OLIVIA ELIZABETH WELLS

I used to think those crazy labor stories you see in the movies with hysterical pregnant ladies rushing to the hospital were so fake.

Well it happens. And it happened to me.

Tuesday November 24th, 2015 was supposed to be just a regular day. It was 2 weeks before my due date. I was dilated 4cm but I had been this way for 2 weeks so I didn't think much of it. Stephen woke up at
6:30 am to go to work and as he was finishing getting ready I woke up. The first thing I felt was a strong contraction so I told Stephen but nothing too bad so he said goodbye and left. A couple of minutes later I got up to pee and lo and behold I felt a huge rush of water pour down my legs. I was still too asleep to realize what was happening. And then it happened again. I yelled at my mom "mom my water just broke wake up!" I tried to call Stephen because I knew he was driving into surgery were I can't reach him so I started freaking out a little. Called again three times. nothing. So I decide I might as well take a quick shower. Looking back I probably shouldn't have done this but at least I was clean. So by now contractions started coming in quick and strong. Every minute or so. I've been up for about 10 minutes at this point. Isabella wakes up and I can't pick her up because well I'm in labor. My mom goes in but only upsets her more so she is balling. I put on Handy Manny on my phone (thank goodness for Netflix!) and say a silent prayer that Stephen will call back really soon. Thankfully he decided to stop at McDonalds to get breakfast so as soon as he saw my missed calls he turned around and was home in 5 minutes. We grabed our bags and left. As we are driving the contractions start coming in so strong they make me cry. I felt nervous and overwhelmed, I had been up for about 20 minutes so far and was processing things really slowly. As we drove I prayed asking Heavenly Father for peace, a clear mind and strength, little did I know how much I would need these.  The hospital is 5 minutes away so we got there really fast. As we went in a guy put me in a wheel chair and I felt slightly ridiculous. We finally arrived to labor and delivery. The nurses all smile at us like I'm just coming in for a check up. I try to explain to them how quick and strong my contractions are coming, that my water broke for sure and that I think I'm pretty close. They all just smile, ask me all these irrelevant questions like "what's your address?" "how tall are you?" I'm breathing through the contractions hoping they will catch on soon. Well they take me to my room give me a tour of the bathroom, the two beds, the old tv and every little detail you can imagine.I just sit there breathing in and out. Why was I so nice? I don't know. I get undressed and finally the nurse comes in to check me. As soon as she checks her eyes go wide and she says "honey you are at an 8!" Yeah I've been trying to tell you. Things start happening really quick then. Before I know it there are 3 nurses in the room bringing all this equipment in. During this whole time I have one thought in my head "when is my epidural going to get here?!" I keep asking the nurses "when will i get my epidural?" and they just keep saying "we are going to try honey" well I'm pretty sure the truth was they were waiting for the doctor to arrive so I wouldn't freak out. At this point, we had been in my room for about 20 minutes. Doctor Kurean arrived and everyone starts telling me how to react to contractions and push and all I keep asking is "what about my epidural? Am I really that close?" "is there a line for the epidural?" "I want my epidural!" finally one of the nurses looks at me and says "honey, there is no time for the epidural" I am slightly in shock at this point and before I can process the horrible news, doctor Kurean says push! I am still in denial and I look at all of them and say "am I really not getting an epidural I need someone to tell me that I have to do this natural!" The doctor looks at me and says "Valeria there is no time for the epidural, your baby is coming, now get ready to push" My mind is flipping out. The contractions start coming in so strong the pain makes me dizzy. All of a sudden I want to push! So I yell "I want to push!" they all say "push push!" Suddenly the nurses are no longer the slow nurses who would not hurry up when I got there. They were Tanya, Elizabeth and Jennifer. They all knew how freaked out I was and that I had 30 minutes to process everything. Stephen was amazing holding my hand and trying his best to soothe me but he was also overwhelmed since he had no time to process this either. Tanya tells me to breath in and out hold my chin down and push as hard as I can when they tell me to. The pain makes me so dizzy I zone out some times and the pushing is so so painful. I am having a really hard time focusing and nothing seems real.
Finally I hear a voice in my head "you can do this! your body was born to do this! It wasn't what you planned but you are here and this is it. Now focus and do this." I remember who I am and what I know. I focus completely and decide to push with everything I have. I listen to my nurses and doctor. Everytime the pain felt unbearable I would plead to my Heavenly Father for strength and I felt him right there with me coaching me with everyone else. Stephen got the hang of things pretty quick and helped me get through my contractions and encouraged me to push push push when I was making progress. I was so connected with my body I knew exactly when to push and felt my baby's progress so perfectly. At the peak of the pain, I screamed and then pushed as hard as I could and all of a sudden this overwhelming relief washed over me as the baby slipped out. this was such a cool moment I like to run over it in my head. The pain continued but the relief was overpowering.
I focused on the most beautiful sound in the room, tiny little girl cries. they placed her all gooey on my stomach and although I knew it was all so gross I didn't care she was perfect. Everyone cheered and was so happy and the nurses held my hands and made me feel like the best champ. They brought Olivia to me again after cleaning her up and as I held her I knew she was mine and would be mine to have forever and isn't that the most awesome thing in the world? Did I mention she got a 10 on her Apgar score? Our pediatrician said in his 20 years of seeing newborns he had never seen a 10. Just saying. I soaked in her beautiful face, stroked her soft black hair, held her little perfect hands and decided natural labor wasn't that bad after all.

