pressure so she checked me and I was ready to push! Pushing was so much harder than with Jane. Granted Jane weighed 5lbs 11oz so pushing her out was really easy I even remember saying "I'm not even breaking a sweat!" HA. But I was getting tired already this time after a few pushes. I couldn't believe some women push for hours! They had a mirror all ready for me to see our baby crowning but I always decline. I really would rather not see me in that position pushing out a baby...but I did touch her head this time as she was crowning; it was so squishy! Paula's goal was to have the baby out in less than 22 minutes since that's how long it took for me to push out Jane and at 11:04pm (2 min less pushing time!) our beautiful baby girl was born! Matt cut the cord this time and I had my wish of skin to skin for an hour and she nursed really well. She weighed 7lbs 15oz and was 20.5 inches long. I couldn't believe she was here! I kept saying, "You're ok, you're ok, come here baby girl." I wanted her to feel so loved and wanted. I really do not like this picture of me but I'm posting it anyways since it's the first picture we took with her. I had asked the nurse to do my hair like hers since I thought it was so cute and this is how it turned out haha oh well. It kind of looks like a heart.
It took us over 12 hours to finalize a name because we were so exhausted, my blood pressure was all over the place (very high and then very low) and I felt like I was going to pass out multiple times and drop our baby when I was holding her in bed, so we took advantage of the nursery so I could try to rest. It was so hard to fall asleep and I was kind of scared to because of how I felt. I'm sure there was no chance but I felt like if I fell asleep I wouldn't wake up. It was weird.
The next day we decided to name her Kate Evelyn La Chappelle! Kate is a name I have always loved because it'll be so simple and cute when she is younger but classy when she is older. Plus, with our last name I like to keep our first names simple. Evelyn is a name I had thought about often because of a famous marimbist name Evelyn Glennie but it wasn't until my mom posted about my second great grandmother delivering her second set of twins on May 5 and one of them was named Evelyn that I decided Evelyn would be her middle name. Matt really liked it too! (We could not agree on a middle name until this point) I stayed another night at the hospital and then Jane came to meet her baby sister. We were really worried how she was going to react because when Matt was with Jane on the way to the hospital she didn't want to see pictures of Kate at all. But once she walked into my room her face lit up and she loved her and kept saying, "Oh my baby! She's so cute! She came out of my mommy's tummy and went "eee!"" (Kate was making cute noises) We were both relieved! I love my little family! Here are some of my favorite pictures that were taken over the next week.
The past 4 years have been amazing and also full of ups and downs but we have absolutely loved being parents to Jane and have grown so much as a family. (I realized I need to update my last blog post and mention that we changed her name from Matea to Jane) Matt was ready to have more kids a long time ago but I kept putting it off. I didn't feel ready in so many ways and especially with Matt's job where we moved every 6 months I couldn't fathom the idea of doing that with two kids. Some people can handle it but I know my limits and I knew I'd go crazy (or I guess even crazier that I already have). We had not been trying to get pregnant and I was not on birth control but I know exactly when I'm ovulating so we used that and condoms as my birth control. (btw, I'm a very open book!) Anyways, one time we didn't use a condom and I knew our chances of getting pregnant were high because of when I was ovulating but I guess I wasn't too worried because with Jane we tried diligently for 8 months to get pregnant so I didn't think it would happen the first time with this one. On Friday, August 19, 2016, when I realized I should have started my period I went and bought some pregnancy tests after work. I remember being on the phone with my friend Lindsey as I was peeing on the stick and told her I just took a pregnancy test and am waiting for the results. She said, "Wouldn't that be crazy if you were pregnant and I was the first one to know?" Sure enough, the two little lines appeared and I couldn't believe it! I can't remember if I took another one right away (pretty sure I did) but I took so many tests over the next few days. Matt was selling pest control at the time so he wasn't home much at all so it was easy to not bring it up. I wanted to feel ready and excited to tell him because I knew he would be thrilled. The following Monday, Jane and I went to the mall after I worked and found a cute outfit for her to wear that said, "This is what an amazing sister looks like" and I bought a piece of his favorite cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and wrote a note on it saying, "Eat up! Mommy doesn't want to be the only one with a big belly!" When I got all of this ready to surprise him I was actually really excited to be pregnant and for Jane to have a little sibling. I took lots of pictures and a video of surprising Matt. I loved his reaction! He is seriously an incredible father.
