Heaton's Newborn Pictures

Chelsie Sylvester with Chelsie Sylvester Photography took Heaton’s newborn pictures. He was just barely 2 weeks old when she took them. We tore my mom’s living room apart and took the pictures in there. I was so pleased with how they turned out - she is amazing!!

Heaton's Birth Story

Week 36 and 2 days    (September 22^nd)

Today is what started it all…

I took a little tumble when I was home at lunch. Luckily I hit my knees first and then my belly. I felt super sore but didn’t have any bleeding. My doctor appointment was scheduled for a couple hours afterward so I waited until my appointment to tell them. When they checked my vitals at my appointment, my blood pressure was sky-high and I had protein in my urine – these are signs of preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is the most common complication of pregnancy. It affects about 5% of pregnancies – yes I’m THAT lucky haha. It basically can cause serious problems to mothers’ liver and kidneys. The only way to cure it is to have the baby. I went straight from my doctor appointment to the hospital and was immediately checked and started being tested for preeclampsia. I was only dilated to a 1 and Dixie wanted to keep me for the night to monitor baby and my blood pressure. I was also having contractions, not too painful, every 1-2 minutes. Jacks and I didn’t get much sleep that night, as I was having some back pain and it was hard to rest.

Week 36 and 3 days (September 23^rd)

I felt pretty good when I woke up and thought for sure I’d be going home. Dixie shot down my dreams because they had my blood pressure under control and she was afraid that if I was home I wouldn’t stay down and we would lose control of the preeclampsia. I was still having consistent contractions every 1-2 minutes, but not too painful. Thank goodness for her good judgement because at 3 am I woke up with terrible lower back pain.

Week 36 and 4 days (September 24^th)

3 am: The pain felt like a kidney stone. They did a urine sample and sure enough I had blood in my urine. I was sent for an ultrasound to find that I am passing kidney stones and have Hydronephrosis in both kidneys. Hydronephrosis is the backing up of urine in the kidneys – so they don’t empty out like they are supposed to. Luckily they weren’t completely blocked and still barely emptying out.

7 am: They got my pain under control for the stone, I ate one measly slice of toast with butter on it (for breakfast) and Jackson and I were able to catch a couple short hours of sleep. If only I had known that was my last meal until I delivered the baby I would have eaten for HOURS!

9 am: We were awakened to find that my test results of protein in my urine came back extremely high. To keep me in Richfield it needed to be around 300 and it came back at 861 – meaning my preeclampsia was very severe. They immediately started me on magnesium sulfate, which was probably the worst medication I have ever had in my life. I cannot even describe it. It causes flushing, sweating, and muscle relaxation to the point that you lose your mind. That was probably the worst part of the mag, was what it did to my mind. Jackson and my Dad gave me and our baby a beautiful blessing of comfort and health, and then Immediately we were packing up and being shipped on an ambulance to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. Jackson and my mom followed behind the ambulance and my dad and Macie were not too far behind as well. My contractions were still every 1-2 minutes but nothing compared to what I was feeling with the kidney stone, though.

12 pm: We arrived at Utah Valley and I was quickly greeted by a nurse, anesthesiologist, MD and more. 

This was on the wall in our hospital room and it really is so true...before our little guy was even born we already had high expectations for him in every aspect of life. 

I was checked and still only dilated to a 1. Doctor Skinner explained that inducing labor would be the best for my health, with the preeclampsia and kidney stone. They started me on Pitocin. They drew my blood to test my platelets, which have been low. They wanted to make sure my platelets were high enough to see if an epidural would even be an option. Luckily, they were. I was also given a steroid shot to the hiney to help baby boy’s lungs if they need it. Jodi and Scarlet arrived and waited in the lobby for quite some time while they finished with all the poking, checking, etc.

4 pm: I was checked again and still only dilated to a 1. Dr. Skinner inserted a foley balloon to help me dilate. This was no fun haha. However, my contractions immediately started getting harder and much more noticeable. 

Chels got some great pics of the computer screen monitoring my contractions - the nurse at the time acted funny about it so I didn't post them - just my blood pressure haha

My lower back was where I was feeling the most pain and to be honest, I’m not sure if it was labor pain or kidney stone pain.

