Ben's Birth Story

Introducing Ben Austin Facer

Born 7.8.2016 at 12:31 a.m.  

7 lbs 8 oz / 22 in 

How do you even start a post like this?  I know this is a novel, but this is mostly for me to remember everything.  So don't feel bad if you don't make it through the whole thing.  

During the last few weeks of pregnancy, people would not stop asking me if I was nervous, ready, excited, etc.  Obviously I was excited, but I wasn't nervous...yet.  I've realized that I don't usually get nervous for things until right before they happen.  I was just waiting for a nervous breakdown but it hadn't happened yet.  At around 36 weeks, I talked to my Dr about my due date, which happened to be right over the week that both my mom and Austin's mom were going to be at girls camp.  At this point, Austin still had a job that would require him to go back to Alabama after the baby was born (he'd have about 2 weeks total to be home).  I really didn't want him to come out here and spend all his time waiting around for the baby to get here and not have any time left for after he was born, so we decided that as long as everything looked good, we would have my Dr induce me.  At my 38 week appointment, he said, "Okay, we'll see you at 7 am on the 7th!  Eat breakfast before you come! We're havin' a baby that day!" I was so excited to hear that because A: He was really coming!  It was getting real, and B: Breakfast?!  I thought it was ice chips only? Wahoo!

Since we knew the day he was coming (a Thursday), I started my maternity leave that Monday so that I could spend time with my family during "Cousin Camp" that week with all my nieces & nephews.  We went to the parade, saw a movie, played games, went to Cherry Hill and just hung out for 3 days.  The last night of Cousin Camp we were hanging out at my brother's house having dinner and my sisters had been asking me all day if I was nervous.  Nope...not yet.  We left the party for a bit to come home and pack our bags (Yeah, I hadn't packed anything yet.  Bad idea.) and that's when the breakdown started.  I had a million thoughts running through my head.  What was I supposed to pack?  He's really coming tomorrow?  I'm not ready!  I never got a newborn sized outfit for him to come home in!  Our house is a mess.  How bad is this really going to hurt?  The dresser we painted for him needs to be re-painted.  This is our last night as a family of two...ahh!  After we got our bags packed for the most part, we went back to the party and I couldn't hide it when people asked if I was nervous.  Yep...pretty nervous.  On the way home Austin smacked a mosquito on his arm and says, "Dang it!  I found the mosquito that bit all the way up my arm!  I'm going to be so uncomfortable tomorrow!"  I didn't think it was very funny... :)

The next morning, we got up and finished some last minute packing, picked up some McDonald's for breakfast and headed to the hospital.  Of course we were 30 mins late (my fault) but we got there and got all checked in.  Here's the final belly pic:

We'd been there for a total of about 3 mins before Dr. Ward came in and broke my water right away.  He said I was at a 2 and his head was super low so it should be a breeze to get him here.  He told me that I should start to want my epidural around 11:30am and we should have a baby by 8 or 9 that night.  Wahoo!  At around 8:30am, they started the pitocin.  We watched on the monitor to see when I was having contractions because I wasn't feeling a thing.  By 9, they were 3-4 mins apart but were not painful whatsoever.  By 10:30ish, they were about 2 mins apart but still not hurting.  The nurses kept asking me what was wrong with me.  They stayed 2 mins apart for a loooong time and by 3ish, they started to hurt but I was only at a 3 so they gave me something to help with the pain, which only helped for like 30 mins.  By this time it wasn't terrible pain, but I couldn't talk during contractions like I could before and it was getting harder to just breathe through them.  

This is what most of our day looked like.

At 5:30 they checked me and I was at a 4, so they told me I could have the epidural anytime.  At 5:45 I decided it was time.  I was super nervous about it, but I just leaned into Austin and my nurse on the side of the bed and it was over super quick and I couldn't even tell when he did it.  By 6:30 I was numb and feeling good, but could still feel when contractions were happening which was perfect.  Austin was loving it because he had a happy talkative wife again :)  I was thinking this was great!  The nurses got me lots of Dr Pepper and Coke and popsicles and we were watching endless episodes of King of Queens...so I was happy.  The only problem was I was not progressing at all.  At 8:45 I was at a 4.  At 9:30, I threw up and was still at a 4.  At 11, I was still at a 4.  At 11, they told us that if I hadn't progressed by midnight, they would probably have to do a c-section.  That wasn't what we wanted to hear.  The thought of having a c-section crossed my mind for like one second earlier in the day, so I was kind of expecting them to say that and I was surprisingly okay with it.  Austin, on the other hand, started to freak out a little bit and got really nervous.  He hadn't thought of that being a possibility at all, so he quickly started researching c-sections and I didn't look up anything because I didn't want to freak out at all.  

