Introducing Rigdon Lee Powell

We arrived at Proctor Hospital on Sept 9th at 7:00 am and they starting getting me admitted and hooked up to monitors. A little over an hour later I was on the oxytocin and starting to contract. The monitors were having a hard time picking up the baby's heartbeat because of the massive amounts of fluid around him. So we had to move the monitors around every few minutes. Look at that belly!! I don't miss it one bit!!
Kendall brought me a gift after a few hours. Aren't they gorgeous?
And he found a new Willow Tree Statue that I didn't have. It is so perfect. I, of course, cried.
After a few hours of contractions the baby's head was down low enough that they decided to put a tiny little hole in the sac to see if we could drain off a little bit of the fluid. They also put an internal monitor on the baby's head so that we could keep him monitored better. The very small hole was just enough to release a much bigger hole and we had some major flooding! The nurse was guessing that I lost about 10 pounds of fluid - over a gallon! My stomach was so much smaller already!

The labor was about 12 hours total, which was a lot longer than I thought it would be. I was getting a bit discouraged. But he was a very big boy and he delivered "sunny side up" which makes for an even more difficult delivery. I had to have an episiotomy because of his size. But he was nice and pink and got great APGAR scores, 8 and 9. He was also WIDE awake for quite a few hours just taking everything in.
Rigdon Lee Powell was born at 8:14 pm on Sept 9th. He weighed in at 9 lbs 13 oz and he was 20 1/2 inches long! Looks like the nickname "Big Rig" is a keeper. He was almost 2 pounds bigger than Mercedes, who was my biggest baby up to now. Look at that big guy! He doesn't even look like a newborn! He is completely solid. :)
I must say that this was an extremely difficult labor and delivery for me. My epidural was not being very cooperative since I was completely numb in my back and legs, but I could feel the contractions absolutely killing me! Not a very pleasant combination. But as soon as this beautiful baby boy was handed to me I was all smiles. It never ceases to amaze me what a mother will go through for these amazing little spirits who come straight from Heavenly Father into our arms and our hearts.
It was love at first sight.
Our first "family" photo (without the other kids). All I can say is that I am extremely exhausted and super swollen from hours of labor and fluids being pumped into me, but I was one proud mommy.
The proud Daddy can't seem to get enough of his little man!
So sweet. And chunky cheeks already. :)
Kendall's favorite part about newborns...cuddle time!
Rigdon is so comfortable with Daddy, no matter what the position.
So far Rigdon has been a very fat and happy little baby. He nurses like a champion and thinks he is always hungry. He sleeps wonderfully (so far!) and he is just content. He is 24 hours old and we don't have a single complaint about our perfect little boy.
And look at all that hair! He is somewhere between blond and brown right now, but he has tons of downy soft hair. They had to wash it 3 times after he was born!
Giving an almost smile for Daddy.
He's been quite alert at times. He loves to just look around and see what he can and take it all in.
This morning my mom brought Talmage and Sadie to meet Rigdon for the first time. Avri was at school. Sadie was nervous just for a couple of minutes. But once she got to hold him, she was hooked! Here is Talmage telling me that he was right, Rigdon has blond hair "just like me!"
I didn't think Talmage would care much about having a new baby around. But he is SOOO excited. He wants to start sharing his toys immediately.
Sadie has been practicing how to hold a baby. See?
And now she finally gets to put her skills to good use.
Avri got to come tonight, after school was out and Grandma and Grandpa had taken the kids to a movie. She is a professional with babies by now.
Grandma and Grandpa didn't take long to warm up to him. (That's an understatement!)

My Dad was also thoughtful and brought me some beautiful flowers, so the room looks so nice and cheery!
This morning after I got a shower Rigdon was so alert and interactive. I just can't get enough of him!

Welcome to our family Rigdon. We are finally complete and we love you more than you could ever know. We are so glad that you are here, safe and sound, and that we get to start our lives together.

End of days

I haven't written down any of the details of this pregnancy anywhere and since the end of this one has been so different I thought I would document it a little bit.

The beginning of this pregnancy was fairly similar to my other pregnancies, though more difficult since I am older and had more weight to start with. I was very sick at the beginning of this pregnancy, which made me think that we were going to have another girl. But there has been no question that we are getting another little boy, and we couldn't be more excited!

By week 16 I was able to feel him moving around, which was at least 4 weeks earlier than any of my others! And he has proven to be quite the active baby throughout the entire pregnancy! All the way along I have measured either right on, or maybe one week ahead, as far as centimeters to weeks of pregnancy. Then I went to my 34 week appointment. It had only been 2 weeks since my last appointment, but in those two weeks I grew 5 cm and gained 8 pounds!! They were concerned about what would cause such a huge growth in such a short amount of time, but I could really feel it. So they did an ultrasound and sure enough, he was measuring almost 4 weeks ahead. So they told me that they wouldn't change the due date but that there was a possibility that he could come early, or he might just stay nice and toasty and be a very big baby.

Sure enough, at 35 weeks I started having false labor. I had contractions about 7 minutes apart for about 6 hours, but they were only about 30 second long, so I knew it wasn't time yet. Since then I've had at least 2 other false labors for hours at a time, but nothing that turned into the arrival of our newest family member. But it sure makes for a tired and very sore mommy the next day when I've been in labor for hours.

Over the course of the next few weeks I didn't have any huge growth jumps, but lots and lots of contractions, both practice and intense. Each week as I would go into the doctor I would get the bad news that I was still only dilated to a 1 or slightly more than 1, but that all of the labor I was going through really wasn't doing a whole lot, except exhaust me. By 38 weeks I wanted to go in and have them schedule an induction for 39 weeks, however the doctor did not agree with that I had quite the miserable day. They did another ultrasound which estimated the baby's weight to be at 9 lbs 11 oz and said that there was excess fluid around the baby, but my cervix "was not favorable for induction." The doctor then proceeded to scare me with the possibility of the baby delivering the head, but the shoulders getting stuck, which can cause bone fractures and other major problems for mother and baby. So I came home and cried all day. A c-section would solve the problem of a big baby, but would mean that I would not be able to travel to Utah for my brother's wedding and a much longer and more difficult recovery time.

Over the next couple of days with lots of prayers and some fasting I was able to find some people who were able to comfort me and I felt that I would be able to delivery this baby vaginally and that everything would be okay. I had been given a blessing that things would go smoothly, and I was determined to have faith.

Today I had my 39 week appointment. I am still only dilated to a loose 1, but baby's head is quite low. I am now measuring 44 cm!! Today's ultrasound showed a weight of 9 lbs 4 oz, which is a whole pound smaller than I thought it would be at this point, but still a pretty big boy. My blood pressure was VERY high when they first took it, but I think this was aided by the fact that I was crying and very upset. So they got pretty concerned and started checking other measurements and statistics. They agreed to induce tomorrow morning. :) The baby looks wonderfully healthy and plenty strong. He is doing "practice breathing movements" which show that the lungs should be fully developed and he is moving and active and still a big chunk.
The kids are thrilled to meet their new baby brother tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited about having this cute little wadded up baby on the outside of me rather than the inside. I just love newborns. We are still praying that everything goes smoothly and that we will not need to do a c-section. If everything is great and I'm recovering properly and the baby doesn't have any problems with jaundice or anything else, we will still be able to leave in a little over a week for Utah and make it to the wedding.

Rigdon, we are so thrilled to have you join our family and can't tell you how happy we are that it is almost time to meet you!