The pregnancy was about the same as with Jane except this time I had major anxiety which I'll go into later. I didn't throw up (ok well except when Matt ad I were on the Road to Hana in our convertible and Matt was whipping around those switchbacks. I had ginger oil the next day that we drove on Road to Hana again and it helped so much and I didn't get sick! I know I would not have thrown up if we hadn't driven the Road to Hana-but I love it too much so now we've driven it 3 times!) We decided to announce the pregnancy while we were in Maui since we had just found out the gender through a blood test. Another girl! I had a midwife named Paula at first and then had to quickly go in to see a midwife the day we got back from Maui to talk about Zika because I got bit about 30 times from mosquitoes despite me using bug spray (mosquitoes LOVE me) and I also wanted to check on the baby. Paula wasn't in that day so I saw a midwife named Jennifer and I felt like I instantly connected with her. She also reminded me of a teacher from hygiene school name Leciel so I felt like I already knew her. I ended up switching to Jennifer but towards the end of my pregnancy she mentioned how she is most likely going to be out of town when my baby comes because she has to go to St George to help her mother who is sick. I was so bummed 🙁 So after that I started seeing Paula again which I felt a little awkward at first since I switched to another midwife 😬
The pregnancy emotionally was much harder. I had so much anxiety and some depression that I was scared of how I would feel towards my baby. I cried so much and ended up quitting my job because I couldn't handle the stress of work, being pregnant and mothering Jane and this was all at the time that Matt was selling in Texas and I was in Utah. I took a hypnobirthing course which seemed to help me relax a lot more, (except the first few weeks of the course the relaxation techniques made me stress out instead of relax!) even Matt noticed I was more calm, and we also got a 3D ultrasound since I was worried something wasn't going to be right with our baby. And I was trying to soak up as much one on one time with Jane that I could.
I was craving cookie dough one night so Matt being the awesome husband he is went late at night and got me some gelato with cookie dough! I dug through that whole carton to find every piece of cookie dough that I could.
My friend Stefanie is in cosmetology school and she colored my hair. I loved it!
And two of my best friends offered to give me a pedicure and it felt amazing!
My due date was May 1 and when nothing seemed to be progressing I had my membranes swept on May 5 at 10:30. I was really nervous for it because with Jane it hurt SO bad! But this time I hardly noticed it and had to ask if she swept all the membranes. She told me that since I was dilated to a "big fat 4" that as soon as I started having consistent contractions I needed to get to the hospital since things could progress really quickly after that. I went to my sister Emily's home afterwards and we walked to the park in her neighborhood and had Jane and some of her kids play for about an hour as I walked around the playground and clubhouse. It was so hot, probably the hottest day so far that we had this summer, so we walked back to Emily's and I drank a lot of water and paced her backyard and house for another couple of hours. Around 1pm I started to feel contractions but wasn't sure exactly since with Jane I never felt anything until right after my water broke and there was no leading up to it, just straight to incredibly intense contractions that were about a minute apart. My sister had me start keeping track of the contractions and by 3pm I had the most intense one yet. I called Matt around 5pm when they were getting stronger and told him to tell his boss he needed to get to Emily's just in case. He arrived at 6pm and we took some pictures with Jane- our last pictures as a family of 3. Then we headed to he hospital.