At midnight they checked me and sure enough, still a 4.  She called my Dr to ask if there was any other alternatives, but he thought we should just do the c-section.  So at 12:15ish, she brought in the scrub looking things for Austin and hair nets for both of us.  The anesthesiologist came in and adjusted my epidural and added morphine.  I actually knew him from working at Zions Bank, so it was nice to see a familiar face.  He told me the bank hasn't been the same since I left ;)  They then wheeled me into the OR and left Austin in our room.  I was doing everything I could to stay calm and it was working.  I could tell Austin was freaking out though.  I think because I knew he was nervous, I was trying so hard to not be.  The second we got in the room, I started shaking almost uncontrollably because it was freezing in the OR and being nervous and freezing is not a good combination.  They hauled my numb body onto the table, and checked to make sure I was numb.  To do this, the anesthesiologist put a cold cloth on my leg to make sure I couldn't feel the coldness.  I could feel the cloth on my leg, but not the coldness.  Weirdest feeling ever.  I was super worried about being able to feel them cutting into me, but they assured me I would only feel "pressure, tugging, and pulling"...whatever that meant.  They got all set up and put the sheet up in front of my face, checked my blood pressure, and who knows what else.  I was still shaking uncontrollably and trying SO HARD to calm down and stop shaking, but I couldn't.  They put on an oxygen mask and Austin had come in by this time.  He came and stood by my head and tried to rub my arms to stop me from shaking.  I was still pretty calm but didn't look like it.  Then when I could feel they were starting the surgery, I started to freak out in my head.  This wasn't how I imagined it to be and it was scary!  Austin and the anesthesiologist were there helping me calm down. I felt them moving stuff around and there was pulling and pressure but no pain.  After only a couple minutes, they told Austin to look up over the sheet and right after that it felt like a suction cup released in my belly and our baby was born!  I just started sobbing as I heard his sweet little cry and seeing Austin's face as he saw our baby for the first time was so sweet.  Austin went with the nurses as they cleaned him up a little bit and then came back and told me, "He has such a cute face!" Then the nurse brought him over and put his cute face next to mine.  Before they brought him over, he had a hard time breathing...then after he was right by me he started to breathe normally.  He knew his mommy :)  

Being able to somewhat hold him and have him next to me was a perfect distraction while they stitched me back up.  I only got to hold him for a minute and then they took him back to go finish measuring, weighing and all that stuff.  Austin went with him to make sure everything was good.  So I was then left alone in the freezing room while they finished up.  I remember feeling so weird at this time.  Everything had happened so fast.  From the time they wheeled me in until he was born was only about 10 mins.  I just felt super out of it and incredibly cold and shaky, and still crying.  The anesthesiologist was seriously the best.  He stayed by my head the whole time from when I got in there from when I left and seriously kept me calm.  After Austin had left he kept telling me what a great job I did and told me it was the smoothest c-section he's seen.  Since Austin couldn't be with me the whole time, I was so grateful for him...I don't think I could've done it without him cheering me on the whole time before and after.  They put a blanket over me as they wheeled me out but I still couldn't stop shaking, and it was worse than it was before.  When we got back to our room, the nurse put a warm blanket over me, then charted a whole bunch of stuff as I sat there shaking.  I finally asked her if this was normal and she said it was and usually lasted a couple hours after.  I just laid there thinking about how weird it was that I just had a baby and neither he or Austin were with me.  But he finally came back and wheeled our cute boy in with him.  We just sat and enjoyed some time together.  Austin held him most of the time since I was still shaking.  At around 2 am, Austin's family came to see him and by 4 am we were in a new room and we spent the next few hours sort of sleeping/watching his chest to make sure he was breathing ;) He was perfect and we couldn't believe he was really ours!  

