Lucy Elise Biddulph...more pictures to come

Dear Friends,

We are proud to announce the birth of our daughter Lucy Elise Biddulph, born Sunday April 19, 2009, 21 inches long, 9 pounds 3 ounces! She has a full head of hair, not sure if it is blonde, blonde with little red highlights, or strawberry blonde. Her eyelashes are long and very white blonde along with her eyebrows. We think she is such a doll, especially Hilary who thinks she looks like a cabbage patch doll.




We left the house with a foot and a half of snow at 6 a.m. Saturday the 18th and arrived at the hospital for our 7:30 induction appointment. At 9:00 they started Hilary on Petocin to start her into labor. She was 4 cm and 80% effaced to start the day! At 1:00 p.m. she was still 4 cm and 80% and received an epidural, and by 3:15 they broke her water to speed things along. It was really an uncomfortable experience for her, and because of back spasms, we continually had to up the dose of the epidural. We had a great team of nurses, and by 5:00 p.m. our doctor got on shift - Dr. Gardner from our church ward! She was then at 6 cm and 95% effaced by 5:00 when Dr. Gardner checked us out. 2 hours later they checked her, she was 8 cm and 100%! By 8:30 she was ready to go at 10 cm, more than 100%, and she started pushing! Almost 3 1/2 to 4 hours later, after midnight, the doctors concluded that the baby was refusing to come out! There was a total pushing time of about 1 and a half hours total. Dr. Gardner even tried to put her head in the right position, but stubborn Lucy flinched and drenched him in amniotic fluid! It was really funny and everyone was laughing! Unfortunately after all the pushing, it wasn't possible to have a vaginal birth because Lucy would pull herself back up after every push! Dr. Gardner decided that it would be best for mother and baby to have a C-Section. They said that she did a great job pushing, but it was to the point that it wasn't safe because the blood pressure of mom and baby were not at a safe level anymore. So, at 1:11 a.m. Sunday morning the procedure began, and I helped comfort Hilary through muscle spasms because she couldn't have medicine to ease her back pain through the procedure. I was able to see the whole procedure from my point of view...it was amazing! Just 8 minutes later at 1:19 a.m. Lucy was born! Hilary said I was laughing hysterically out of joy and almost teary at the same time! The neat thing about the operation was that after the procedure was out, they showed me all of Hilary's organs, which was very interesting and special to see! We took some pictures, and I was able to be the first to hold her while Hilary recovered until 5 a.m. when we finally got to our room to sleep! Hilary actually didn't get to hold her until 9 a.m. Sunday morning, and she is recovering very well, but is still in some pain!

Needless to say, we are exhausted and excited to share our story with you! Thanks for all your love and support!

- Evan



P.S. We will be in the hospital until Wednesday unless they think we should go home Tuesday. Thank you for your fasting, prayers, and good thoughts throughout this entire pregnancy! We really consider this little girl to be our little miracle! We can't wait for you all to meet her! She started showing signs of Jaundice, and has spent the entire night under the special lights, and Hilary is getting looked at again because of more pain throughout her torso. Please pray for them to heal faster. Hilary is looking forward to her mom's help for 10 days and so am I:) I get to take off 6 days of work, so hopefully though all of this, we can all have some sleep and learn more about helping our little baby. She is beautiful!!!

An exciting update...

So I had a rough week with the hives and swelling, and was put on steroids and benadryl. I was still so bad Sunday and asked my doctor what I could do. He suggested taking Aveeno baths, and it was a nice temporary relief. Wednesday I took the last steroid pill and still had itching. I went to bed really nauseas and woke up at 2:30am feeling like someone took a hammer to my hands and every knuckle. My knees and ankles were in poor shape, and I had charlie horses in my leg muscles. I called in to Kaiser worried that I was having another reaction, and they said I should be fine until I saw Dr. Gardner at my appointment that day. So Evan came home from school and took me to my appoinment. It turns out that because of everything I have been going through, it is a good idea to get induced, so after getting checked and finding out that I am about 80% effaced and 4 cm dilated, I got the go ahead to get induced. I will go in Saturday morning at 7:30 and get put on petocin to start labor. I am very grateful this pregnancy is coming to an end. It has been pretty rough off and on, and I am looking forward to holding my baby. Let's just hope the snow doesn't make it too difficult to get to the hospital, rumor has it that we could have 1-2 feet snow by Saturday afternoon. Please pray for our safety:)

Thanks for all of your support! We will post pictures as soon as we have them.

