Now this is podracing!: October 2012

Well, I know that I am biased because he is my baby, but little Oliver is one of the cutest little babies I have ever seen in my life! I just can't stop staring at him. And Eric is so cute with him as well. So gentle and sweet. They look so cute together. I don't think he really looks like either of us, but I do think that he has Eric's feet. And he does look very similar to Eric when he was born (since we do have video footage of his birth and can compare first day pictures).

We'll keep taking pictures too so that you can see more of how cute he is! So far he sleeps well and is really mellow. And in case you didn't see the info somewhere else, he was born at 8:45 am on October 6, 2012 and was 8 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches. He had the cord around his neck once and had tied a knot in the cord as well. The doctor and nurses say that he will be a good boy scout.

Here is Oliver's birth story with some extra details as well.

October 10, 2012

Well, I’m a mom! I really can’t believe it. A child was formed inside of me and came out this adorable little human. So far he is one of the most adorable little people that I have ever beheld and I am so grateful that he is mine.

Oliver Wells Rigby was born on Saturday, October 6, 2012 at 8:45 am and weighed 8 lbs 4 oz and is 21 inches long. He is a nice big baby with long fingers and toes/feet like Eric. I had my first contraction on Friday the 5^th at about 8 am just after we got up to get Eric off to school. I didn’t think too much of it, but when I went to the bathroom there was some blood. I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, just hoped that it wasn’t a bad sign. And then when I went again there was still blood and mucusy stuff and I realized that I lost my mucus plug.

I had a doctors appointment at 10:45 and I learned that I was dilated to a 2 ½ and 80 % effaced. My doctor informed me that she was going out of town on Sunday and that I’d better have my baby before then if I wanted her to deliver the baby. Funny thing was that I did have the baby the next morning and since she wasn’t on call, she still didn’t deliver the baby. Oh well. Funny how we go to one doctor for 6-9 months and then whoever is on call the day of the birth is who delivers even though you have no clue who they are.

When I got home my contractions started to come a little bit more often and weren’t painful, but not comfortable either. Luckily Fridays for Eric are short and he doesn’t have to work so he was able to get home by about 1:15 pm and at that point they started to get stronger. They were not too bad pain wise but were coming every 3-6 minutes. One thing we wanted to make sure of was that we didn’t go to the hospital and then get sent home, so we wanted to wait as long as we could.

At about 7 Eric was really hungry (We were watching Some Like It Hot to try to keep our minds on other things) so we decided to go over to Carl’s Jr to get him some food to eat. Turns out there was a BYU football game about to start so instead of the short 5 minute drive it was more like 20 minutes. After we got the food from the drive-through we said a little prayer that we would know when to go to the hospital since the contractions were pretty irregular but getting stronger. We came home for Eric to eat his food and I laid down on the bed to rest a little. But during the time that Eric was eating his food the contractions got really strong and I decided that I thought it was time to go to the hospital.

When we got there (8:15 pm) it turned out that I was only dilated to a 3! Seriously? But they said they would keep me for an hour and if I changed then they would admit us to the hospital. Well it was a long hour, but I went up to a 4 (9:30 pm)so we were admitted. I was grateful that we had said that prayer.

By now the contractions had started to get pretty strong and they hooked me up to an IV and they even gave me some pain medication to make the contractions more bearable. I took a little bath too to help with the pain. After an hour though the pain medication had worn off and the contractions were really painful. So I got a little more of the stuff, but the contractions were now so strong that the medicine didn’t really do anything and I decided that it really didn’t matter in the long run if I did it naturally or with an epidural. I decided the relief of not being in pain sounded like the better option for me. Eric was very relieved as well because he was getting exhausted and didn’t really know how to help me cope with the pain. At midnight I got the epidural and it was like instant relief. It felt wonderful and Eric and I got to sleep for 6 hours. I really wanted to do it naturally but really it just hurt so bad, and the contractions were every 3 minutes. And since I was only dilated to a 4 at this time, I knew that I still had a long time to wait. I was also worried that I would have unwanted side effects from the epidural, but everything ended up being wonderful with none of the possible side effects. I was glad to have an experienced anesthesiologist.

We slept and the nurse came in and checked on how much I was dilated every hour. By about 3 am I still wasn’t very far, only to about a 5 ½, so they gave me pitocin to speed it up and broke my water. At 6:45 I was only to a 6 ½ and at 7:15 I was to a 10! So they told me to start pushing. Pushing was a lot of work and I pushed for about an hour and ten minutes. The doctor came in and I pushed 3 more times and he came out. He was facing the opposite direction and so during those pushes the dr turned him around and then pulled him out with his hands on the last push. I ripped really bad which I heard rip and was like a popping sound and really gross and Eric saw it rip and said it was gross. Luckily I had the epidural and didn’t feel it. It was a third degree tear. I also got a hemorrhoid. Oliver had the cord around his neck as well as a knot in the cord. He must have been a busy boy! The doctor quickly cut the cord, so Eric didn’t get to do it. But Eric said he was a little grossed out and was glad the doctor did it for him.