The next few days were full of visitors, little sleep, lots of pain pills and cuddles.  He was eating like a champ and I was recovering.  I had no idea what the recovery for a c-section was like, but um, wow.  It is super painful and frustrating because there's very little you can do on your own for a while.  It's been a month now and I feel almost back to normal, but still have incision pain occasionally.   Even though everyone thinks there is an ideal way to have a baby, I think it's amazing no matter how they get here.  I'm just so glad that even though, in the words of my Dr, "some uteruses just don't work," I was still able to get Ben here safely.  And bonus, he has a perfect shaped head because he didn't have to go through any trauma.  :)

Little Ben had tons of visitors!

The last month has gone by so fast.  For the first 2 weeks, I got lucky and was able to have Austin here with me the whole time.  He actually got a different job (not in Alabama) and his first day was 2 weeks after we left the hospital.  I'm pretty sure that was a little miracle because I couldn't have survived without him.  He cooked, cleaned, made sure I took my medication, listened to us cry and was pretty much at our beck and call 24/7.  He's the bomb.  We're also both so grateful for all the help we've received from everyone with meals and everything.  We have the best family, friends and neighbors who have helped us so much.  

We love our little buddy and are so excited he's part of our family!

"Peanut"

I'll start from the beginning...

On our way home from Cancun on the plane, I was SURE I was getting cramps because of my period coming up.  They were so bad.  But even the next morning it still hadn't shown up.  So when we woke up, I told Austin I was going to take a pregnancy test to just rule that out.  I go in to take it and it was positive!  I ran in and told him and we couldn't believe it!  I wanted to tell him in some cute way, but I told him I was taking it...so that plan didn't work out.  I probably wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret anyway.  This post is titled, "Peanut" because for some reason that's what we've called him from the very beginning.  

How we told the fam

We told our family earlier than we thought we would, but since it was around Thanksgiving we thought that would be a fun time to share the news.  

For Austin's parents, we told them a few days before Thanksgiving that we got an Amazon Prime package delivered to our house with their name on it and we'd bring it by sometime that week.  They thought it was weird but with my amazing packaging skills, it looked legit!  I wrapped up a little pair of baby shoes with a paper that said "Baby Facer coming soon...July 2016" and put them in a tiny box with a bow, then put that box in the Prime box.  We took it over there and I filmed Austin's mom opening it.  They had the funniest guesses of what it would be...we were dying.  The funniest part was she sent Austin's dad downstairs to get ice cream while she was opening it, so he wasn't even there when it was finally opened.  I love her reaction -- she rips her coat off.  So dang funny :)  Since Austin's sister, Sarah, was on a mission in France, we told her on Christmas on Skype and her reaction is hilarious, too.

For my parents/family, I made this cute little onesie to put on my sisters brand new baby that said, "This lil turkey is going to be a big cousin."  I was planning on taking him out of the room, changing him real quick, and bringing him back to give to my mom.  It didn't go that smoothly...haha.  After we'd eaten, I waited for the perfect time to hold Jake so that I could take him out while everyone was just hanging out.  While I was holding him, it smelled like he'd pooped, so I told Lindsay I'd go change him.  She had to put some medication on him though, so she wasn't letting me.  So I went out with her anyway while she changed him, then I stole him and took him into the extra bedroom and started to change him, but he started screaming!  I would start changing him for a second, then calm him down, then change, then calm...until I heard Lindsay say, "Where's Jake?  I can hear him crying."  I felt like a horrible aunt!  After a few mins Lindsay and my other sister Amy came in and were so confused.  "What are you doing??" "Um, just changing him a little bit.  You guys can leave."  They could tell something was up, so when I finally got him changed and came out (with him swaddled in a blanket to cover up the fact that he had different clothes on now) they looked at me suspiciously.  I wanted to give him to my mom, but she wouldn't quit doing the dishes!  I had nieces and nephews begging to take him from me but I had to wait for my mom.  She finally sat down and took him from me but didn't notice the onesie until Lindsay and Amy pointed it out.  I didn't film it, but here's a cute picture my sister took when my dad came over to see.

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Symptoms

The first few weeks were just pure exhaustion and hunger.  I had to be eating pretty much all the time or else I'd feel nauseous, but I wasn't throwing up too much.  The only time I'd throw up is in the morning after I showered, but not every time.  I was eating everything in sight and sleeping every chance I could.

