Ivy's Newborn Photos

My friend Jeannette took these pictures of Ivy on Sunday, January 26, 2014. Ivy was just 3 days old. She did such a wonderful job and I'm so glad she was able to capture my perfect, tiny, newborn baby girl. 

Spinal Headaches

I didn't want this to be included in Ivy's actual birth story but want to remember it as well. 

I had an awesome birth, delivery, and recovery, or so I thought? Friday, the day after Ivy was born, I started to get headaches but chalked it up to being really tired. I started alternating taking Motrin and Tylenol 3 every 4 hours. We even tried alternating them every 2 hours cause I was still having headaches. We had lots of visitors and face-timing on Friday. Friday night the headaches got really bad and by Saturday morning I was in tears anytime I had to sit up to feed Ivy. My morning nurse told me I probably had a spinal headache which is caused by a spinal puncture during the epidural.  She suggested that I get a blood patch and told me that it would make the headache go away instantly. Sign me up! I got the blood patch, which was 10x more painful then my epidural, but as promised my headache was immediately gone. So what did I do? Got up, got ready, ran around the room like a crazy person because I felt so good! We headed home a little after 1 pm and came home to a quiet house. I was so excited to be home and back with my boys. I had missed them so much. I could tell they were missing their mom too! We had a fun night. I gave the boys their baths, read them books, and gave them extra snuggles. 

The next morning I woke up and headaches were back. It was awful! We had schedule Ivy's newborn photos for that day so I got up and got ready anyway. All I wanted to do was lay down though. During our whole shoot I played on the bed and rested cause it was the only way my head didn't hurt. My sweet friend Jeannette was so good with Ivy and so sweet to just let me lay down! I felt so bad! Monday TJ had to go to school and I tried to do it on my own but ended up calling my neighbor Brandon in tears because when standing or sitting up at all I just couldn't function. He came and got the boys and watched them till TJ got home from school. I felt horrible and helpless. I read up on blood patches and spinal headaches trying to find out anything that could help. Firstly I learned once you get a blood patch you are supposed to lay down for 2 hours after so that the blood patch does its job! That would have been helpful thing to know when they gave me the blood patch! Second, I needed to lay down on my back as much as possible and drink tons of water. Pretty impossible with 3 kids under the age of 4 to lay down much. I made it through Monday and planned on going to get another blood patch Tuesday afternoon after TJ got out of school. I asked my friend Carissa if she would come help me with my boys Tuesday morning. While she was watching them I took a nap and when I woke up to feed Ivy I sat up and the headache was gone! It was such a relief to have the headaches gone and be able to finally take care of my little family again. I was so grateful to Carissa and Brandon for helping though, I know I couldn't have done it without them. 

Ivy was an amazing baby through the whole thing. The boys were so patient with me and so understanding about being passed around while I was unable to take care of them. 

So how do I feel about epidurals now? I 'm not sure? I've never done labor and delivery without one and all of my deliveries have been amazing and calm and wonderful! The spinal headaches were horrible and I hope I never have to go through that again, but I also think that if I did have another epidural in the future and it did happen again I would get the blood patch right away, lay down for minimum of 2 hours after and take it easy for at least 2 days (no lifting my other heavy children), and drink lots of water! We will see if I have any more, then I can decide! 

Ivy's Birth Story

I'm way behind AGAIN! We have lots of exciting changes happening though so I'm going to try to get caught up AGAIN! I wrote Ivy's birth story down about a week after she was born! I love having them to read so if you want to spare yourself from reading all the nitty gritty's just scroll down to the pictures. 

From the beginning TJ wanted to induce just like we had done with the boys. We looked at the date on the calendar and the Friday before little misses due date of January 29th was January 24th. Being the numbers person that I am I asked TJ if we could bump it up to Thursday so her birthday could be 01/23/14. Easy to remember right?! About 4 weeks before my due date I was dilated to a 2 and 75% effaced. The next two weeks I progressed to a 3, but not much else happened. I definitely felt more contractions with her than I did with my boys. She also got the hiccups at least 4 times a day. 

