the one about Quayd's birth... part 1

I have been inspired. Several of you have been writing about the birth of your children. I LOVE reading these stories. I have mentioned in my blog that I would tell my story some day. Well, someday has finally come. A lot of you know... I had quite an "experience" having my little Quayd. I have wanted to write it all down for quite sometime, just never really got around to it. It was a strange time for me. It was the most wonderful experience of my life, but as a lot of you know, it was a very hard time too. I experienced such highs and lows. Our family was so blessed through this time and I witnessed MANY miracles. It is something I hope I will never forget. But I have been worried about forgetting some of the small details, that is why I have wanted to record it all. It is a LONG story, so I am going to post it in parts. The first part will be about my pregnancy.

I am worried about you getting bored with it all, so don't feel obligated to read. As I have said many times before... This is my journal. I write for me and I try really hard to express my true feelings. I don't like feeling like I have to write for an audience. Also, my story will get really deep in parts. Don't get freaked out. I will really try to tell it how it is. I am not afraid to talk about it, so I guess I won't be afraid to write about it either. If you ever have questions, its fine to ask. I am an open book. And I am not freaky or over sensitive about it, so really. Just ask.

If you know nothing about my story, you are probably wondering what in the crap I am talking about. Well, it might take a couple of posts, but then you will see.

And now, one last thing before I start... I am in NO WAY WHAT SO EVER seeking for sympathy. This is just a crazy story I want to tell. Pah-Lease, don't feel like you have to feel sorry for me. I am very content with my life and I know that this happened to us for a reason. I don't want to be one of those people who over tells their story, so I will tell it this time, but that's it. So here goes nothing....

I got married to Brett when I was 19, almost 20. I know. I was a BABY! And so was he, at 18. We were not pregnant at the time, so stop wondering! Because we were so young, we knew we didn’t want kids right away, so we didn’t start trying for about a year an a half. Once we started “trying,” it didn’t came as easily and quickly as we had thought. Now, looking back, I realize it came pretty quickly after all. Especially knowing what would happen during and after pregnancy. It is easy to see now how Heavenly Father prepared us for the trial we were about to endure.

I had this crazy fertility tester! My friend found it on the Internet and it was this experimental thing from France or something. It is called “The Donna” and I still have it! How they ever figured it out is beyond me, but somebody discovered that you can detect fertility and ovulation from your saliva. So this little lipstick shaped tool had a type of microscope in it. You remove the lens and lick it, then let it dry completely and look through the microscope. Certain patterns on the lens told you if you were ovulating. If it just looked like random dots, no ovulation. If you had a “Fern” pattern, that meant ovulation. So my usual routine was to lick the thing in the morning before I showered then within about ten minutes it was ready, so I would check it as I stepped out of the shower. (Seriously, SO many HORRIBLE diseases in the world and some freak figured out that fertility is detected through saliva. CRAZY!) I got this tool about a year before I delivered Quayd. I had been using it, but noticed that I didn’t ovulate very often. I was still young and not extremely worried, so I had not gone to a Doctor or anything just yet. After a few months, I had decided that the silly thing was a hoax and there was no such thing as a “fern pattern.” Now this is getting into the almost TMI (too much information) section, but I will keep it clean. Brett LOVES to give this part of the story, but I just get a little embarrassed. So, please know I am totally blushing just typing this part! Anyway, we woke up on Christmas morning, 2001. I licked the dumb Donna. We went to Brett’s mom and dad’s house for the usual Christmas morning festivities. We came home and, well, you know! We just spent the rest of the morning relaxing and stuff. We had another family dinner later that afternoon, so we finally got moving and showered and stuff. I am a creature of habit and as I got out of the shower, I looked at Donna. Well, boy oh boy, did she have a surprise in store for me! Unmistakable fern pattern covering the WHOLE lens! This is so cliche’, but we knew at that moment that I was pregnant. We just felt it. Well, of course, you can’t take a pregnancy test that soon, so we had to be patient.