From the moment my water broke at home to when I held Olivia in my arms, only an hour and a half had passed by. I mean it takes more time to watch a movie! although it was not what we had planned and remembering the pain still makes me tremble, it was the coolest labor and Olivia will have quite the story to tell.

It was all so raw and real and very very painful. Will I go natural again in the future? I don't know. But for this one, I wouldn't change a thing.

OCTOBER LITTLE THINGS

October was a big month for the Wells. First of all we moved. Our new place is smaller but next to Stephen's work so he can walk (i keep the car everyday hallelujah!!) and a lot cheaper. I thought I would have a harder time adjusting but we have all loved it. I have been a crafting elf let me tell you. I think I have done more projects this pregnancy than most people do in their lifetimes haha. Posts to come I'm excited, especially my girls room I went crazy there. I even built furniture, I mean serious crazy pregnant crafting elf over here. let me tell you about October.  

First of all cuteness: 

I have to post about our friend Mickey. We visit Mickey EVERY time we go to Walmart. I'm getting used to this new "I don't forget things" kid. we have started a new tradition that makes grocery shopping funner and easier. Isabella get 50 cents each time we go and get to spend it however she wants. most of the time it's spent on this guy, but if she doesn't we still have to visit him and just pretend ride him. Oh the joys of childhood. Checkout that arm around him? I know who is going to die when she goes to Disneyland...

Isabella loves water fountains. If she sees one she has to get a drink. Enough said. 

 Stephen has been studying like crazy this month so we go on girl dates a ton at nights. In West Plains after 6pm that means 2 places: Macdonalds and Walmart. I've learned that Walmart can be really fun when you have no shopping to do and just roam the kid and fun sections. Our favorite spot is the Christmas tree lot. It smells like pine and all the trees make us so excited for Christmas. 

Someone learned to ride her bike! Found this little treasure at the thrift store and Bella learned to ride it with her dad. She cruises around the house like a pro yelling "it works! It works!" She is so smooth on her turns I am so proud:)

Emma has been around here a lot. Her mom is the swim coach at the high school (she swam for BYU so she is a stud in our books). Her oldest son made it to State this year which is in St. Louis 4 hours away so we got to babysit Emma all day. We got a lot of good practice in for when little sis comes.

Sadly this has also been sick month. This poor little girl has been sick with something for almost three weeks. She got a really bad eye infection and we ended up in the doctors office. Along with that we both got a really bad cold. Now she has a bad stomach flu and still a pretty bad cough from the cold. No fun.

On a pretty rough day this week I was going out of my mind, exhausted from pregnancy with a crying sick toddler. Then Nana saved the day: this huge package arrived and it was like an early Christmas. It was packed with pretty much a whole new winter wordrobe for Bella, plus a bunch of other awesome stuff for all of us. It made our day and changed both of our moods around. My heart swelled and I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the amazing mother in law I have. I am not used to her genorosity and thoughtfulness. I have never met a mom who thinks so much of her children and grandchildren and even me. we are always getting special packages, and being far away from everyone it means the world to us. 

HALLOWEEN 2015

I learned some important lessons this Halloween: toddlers really don't like Halloween night that much it creeps them out, and I am letting my kids be whatever they want to be for Halloween (trying to convince a toddler to let you paint their face like a cat or wear kitty ears is exhausting and pointless). If we are not having fun something isn't right is how Stephen put it. Once we settled on pig tails and let Isa do whatever she wanted she was so happy. Lesson learned.

As far as our month of October traditions we had a blast. Bella loved carving pumpkins, calls them Nonagens after watching Curious George's Halloween movie with her dad about 20 times this month. We went to this awesome pumpkin patch nearby run by a local family and it was my favorite thing this year. It had the cutest little pumpkins and lots of animals that Bella loved. Halloween night itself was ok. We started of at a carnival at the library which was a total fail. Bella was terrified. We went trick or treating afterwards and Isa kind of enjoyed it except whenever a monster looking kid showed up she would start crying and run to our arms. I love Halloween but it's going to take Isa a couple of years to warm up to it I think.