Rosamund Geneve Walker

 Born September 16, 2020 at 6:04 AM, at Mountain View Hospital in Idaho Falls. Dr. Margaret Huggins delivered her. 

Believe it or not, she is now 10 weeks old! She is currently taking a nap so I'm taking advantage of a few free moments to sit down and write this post. She is our little angel. We are so in love with her and are so grateful for the special spirit she brings into our home. I have been wanting to write out her birth story these past weeks and am finally feeling like I have some down time to do so. We have fully enjoyed every moment with her and have allowed her to take every minute we have in our days...

So lets go back to September 15th, 2020...Around 9:30 PM my good friend Jess offered to come over and rub my feet with Clary Sage oils. Supposedly, they are said to help induce labor. She made sure to massage a couple of pressure points in my ankles. At 39 weeks and 6 days, I mostly just fully enjoyed the kind gesture. I don't know if this really worked, but 30 minutes later, as Alan and I were watching television, I started feeling some pressures I had never felt before. Because I was already feeling a lot of pelvic floor pressure, I honestly just told Alan that I didn't know what I was feeling and tried to just sit comfortably.

Then I found that it was getting worse and worse as time was passing so I decided to go lay down. Alan encouraged me to start tracking the pains...So I downloaded a contraction app and would record them as they came. I was texting Jess all the while (she is a nurse!) asking for her opinion because I had never felt this before but I also didn't want to make a big deal out of it if it wasn't time to go! She encouraged me to relax and if they got more intense, then to maybe head to the hospital. Well, my contractions were about 5 minutes apart, which our doctor said to head to the hospital if it came to that...And since we lived 30 minutes from our hospital, we decided to head that way. I continued to track my contractions, which were more and more uncomfortable as time passed. I felt them ALL in my back too...

Off to the hospital in excitement and pain and anticipation...At this time it was around midnight. my app recorded down to 3 minutes apart by the time we pulled into the parking lot. We pulled up to the hospital and my dad was there to grab the dogs for us. There were two hospital employees at the door to wheel me up in a wheelchair. I kinda couldn't wrap my head around the fact that they were there for me. I remember thinking I could walk myself. haha. 

We were taken to a room where I was given a gown. As I changed, I continued to feel contractions. I did not enjoy the feeling at all. The nurse came in to see how far dilated I was. I was only a two!!! I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was feeling this pain and not so far dilated. I did know it can often happen quickly though. I started to cry because of the pressure. The nurse gave me some pain medication which helped and asked if I wanted to have my epidural. She assured us we would be having the baby, and I was all about not feeling those contractions anymore. So I got my epidural and then I was encouraged to sleep. I asked her when she thought I'd be delivering and she guessed around lunch time the next day. 

I was so grateful for the medication to help me rest. I could see on the screen when my contractions were coming but felt very relaxed and ready to rest. The nurse said the the baby was facing the wrong way so she came in every so often in the night to turn me. I slept with a peanut pillow between my legs. At one point I woke up shivering uncontrollably. I called the nurse in and she said that can often happen. So I asked for two more blankets...She brought them in warmed up which was heavenly but I still literally shivered for 45 minutes straight. I did eventually fall asleep and not long after the nurse came in to tell me the baby's heart rate was too high and they needed to monitor it. I was so tired I didn't worry too much about it and continued to rest. 

Early early morning the nurse woke me up again and said that the baby's heart rate hadn't gone down and that I had a fever...She said they'd contacted my doctor, Dr. Huggins, and she decided we needed to go in for an emergency c-section because as I was still only dilated to a 2, it was too risky to wait with how high the baby's heart rate was. I didn't panic at all actually...Alan and I both stayed calm. I even remember feeling a little bit of relief because, going in for a c-section, I knew that the baby was coming at that moment. I didn't have to wait or not know when he/she would be arriving. And I had been TERRIFIED to push that baby out of my vagina. 

They gave Alan scrubs to change into and they wheeled me in to the operating room. The anesthesiologist came back in and needed to give me another pain medication to help numb my lower body. It made me a little sick. My sweet husband held a little barf bag for me. Not my favorite moment but it did pass quickly. Our doctor and the nurses were making friendly chat with us so it just felt relaxing and we were so ready to meet our angel. 

As you may know, we kept the gender a surprise our whole pregnancy so as they were beginning the surgery, one of the nurses said "Who gets to announce what the gender is??" Dr. Huggins replied, "Daddy, of course!" I remember thinking, "oh gosh, he'll have to look over the curtain!" haha. The time came and Dr. Huggins said, "OK, daddy,  you ready? Here comes baby!" Alan stood up and said "It's Rosamund!" I cried tears of joy. Our little girl was here!! 

They quickly took her into the NICU to get her cleaned up, weighed, and measured. She was 8 lbs 5 ounces and 20 inches long. She had a bit of a fever but it was already subsiding. They said that was to be expected since I had had a fever. Mine was also subsiding. They handed her back in and Alan held her as they were stitching me back up. My first thought was that she looked just like her Daddy. And she had red hair!! She was just beautiful. She was so calm. I couldn't wait to hold her. 

They finished up in the surgery and then we were able to go to our recovery room to rest and be with our new little one. She was just heaven. We got to spend the rest of the day and that night with her and the next day she was taken to the NICU. 

We stayed 4 days in the hospital for my recovery. We spent our time taking turns in the NICU with Rosamund, sleeping, and enjoying the meal service the hospital provided. The week ahead was difficult. Not only was our sweet girl in the NICU but I also got an upper respiratory infection. The worst of it was that I had post nasal drip which prevented me from laying down for 5 whole days. Trying to recover from delivering a baby, deal with our baby in the NICU, and being sick...It was a rough week. 

We stayed at my parents which was only 10 minutes from the hospital. That was such a blessing. My mom and dad took good care of us...feeding us and watching our dogs. They made it a little more bearable. 

I do prefer to keep Rosamund's reason for being in the NICU private but after 7 days in there, our sweet Roz came home with us and she is currently healthy, sleeping through the night, and has no complications at all. She smiles and coos. She loves music. She loves snuggles. Alan and I are completely smitten with her. 

Welcome to the world, Rosamund Geneve Walker.