Gram's birth story

 Prepare yourself for a long post. :)

Way before we had Mollie I would often have the thought come to my mind that there was a little boy waiting to join our family.  When I got pregnant with Mollie I was sure she was a boy.  We were shocked when we found out she was a little girl.  Dan and I disregarded the thought that I would often have and were content being all done having kids with 3 girls and 1 boy.  As Mollie got older the thought that a little boy was waiting to come to us just kept popping into my mind.  I brought it up to Dan a couple of times but we both agreed we weren't quite ready for another baby.  We had our hands full with 4 kiddos.  Just before Mollie turned 4 I brought it up to Dan again.  I told him I really felt like a little boy was waiting to join our family and that I really wanted to try for one more baby.  He actually agreed and said he was thinking the same thing.  That was it, a few months later we were pregnant and we were beyond thrilled !!!

The first couple months of pregnancy were HARD to say the least.  I was pretty darn sick.  We were pretty blessed to have Dan working from home at the time due to covid, so I had a lot of help from him.  After a few months I started to feel better.  The bigger I got the more uncomfortable I was.  I could definitely tell my body was older with this pregnancy.!!  There were days when I would just sit and cry, I didn't know how I was going to make it to the end of the pregnancy, but somehow I did.  

My pregnancy was far from un- eventful.  We knew it would be risky from the get go.  We've had complications in the past.  We really did feel the spirit so many times through out this pregnancy telling us everything would be ok.  The experience strengthened our testimony and our faith so much.  When we went in for your first ultrasound the doctor saw a little cyst on your brain as well as your bladder (we would later find out it was your gallbladder).  Because you were so small all they could do was make us wait until you were bigger so we could see it better and hopefully diagnose it.  The waiting game was not fun! It made me nervous every single day.  When we were finally able to go back to the doctor, your brain cyst had disappeared.  I guess the type of cyst you had on your brain was actually very common and often times resolved on its own, which is exactly what yours did, phew!  However, what they thought was a cyst on your bladder was now big enough to get a better view.  It turned out that it was actually an enlarged gallbladder.  The doctor wanted to refer us to a specialist in Salt Lake to get a second opinion.  So we were sent home without answers and had to wait once again until we could get into the specialist.  (I also need to mention that your original due date was May 30.  At your first ultra sound they said you were measuring big and changed your due date to May 17).  After waiting a few weeks we were able to get into the specialist.  She looked at your gallbladder and called it a "normal anomaly."  That wasn't very re-assuring to me.  She said she did want to keep monitoring it through pregnancy and possibly after birth.  However, she said you were measuring below the 10th percentile.  This was far more concerning than your gallbladder.  She said that when this happens, sometimes it may mean the placenta isn't providing you with everything you need.  She also said it "could mean hundreds of other things."  Again, not re-assuring!  So we were sent home once again to wait.  (I will say that if they hadn't changed your due date you would have been measuring just fine).  I honestly think that changing your due date caused a lot of confusion later on.  I really think your first due date was more accurate.  They said that once they've changed the date they don't change it back because the measurements during the first trimester are more accurate than later measurements.  Anyway, at future appointments you started measuring around the 30-40 percentile.  Your gallbladder was still large but all they could do was monitor it.  We had monthly ultrasounds where we would check your growth, gallbladder, placenta and fluid.  Everything continued to look good.  So the first part of my pregnancy was pretty stressful and of course i continued to worry through out the whole thing.  

My birth plan was to have a repeat c section.  I had never even thought about a v-back delivery.  On Monday May 3 I had my regular check up.  I was dilated to about a 2.  Nothing seemed to be really happening ( I was also at a 2 the week before).  At this time I was 38 weeks according to the May 17 due date.