Savanna's Story

Savanna Marie

11/2/2012

10:42pm

5 lb 15 oz

16.5 in

So happy to see our beautiful little girl for the first time.

Savanna's due date was November 17.  For some reason the entire time Jeff and I both felt she would come early.  We knew with a c-section she would come at least a week before that, but we had this nagging feeling it would be before that.  We have had a lot of stress with the house being built and I tried desperately to tell myself our little one would make it until her scheduled arrival.

I had my doctor appointment scheduled for Friday, November 2. I made it for the last appointment of the day hoping Jeff could make it.  Jeff was on call and told me there was absolutely no way he would make the appointment.  I really didn't want to drive down by myself when we were just going to drive down a week later for the c-section.

I had been having contractions and a lot of really sharp pains (and had been having them for over a week) and my gut told me to just go to the appointment.  I kept the appointment, but I told myself I had until Thursday to cancel it, which is what I was planning on doing.  I had myself convinced I wasn't having contractions and that Heidi didn't come early so we could make it to the next week.

Finally, after not feeling the baby move much, I decided to just be safe and go to the appointment.  I packed for that night thinking that if for some reason I was going to have the baby, Jeff would have to come down and he would have time to grab what we needed.

I was worried about driving with Heidi all by myself since she isn't such a stellar traveler.  She surprised me and was an absolute angel the whole way.  We left early and went to my in-law's house.  My mother-in-law was kind enough to offer to watch Heidi while I went to my appointment.  I left while Heidi was sleeping so she wouldn't see me leave and have a meltdown.

When I got to the doctor he was concerned because I had lost weight.  The time before my measurement had been the same for two weeks so he was concerned about that too.  He checked me and said I was dilated to 3.5 cm.  He asked if I was having contractions.  Then he sent me to the hospital to monitor contractions.  I was sure I wasn't having any and that I would be sent home.  I felt bad because I never told Heidi I was even leaving and I had no idea how long I would be stuck at the hospital.

The nurse came in and said I was dilated to 4 cm.  The contractions started to hit and more frequently.

The doctor came in and said we were probably going to have to do the c-section that night if I continued to get more dilated.  I started to panic and tried to get in touch with Jeff.  He had taken the bus to work and decided to stay late because we weren't home so he was going to try to get ahead of things.  I had no way to reach him and by the time I finally did, his only option was to wait for the bus to arrive at 7pm, ride the bus 45 minutes home, and then hurry to American Fork.

By this point the contractions were getting really strong and I was dilated to 5 cm.  I tried to hold them off checking because the doctor didn't think we should wait any longer.  He said 10 pm was the latest he dared wait.  Needless to say, Jeff drove fast, didn't have time to pack anything we needed, but arrived at 10 pm.

Jeff quickly suited up, they got me all ready and before we knew it, we had a beautiful, tiny little girl.

We knew her name was supposed to be Savanna because of how Heidi reacted to the name when we told her different names.  We didn't know how we wanted to spell it.  We always thought we would spell it the traditional way (Savannah) until we looked at the family history and saw how many women were named Anna on Jeff's side.  Without the 'h' we felt it would highlight that part of her name.    Her middle name comes from my mom, Jeff's mom, and my name.

 So far, Savanna has been an absolute dream of a newborn.  I remember Heidi seemed pretty easy until about 3 weeks, so we will see, but so far, she eats really well and she is just super mellow.  She definitely has her days and nights reversed, but with time I am sure it will get better.  We weren't completely ready for a newborn, but she has made it so incredibly easy.  We love having this little piece of heaven in our home and already feel more complete with her here.  Heidi has been adjusting so incredibly well so far and cannot get enough of her sweet little sister.  We feel so blessed to have another healthy little girl and we are so happy she has luscious locks just like her sister!