Sudar Clan

39 1/2 weeks pregnant with Ava

Just when you think you might have things a little figured out, that is when you are wrong. This post is mostly for me. It will probably be long and boring to most of you. But I need to waste time somehow and blogging is somewhat therapeutic. I am going to talk about all three of my pregnancies and births because I figure someday when the kids are married they are going to ask me about it. And I can say, "Go look in the blog book." I am writing about Calvin and Lily before the baby is born and when she gets here I will add her story.

Calvin Jonathon Sudar
Pregnancy
It took us a while to get pregnant with Calvin. Almost a year and a half. But when I found out I was pregnant we were so happy. Then the pain started and the doctor was sure it was a tubal (ectopic pregnancy), I was scared. But it ended up that it was not and everything was fine. I was nauseated with him but not too bad. I never threw up. We knew for sure we were having a boy, my dad knew it too. Even though he refused to show us in any ultrasound until I was 24 or 26 weeks pregnant, he was always being modest in my tummy. I thought pregnancy was wonderful. I felt great, no cysts bursting, and no periods, not that mine are much of a bother anyway. It was so fun to feel him kick and move, from 12 weeks on. I felt good until the very end. Didn't have any braxton hicks or contractions. The only thing that hurt were the normal aches and pains, skin stretching, backache, kicks in the ribs, and not being able to breathe because I carried him so high.

Delivery
On the Sunday before Calvin was born we hiked up Santaquin Canyon with my family to see the mudslide. I did just fine and felt great. However, Monday and Tuesday I started feeling kind of icky but couldn't pin point why. Tuesday night I had some pretty severe back pain. I woke up Wednesday morning with a high fever. My doctor sent me to labor and delivery to be checked out. They sent me home and said to take Tylenol and get some rest. By 5:00 when Jon got home from work my fever was super high and I was in a lot of pain, everywhere. He gave me a blessing and took me back to the hospital. I had a bladder infection that had gone to my kidneys. Calvin's heartbeat was so fast they almost took him C-section. They started pumping antibiotics through me and pain meds and got my fever down. Calvin settled down and they told me that if the infection got better that I could go home in 2 days. Which I was happy about because my brother Andy and his wife Megan were getting married on Saturday. And I did not want to miss it.

That night in the hospital I started getting contractions but I slept okay. Dr. Nelson came in at 9 am on Thursday to check on me and I told him I had been having contractions. He said he would check my cervix on Friday before they let me go home. Because he had just checked me last night and my cervix was closed. He said they were probably just braxton hicks. I said I would feel better if he just checked. So he did and I was dilated to a 4 1/2. He said, "Well, you are having a baby today. Sorry, you can't eat any more of that breakfast." I was not happy that he took my food away. I hadn't eaten in like two days because of the sickness. He wanted to break my water but I said, "No, my husband is at work and I don't want to be alone." He broke it as soon as Jon got there a half an hour later. We walked the halls a little bit and met another couple from Pleasant Grove that were having a baby boy and they were going to name him Calvin. We laughed and said we might too.

When I was dilated to a 6 I asked for the epidural. I never considered natural birth and the contractions were getting pretty hard. However the Anesthesiologist was giving someone else their epidural and didn't get in there forever. I was in pretty severe pain when he got there. I hated getting the epidural. It was so scary having someone poke around at my spine. I did not like that at all. And then I just started going numb on one side of my body. So one side of me was completely numb and the other side was not. It was horrible. I just remember the pain around my bum was so bad. So they put more numbing stuff in the epidural and my whole body went numb. From my eyebrows to my toes. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move, Jon had to try and lift me to get me to roll on to my side. It felt like I had a ton of bricks on my chest. It was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced. It completely stopped my labor for hours. By about 6 at night I was finally able to move my body a little so I decided to calm down and rest. At 6:45 ish the nurse came in and checked me and said I was a 10 and it was time to push. Calvin was born at 7:21 pm. My mom and Jon were in there with me. My mom was saying push him out by 7:14 because it was July 14th. It was an amazing feeling pushing him out. I was so grateful to have my husband and mom there throughout the scary parts of the day and then to experience the wonderful birth with me. Calvin weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and was 19 inches long. He was due Aug 2, 2005 and he arrived July 14th.

