An Angel from Heaven

My little girl was born a week and a half early on a very snowy night. I had just got off work at 9:30pm and headed to Walmart to pick up some milk since we were out... I was walking pretty fast and had a few strong contractions. I, of course, didn't think anything of them because exercise always made me have them. No sooner did I get home and inside the door that I felt a little gush of fluid. I thought maybe I just accidentally peed my pants, but when the gush kept coming I knew that my water broke. This was it! This was the moment I had been waiting for! I was SO afraid that I would have to be induced to get my little girl here at 41 weeks, but she had decided to surprise us and come a bit early. :D

Jordan and I got everything ready frantically and headed to the hospital where I was checked in to room 9 (lucky number) lol. They helped me get ready and checked everything. I was only 1.5 cm dilated and 80% effaced which was no different from my appointments the weeks beforehand. The contractions started pretty soon afterwards and I did my best to hold off on the epidural. They reached peak at 100 and I just kept waiting. Hours passed and I wasn't dilating very much so I asked them to put me on pitocen to speed things up. Once they did my contractions got worse and would stay peaked for long amounts of time. At this point I was dilated to a 3 after 4 hours and finally asked for the epidural. Definitely worth it! Though I hate the feeling of being numb, I preferred this to the pain of the contractions, which as I watched on the monitor showed about up to 5 in a row at 100. I think I would have been screaming my bloody guts out if I had to feel that many, that strong, in a row.

The night passed and the snow stopped, the nurses told me that if I wanted my doctor to deliver the baby then I had to do so before 7 because it would then be my doctors day off. I was so disappointed because I knew I wouldn't make it that soon. After being on the pitocen I was only dilating 1 cm every hour. They finally boosted the dosage on the pitocen and I went from a 5 to a 9 in an hour and a half. An hour later I was fully dilated. They told me that my doctor was making some rounds at the hospital and that she said she would deliver my baby for me. What relief!!! I was SO happy and grateful that she was willing to do this for me since it was already past 7am and it was her day off nonetheless.

This was when they started having me push. For about an hour and 15 minutes I pushed and at 10:35 am on a beautiful sunny, snow covered day I had my gorgeous baby girl Brailey Ann Pitchford. :) 6 pounds 9 ounces and 18.5 inches long. She is everything I have ever dreamed of and more! She is perfection in every way. And I couldn't have prayed for a better turnout of labor. Only 12 hours in labor and every minute of it was worth it. :D

I love this little Angel more than anything and I can't believe that time is moving so quickly on us already.

Me holding my little girl. :) And yes I look like a mess, but so would you after 12 hours of labor, nothing to eat for over 24 hours, and pushing for an hour and 15 minutes. lol. And I would do it all again in a heartbeat for her.

Such a darling all dressed up... even with her "kicks" (shoes) lol

Eyes wide open at the hospital. She looks SO much like her daddy. :D

Going home outfit. Daddy just had to pick out a dress lol.

This day was one of the best days of my life because I got to bring my little Brailey into this world! I love her SO very much that I can't even begin to describe just how strong a love it is. I want to give her everything. Heavenly Father sent me this wonderful angel and I couldn't be more grateful that He did. Life just wouldn't be the same without her.

One Month left!

I can't believe I am only 1 month away from my baby girls due date! I have loved this pregnancy and every bit of it... and I mean that with all my heart. Its getting SO very close to her being here and I am SUPER anxious to hold her in my arms and have her here with me and Jordan.

I haven't had an ultrasound since my 20 week appointment so I am very much missing her in a way. I don't get to see how she has grown and what she looks like. This in itself makes me want to see her even more now. I keep hoping that she will come a little early. Chances are that she will be late, but I keep hoping that after week 37 she will be ready to make her appearance in this world. :)

She is currently in head down position which is great and she has been head down since about week 25. I know this because of her hiccups. She gets them all the time, which makes me giggle, and I can feel the exact location of where they are. She also moves a lot now even though she really doesn't have any room. It may seem weird, but I have been measuring around my stomach to see how I have grown over this pregnancy and for the past couple months I have stayed at almost 39" around from back to bellybutton. I know she is growing, but since my belly seems to have stopped stretching she really has no room left. She doesn't kick as much, but she definitely squirms around. The weirdest thing happened one night and it really felt like she was knocking on my belly (kinda like you would knock on door). lol. It was quick but she did it about 5 times. Like knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. lol.