8 pm: I began starting to get very uncomfortable due to the pain. I was told I could have an epidural whenever I wanted, since I was passing a kidney stone and also because I wasn’t allowed out of bed anyways due to the preeclampsia. It was a hard decision to decide if I wanted to start the epidural so soon, where I wasn’t dilated too much – I hadn’t been checked since 4 pm so I wasn’t sure where I was at anyways. I decided to hold off and just try some pain medication through the iv. I’m not sure if that was the best choice because I got SO hot and flushed so quickly and became pretty miserable. I wanted to be tough and hold off on the epidural as long as possible because I wasn’t sure how I’d like how it felt. I’m not one who likes to be numb or feel numb and helpless. The pain medication in my iv did relieve a bit of the pain – but not how I wanted. 

9:00 I got my last dose of pain meds. They kept asking me when I wanted the epidural and I really wanted to make it until 10:00 because I could get another dose of pain medication to relax me. It wasn’t easy relaxing with the kidney stone and contractions. At about 9:40, a contraction hit so hard and it was game over. It lasted 7 minutes… so long in fact that the anesthesiologist was called, got here, and had my epidural in before it even ended. We tried waiting it out so that I wasn’t contracting while he was putting it in but it never released. My poor brother, sis-in law, Carly, and cousin Chelsie walked in RIGHT as I was having this contraction. They were kicked out the second they walked into the room, so that he could get the epidural in me. I felt so bad! They had left and driven from Cedar City to be here to see me. It wasn’t easy – Race pretty much had to beg on his hands and knees to his coaches at SUU to let him come, even though he wasn’t missing any workouts or team events. Everyone has always told me that the epidural really isn’t all that painful. I honestly was more scared for the epidural than for labor or contractions. People were SO right. Jackson and my mom and nurses were amazing at this time. I literally have the best support possible. I held their hands and felt a tapping and lots of pressure and it was over just like that! I immediately broke out in tears. 

I have been so frustrated with this whole situation and I was overwhelmed with comfort and love for this little boy of ours. Everything I had gone to up to that point was so worth it for him and I hadn’t even met him yet. I am not exactly sure what time the headache started but oh boy this was the worst. The preeclampsia causes severe headache and unfortunately there isn’t anything besides cold rags on the head. We visited with all of the family who was here, that I mentioned earlier. I am so lucky to have such supportive and caring people in our life. Jackson’s dad, Daryl, actually arrived at the hospital the minute we got here in the ambulance – due to the fact that we had no idea what was going on or what to expect, he thought it’d be best to come back later. It took 2-3 hours for them to finally get me settled in after all the blood work, steroid, iv changes, paperwork, etc. It was probably a good thing we didn’t have too many family members here at that time because it was chaotic and pure poking of needles and nurses in and out and all about. However, they would have all been here, had we told them to come, and we are so grateful for the families we have been blessed with.

11:30 I was starting to get exhausted and it was time to settle down. I had no idea what kind of a night we were in for. I have never been so exhausted in my life, but I could not get control of my mind to sleep. My mind was going a hundred miles an hour – I wasn’t even thinking about things that made any sense or had any importance in my life at all. I was seeing animals in a desert, then I was traveling on the Millennium Falcon starship from Star Wars, due to seeing spots from my headache, I thought I was going through lightspeed, once the ship hit darkness I kept telling myself “okay you can sleep now”, but then my mind would turn to seeing monkeys in a cavern hoarding a stockpile of bananas and smiling at me.  I tried everything.  I tried reading scriptures, visiting with my mom, and her telling me stories to keep my mind focused to sleep.  Absolutely nothing worked.

Week 36 and 5 days (September 25^th)

4:00 AM My doctor decided that I could take half of an Ambien to see if that would help me get some rest because he knew what I was in for the next day.  Luckily that did work and I was able to get some sleep.  Jackson, my mom, and Jodi, on the other hand, didn’t get much sleep between the one couch, the lobby, and the vehicles in the parking lot.  They didn’t want to go too far in case something significantly changed. 

7:00 AM I woke up on my own and was checked.  Doctor Skinner removed the foley balloon and I was dilated to a 3 ½ .  They also upped my Pitocin.