Needless to say, we missed Andy and Megan's wedding. But we had a beautiful baby boy and we were both healthy. After the first couple of days of letting the epidural and other meds wear off my recovery was great. It was mostly just painful going potty for a few months because of the episiotomy. But other than that I was up and feeling great in no time.

Name
Oh boy, this story always cracks me up. Jon called my belly Calvin for 9 months. He had always loved the comic "Calvin and Hobbes" and he thought it would be great to have a little Calvin. I always said, "we are not naming him Calvin." I wanted Carson Eric (Jon's middle name is Eric). When he was born Jon said, "Let's name him Carson." I was happy with that. But every time the nurse brought me my cute little baby I would say, "Hi Calvin." So we ended up naming him Calvin Jonathon. I am happy with it and it fits him perfectly. Jon must have known what he was doing all along. Although he has tried the same trick with both Lily and #3 by calling them Hobbes the whole pregnancy and that has definitely not worked!!

Lily Ann Sudar
Pregnancy
We were not planning to get pregnant anytime soon. But because it took so long with Calvin we thought we could maybe not be so careful just once. And I only ovulate like 4 times a year, so what were the odds I would get pregnant, not preventing it just once? Well odds ended up being great because surprise, surprise I found out a few weeks later that I was pregnant.

We were super excited but a little nervous about having Calvin and Lily 2 years apart. I didn't want Calvin to feel like he didn't get enough time with me. But it ends up the two year gap with these two has been perfect. They are the best of friends. I absolutely love it!!! They love each other so much and they play so well together. It has been fantastic.

My dad had a dream that I was having a boy. And I always thought I would have three boys and a girl. So we thought this was a boy. But Lily showed us right away in the ultrasound that she was a girl. I didn't believe it at first. But Jon did, he said he only had sisters and his dad only had sisters so Calvin would probably only have sisters. We were really excited to have one of each.

Lily's pregnancy was great. I barely got nauseated and I felt good most of the time. My neighbor, Chelsey and I were both pregnant with our second and we would go on walks to Macey's grocery store all the time. We would both be pushing our strollers and at about 8 months I started getting contractions and I would have to stop walking for a minute and then we would continue on. I only started getting uncomfortable with the pregnancy in the last 6 weeks. My stomach hurt all the time from stretching, and I had carried Lily sooo low from the beginning that I had really bad ligament pain in my pelvis.

The hardest part of my pregnancy with Lily was dreading the delivery. I knew she had to come out but I was scared to death of the epidural and of natural birth. I stressed about it the whole nine months. I didn't know what to do. I finally decided to get a doula (birthing coach), listen to Hypno babies CDs, and try to have a natural, unmedicated birth. I didn't know if I could do it, but I figured anything was better than the epidural.

I listened to a hypnosis CD everyday from about 34 weeks on. I would turn it on while Calvin was napping and I would fall to sleep while it was playing. It would say things like, "childbirth is beautiful and your body can do this and there is nothing to be scared of." After a week I was not so worried anymore. Jon even saw a change in me. I was actually kind of excited. The CDs would talk about how our bodies make their own anesthesia and how your body knows just what to do when you go into labor. I didn't get into the whole self hypnosis thing during the birth. They had advanced stuff where you could self hypnotize while you were in labor, but that just wasn't for me. I just liked the affirmations, they made me feel good.