When I hit about 15-16 weeks, I started to feel normal again.  I had been taking Unisom (half in the morning, half at night) to help with nausea and I kept taking it, not wanting to risk being sick. I stopped taking it somewhere around the 18th-ish week and haven't felt sick since.  Since around week 8, I have had heartburn pretty bad.  I went through a lot of different medications before I found my best friend: omeprazole. I have been taking it faithfully for about 4 months and I hate my life on the days I forget to take it. 

Since about week 26, I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring, so I bought a cheap one from Claire's that I've worn since then.  I've received lots of compliments on my gorgeous $13 ring ;)  Around the same time, my feet started to swell at night a little bit.  Starting about week 28, my feet have been suuuuper swollen and I haven't seen my ankles for a very long time.  The past week or so (36-37 weeks) they've been really bad!

Besides my dang feet, I have felt surprisingly normal this entire pregnancy.  I've just recently started having to get up in the night to go to the bathroom, but it's only once a night and I sleep great most nights.  (Maybe it's because I have an awesome support pillow and I get the bed to myself?)  This whole pregnancy thing been really easy for me and I've been super lucky, which I'm so grateful for.  I just hope all they're all like this!

Cravings

The first craving I remember having was vegetables and dip.  I brought a big container of sour cream and made my Hidden Valley Dill dip at work and ate vegetables all day long.  Around the same time I wanted hummus and pita chips, so those were on my desk frequently.  When I was nauseous, it was Goldfish, Ritz, Mac & Cheese and any cracker I could find.  Mostly carby, unhealthy things.  I'm sure people thought I was crazy because I always had food at my desk.  Always.  The Mac & Cheese and Goldfish obsession lasted a reaaaally long time.  I remember being so frustrated with food though, because not a whole lot sounded very good but I was SO hungry most of the time that I just had to force myself to eat.  I got in the habit of doing that so I think that helped with me not getting very sick.

Once I wasn't so sick anymore, my smoothie/Slurpee/popsicle/anything cold and/or frozen kicked in.  I was stopping at Costco multiple times a week after work to get a berry smoothie.  Our freezer always had some sort of frozen treat, and we made a lot of runs to 7-11 for Slurpees.  One of the weirdest cravings has been Diet Coke.  I didn't like it before I was pregnant, but one day I went to get a drink at work and have never been so drawn to Diet Coke...and it tasted SO GOOD.  Since then it's been my drink of choice most of the time, especially with lime.  So bizarre.

Umm, don't mind the sock and nail clippers on the table...haha what the heck?

Right now I'm mostly craving lemonade, and that's about it.  Frozen, regular, any kind that's not the regular Minute Maid fountain kind.  I can't get enough.

Gender reveal

We were SO excited when we found out it was a boy.  We secretly wanted it to be a boy, so it's good it worked out that way :)  I'm excited because in my family, my brother and his wife just had a baby boy a year and a half ago, and my sister just had a baby boy in November.  They'll all be about a year apart, plus Lindsay's baby will be in the same grade as the lil peanut, so that'll be really fun.

For Austin's family, we made a cake and had his mom cut into it.  Her reactions are the best...haha.  Here's a little video of it:

For my family, we got a bunch of blue silly string and wrapped it in white paper.  We gave one to all the kids and had them spray it to find out.  We obviously already knew before both families.  We couldn't wait for them!

Here's a cute video we got from our 20 week ultrasound of him giving us a thumbs up!

Here's some progress pics along the way.  I wasn't very good at doing it...it's too hard to remember!  Also, Austin has been in Illinois/Indiana/Alabama this summer, so my lack of pictures is mostly due to my Instagram husband not being here.  Also, from the end of April to the end of May I was crazy busy with Quilt Market and I don't think I took one progress shot that whole time.  But here's a few.

6 weeks/3 days

10 weeks/3 days

16 weeks/1 day

20 weeks/3 days

28 weeks/3 days

Somewhere around 32 weeks...haha

33 weeks/5 days

36 weeks

Well, if you read this whole post, congratulations!  I had to include everything so I wouldn't forget. :)  I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow (so crazy!) and since both my mom and Austin's mom will be gone over my due date, my Dr will be inducing me on July 7th. (which happens to be my grandpa's birthday!) That's two weeks from tomorrow, people!  Austin will be coming home on July 3rd (yay!!!) and we can't wait for our little peanut to get here.

