Just before we went to the hospital we called Cody's sister Aubrey and her husband Joseph and asked if they would be willing to come and pick Emma up for us. They were great and said that they would be happy to help us out. They truly have been amazing through this whole thing and we feel very grateful for all of their help. While we were waiting for them to come Emma was being really sweet. At one point when I was adjusting my body in bed she looked up at me and asked "hurt. it hurts?" She was being pretty good about everything that was happening to and around me but when it came time for the IV I asked Cody to take her out. I tend to flip (just a little bit) and I knew that if she saw it all she would have a come apart.
It took a long, long time for the nurse to get a vein to pop out which was something new to me since I normally have great veins for poking so I was even more scared of her missing and having to poke me again then I was before. Lucky for me she did great and as soon as she was done she said " I was so worried I was going to miss! You had me so freaked out." I know my fear of needles is annoying, even to me, but the best way to overcome a fear is to expose yourself to those things you're afraid of and I never want a reason to have to deal with needles all the time, so I'm good keeping this fear around.
After the first litter of fluid was in me I started feeling better than I had in a long time and by the end of the third bag my voice was coming back and I almost felt alive again.... almost :) . It was about this time that the ultra sound tech came in to check my kidneys and the baby. My right kidney was the one that was really bothering me and the ultra sound REALLY hurt. She had to dig into my side to for a couple of the pictures and hold the little wand thing there for a couple of minutes. Not my idea of fun so when she said she needed to check my left side as well I was less than thrilled . The left side didn't really hurt though so that was a relief.
We LOVED seeing the baby. she tried to show us it's cute little face but I don't think the baby really wanted to be bothered. It covered it's face with it's tiny little hands and turned it's back on us . We then asked the tech if she could find out the gender and as soon as she put the wand to it's tiny little bum it put it's legs together. We were a little bothered the baby was being shy but we find out the gender on the 13th anyway so whatever. :)
After about an hour the nurse came in and told us that they didn't find any stones and that we could go. I was super glad that I didn't have any stones but I was also confused. I had had been in pain for days and I know kidney pain as I have had plenty of experience in the past. Altogether we were there for 5 hours and after 4 litters of fluid , 2 different kinds of nausea medication and a morphine shot I was feeling completely exhausted but still a little better than before. This might be over sharing but after all that IV fluid at the hospital and a 32 ounce bottle of Gatorade on the way home it was still something like a half hour before I had to pee!! NEVER again will I let myself get that dehydrated .
That night Cody and I decided that it would be best if I went to St. George so that I would have plenty of help with Emma while I recovered. Cody used up all of his personal time at work helping me earlier that week and he was really worried about leaving at home alone . Aubrey and Joseph said that they would be happy to drive me down and we decided that we would leave Friday.
Friday morning Aubrey came over and picked Emma up so that I could sleep. It was so nice to be able to rest and not worry about anything. After sleeping for couple of hours I text Aubrey and said I would like to try and leave for St. George after Cody got off of work around two. Cody ended up getting off a little early so I slowly started packing and getting ready to go. Aubrey and Joseph had some things they needed to take care of and said they would be ready around 3:30 or so.
While we waited I decided that I really wanted to take one of my pillows with me so up the stairs I went to grab it . Really I should have just left it there . On my way back down the stairs I fell. Yep you read that right I FELL DOWN THE FLIPPIN STAIRS !! I was only three steps down when I fell so I had a ways left to go. Pretty much the only thing I heard when I fell was my back cracking in a million different places. IT HURT SO BAD! The loudness of the fall and my yelling brought Cody running pretty fast. I wanted to keep yelling but Emma showed up at the bottom of the stairs looking freaked out and asking if I was ok so instead I pulled it together and asked Cody to help me get to our bed.
When I laid on the bed the contractions were instant. I was pretty freaked out. Cody called Aubrey and Joseph and told them what happened and Joseph came to help give me a blessing. I wont share the exact words here but in the blessing I was assured that the Lord was very mindful of the baby and that everything would be ok. By the end of the blessing the contractions had completely stopped. I felt so grateful to know that my Heavenly Father was not only aware of my circumstances but was actively helping me over come them . That night as I laid in bed I felt a peaceful calm in the room and it wasn't long before I knew my Grandmother Arnold was there with me . Although it wasn't until after I told Cody " funny I swear I just smelled my Grandma Arnold, I think she is here" that I recognized what it was that I was feeling. Cody kinda chuckled and said "Yeah? Well you do seem to need lots of extra help right now." As soon as he said it I knew that he was right. The previous few days had been extremely hard for me to get through and I knew that I must have been getting lots of extra help even though I hadn't realized at the time. Looking back , and as I write this, I can see more and more blessings that we received during all of this.
To be honest this hard time doesn't really seem to be over yet. The day we got back from St. George Emma caught a HORRIBLE cold and the next day it had taken me down too. I still feel the extra help and am super grateful for it, and hey one of these days things are bound to get better and dare I say be normal once again.