They cleaned him off a little bit and put him on me. He was so adorable with a very large cone head from being in the birth canal. After they cleaned him off again I nursed him for the first time while the dr. stitched me up- that is when I was most glad to have the epidural because I cant imagine what it would have felt like if I had really felt him stitch me up since I could still feel him even with pain medicine. Then they took Oliver to the nursery with Eric and moved me down to a new room after about 30 minutes when the epidural had worn off and I could move my legs without help. I was really glad that I got the epidural. That would have been a long time (about 24 hrs total of contractions but about 12 hours of painful ones) to endure the pain. Maybe on another baby I’ll be able to do it without the medicine. When Eric and Oliver and Nurses went down to the nursery, the nurse ran in all excited and told us that the missionary age had just been changed to 18 for guys and 19 for girls. We only watched a little bit of conference this time around. We were a little distracted overall.

That day we just hung out in our room admiring our new little baby. Also trying to come up with a middle name for him. We had planned on Seuss, but about 4 weeks before Eric decided that he really didn’t like that name after all. Eric mentioned Wells as a side passing and about an hour or two later I said that I thought Wells flowed nicely with Oliver. So we chose Wells. Kind of last minute and out of the blue. It is sort of after H. G. Wells, but also not really.

That first day at the hospital Carol Brown came to visit us, then Elizabeth Moore and Ligia Huntington. Then on the second day Eric’s family (Kathy, Mike, Gavin, Hayden and Indee) and later Adam and Cara and Cambria and Quincy.

We told the nurses on the second day that we would like to leave that (Sunday) night. The nurses had been really good at taking care of us, but then the nurse got a little lazy and decided to let us wait until the next shift of nurses to come so that she wouldn’t have to check us out. Well it turned out that the nurse who replaced her was new and had no idea how to use the computer system and it took her a little over two hours to check us out. We finally got to leave at about 9:30 pm on Sunday night.

That night was long because they had Oliver sleeping at in incline and when we got home all he had was his crib mattress and he would wake up every hour or so. The next day I was in so much pain because I only had prescriptions but no medicine. The idea of going out on my first day alone with a baby didn’t sound enticing and Luckily Elizabeth came over and watched him while I went and got medicine. I felt almost immediately better after getting the meds. And Carol brought over a rocking inclined crib thing for me to borrow and he has slept like a dream ever since. In fact it is pretty hard to get him to wake up a lot of times.

On Tuesday afternoon my milk came in and my boobs got really engorged and all of the sudden Oliver wouldn’t really eat. I couldn’t get him to latch on and it hurt really bad. As well we made the mistake of giving him a pacifier and he was really liking the shape of the nipple. I pumped a whopping 6 oz but even with less milk in my boobs he still wouldn’t latch on so we gave him my milk in a bottle and he would finally eat. But I was feeling stressed and full effect of pregnancy hormones and crying every few hours and worried that he would never nurse. On Thursday we went to a lactation consultant and she helped us out a ton. As well she told me how to get my nipples to heal since they looked like they had been through a war zone. He still has some fits and takes some time to latch, but he is getting much better.

Sleep during the night hasn’t been too bad. We get about 5 ½ hours of sleep. We go to bed at about 12 or one and he sleeps for 3-3 ½ hrs, then I feed him and he sleeps for another 3 hours. Last night he slept 4, but I think it was a little too long for him to go without eating. My nipples are mostly healed, but still have a pretty big sore where the top of his mouth rests when he eats. Hopefully that heals soon too so it isn’t painful at all when he eats.

We really love to just to stare at him. He is so beautiful and cute and makes such funny faces. His nails are really long.

After the funeral, we all went to Soda Springs for the gravesite service. It was very nice. I took lots of pictures so that everyone who wasn't there could feel like they were there. It started with the pallbearers carrying the casket over.

And then I had to get a classic dad picture.

Then we sang love at home.

Then they let anyone who wanted to stand up and tell any favorite memories that they had of Uncle Gene. Dad told about how Uncle Gene introduced him to Mexican food and made it so that he could never eat just steak and potatoes again.

I honestly cannot remember what Carrie said. But I think it had something to do with how nice of a person he was.

Since we were there I thought it would be a good idea to remember our grandparents as well. Grandma Buckley and Grandpa Thompson.

This is the Sheep herders wagon (I think that's what everyone was saying. I really could never quite understand what the actual name of the wagon was). But I guess Uncle Gene got to live in one for a while when he was younger.

Then the brothers wanted a picture with their oldest daughters.

And here were all of the Thompsons and Gwen together that were able to make it.

All of the Kunz family together.

And of course Gene had to have a big old Y on the car that carried him since he loves BYU so much.

Belly shot. 39 weeks pregnant. I got nonstop questioning of whether or not I was in labor. I stayed close to Sunni so that people would feel more reassured that if anything did happen, a doctor was close by.

Gwen and her two kids, Kris and Randy.

Then, they felt bad that they wanted a picture with the oldest daughter and i was left out, so they had one taken with the youngest daughter too. Caprene just happens to be both.

You can see the glowing slag in the distance.

Then on to Hooper Springs. Dad kept splashing Chris. But not on purpose.

Then the three boys all together. I would click through these rapidly to get the full effect of the laugher and splashing around. We had a nice dinner all together provided I think by the Lallatins of Soda Springs. Amazing potato salad and ham and rolls and huckleberry dutch oven dessert. I definitely ate too much this weekend. I just couldn't pass up all the food that I wasn't having to make myself.

Oh, and then this tells us what is actually in the water. It tasted less carbonated than I rememebered. And a lot more metally. But it was still fun. The weather was really beautiful.