There has also been times during her squirming that it actually tickles. I have even laughed out loud once because it made me jump a little because it just tickled so bad. lol. She doesn't really ever kick my ribs so I have been grateful for that, but as I have mentioned before about her having no room left she is spreading my ribs out in my front and back. lol. It just kinda feels like I need to pop my back all the time and squeeze my front ribs back in because they feel out of place.

These last months have been such an amazing experience and I do not take one part of it for granted. I have loved being pregnant even if it isn't always comfortable or easy to handle. :) I can't wait to see my baby face to face and wrap her in my arms. She is going to be very much loved not just by Jordan and I, but by family and friends. :D We are all awaiting her arrival.

Christmas!

So I didn't really get very many pictures, but this was one AMAZING Christmas! Jordan and I had such a nice time relaxing and spending time with family for 6 entire days! It was much needed! We had so much fun being around everyone and getting to play games and enjoy the atmosphere.

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun with my parents annual Christmas Party. It was a BLAST as always. The games, the food, and the gifts were wonderful, but the company was the best part of it all. I can't explain how much I love my family and being around them!

Pic of Jordan, me, Kelsie, and Josh on Christmas morning!

One with my amazing parents! :)

So the story behind this next picture is this: My family has always had the tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve and its usually new pajamas. I LOVE new pajamas, but Jordan does not. He hardly wears them and instead wears basketball shorts, but he has about 5 pairs of them. So I was left without knowing what to do for his Christmas Eve gift. He had given me a few ideas for just Christmas and one was a hat. Jordan is super picky when it comes to hats and I discarded that idea quickly because I figured no matter what hat I got him it would have something wrong with it. lol. So as I was walking through the stores wondering what the crap to get him, I came across this hat in the picture below. I have seen this everywhere and I think they are just awesome! Knowing that he didn't really like these hats I decided it would make a wonderful gag gift for Christmas Eve and that we could just return it later. ha ha ha. I just wanted to see his face when he opened it. I did have another real gift for him. To my surprise when he opened it on Christmas Eve night he actually liked this hat a lot and even decided to keep it. So for once, I actually did GOOD!

Jordan and his wonderful Beaver hat! :D

These were the pajamas Jordan got for me for my Christmas Eve gift and I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE them! They are super comfy and super cute! I must say that he did an amazing job, because these fit me while being pregnant, but they will also still fit after I am done being pregnant!

Christmas day was lots of fun, but very tiring. First we got up early for church with my parents, which was wonderful to experience on a Christmas morning. Since my dad had to stay at the church for a little while afterwards we decided to hurry over to Jordans parents house and open gifts with them so that they didn't have to wait. We ran over there, then ran back to my parents to open gifts with them, then went back to Jordans parents, then went to see Jordans grandpa Smith in the Veterans home which was wonderful and then we ran over to my Grandma and Grandpa Johnsons house to visit that side of my family since I never get to see them, finally returning back to Jordans parents house to enjoy the rest of the evening. It was kind of a rush, but was wonderful to say the least. :D We got lots of gifts, but again I forgot to do pictures. I had it all on camera, but I won't bore you with those videos because they were pretty long. lol.

Amazing Baby Shower!!!

Well, Brailey's Baby shower came and went and I just have to say that it turned out WONDERFUL! I have the best family in the world!

We played some wonderful games, in this one we played guess which diaper has the "poop" in it, but really it was just an m&m candy. lol. Lets just say I failed at this game.

The awesome Diaper Cake that my momma made! Isn't it just SO cute?

This is some of the wonderful decorating that my sister Krystal did for the shower! I absolutely LOVED it! It was more than I dreamed of.

Lots of gifts from all the awesome people who attended the shower! It was like early Christmas. ha ha ha.

Some of the COOLEST friends who came to support me and my little girl (one couldn't attend due to recently having a baby, but if she had made it she would have been in this group lol)

This is all the gifts laid out! We got TONS of stuff! Just about everything we needed and wanted, and more!

Overall, I had the best time and it was a great turnout with great friends and family to support us. We couldn't have asked for anything more! The best present I received out of all of this was having my friends and family there! I love them all!!!! I am so very grateful for having such amazing people do so much for me.