Felicity Sage Baldwin

The last week of being pregnant is brutal. My feet hurt. I can't sleep well. None of my clothes want to fit and I don't want to buy stuff that I'll only wear for a couple of days. . . That was my mindset going into week FORTY-ONE!

Dr. Skuster got my blood results and my medicine levels had dropped significantly, leaving me open for a seizure. Thankfully, Dr. Horvath agreed that since I was past my due date and we had a good medical reason to not want to push the pregnancy we could move forward with an induction.

We went in at nine-thirty at night on Wednesday. I was having fairly regular contractions, so they waited on the oxytocin drip. No progression. Around eleven-thirty, the on-call doctor said to begin and so we did. Russ was helpful with changing the movies and assisting me to the restroom and stayed up pretty late to keep me company - though he did fall asleep for a bit from four to six that morning.

Twelve hours in and we still hadn't seen much. I was beginning to get exhausted and Dr. Horvath came and saw me. Cervical exams were not going well and they hurt. She suggested that we go with an epidural so that my body could relaxed and allow me to progress.

The epidural was scary. The doctor did a wonderful job, but I was emotionally drained and not ready to get stuck with a needle. He was legally obligated to tell me about all the risks, but he didn't do much to assuage my fears as he did so. Russ held my hand and helped me with breathing techniques and I made it through. Sadly, even the epidural didn't help me to get dilated and effaced.

Dr. Horvath then recommended doing a C-Section. We would have to be at the natural labor for probably another fourteen to sixteen hours and the first sixteen had me beat. Mom and Russ both thought that at this point it was a good idea, so I went with it. (Russ says I was brave and did a good job the whole time.)

I don't remember a lot of the surgery as they had increased the medicine to block pain throughout all my torso and legs. It makes you tired and fuzzy. Russ says the surgery was quick and before you could say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Felicity was all cleaned up and with her daddy.

Felicity Sage Baldwin. Twenty-one inches long. Seven pounds thirteen ounces. Born at 4:04 PM 13 May 2010 at St. Mark's Hospital in Millcreek, Utah. Isn't she darling?