Baby Dorothy Ella Robbins joined our family on June 22nd, 2014. 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. We are so very smitten by her perfection.
As soon as I hit 37 weeks, I was determined to get this baby here,.... before my Doctor went out of town. Apparently I can make my self fake labor,.. One night I got my contractions to 4 minutes apart and strong, but I knew as soon as I stopped pumping they would stop, and they did. My Dr wouldn't even check my progress because I was having a scheduled c-section, no need to wake the beast I guess. So I woke up on Sunday the 22nd (38 weeks 3 days) to a really cute message on my mirror that Peter left me,.. and slowly got my prego body ready for church. I. felt. awful. I didn't have an appetite and I felt upset to my stomach. It was a weird feeling. Before we left for church, I opted to eat a tiny sliver of a quesadilla and headed out. I plopt my self next to a good friend in relief society and we laughed at the size of my ankles,.. or calfs,.. or thighs,.. you couldn't tell them apart from one another, and then laughed at the bouncing baby rolling around inside. As I was leaving church I mentioned to 2 of my friends how awful I felt and how ready I was to have this baby. My friend Emily joked, "I'll bet you'll have that baby today! I always felt so sick when I was about to go into labor." Haha,.. funny joke,.. I can wait till Wednesday, I thought. Got in the car, and BAM,... contractions kicked in. We got home and Peter knew I wasn't feeling well and made the kids dinner while I moaned on the couch about having intestinal distress(results of not having a gallbaldder, and I knew intestinal distress can itrritate the uterus, blah blah blah. I tried to go to the bathroom and was so uncomfortable,.. I called my mom and she laughed at me and told me to calm down, I probably wasn't in labor. So I started to time my contractions. 4 minutes apart,......... I couldn't talk through them anymore.
On our way to the hospital
At 5:30 We dropped the kids off at Peter's brothers house and headed to the U. Valet was closed, which made me mad. And so we ended up parking FOREVER away from the doors. Because it was Sunday, the hospital was pretty quiet, and there wasn't anyone at the desk, and I didn't know where to go. I was going to figure all that out the day before my scheduled c-section when I went to get my bloodwork done. So we get up to labor and delivery and walked all over kingdom come, until we find a group of ladies walking into start their shift,.. and they helped us figure out where to go.
They start checking me in, asking their millions of questions. By this time I was so HELL bent on making them deliver me, I would have poured water down my pants and lied that my water broke. :D Peter is standing behind me cracking his usual, worst husband and father jokes, to the nurses, thankfully he was joking. As soon as I mentioned I had a bladder sling, the nurses kicked into high gear. I could see their almost panic get the show on the road. I wasn't even sure they were going to keep me there. but as soon as I knew I was staying, I'm pretty sure I quit contracting. hahaha,.. or maybe I just quit noticing because I was so excited. Luckily I hadn't really eaten at all that day, they just had to time things right so that my bloodwork would be done by the time the c-section was done, incase I hemmoraged again(like I did after Chloe) and I needed a blood transfusion. Before I knew it,.. Peter was donning his sexy scrubs, and hair net (I'll never understand why they make him wear one!?) And I was in the OR getting prepped for the big cut.
This was right after they told me they were admitting us and we were going to have our baby!!
They gave me the spinal and I laied down and immediately my nose was OUT OF CONTROL itchy. They had strapped my hands down and I had to keep asking the Anesthesiologist to scratch my nose, which was under an oxygen mask. It was SO ANNOYING!! I finally talked them into giving my one of my arms. (I couldn't believe how much it itched, and how swollen my nose was the next morning, from all the itching)
They finally brought Peter into the OR. It seemed like it took FOREVER for them to get Dot out. I kept asking, is she almost out? Finally at 8:58 our little Polka Dot was born. I kept waiting to hear her little cries and they weren't coming. I kept asking Peter if everything was okay, and he kept reassuring me by just saying "she is so cute". I knew something was up, but they didn't want me to freak out. I finally made him walk over to see if she was okay and when he came back, he told me they were having a hard time getting her to breathe, but she was okay and he showed me some pictures. (he was a liar) No one led on that there was some panic in the room, but they let me see her for just a second and whisked her away to the nursery and put her on CPAP for a while. I was really sad I didn't get to hold her and do Skin to skin right away like I wanted, and had to beg them to let me do in the first place. I made Peter leave and go check on her, and he came back about the time they were finishing stitching me up. He didn't realize they were about to drop the drape, and when they did, I turned to tell him he better turn around and he was already out the door. It made me laugh really hard. He doesn't deal well with blood and stuff. He was a LOT better with it all this time than with Cy. They took me back to my recovery room, and a little while later, after asking a million times, they finally brought me my baby.
Instant Love. There is just no way to describe that connection you feel when you lay eyes on that little baby. She was my biggest baby, and I could tell right away that she looked a lot like Chloe but I also saw more Batemen in her than I ever saw in any of my other kids. She was(and is) delicious. She latched on right away and continued eating like a champ. They hooked me up to Duramorph and HOLY CRAP. That stuff is GOOD. I continued to make a giant fool of myself,.. luckily mostly it was just to Peter. I kept asking him stupid questions. This is what he posted to facebook that next morning, after hours of being on "silly juice"(that's what I call it)
"Some interesting conversations when your wife is on drugs. So far she's asked me if I brought my baseball bat to the hospital, if she is getting pizza intravenously, why Rapunzel cut her hair, and told me we should get a coupon for the rodeo in the phone book. "We should run a 5k...like right now!" A: "it's a zombie elephant!!"
P: "what's a zombie elephant?"
A: "I don't know! What IS a zombie elephant?"
"What would you say is the average shoe size for a man?"
"We should have a dance party!"
As well as making best friends with the phlebotomist when she came in to draw my blood,.. seriously,.. I told her i loved her when she left. She was there for all of 2 minutes, no joke.
I was able to finally pull my self together before Grandma Patti and the kids came to meet their new baby sister. They were so cute, and very cautious. I was just worried someone was going to step or push on my stomach to get snuggled up to me,.. but we were able to avoid that thank goodness. Grandma and Grandpa Robbins were pretty much the last ones to know of Dot's arrival. I had told Peter a bunch of times to call them, but we had really bad cell service in our hospital room and it all happened so fast, he didn't get a chance to tell them before my surgery. They were at a New Mission President Seminar/Training in Provo, but came up the next evening to meet their new grand-daughter. It was really fun to sit and talk with them for a while that evening. We were all glowing the light of this beautiful angel.
I was anxious to get out of there ASAP. Those hospital beds are AWFUL! And my room was bloody hot,.. and the mixture of the two were about to send me over the edge. So my mom offered to take my kids to her house for the rest of the week so I could come home and recover there. So the hour that I COULD be checked out I WAS checked out. 9:00 pm. The night shift people were in a panic because they don't usually discharge patients,.. but I was able to stop and get my meds and go home and sleep in my own bed. It was wonderful. Dot and I just laid in bed and slept and ate, and slept and ate. My mom brought the crazy home a few days later and she stayed to help me adjust to the new wonderful craziness of my life.
