Berkley's Birth Story

During my time in the hospital, we were always unsure when I was going to actually have her. I just knew that I would have to have a C-section due to placenta previa. At 32 weeks, I got shots to make her lungs develop faster, because we wanted to be cautious since chances were she was going to come much earlier than we wanted her to.

We hadn't totally decided on a name, so we felt a little rushed since she could come anytime! We narrowed it down to Berkley, Reagan, or Holland (we're both Dutch so we thought it was cute and fitting for us).

As my doctor would come visit me every few days while I was in the hospital, he kept giving me the option to either just keep waiting it out or choose to get an amnio as early as 36 weeks and if her lungs were developed then I could choose to have a c-section right then. I had a really hard time deciding and kept going back and forth. I wanted to make the right decision, because I would feel awful if she had to be in the NICU or had any serious complications. I was always told that every day they grow so much in the womb and I didn't want to take her out early if it was best not to. I'd ask my doctor, "If I was your daughter, what would you tell me to do?" and he'd just always say that there is no wrong decision. 

On one hand, I didn't want to take her out early because she needed that time to grow and develop. On the other hand, I didn't want to start hemorhagging and have it be an emergency and have my doctor have to race to the hospital. I wanted it to be a controlled situation and a planned c-section. I just felt so much calmer about that decision and I just prayed that she will be healthy despite being 4 weeks early! 

So at exactly 36 weeks, I got the amnio (which I was so terrified about! Um, a HUGE needle going deep into my belly and into my uterus and possibly puncturing my baby?! Scary). It was pretty crazy, though, to watch on the ultra sound my doctor putting the needle in and see the needle and the baby on the screen guiding him so he doesn't poke her! The results came back 6 hours later showing her lungs were developed so the c-section was a go! The c-section was scheduled for the next day at 5pm. 

Right before the C-section and being pretty nervous!

Before I got wheeled into the OR, I asked if they could wheel me to a room with a scale so I could know how much I weighed before I had her. Haha, is that weird? I hadn't weighed myself in like 4 weeks so I wanted to know! 

The c-section was so strange. Jeff recorded the whole thing and I just kept saying, "This is so weird."  I just felt numb and my body was being yanked side to side so roughly and I couldn't feel anything by pressure. 

Berkley Elizabeth Giles

Born 5:21 pm

5 lbs 15 oz

17.5 inches long 

and BEAUTIFUL.

The second Dr. Bohman threw her over the sheet so I could see her, I said to Jeff, "She looks just like you!" 

Jeff went back to the NICU to get her shots and measure her while they stitched me up and wheeled me back to my room to recover. He had sent this picture out to friends and family with her measurements  and my sister-in-law had texted and told me how beautiful she is and told me how much she weighed. It was funny because I didn't even know what her measurements were yet! 

Berkley was healthy and was able to come home with us! She was a little jaundice, but we just wrapped the light up with her in a blanket for an hour or two and she was fine.

Proud Grandpa, Uncle & Dad!

Of course the Pixley's came to see us! This is Trevin :)

Documenting Jeff's FIRST diaper change EVER.

Believe it or not, this is the only family picture we have in the hospital! And it's a selfie right before we went home haha.

She was just about the tiniest thing I could have imagined. She dropped down to 5 lb 9 oz while we were there. I look at newborn size clothes now and can't believe my little girl wore that size for almost 2 months! I already forget how small she used to be.

We had so many friends and family come to the hospital to see her before we were discharged and we  barely took any photos! I think I was just in so much pain from the C-section and so over being there that we (at least I) didn't think to take pictures. She was born on Tuesday and we finally left Saturday!! It was the best feeling in the world to come home!!! It had been almost a month since I had been back home. And we went straight from the hospital to Cafe Rio for some take out and then went The house was spotless and my mom had put a cute It's a Girl balloon on the front porch.

Berkley coming to us safely and being healthy was such a blessing for us. She's the sweetest little thing and we love her beyond words. 

Pre-baby Time

I know, I can't believe I'm finally getting around to posting a portion of Berkley's birth story!! So embarrassing. I figured since she's 9 months old, it is only fitting that I get it done now :)

So, my pregnancy was a little crazier than I anticipated it to be! I tell Jeff now that I loved being pregnant, and he just says "Are you CRAZY? It was horrible!" But when I say, I loved being pregnant, I mean I loved it between 18 weeks to 31 weeks. I was so sick up until like 18 weeks and then I was on bed rest at 32 weeks. So, I guess thats pretty normal to love being pregnant for the few months in the middle :)   At the beginning, Jeff was so sweet to get me a big bowl in the middle of the night as I was throwing up and couldn't make it to the bathroom. He'd rub my feet every night when I got so swollen from working 10 hour days and tell me how proud he was of me for never calling in sick even when I couldn't keep down a few saltine crackers and watered down Gatorade. He was seriously so sympathetic toward me the whole time. One time I remember he randomly got nauseous for no reason at all (empathy pains, maybe?) and he couldn't stop telling me how now he understood what I feel like ALL day long and how sorry he felt for me. He was the sweetest.

When I was 12 weeks along, I was coming home from a girls trip in Utah with some friends and started to bleed. A lot. It was so scary because I was 11 weeks, 6 days along and remember being so excited because I was just about out of the woods with being nervous about miscarrying. That was my biggest fear after going through InVitro and having it be successful and then losing the baby. I was a wreck! I tried to stay calm when going to the hospital, but I was sure that I had lost our baby after seeing so much blood. After a horrible experience at the ER, it ended happily knowing that I still had our little miracle. 