12:00 PM I was checked again and dilated to 4.5 and effaced to 90%. Race and Carly had to head back to Cedar City but Race left me a nice pic on my board :)

1:30 PM We met Doctor Ludlow – the new doc on call for me, he checked me and I was at 5.5 and 90%+ effaced. The ice chips were not doing the trick anymore - that measly piece of toast the morning before was long gone...

So Jackson snuck me a sip(s) of his slush :)

2:30 PM I have such great nurses.  She brought me a cotton ball soaked with peppermint oil to see if it would take the edge off of my headache.  I got my second steroid shot and another dose of Tylenol to try and get one last nap in before it is time to push.  I was also at my max dose of Pitocin, now.

4:30 PM They checked me again, and I was still at 5.5 so they decided to insert an internal monitor for the contractions to make sure that I am progressing.  This monitor was able to more accurately determine the strength of the contractions.  They turned my Pitocin down to give my body a break hoping that when they turn it back to max it will kick me into full speed.

7:00 PM I was only at a 7 and starting to feel really bummed out thinking that today was not the day. Macie also had to go back for volleyball practice. I met Doctor Warner, the doctor on call for me by now. He had such a dry sense of humor. 

My mom gave me an Alex and Ani bracelet to symbolize becoming a mother and having a baby. It was so sweet and thoughtful - I loved it!

9:00 PM My nurse was so awesome and came in to check me – it was like flipping Christmas when she said “you’re complete, are you ready?” I just started to bawl. But everyone made me quit so that I didn’t waste any more energy than I needed to. 

A pep talk before the pushing starts

So excited to be grandparents they could hardly stand it!

Doc Warner

He was SOOOO ready!

kinda...

Jodi couldn't wait either :)

"Here we go, babe!"

My nurse kept telling me that it’d be at least 2 hours. I so wish I could have proved her and the doc wrong! Within 5-10 minutes they had everything pulled out and ready to go before I could even think straight. My nurse, Jessica, helped me push for the first half hour but unfortunately her shift was up. The nurse after her was horrible. I couldn’t believe she even qualified to be a nurse. She was so ornery and cold. She didn’t coach me or help me push at all. My dad came in right before it was time to push and kissed my forehead and whispered “fourth quarter babe, give it all you have to get this kid here naturally”. I immediately was overwhelmed with emotion and was bawling again. In my mind I was thinking…okay I’ve been in labor for 31 hours, I think this is like triple overtime – not 4^th quarter; but his words were sweet and touched my heart.

I started pushing and two and a half hours later I was faced with a decision. I had let my epidural wear off so that I could feel the contractions to help me focus and push. My kidney pain was much worse than the contraction pain and it was pretty much game over as far as me being much help. Doctor Warner had to do a couple things to get our little guy here, without c-section, but it was totally worth it and within 5 minutes our baby was here at 11:50 pm.

I cannot thank Chelsie (Chelsie Sylvester Photography) enough for taking two days to photograph Heaton's birth.  We will have these pictures and memories forever and I will forever be grateful for her.  She is amazing!!

I couldn’t believe how wonderful Jackson was during this delivery. He was honestly the best coach ever. My mom and Jodi were awesome as well but my husband totally impressed me beyond measure. He was right on top of the contractions and counted perfectly EVERY time. The pictures we have are worth more to me than anything. My cousin Chelsie did so great and was such a trooper during the whole experience.

Seeing our baby boy was something I cannot even describe. As soon as he was out, family flooded the room to meet him. He was screaming and peed all over Doctor Warner. He was healthy. He was beautiful. He was perfect.

Naming our son was a hard decision. We had narrowed it down to 2 names the day after he was born. It wasn’t until the NEXT day that we chose his name. I had made a birth announcement a few weeks ago and put the different names on each one. We inserted a picture next to the names on each announcement. Jackson and I decided to say an individual prayer on what name we liked. After a couple hours, we pulled up both announcements on my computer, counted to 3 and pointed to which one we liked best. We both pointed to Heaton Jacks Stevenett… and he was named! We both teared up because we felt the spirit so strongly and that he was our little Heat man.

It has been one week since we have gotten home from the hospital and I can’t believe how much I have fallen in love with little Heat!  He is the most precious thing on this planet!  All the poops, pees, cries, and sleepless nights are so miniscule when compared to the joy Heaton brings our family!  I cannot imagine life without him, now.  He has brought our small family that much closer together. (- Jackson)