Sweet Baby Rae: Raelyn's Birth Story

I didn't think I wanted to share Raelyn's Birth Story with the world, but here it goes anyway. I hope that it's an encouragement to any mother who ever felt like a failure because their body did not begin labor naturally. You are not a failure. You endured through birthing a child in some way, shape or form and your little one is now healthy in your arms. It's no small task.

My only goal was to get Raelyn here safely and not beat myself up about how it happened. Of course I had an idea of what I wanted to happen but at the end of the day we were both healthy even though things didn't happen as I expected.

Here's our story:

We had passed Raelyn’s due date (September 21^st) and we were anxious to meet her by this point. Induction wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for, but it was how we met our precious little bean. I went in to my midwife on Thursday the 24^th and we discussed the options. We scheduled the induction for the next opening at the hospital, which was 9:30pm on Saturday night the 26^th.

We waited patiently all day Saturday and called into the hospital at 8:30 to see if there was still an available bed. They told me to come in at 10:00 so we eventually made our way over there. Once we got there, checked in and were given a room number, my mom just kept walking with us and some how snuck back there too. Sneaky mom. I guess I was surprised that the staff didn’t ask about her specifically. We were a little early, so we sat around for about 10 minutes before anyone came in to talk to us.

I started the process by first getting an IV put in and hooked up to saline. They started the induction process with a small dose of Cytotec at around midnight. I had to stay on the monitors for 2 hours then I had an hour off to walk around or sit on the exercise ball, then back on the monitors for the last hour (4 hrs total) before they gave me another dose. Nothing much changed during that first dose and around 5am they gave me another dose of Cytotec. The process kept going and I received another does around 10am. The contractions weren’t that painful at this point, but I could definitely feel them. We did laps around the delivery ward and I walked with my awesome IV cart. The cytotec was doing its job and I was dilating over time, just not very quickly. We watched some Sunday football waiting it all out and around 2pm the contractions were getting more painful. I would breathe through them pretty heavily and squeeze the crap out of David’s hand. He was such a great coach through the whole thing. 

Around 8 or 9 pm I brought up getting the epidural because at that point I was crying through the contractions. At 10:30 I got the epidural and David had to step out, as it was a “sterile operation”. I probably squeezed the hell out of the nurse’s hand as I was getting a contraction while they were giving the epidural. That epidural was liquid gold! After I had gotten it though, Rae’s heart rate dropped as did my blood pressure and many nurses ran into my room in order to stabilize Rae and make sure she was okay. They threw an oxygen mask on me and other than that I truly don’t know what else they did. After they stabilized her and heart rate was back to normal, I was able to rest up and David came back in shortly after. He had no idea about the hiccup but there would be another one later. About an hour after resting on my left side, the nurse and Marsha came in to flip me to my right in order to move Rae down the birthing canal. Raelyn didn’t like my right side and her heart rate dropped again, bringing more nurses in to stabilize her and myself again. Another oxygen mask and David was actually there this time – he did really well through it all. They took off the external monitors and inserted internal monitors for both her heart rate and the contractions. After that point, they flipped me just a few more times every hour as Rae kept moving towards the exit. Next thing I knew I jumped from a 5 to an 8 pretty quickly. Gave me pitocin as well once I was stabilized after the epidural. They kept monitoring me and early in the morning Rae was ready to make her entrance!

At 4:30 in the morning it was time to push. Marsha was great at coaching me through when to push. I pushed for 45 minutes, on every other contraction. I couldn’t feel the pain, but I could feel the pressure. David would come up to the bedside every time I pushed so I could squeeze his hand. He did great too – because if anyone knows David – he doesn’t do well with anything related to doctors, hospitals or pretty much anything medical. I was pretty much ready for him to pass out.

Through the pushing, my legs and arms were shaking terribly – like I was shivering. My body was so tired and worn out, I’m truly glad I got the epidural because I don’t think I would have been able to relax my body for it to progress on its own. 