I switched doctors after I got pregnant, mostly because my dad wanted me to. He got so protective over this baby before I even got pregnant. He became so emotionally invested from the beginning and wanted the best for me, so I did it really to appease him, but so glad I did. He is the best! I was so fortunate that my new OB, Dr. Bohman, was already a high risk doctor and someone who I've known since I was little! He was our family's hometeacher in my old ward growing up. I saw Dr. Bohman every two weeks my whole pregnancy. I had something called "placenta previa", which is what caused me to bleed throughout my pregnancy. I didn't have any bleeding episodes from 12 weeks to 32 weeks. At 32 weeks, I was put at home bed rest for a week because of that, and then he gave me the ok to go back to work but then I had 2 more major bleeding episodes within 10 days. So after going to the hospital for the 3rd time, he told me that I needed to stay there until I delivered the baby.

Hospital bed rest was really hard for us to hear, because we were not prepared for it. I was not ready to stop working so soon and not having that 2nd income and having the additional medical bills on top of it, but we knew it was for the best interest for me and our baby.

Being in the hospital for so long, was also a very humbling experience for me. I was on the receiving end of so much service. It was an incredibly stressful time for Jeff and I. Poor Jeff was just so exhausted all the time. He would wake up at 6:30am, go to work all day, get off at 6pm, go straight to the hospital because he knew I was bored, be there until 11pm, go home and wake up and do it all over again. I am really blessed to have such amazing friends, family and ward members who did so much for us during those weeks. I don't think I went a day without having someone visit me. People brought me care packages, home cooked meals, take-out, magazines, nail polish, games, etc. One of my best friends, Janae, even brought her wax pot and waxed my eye brows! It was the best! I felt so much better about myself after getting my brows done. People whom I barely knew even took time to pop in and visit with me. These times were so unexpected and so sweet. I was blown away at how much others truly cared about our situation. My mom was also someone who was so incredibly amazing. Since bed rest was so unexpected, she put together the nursery and washed and sorted all the clothes, did all the organizing, etc. My brothers and sisters-in-law all deep cleaned our house, just so we had a clean house to come home to with our brand new baby. I really learned a lot about service after this experience. I will forever be incredibly grateful for all the love I felt from so many people. It eased the stress from Jeff and I immensely.

Hospital bed rest of not fun to say the least! Although, I did really like all my nurses (for the most part) who I got to know really well :)  I literally couldn't get out of bed unless it was to go to the bathroom that was about 6 ft away from my bed and then back to bed I went. I couldn't walk for fear of having a major bleeding episode, possible hemorrhaging and needing emergency surgery which could result in scary things like losing too much blood during the C-section and needed a blood transfusion, etc.

The absolute worst part of hospital bed rest for me, was my dreadful IVs! I had to get a new IV put in every 3 days and it was horrible! We had to do this, so in case of emergency C-section, I already had an IV in so we were good to go, instead of me possibly hemmorhaging, making sticking me with a needle hard to do. Through this process, I learned that my veins are small and I have lots of valves all around them making it really difficult to get an IV needle in. To this day, I still have scars from them. I ranked my love for the nurse based on their level of good IV handling. At one point, after several attempts from different nurses, and me being in so much pain, they finally got the anesthesiologist in my room doing it for me and numbing the area. It was heaven when he did it! I barely felt anything. I begged him to come back every 3 days to do it!

So this was my life in the hospital before Berkley's arrival!

This is what I looked like every day. Monitor around my belly, iPad in hand, with my cell phone being charged right next to me, and big cups of water and all my snacks on the little table.

 Me at 34 weeks. I posted this in black and white because that is how I feel about being in the hospital. I know, so dramatic haha.

 We have the best friends! These are the Pixley's. Chris and Natalie, or just Natalie, or Natalie and her kids, would come visit me seriously at least every other day the entire time I was there. They would bring me homecooked meals, Cafe Rio, etc when I insisted I didn't need it! We played Phase10 many a nights. I couldn't believe how much time they took from their busy lives to come see me all the time.

Mother's Day! Jeff brought me beautiful red roses and a sweet baby book so I could spend some time filling it out since I had all the time in the world! It was really cute.

 Jeff wheeled me outside every now and again so I could get a little fresh air. This picture was the first time I had been outside in 10 days!! I felt like I was in a prison, except for prison was probably better, because at least the prisoners get recess every day :)  A joke that Jeff did was as he'd wheel me through the halls, down the elevator, he'd tell me how the outside world had changed since I'd last seen it. Trees were extinct, cars now flew instead of drove, etc. It was so funny to me haha.

These are a few of the many gifts I received during my time at the hospital! Audrey gave me this bag full of snacks, socks to keep my feet warm, coloring books and so many things! It was so cute.

My mother-in-law, and sis-in-law, Sally, sent me such a thoughtful package of things to keep me busy! I made this baby beanie :)

My aunt made this cute bouquet with snacks like oranges, nuts crackers (since I couldn't have any sugar due to hypoglycemia), and headbands for baby girl! It was so cute.

And this was taken the night before having our little baby! I was 36 weeks exactly. In the background are some of my homemade cards I received! The poster was from my Activity Day girls :)

My pregnancy was not ideal, but we got through it and it just made Berkley's arrival that much sweeter. I will post the actual delivery in the next post.