CHEERS!
Hilary

My trip to the Triage of Labor and Delivery EARLY Friday Morning

So I had false labor on Monday, and the next day I started feeling really swollen and a little itchy, I figured I was going in Thursday I would talk to the doctor about it then. So Wednesday it got a little worse and then Thursday morning I was really itchy and the doctor thought that I had eaten too much salt for dinner the night or two before causing swelling and itching. I have been losing about a pound a day, and my blood pressure was perfect, so she didn't see a problem other than me just swelling up. She told me to put hydrocortizone on my hands to help with the itching. I went home and it started getting really bad really fast. By 6 or 7 I told Evan that something was wrong and I started itching all over my body, I called my mom for advice and tried to down as much water as I could to flush out the swelling. Well, we ended up calling my friend and asking for advice, since she works with pregnant women, and her husband came over to help Evan give me a blessing around 10:00pm. It was a good blessing and I felt comforted, and felt that I needed to call the nurse, but wanted to chug more water first. So by the time I called around 11:00, the nurse told me that I needed to take benedryl and soak in baking soda water.
before swelling and then after swelling up around 11pm(not even half of what it became)



After finding the benedryl and soaking and crying lots because my hands, face, legs, feet and back of my head were all now swollen, itchy, burning, covered in hives and welts, I tried going to sleep just after midnight. I told Evan that I might need to wake him up in the middle of the night to help me or drive me to the ER. I woke up around 1:30 and hurt so much and my hands were now doubled in size and I couldn't even bend my fingers, they had to stay straight because of how swollen they were. I was in tears, and Evan was getting everything ready to take us to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 2am, and they hooked us up to the monitors and started working on what the problem was.



They thought that I had eaten something to cause this reaction, but nothing new was introduced into my diet. They said I didn't overeat on salt, that wouldn't have caused this much of a reaction. My blood pressure was perfect again, and everything was getting ruled out for a different cause. I was in SOOO much pain..I could hardly move, and I itched and burned soooo much. They made little ice packs for me to hold onto to try to calm my hands down. After getting a urine sample and blood work drawn up, I had to wait for those results and for the attending doctor to finish a c-section before she could come help us. Meanwhile the monitors showed the baby was perfect and happy inside of me:)..(doesn't she know she needs to come out already!!!!)

We didn't get a picture at my worst point, but my fingers looked something like these that I found on the internet....
(not my hands)

So, Evan watched sports center and tried staying awake for me, and I kept trying to get comfortable while drifting in and out of sleep. The entire time I was hooked up to monitors and Evan kept trying to videotape our baby moving...she moved SOOO much, and we finally got a good video of her towards the end. (Everytime we tried getting her on video this pregnancy, she would be camera shy) They had great ice for me to chomp on...I have been craving ice this entire pregnancy!!! (I love Sonic ice)

Finally around 7am, they were allowed to give me benedryl and send me home with a week supply of steroids. I was still swollen, I can't hold things very well because of the pressure and burning and itchy feelings, so Evan is doing TONS for me.

We got discharged at 7:30 and went home. We went through the drive thru pharmacy at RiteAid to get more bendryl and finally made it home. Evan showered and went off to work. Poor guy, no sleep and had to work still. I slept all day, the Benedryl really knocks you out! Evan came home and crashed as well. He said that a lady at work swelled up right before delivering, so maybe this is a good sign???

I was totally bummed out because I was going to have breakfast with the Mia Maids, and I couldn't function, so they switched it to a different house. While I was working on this blog, they all stopped by with a card...so sweet!!!!! I love my Mia Maid girls! I hope this baby comes soon so that I can do more activities with them.

I am feeling a little better, just extrememly itchy and still have hives all over and some swelling. I wish It could all go away right now, but I guess I am having the trial now, and will be blessed with a baby afterwards...

So now, we are nearing the 38 week mark..we shall see:)

False Alarm

Saturday and Sunday were really crummy days for me physically, and I had spotting Sunday, so I was told to come in today to get checked out, and after getting checked and being dilated another cm, they put me on the stress test monitor, and concluded that they thought I was in early labor. So they sent me home walk around and told me to return in 3 hours and get checked again. Evan left work early just in case it was hospital time. He was very cute and happy!!

I was hurting sooo much and could barely walk. Evan gave me a blessing and it helped calm me down and bring me peace. We went in but then found out that labor either stopped or slowed down, so I was told to go home and rest a lot and monitor contractions. After a long 4 hour nap, I woke up a little sore, but feeling better.

Thanks to all of you for your support...she will come soon, I hope!!! for now I will be patient..and enjoy my week 37:) I will post a couple pictures. the one with the green shirt is from last Friday and the others are from today...

my update....

So no baby yet, I think she just likes being in me too much:) No sign of going early, but good sign that I am effacing. We went to the doctor today, and she is measuring beautifully and all my vitals are awesome!!! I guess I just need to be patient and not hope for an early baby. Today I actually felt really good and got lots of chores done. I still hurt and my muscles are sore, but that is still a good thing for me anyway, especially since I have been in tears and the worst pain ever for aobut 4 days now:) I guess I will update next week when I am full term:) YAY!