On D-Day, January 23rd, I finally fell asleep at about 1:30 am. I woke up every hour just waiting for my alarm to go off at 5. At 5 I got up got ready, and by 5:45 we were out the door. On the way to the hospital it felt like a dream. Hadn't we just done this? Just been there to deliver Ledger?! Now we were heading to the the hospital to bring home number 3?! 

When we arrived at the hospital we took our traditional picture by the birthing center sign and headed up to the 3rd floor. As with all of our children we had a nice calm check in and headed back to room #306. Our nurse Amelia was AMAZING! She got my IV started on the first stick, which has never happened to me. It always takes them at least 4-5 tries. Dr Tegler came in and checked me, and I was still dilated to a 3. He then broke my water and told me I could have the epidural anytime after I got my penicillin and bag of fluids in. He predicted we'd have a baby by lunch time. 

It took about 45 minutes for me to get in the bag of penicillin and Amelia told me it would take about an hour to get the bag of fluid in me and then she'd have the anesthesiologist come. I started to get really nervous as the petocin was doing its job and I was actually feeling some contractions. They weren't painful, but the fact that I was feeling them at all made me nervous because I hadn't ever even felt them with the boys' deliveries. TJ, per my request, checked the fluid bag for me about 10 times because I was so anxious to get my epidural. At 8:30 Amelia came in to report hat she had called the anesthesiologist and that he would be coming in the next 10-15 minutes. My anesthesiologist was awesome. He was very funny and made me feel totally calm and relaxed. I was so relieved he was there because the whole time he was giving me my epidural I was having contractions. He told some crazy stories, and it took a really long time. I just thought he was taking his time but apparently he had to stick me 4 times to finally get a good placement. The reason I say he was amazing was because even though he had such a hard time getting it, I had no idea he was having a hard time. Once he got it he gave me my sample dose very slowly so that my blood pressure wouldn't drop like it had done with Ledger. They also gave me a dose of the same medicine I had to get with Ledger to prevent it from happening. The anesthesiologist stayed and chatted with us for about 30 minutes and then left. I was so relieved and felt great. No pain and I could still kind of feel the contractions and still had some movement in my legs. Right after my epidural they needed to move me to another room. Nice timing! Being numb, they had to get a board to move me from one bed to the next, I felt like a 500 pound whale! Once we got to our new room #305 I started to change positions to try and get baby girl to flip the right way. Just like her brothers she was sitting face up. I started on my right side, then went up onto my hands and knees. With both of the boys this had done the trick. I wasn't feeling much though so I knew I was either too numb, or my trusty positioning wasn't working. Amelia checked me after 30 minutes and I was dilated to only a 5. I figured at that point that I was in for a long day. We then decided to try my left side with a thing they call "the peanut" between my legs. It looked like an exercise ball in the shape of a peanut. Amelia told me we would try it for 30 minutes then switch sides. She also bumped up my petocin a little.  I started to feel lots of contractions and a little pressure. I could tell that things were progressing. Amelia asked if I wanted her to check me because she had been watching the monitor and had seen all of my contractions. I had her go ahead and check me and sure enough  I was dilated to a 10 and complete. She called Dr. Tegler in since his shift ended at 1 and had him help her set up. I was able to have a mirror this time which I thought was really cool. Dr. Tegler had me give one practice push and then showed me her head. I pushed once and he told me to stop but she was coming and within seconds she was out. Ivy was born at 12:53 pm. She was beautiful and there is an instant sweetness that comes with little girls. She cried a lot more then my boys had. She wanted to be snuggled and held tight. I held her for a few minutes then they took her to clean her up a little and get her weight and measurements. She weighed in at 6 pounds 10 ounces and measured 19.25 inches long. She cried the whole time till they put her back on my chest. She wanted to nurse right away and nursed for pretty much the entire first two hours of her life. Totally different from both of my boys! I felt great and the epidural wore off pretty quickly. I was able to get up, eat some lunch, and move rooms. We spent the rest of the day just loving on our little girl. We still hadn't decided on her name but decided it could wait and not to stress about it that day. We went to the hospital with 5 name choices and I thought it would be fun to include those, so Ivy can know what options we were considering.