Delivery
On a hot Thursday in June I went into labor. I thought that my water was leaking all day and after a long busy day I knelt down to say my bedtime prayer and asked Heavenly Father, "If my water is broken, please let me know, otherwise I am going to bed." When I stood up my water broke and I ran to the bathroom. We called my mom and the doula. Jon's mom came down to stay with Calvin. Jon took me to the Timpanogos Hospital (same as Calvin) at about midnight. I was having contractions but they weren't too hard. When I got settled into a room the nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 5. I had an IV for antibiotics and at about 2:30 my contractions started getting really hard. My doula really didn't do anything and the only reason I am glad I hired her is because she gave me the Hypno CDs to listen to for the weeks prior. Jon sprayed my back with hot water in the shower and that seemed to really help with the contractions. Then he held me in his arms as I stood and labored through transition. That was extremely painful and I wouldn't have been able to do it without him. The contractions were right on top of each other and very hard to breath through. I laid down on the bed and they checked me and I was a 10 but the cervix needed to be pushed around the baby's head. So during 2 contractions they had to move the cervix. It was very painful. Pushing Lily out was pretty fast, I would say less than 10 minutes. I was pushing and Dr. Wold said that Lily's heart rate was going down with each push, so he gave me an episiotomy and out she came with the next push. She was 6 lbs and 18 inches long. Lily was due 7-7-07 and she was born on 6-22-07.

Name
Lily was easy to name. Jon and I had both loved the name Lily for years. And it just seemed to fit right from the beginning of the pregnancy. Ann is both of our mom's middle names, so that was also easy.

Ava Christina Sudar
Pregnancy
You can get most of this pregnancy story by reading back in the blog posts. This pregnancy has been the one to throw me for a loop for the following reasons:

We were going to wait a little while longer to get pregnant and then one day we both just felt like maybe the time was right. We didn't use prevention measures once or twice and boom I was pregnant. Just like that. Which is completely a miracle just like Lily was. I find it amazing.

Surgery for ectopic pregnancy. Doctors saying, your pregnant, not pregnant, no wait you really are pregnant, changing due dates!!

I thought this baby was a boy because of the similarities with Calvin's pregnancy: Tubal, carrying high, more nauseated. But she is a girl.

The non-stop braxton hicks contractions since 7 months. The false labors, contractions every 2-5 minutes for hours, thinking my water broke and being sent home from the hospital because it really had not. Trying to go in to have my water broken a week before my due date and not being far enough dilated. The experiences at American Fork hospital were not good, the nurses were so mean and I was actually in a lot of pain and had some pretty heavy bleeding from one of the nurses doing the exam. It was not fun.

Being pregnant all the way to my due date is a whole new experience. I tried everything in the last two weeks to get this baby out. Walking, walking, walking, hiking up the street several times, little bounces on the mini trampoline (no jumping!), lunges, stairs, intimate moments, pedicures, chiropractors, hypnosis CD called "Baby, come out", and more. I would not do the Castor oil or tea drinking thing. But I have just come to the conclusion that this baby will come when it wants to and there is not much I can do about it. This has been a really long 3 weeks though because I have had every sign of labor. It starts to drive you crazy, I told Jon, " I think I am going crazy with all of these false signs". Not to gross anyone out but I had the diarrhea, the mucous plug stuff, the false water breaking, the consistent contractions, the period like cramps, etc etc. And none of it started labor. I just had all of the signs. And now here I am at my due date and I have less signs of labor now than I did a week ago. I have no idea what is going on. It is kind of funny.

Delivery
Yay, she is here, I finally get to finish this post.
On Monday, May 10, 2010, the day after my due date we were scheduled to have my water broken at the American Fork hospital. We were like #2 on the induction list, so they said to be ready at about 8 am to come in. My doctor really wanted to get the baby out of me because he was afraid my due date was off and the baby was going to be too big for me to push out (I have a small pelvis), so May 10th was the date. However, Monday morning rolls around and AF hospital calls to say that they have too many woman come in during the night and they do not have any rooms available. My doctor called and asked if I would be willing to go to another hospital. My first choice was Orem community but we chose AF because it is so close to our home. I was very excited that he was willing to go to Orem Community. He called them and they had a room ready for us to come in. It was the birthing suite. Jon and I took the kids to Grandma Nancy's and we headed to the hospital, we got there at 11:30. We were so happy with the room, it was big and very nice. At that hospital you labor, give birth and recover all in the same room. We got settled in and right away I loved this hospital. My nurse was so nice. She was not pushy at all and she asked before she did anything. She also gave me options. Such a different experience from other hospitals. I loved that they were more laid back and relaxed about things. It made me so happy that AF was full and I ended up there.