At 5:13, Raelyn Joy entered into the world and she was placed right on my chest after she was delivered. David and I were so thankful that Rae had finally made it and after 25 hours of labor (at least starting to feel the contractions all the way up to delivery) we were a family of three. She was born on September 28^th, weighing 6 pounds 9.5 ounces and was 20½ inches long. Our perfect little peanut brings us so much joy even through the sleepless nights and never-ending diaper changes. She’s wonderfully made and the Lord has blessed us with this precious gift.

Yuma Baby Shower

At the beginning of June, we celebrated little Baby Phillips here in Yuma! Ellen planned the most phenomenal Maryland themed baby shower and we had an amazing time snacking on crab chips and Old Bay fries. There were so many small details that were put into the party, from Chesapeake Bay napkins to Maryland flag toothpicks. Even the invitations had the Maryland flag on them!

We ate, we played games, opened gifts and enjoyed time together. We also had a baby photoshoot at the end - these four little rugrats are hysterical and each one of their personalities shines brighter every day!

I can't thank Ellen enough for all of the hard work she put into making this event so perfect.

Alright, enough jibber-jabber. Here are some pictures!

 

Here's a screenshot of just how many pictures I took in attempts to get a good one. One in which everyone was looking (impossible) or one in which a baby wasn't trying to slobber on another.  I tried to pick the best one of all of them. Either way, they're adorable.

If you want to know where the toothpick flags are from (they have every state flag) or any of the other small details are from, leave a comment on here and let me know what I can help with!

A New Addition

This isn't really new news, but I wanted to make sure I put photographs up from the Gender Reveal Party my sweet friend Erin put together.

Back in January, David and I were blessed with the news that a little baby Phillips would be joining our family come September! Honestly, there's a longer story behind trying to start a family and all that, but that's another post all together. We called our parents and our closest friends to share the great news. My mother of course bawled her eyes out and is so excited to be called Oma come September. David's parents guessed why we were calling because they literally were just in Yuma visiting and we found out the day after they left. 

I waited a while to tell my middle school students just because I really didn't want them telling me that I should name my baby after them. (Yes, that happened... a lot.) In the beginning of March, there were two girls in one of my classes who guessed it before I said anything. One class period, they were giggling and I decided to ask what on earth was going on (usually I ignore giggling during work time, but they wouldn't stop staring at me!). One of the girls said they couldn't tell me and they had a question to ask me but it had to wait until April. I guess to them, it would be obvious that I was pregnant or not by the time April came around. Eventually, I told only one of my class periods - because I know how quick news travels in a middle school. 

I asked one of the girls how on earth they knew I was pregnant and she said "You were moody." 

Oh lovely middle schoolers. They tell you how it is.

Then at the beginning of May, my good friend Erin (she's been on this crazy military ride with me since Virginia) put together a little reveal party for us. We just had a few families over, ate food, had fellowship, and made a huge mess to find out if we were having a little girl or boy.

When we went to get the anatomy ultrasound done, I gave the technician a card and had her circle the gender and seal it in the envelope. Right after the appointment, I dropped the envelope off at Erin's house so I wasn't tempted to peek.

Here's the tutorial Erin used to make the Poppers! You could easily make these for any event.

Here's how the madness went down!

After we found out a little girl would be joining our family, the hubster (David) said that he had to call my dad and ask him how he did it. Sidebar - I'm one of four girls... my poor dad.

One of my students gave me the sweetest gift of clothes for little Baby Phillips and although I won't be teaching next year, I can't wait to visit the middle school and show my previous students our little bundle of joy!

Tulips & Lace Studio: A Custom Piece

I'm trying to be more consistent with blogging. You can see I'm doing an AMAZING job of that...

I think I have worried too much about having a perfect post with the best edited images and forget that I really just want to get my stories out there and down on "paper". My posts won't be perfect, but at least I'm posting.

Most recently, I've been working on getting my Etsy shop together and listing pieces that I created months ago. I just finished up a custom hand-lettered piece for my dear friend Ellen and I'm excited to share that with you! If you're interested in having something created, jump on over to the shop and email me your ideas!