We said a prayer before we got out of the car and I noticed as we were walking up to the hospital so was Paula! I told her about my contractions and she was sure I would be admitted even though I don't think she liked that I was still able to walk through them. I could but it was hard to. Once we were in the triage room I was disappointed that I was still a 4 since I was hoping to be a 6...After an hour the nurse said that since I'm not progressing I could either walk around the hospital for an hour, go home or be admitted and have my water broken or start pitocin. We decided to walk it out for an hour and see what happens. During that walk I drank so much water but also had to go to the bathroom so many times. My body was definitely cleaning itself out to prepare for labor! We got back to the triage room and I still was a 4. 😒 The nurse thought because I had been sunburned from being outside today that I was just dehydrated and that was what was causing the contractions. With the contractions I was having though I really didn't feel like I should go back to Emily's but I didn't want to be induced so we decided we would go back, watch some Friday Night Lights (show I was currently watching on Netflix that I loved!) and eat some food. The nurse got the discharge papers ready and right before I signed them I had a big contraction and right after I signed the papers and handed them to the nurse at 9pm I said, " So, either I just peed the bed or my water broke." The nurse was sure it was just me peeing but she was wrong and my water had definitely broken! I am so glad I didn't leave! They had me walk to my labor and delivery room with a huge pad in between my legs (I was NOT happy about that. I mean come on, where's the wheelchair?!) Contractions were instantly more intense after my water broke. Matt was trying to sign all the papers (we hadn't even brought in our hospital bags since we wanted to wait to bring them in once I was admitted. We really didn't think labor was going to be so fast) and the nurses were trying to get the room all ready. I had taken a hypnobirthing class and practiced daily so I tried using the tracks and techniques but nothing was working. People who use hypnobirthing talk about pressure and not pain but what I was feeling was 100% PAIN. I finally said, "Can somebody please turn that s*** off?!" (I know, shocker, I have a swearing problem sometimes. It's a work in progress...) The nurses started laughing and said they had never heard anyone say that before about hypnobirthing. Ya, hypnobirthing didn't work for me. I tried so hard to relax and use the techniques but nope. I did my best to cope and the nurse and Matt tried counter pressure on my knees which seemed to help a little but not much. The moment I felt like I couldn't breathe and that I was going to hyperventilate was when I decided to get the epidural. The nurses checked me and I was barely a 5... They still hadn't placed the IV in me since my labor was progressing so quickly and they were still trying to get everything ready but since I was so dehydrated they kept having to get more nurses to try to get it in. (2 pokes per nurse) I think 8 pokes later a nurse named Hope got it in! Thank goodness because if I didn't get that IV in I couldn't get the epidural. Paula was helping another mom deliver a baby ( Go figure, my midwife with Jane wasn't there while I was in intense labor either 😩) and I was IN SO MUCH PAIN! Apparently my contractions get stronger but my body doesn't dilate... What seemed to take forever the anesthesiologist finally came in and then took his sweet time setting things up but then the epidural was in and started to work. At that point Paula finally came in and she felt terrible that she wasn't there for me. (I'm hiring a doula next time) Even though I had the epidural I could still feel the baby and contractions quite a bit. With Jane, once I got the epidural I couldn't feel anything. Literally felt nothing, not even pressure, even when Jane was crowning. A few minutes after Paula came in, at 10:45pm I started feeling a lot of pressure so she checked me and I was ready to push! Pushing was so much harder than with Jane. Granted Jane weighed 5lbs 11oz so pushing her out was really easy I even remember saying "I'm not even breaking a sweat!" HA. But I was getting tired already this time after a few pushes. I couldn't believe some women push for hours! They had a mirror all ready for me to see our baby crowning but I always decline. I really would rather not see me in that position pushing out a baby...but I did touch her head this time as she was crowning; it was so squishy! Paula's goal was to have the baby out in less than 22 minutes since that's how long it took for me to push out Jane and at 11:04pm (2 min less pushing time!) our beautiful baby girl was born! Matt cut the cord this time and I had my wish of skin to skin for an hour and she nursed really well. She weighed 7lbs 15oz and was 20.5 inches long. I couldn't believe she was here! I kept saying, "You're ok, you're ok, come here baby girl." I wanted her to feel so loved and wanted. I really do not like this picture of me but I'm posting it anyways since it's the first picture we took with her. I had asked the nurse to do my hair like hers since I thought it was so cute and this is how it turned out haha oh well. It kind of looks like a heart.
It took us over 12 hours to finalize a name because we were so exhausted, my blood pressure was all over the place (very high and then very low) and I felt like I was going to pass out multiple times and drop our baby when I was holding her in bed, so we took advantage of the nursery so I could try to rest. It was so hard to fall asleep and I was kind of scared to because of how I felt. I'm sure there was no chance but I felt like if I fell asleep I wouldn't wake up. It was weird.
The next day we decided to name her Kate Evelyn La Chappelle! Kate is a name I have always loved because it'll be so simple and cute when she is younger but classy when she is older. Plus, with our last name I like to keep our first names simple. Evelyn is a name I had thought about often because of a famous marimbist name Evelyn Glennie but it wasn't until my mom posted about my second great grandmother delivering her second set of twins on May 5 and one of them was named Evelyn that I decided Evelyn would be her middle name. Matt really liked it too! (We could not agree on a middle name until this point) I stayed another night at the hospital and then Jane came to meet her baby sister. We were really worried how she was going to react because when Matt was with Jane on the way to the hospital she didn't want to see pictures of Kate at all. But once she walked into my room her face lit up and she loved her and kept saying, "Oh my baby! She's so cute! She came out of my mommy's tummy and went "eee!"" (Kate was making cute noises) We were both relieved! I love my little family! Here are some of my favorite pictures that were taken over the next week.
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