My doctor came in and broke my water at 12:30 pm. I was dilated to a 4. I had been having contractions all morning. I was relieved to be more that just a 2. Having the bag of waters break was a funny feeling. It just kept gushing. It makes your stomach kind of tingle and ache because you know the baby is coming soon.

My doula showed up at about 1:30. Right as my contractions started getting harder. I had to stand up to labor because sitting or lying down was extremely painful. I stood up by the bed and rocked on my big exercise ball for a while. And then I had Jon go and get a heating pack to put on my tailbone and the doula got a wash cloth for my head. We stood in the bathroom for a while because the bathroom sink was the perfect height to lean on. The contractions were close and pretty relentless. About 30 seconds to 1 minutes apart lasting about the same. I started getting tired from breathing through them and I told Jon to help me walk into the room and kneel down by the couch. I was progressing so fast that I couldn't kneel down. I just ended up standing in the same place holding onto Jon for about 20 minutes. The nurse checked me as I was standing up and I was an 8. I got a little nervous at that point and my doula helped me breathe through it. It wasn't more that 10 minutes later that I felt a change in me. I had to lay down. I felt a little disoriented and I said, "I have to lay down, the baby is coming out." I laid on the bed and boy oh boy, the pain was intense. I just started panting and kind of screaming. I wanted the baby out. I pushed 3-5 times and she was out. The will to push her out was very strong because she was so much bigger than Lily was, it was very painful having her in the birth canal, I wanted her out. She was born at 3:15 pm. 3 hours after my water had been broken and less than 2 hours of really intense labor. I did have to get a few stitches but it wasn't bad.

She weighed 7lbs 5 oz and was 20 inches long. And she had so much hair. They brought her to me and she just cuddled right up. I knew right away that she would be my little cuddle bug. She nursed and snuggled right up next to me for a 1/2 an hour.

My parents came in from the waiting room to meet little Ava. Shortly after that Nancy and coach brought Calvin and Lily to meet Ava. Ava and I gave Calvin and Lily a gift when they came to see us. Lily got a princess crown and purse and Calvin got a knight shield and sword. They were a little nervous at first. I think they were scared to see mom in the hospital and to realize that the baby wasn't in mommy's tummy anymore. It is a strange thing for little kids. But they warmed up soon enough and they held her and gave her hugs. Everyone, including myself, got to watch her first bath. I didn't get to see Calvin and Lily's. But at this hospital they asked me when I would like to go down and see it. It was great. Ava loved getting her hair washed.

We had several visitors and my recovery was great. Natural birth helps me recover quickly and I feel really good, really fast. My doctor came to check on me the day after I had her and he said he was really proud of me and he thought watching Ava's birth was a really special experience. That made me feel really good. Ava's pediatrician said all of the other baby's in the nursery were jealous of her hair! We were both healthy and happy and we went home on Wednesday.

Name
Ava Christina Sudar.
We liked several names and had narrowed it down to 3. But we both kind of thought Ava would be the name, we just had to see her. Jon went out to get my parents who were in the waiting room and I talked to my baby about what name she would like. I asked her if she wanted to be named, Annabelle or Ansley and she whimpered or cried with both of those. When I asked her is she would like to be Ava it seemed as if she smiled at me. When Jon came back in I asked him how he felt about Ava Christina (which is the one we had kind of settled on before hand) and he felt good about it as well, so it was settled.

Other tidbits about all the pregnancies:
Calvin was delivered by Doctor James Nelson whom I did not like for several reasons. I switched to Dr. Gary Wold for Lily and Ava and I have liked him. Calvin and Lily were born in Orem at Timpanogos Regional Medical Center and Ava was born at Orem community hospital. They all three go to Alpine Pediatrics and Dr. Johnson is our preferred Doctor. I only got a couple of little stretch marks, breastfed 90% of the time used formula as well, Lily was great at nursing, Calvin and Ava were okay nursers but needed more formula than Lily to stay satisfied. I measured about 35 centimeter when I delivered all three (every week from 20 weeks on with each kid the doctor would say, your measuring a few centimeters smaller than I would like) I would laugh every time he said that. I Gained about 20-25lbs. I felt all three babies kick at 12 weeks. I love the adventures of pregnancy, childbirth and being a mom!!