Addison Packard–The Story

I know that I am super late in posting about the arrival of Addison, but things have been a little busy :) Well, here it goes! The picture below was taken on Valentine’s Day 38.5 weeks (3 days before Addison came). Wow, I really was huge! Our friends offered to take Kimball for a few hours, so Kevin and I could enjoy some quiet time at home. Since I was on bed rest, Kevin ordered in Chili’s and we played some games on our wii. It was a fun night!

I was scheduled to be induced at 6:00AM on Monday, 2/18/13, so we were just waiting our time. My mom arrived on Saturday, 2/16/13, to help with Kimball while we had the baby. Perfect timing, right? As soon as mom got here, she took Kimball grocery shopping, since we were in need of some food :) We spent Saturday visiting and mom ordered Outback in! It was delicious! Mom asked what I wanted to have for my “last supper” on Sunday before I went in to be induced. I chose pot roast, her delicious homemade rolls, jello salad and magic cookie bars for dessert. Nothing big :) That Sunday was stake conference, so Kevin took Kimball and my mom slaved away in the kitchen. The house smelled amazing! I was really working up an appetite for all the food coming my way :) Kimball went down for her nap, Kevin was playing ARMA on his computer and I sat and visited with my mom! Life was good!

CAUTION: Too much information below

I got up to use the restroom at 4:30pm, sat down on the toilet. When all of a sudden with a little push – GUSH! Fluid was gushing out onto the floor (thank goodness for tile). I was afraid that I wouldn’t know when my water broke, since it didn’t break with Kimball. However, there was no mistake. I was in shock and called out for Kevin, not sure if he could hear me, because he had his intense head phones on while playing his game. I called his name again and he came in. I told him, “I think my water just broke”. It was obvious that it had broken because it was everywhere. I put a pad on and changed my clothes. Turns out pads don’t do much when it comes to water breaking. Kevin quickly threw some things into a bag (no, we didn’t have our bags packed) and we headed out for the hospital. Luckily the hospital is only 5 minutes from our house. So, it would be easy to run home to grab things we missed :) I didn’t want to go to the hospital just yet because I wanted  to enjoy the delicious meal mom had just made.

We arrive at the hospital at 5. They put me in a wheelchair and took me to Labor and Delivery. I got all settled in and my doctor was called around 5:30. She said to start me on pitocin. The contractions began and I was at a 4. Since it was going to be a while, I sent Kevin home to have a good meal, since I didn’t know how long I would be in labor for. He brought back a few things that we forgot to bring. The nurse said that they were hoping I would have the baby by midnight.

7:00PM came and there was a shift change of nurses. The evening nurse came in and asked if I had an epidural yet, I said no, but I was ready for one. She went to get the Anesthesiologist and he came in and gave me an epidural. I felt much more relaxed :) The nurse also said, there is no reason to be here all night with small dosage increases of pitocin, so she was authorized to crank up the pitocin ;) Kevin and I started to play a card game, but I couldn’t focus. I got really sleepy after the epidural. The nurse checked me and I was at a 6 and started progressing pretty quickly, which is completely different from labor with Kimball. My doctor knew I would go quickly and came right over around 9:00 to the hospital to make sure she was there when I was ready. She came to check on me and then went to her room to read a book until I was ready. I started to feel the contractions again and pressed my epidural pump twice. I called the nurse to tell her I was still in some pain and if I had an epidural, I didn’t want to feel anything :) She called the Anesthesiologist over and he gave me a larger dose that was fast acting. That happened at 9:30PM. The nurse checked again and I was at 8cm. She checked again 30 minutes later and I was at a 9. She knew this baby was coming soon, so she set everything up and called in the troops! She said by the time everything was set up, then I would be ready to push. She left the room and said if I feel more pressure, then let her know immediately. I was feeling like I need to have a bowel movement, so I called her in and sure enough it was time to push. They flipped on the spotlights, raised the bed and all systems go. My doc was telling me dumb blonde jokes to see if we could laugh the baby out. She waited for the next contraction to come for me to push with, which took a while. I pushed as hard as I could and my doc asked if I wanted to reach down to touch her head as motivation. I politely declined. At the end of the push, she was out! I only had one first degree tear. They placed her on my stomach and I fell in love instantly.

Addison Packard came into the world on Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 10:26PM weighing 8lbs. 13oz. and 21 inches long.

Her first sponge bath was given right in my room.

All cleaned up and tired!

My second time holding her to feed her! Kevin holding Addison for the first time :)

 

Very awake and alert :)

I am so in love with her!

Kevin rolling back with Addison and the nurse after checking her vitals. I was being taken to my post partum room at the same time.

Mom and Kimball came the next morning to meet her for the first time! Kimball was so excited to see her baby sister!

Grandma Briggs holding Addison for the first time.

Grandma and Kimball playing hide and seek in the corner :) My mom is always cold, so luckily we had an extra blanket. Mom was such a big help taking care of Kimball for us. We knew she was in good hands! Thanks, mom!

Addison got Kimball a necklace that said “Big Sister Kimball” and Kimball’s gift to Addison was an Elmo keychain rattle toy!

 

A quick family picture before we left the hospital.

In the car seat waiting for daddy to pull up to pick us up!

Welcome to the family Addison you are perfect in every way and we love you so much!