About a week and a half or two weeks passed and I knew it was getting close to period time. I had a pregnancy test at my house, because, as I mentioned, we had been trying. I got up one morning and decided I would try it. Brett and I were both getting ready for work. I peed on the stick, and NOTHING! Dang. We were so disappointed, but also knew we were sorta jumping the gun. We decided to try again in a couple of days after we had prayed long and hard for NO PERIOD! Well I came home from work that afternoon and went to the bathroom. I noticed the test in the trash can. I pulled it out, and I couldn’t believe it. One line meant not pregnant, and 2 lines meant pregnant. Well the first line was VERY bright, that means the test is working. But I could see a very faint second line. HOLY CRAP!!! I didn’t want to call Brett and get him way excited and he wouldn’t be home for a little bit, so I remembered I had another test in the cupboard. Brett and I had a deal that I wouldn’t do a test without telling him first. We wanted to be together through the whole thing. (Except the actual peeing thing. He didn’t want to be in the bathroom with me for that.) But I really hated to get him excited, so I went ahead and peed on that test without telling him. OH MY GOSH!! Again, one bright line, one really faint line. Now I didn’t know what to do. Do I tell Brett and risk him being mad at me??? I decided I better tell him when he got home. In person. But first, I needed more tests!! I quickly ran to the store. I bought another 2-pack. Once I got home and looked at the test again, I was really baffled. Brett came home and I sat him down and broke the news to him. HE WAS SO EXCITED! He said, “Well, we need more tests!” So immediately I pee on ANOTHER one! Same result. We decided to wait a day or two before we did the last test. Well by 9:00 that night, we couldn’t stand it and I peed on that one too. Two lines, one bright, one faint. So I called my friend Tara and told her to come over right then! She did, and when she looked at the 4 tests, she laughed and said, “Well, what do you think?” I was freaking out and said I didn’t know what to think. She was so calm and said, “Well, I think 4 positive tests is a pretty good indication.” Well, I still felt like I needed a positive answer from a Doctor, but it was Friday, so I would have to wait until Monday. We ended up going to Payson for the weekend for a baby blessing. We went to Costco in Provo in search of an economy pack of pregnancy tests but couldn’t find any. So we bought some bouillon cubes instead. First thing Monday, I called our family Doctor’s office. The receptionist said I could just come in and do the test. I probably wouldn’t be able to see the Doctor. I didn’t care, I just wanted an answer. So I went in and took the test. Brett was at work, and I was supposed to be at work but I left. I couldn’t stand it. So I did my thing and they told me to wait in the lobby for 5 minutes. Well, that was the longest 5 minutes EVER! They finally call me back, put me in a room, and asked me to wait for the Doctor, who happens to be a good family friend. I thought that was a little weird. She came in and was so excited to tell me the news! I started crying, she started crying, and it was just great. She doesn’t do OB, so she recommenced me to another Doctor in town and told me to keep her posted. I couldn’t wait to get to Brett’s work and tell him. As soon as he saw me, he knew and we hugged and cried and jumped around and yelled and all sorts of stuff! It was amazing. I will never forget the happiness I felt at the moment. It is hard to forget because when ever I look at Quayd today, I get that same feeling.

About a month after I found out, I was going on vacation. Brett’s aunts Debbie and Glenda had invited me to go to New Orleans. This trip had been in the works for several months. I was excited to go, but the morning sickness was just starting to set in. I did fine though and we ended up having a great time. When I think back of that trip, I just think of how annoying I probably was. I was still on a pregnancy “high.” This trip was planned during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Brett had actually got a temp-job doing security for the Olympics. (He had just finished Police Academy in December.) It actually worked out great because I was gone while he was working out of town, and when we flew in and out of Salt Lake City, I got to see him. Kinda Cool. Anyway, a few days after returning home, I had the dreaded pregnancy exam. Ewwww. But all was well and I was SO excited to be able to hear the heart beat. That just made it so real for me.

I did have little spells of morning sickness, but nothing to major. I gagged myself brushing my teeth a lot, but I do that anyway. I never really threw up, I was just super nauseated. I could usually tone it down with crackers and stuff.

I had my ultrasound to determine the sex on April 17th. (I know it is weird that I know that, but I remember freaky things. Besides, that is Aunt Rhonda’s Birthday, and I just always remember that date. Weird. I know.) We had talked about names A LOT. We were excited, what can we say. Soon after I found out I was Pregnant, Brett was looking at my scrapbook magazines while in the bathroom. He had found a page with the name “Quayd” on it. He asked me what I thought, and I just knew that was the name, if it was a boy. For girl names, we had it narrowed down to two names, Chloe and michaela, but neither of them sounded quite right. We were so sure we were having a girl, by the way! So the Quayd thing was in the back of our minds, but we were really struggling with the girl name. We also knew we wanted to incorporate “michael” into the name, after Brett’s dad. Besides Brett and I, he was the most excited for the new baby. So once we knew it was a boy, and he was gonna be named Quayd, we knew Michael would be the middle name.

(I am so embarrassed to post this picture. It was taken the day before I had Quayd and it has been in hiding ever since. I hate it! But I want you to get the whole effect of how puffy I was. Crazy huh!)

By this point in my pregnancy, I was starting to get REALLY swollen and puffy. At each Doctor’s visit, my blood pressure was higher than the last visit. I was also showing signs of gestational diabetes. I had to have all of the test for it, but was never considered to have it; I was just borderline. It was controlled with diet. But a little while later I was diagnosed with Pre-Eclampsia, therefore, my pregnancy was considered high risk, and I was put on bed rest. I was working as a secretary at on oil field office at the time, and since my job was very low stress, I was still able to work. I just had to stay down as much as possible. That only lasted a few weeks before I was put on strict bed rest. By this time it was summer, and HOT!! Probably the hottest summer in the history of summers. I would just lay on the floor under the swamp cooler for hours. I was miserable. Truly. I was so swollen and disgusting. Its weird, but looking back, I really don’t remember a lot of this time spent in bed. I don’t know if subconsciously I blocked it out, or if I was sicker than anybody really realized. As this story played out, I think it was more likely the latter.

K, that is all for today. You will have to keep checking back for more of my soap opera!