Check out what's new in the shop! ------> Tulips & Lace Studio

I will be posting some events from the past couple months - clearly not in chronological order but I want to make sure I document them.

Happy Wednesday everyone & Happy July!

Two Thousand Fourteen

Well, it's been a while. sorry. again. I've even been on break from teaching for two and a half weeks and done nothing. I guess that's what break is for. I've decided to make sure I did something this last week of break. so I went to buy a new 2015 calendar, fill said calendar out with all the birthdays, anniversaries and upcoming weddings, and hopefully get some paintings done for the shop.

I also wanted to take a look back at 2014 and try to remember what we did. Here it goes!

warning: tons of pictures. that is all.

We started off the new year by camping in Yuma. Something we definitely don't do quite enough. In the future we have plans to camp at the Grand Canyon!

I traveled to Michigan at the beginning of February for my Grandmother's funeral. Obviously, not the most fun reason to travel, but I did get to see Vegas from the sky at night and I got my fill of real snow and cold weather in Michigan. I also got to spend time with all of my sisters!

A group from Yuma went to Big Bear, California to enjoy a ski/snowboarding weekend on the mountain. We made the best of it - even though the snow was more like slush during the day and ice at night. We really want to go to Colorado for some great skiing before we leave the west.

I think one of my favorite things to do is be a pit stop for people heading out to San Diego as they are PCSing. This year we had three friends stop by before finishing their cross country drives. We've been to San Diego many times since living in Yuma and it's truly a great escape especially during the hot summer months here. I traveled to San Diego for the NAEA Conference over Spring Break and was able to visit with some of my professors from JMU! 

I coordinated my first art show for the middle school students at the local library. The Spring 2015 art show will probably definitely be on the local news! One of the secretaries at our school said she could contact the local news channel and have them there at the show to interview students and such! 

In the spring and the fall, we celebrated lots of new babies in Yuma! Baby showers galore!

David promoted at the end of May - aka a day away from the crazy middle schoolers for me. ;)

I SURVIVED THRIVED TEACHING MY FIRST YEAR OF MIDDLE SCHOOL ART!
I seriously was in survival mode for a portion of that year. whoops. 

OPENED TULIPS&LACE!

TURNED 25! Hello quarter century. 

Celebrated our two year wedding anniversary & traveled to Jamaica! We went with our wonderful friends, the DeVines and really enjoyed time together. After Jamaica, we traveled home to Maryland so David could see everyone before he deployed at the end of June.

David headed out for deployment and then I headed to Minnesota for some cabin time with the Phillips Family.

Also EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO NOTE: 

I READ ALL OF THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS IN THREE WEEKS. 

Probably sat on my reading chair more than I slept in my bed over those weeks. #harrypotterforlife

While David was gone I went with our good friends, the Ices, to the Grand Canyon for a whirlwind weekend trip. #NanNans

Started teaching another year at RW Middle School (I wish it stood for Ron Weasley). Decided to take a trip to Utah mid October to visit the marvelous Noelle Ulman. Once I got back, we were in the home stretch of deployment being over.

David came back on Veterans Day and then a few days later we went to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. I always love an excuse to actually dress up and take a day off of work ;)

Kathleen Payne Photography

My family traveled here from Maryland (and Uncle Buck Leo from Michigan) for Thanksgiving. We did the most touristy thing in Yuma aka seeing the territorial prison. Trekked up Telegraph Pass and ate lots of delicious food!

This December we've enjoyed weekends on the couch, the gorgeous warm weather and a great visit from Noelle right before Christmas.

Most importantly this year we've found a church family who truly has the word of God and the spirit flowing through them. We have both grown more in our relationship with Christ and can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2015! We've truly seen that Jesus is better than anything we could ever have or want and we pray that God continues to use us for his glory this next year.

CHEERS TO TWO THOUSAND FIFTEEN!