Vivaaaaa Las Vegas

This year in March, we wanted to take a little vacation before Austin had to leave for the summer and before our little babe arrives.  We decided to head to Vegas!  We booked it (nonrefundable) on the cheapest weekend we could find, which turned out to be Easter.  Whoops!  That's probably why it was so cheap, but we went to the City of Sin on Easter weekend anyway...haha.  We stayed in the older part of Vegas by Fremont Street at the Downtown Grand.  This was our second time staying there and we've LOVED it both times.  It's way less expensive than the strip but still close enough, and they have the coolest roof top pool to hang out at.

This is a view of Fremont Street at night.  The best place for people watching.

People always ask why we would go to Vegas when we're LDS and we don't smoke, drink, or gamble.  Well, we go for the food.  And a little bit of shopping.  Another reason we stay by Fremont Street is because is closer to the North outlets we like to shop at.  So for everyone wondering, that's why we go.  :)

We spent most of the our first day at the outlets.  Well, mostly the Nike store for Austin and a few random stores for me.  I was 25 weeks pregnant at the time so I didn't know what to shop for and didn't end up getting too much.

After shopping we had a little excitement...right as we were pulling out of the outlets, our tire felt super weird.  We pulled into a gas station and sure enough we had a huge nail in it.  After going to 3 different auto shops, (it was closing time for all of them) we were told to go to this place that would apparently get us in and out pretty quick.  Even though it was a pretty sketchy place, they were quick and cheap so it was great!

That night we ate at Park on Fremont, a restaurant we accidentally found the last time we were in Vegas.  We thought we were going into the restaurant next door, but we ended up at this one and it was so cute we decided to stay.  It's the cutest restaurant (if you eat outside in the back) and doesn't have the biggest menu, but the food is good and the atmosphere is the best part.

There's a teeter totter in the back of the restaurant...how cute is that?

Across the street is a new burger place called, "Flippin Good Burgers and Shakes."  So we had to go get a shake after dinner, and it was delicious!

The next day we made the trek to the strip to walk around and find some good eats.  We hit the Coke store and M&M store and then went to the New York New York for lunch.  I don't even think this place has a name...New York Pizzeria?  It's across the hall from the upper level of Hershey World.  It's dang good!  We just get pepperoni and some garlic knots.  Mmmm...

The rest of the day we just wandered around to different casinos...we love walking around in Caesar's Palace shops and the Venetian ones, too.  I forgot to take a picture, but someone told us to get a cronut at Cafe Presse in the Venetian.  It was SO GOOD.  We heard they were half price after a certain time so we went later and bought one to share.  The girl came out with two of them and said, "Happy Easter weekend!"  So we each had one...yum.  

For dinner, my brother in law suggested the Grand Lux Cafe in the Venetian and to get the beignets.  We ended up getting pizza again, but holy cow, best pizza ever!

When we went to order the beignets, they told us they're only offered at their other restaurant...lame.  But we walked over there and ordered them to go.  They were super delicious and way too many for 2 people...but I think we ate almost all of them anyway.

Our last day we hung out at the pool most of the day because Austin had a lot of studying to do for a big nasty test.  (Any accounting majors that can relate?)

We did take a break to go try Tacos el Gordo, which was recommended by tons of people.  It's a freaking madhouse inside (we even went to the one on the North end of Vegas where it's not as busy) but it was worth the crazy lines.  There's a line for beef, one for pork, and one for brains and weird stuff.  So Austin and I split up and ended up with a lot of yummy stuff.  When we sat down Austin told me about this "amazing orange drink" that a ton of people mentioned in reviews, so he had me try it and it was Orange Bang!  You can get it at RB's gas stations and it is delicious, but super funny that people were freaking out about it online.

We also had to give in to the hype about Shake Shack...so we had that for dinner on our last day.  It was really good!  Nothing out of this world, but the fries were cute.

On our way out, we had to stop at Hash House a Go Go, which everyone talks about but we've never tried.  We really wanted to try the chicken & waffles but were in the mood for some normal breakfast food, and we heard their portions are huge, so we ordered some eggs, bacon, and flapjacks.  We were disappointed that it wasn't that much food...unless we're just pigs.  We could've easily each ordered this entree, but it was really good anyway!  We may or may not have stopped at McDonald's after...  

Next time it'll be chicken & waffles.

Sorry for this being a food post, but that's seriously all we do when we're there.  It was a great weekend and I'm sure we'll be back soon!