Jaydelyn (Jayde)

Irelyn (TJ's Favorite)

Hallie

Quincy (my favorite)

Ivy (my new favorite)

 Right before her first bath

 Loving the second part of her bath much better than the first part where she wasn't wrapped in a towel.

Mirae and Gina brought the boys to meet their new sister. They both had terrible coughs so they had to wear these cute little masks and keep a safe distance. They fell in love instantly though, and least  Cohen did. Ledger seemed more confused than anything but quickly fell into his big brother role by reading her stories and talking to her when he thought no one was looking. 

Ivy was a great baby in the hospital and slept ate and pooped just like she was supposed to. Friday morning we began the name elimination game, cause it was killing me that my baby still didn't have a name. TJ eliminated Hallie and I eliminated Quincy cause I knew TJ really didn't like it. I also took Irelyn off the list because everyone we ever told the name to would say Ireland and I didn't want her having to correct people the rest of her life. And I like Ivy better out of the two. Then we just had to decide between Jaydelyn and Ivy. Jaydelyn is a name we had picked out basically since we were dating. Ivy was a name my dad suggested 2 days before she was born. I was really hesitant to name her Ivy cause the name was so new in my mind but I just felt like it fit her better then Jayde did. We agreed to call her Ivy for the day and change it if needs be, but the name stuck and we love it. Ivy is one of my dad's great Aunts names and her middle name Elizabeth is after my middle name. 

 Midnight chats with my new little bestie.

Getting ready to go home!

Drowned in her sea of girliness! I couldn't help it, I had waited so long to have my little dolly to dress up and I was so excited for all the bows and fun girl accessories!

We love you Miss Ivy Elizabeth!!!

Getting Ready for Baby Girl

The month of January was spent preping for baby girl to come and soaking up our last days as a family of four. We cleaned, we sewed, we organized and we played. We also spent a lot of time in bed just snuggling!

This is a fountain by our house. They leave it on even when it gets cold. Someone added some type of red dye and it turned into this.

He's actually just showing us and owie on his finger but TJ thought it was picture worthy.

We made cookies for FHE one night and the boys were in heaven. 

Licking the beaters is the best part!

These boys love to build castles with their wooden blocks. They built this one by themselves and I was pretty impressed. 

Next post...Welcoming baby girl!!!

Gandy Wedding

Merilee and Kennedy had a beautiful wedding! Everything was perfect and it was so wonderful to be with all of my family. This is the happy couple coming out of the temple!

All of the Anderson's at the temple

The fab five with the parents

My boys sure do love their aunt Meme. Cohen wasn't going to miss out on getting his smooches from the beautiful bride!

~I love these four people so much~

All of the in laws. 

This is my fav pic of Mers. This describes her personality so well.

The reception was gorgeous and everyone looked so nice in their black, white and purple. 

Anderson/Gandy Families

Just the Anderson's and the happy couple

These little people are my favorite kids in the world. I seriously wouldn't hesitate to take any of them as my own. From Left to right: Cohen, Kaydree, Elsie?, Zoey, Beckham, Ledger, Crew, Carver, Kelan, Brooks, and Ava?! I still can't tell the twins apart, sorry girls, you just need to come spend more time with your Aunt Annie. 

I am so glad Merilee picked black for her bridesmaid dresses. Really helped out with the huge prego predicament I was in. I still look huge though next to these skinny tall beauties!

My amazing parents that raised some pretty amazing kids. 

I am so happy for my baby sister! She found a wonderful man to marry and she will make an amazing wife!!!