Happy Mother's Day!

I am so happy to be a mom. I have not always loved motherhood, but I am glad that I have learned to love it. Today, Caleb made a potholder for me at church, and it came with a card that said, "For a Hot Mama!". I think it is awesome. Natalie made a "butterfly" foot print for me at church using her feet. It is on a canvas and I can hang it up in our house. Both of the kids have been kind to each other, which makes me so happy. Rick and Caleb surprised me with a super awesome gift. They are planning a trip with our friends, the Dargers, who I just love. It was a wonderful surprise.

Today, I felt reassured that being a mom is a great job. Many times it is hard, but watching my kids grow up brings me so much joy. I am also super blessed to have such a great husband. Rick makes this parenting job so much easier for me.

One last thing...Ella is 4 months old today, and she is full of smiles, laughter, and love. We all love having her in our family!

Ella...Our Wonderful Surprise!

It has been way too long since I have posted on our blog. Seminary happened, and my blog went out the window. But, I have graduated from seminary again, so why not start the blog up again.

Probably the biggest thing that has happened in our family is that we have a new baby in our life. Ella Grace Wolfgramm is a little over five weeks old. She slept until 5:45 am this morning, which was a dream come true. Now, I am just waiting for the rest of the kids to wake up.

Here is the full scoop on Ella.

Last May, Rick and I realized I was pregnant. It was the last week of seminary, and I suspected I was pregnant, because I started feeling more tired, and my appetite had picked up. I did not want to know for sure until seminary was over. So, I waited for the last day of seminary to take the test, and sure enough, I was pregnant. My dear friend Julie and I had also decided to go to the Plaza Hotel for breakfast that morning. It was sort of a "let's do this before I move away" kind of event. So, it was this beautiful exciting day when I found out I was pregnant. Rick and I were surprised, because we were planning to move in another month, and we were going to wait to get pregnant until after the move. I guess Ella was ready to come earlier than that.

Ella is our third baby. The first two babies were born in New York state, and they were both c-sections. After Caleb was born, I was so devastated that I had to have a c-section. I remember feeling like the size of our family would be limited because of the c-section. I hate to say this, but I really think if I had a different doctor, we could have avoided the c-section. I was emotional and angry about what had happened. Eventually, I learned to accept that everything would be okay, and I was happy to have a healthy baby.

Natalie was born in New York City, and she is super proud to tell everyone that she was born there. When I was pregnant with Natalie, I really wanted to find a doctor who was willing to deliver by VBAC. It was a challenge to find a doctor in NYC who delivers by VBAC. Eventually, I found a great doctor. I even felt like I was guided to find her, and I felt confident that everything would work out as it should.

The pregnancy was easy and uneventful. But, I went into labor the same way I did with Caleb. My water broke at about 11 pm. We rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night. A doctor I had not met before was on call. I labored until I was dilated to a seven. I received an epidural, and the baby's heart rate went down. I was so bummed that the same thing happened again. The doctor on call quickly decided we were going in for a c-section. Even though I was disappointed, I was better at coping with a c-section delivery this time. After all, I had done this before.

By the time baby number three came around, I was all prepared for a c-section. The standard was that you could try a VBAC after one c-section, but after two was not recommended. In many ways, I felt relieved, because I knew what to expect this time. I was ready to walk into the hospital, and have a baby an hour or two later. I was excited to avoid the labor pains.

When I was about three months pregnant, my uncle Steve, who is an OBGYN, told me that doctors are now performing VBACs after two c-sections, and that the standard had changed. I could not believe this. I entertained the thought for a little bit, and I asked my own doctor about it. But, by this time, I really was done with the whole idea of trying a VBAC. My doctor was not too excited about the idea of attempting a VBAC, and I didn't want to go through all that emotional drama again.

My pregnancy with Ella was healthy, but it was not as smooth as my pregnancy with my other babies. When I was at 32 weeks, I had some bleeding, and I spent the night in the hospital. Fortunately, the bleeding stopped. I still don't know for sure what caused the bleeding, but the baby seemed to be okay. I was told to take things easy until I was closer to my due date. From that time on, I had a number of contractions. Most of them were Braxton Hicks type contractions, but every once in awhile, I would get some that were more painful.

My doctor scheduled my c-section with the hospital one week before my due date. That made me a little nervous, because Caleb came two weeks early, and Natalie came one week early. I was a little confused about my due date, but we scheduled the c-section to be one week before the due date we thought was most correct. Rick and I thought there would be no way I would make it to my scheduled section, and that I would probably go into labor early again. I was hoping to avoid labor all together, but I figured I could handle a little bit of labor time until we got to the hospital.

On Thursday, January 12, I started to feel heavy contractions. It was about bedtime, and Rick thought I was just trying to get out of putting the kids to bed. I wasn't sure if this was real either. They were definitely more painful. Some of them were really close together, but I remember one set being about 13 minutes apart. My doctor had said that the timing did not matter as much because I was going to have a c-section. She said that if I start to have painful contractions, I should just come in right away. We called our wonderful neighbor Leslee to come stay with the kids until Rick's dad could get here from the Tri-Cities. And, Rick and I raced off to the hospital.

Rick and I both wanted to have this baby before Friday the 13th, and it looked like we would, because we arrived at the hospital a little after 9 pm. This was my third baby, and it was the third time I went into labor and the doctor on call was not the doctor I had been seeing all along. Dr. Rowles was on call, and I had heard really great things about him from a number of people. I felt more at ease with him than I did with my other "backup doctors".

I came into the hospital totally in labor, and I explained to the nurses that I was supposed to have a c-section, but it wasn't scheduled for 8 more days. They asked me about my last two deliveries. When they found out I had sections for my other babies because of the epidural, they told me that normally that isn't something that requires a c-section. I knew that, but that is just the way it had worked out. The next thing I knew, we were in a triage room, and a team of doctors and nurses came in to try to talk me into a VBAC. Seriously, there were three nurses, a med student, a resident, and Dr. Rowles all came in and said they thought I should try a VBAC. Rick and I were a little bit in shock. Seriously! We always wanted to have a vaginal delivery with our babies, but it seemed like we had to convince everyone else around us. This time, the medical team was trying to convince us. My initial thought was no, but they seemed so confident that this would work. We called my dad, who discouraged us from doing a VBAC, but he also wanted us to make the decision. Rick and I prayed about it as people were coming in and out of the room. We decided to move forward and try it out.

It was amazing, because everything went as smooth as it could go. I think the nurses and doctors really wanted to make the VBAC work. My anesthesiologist was extra careful with the epidural. I think she gave a smaller dose over a longer period of time to make sure the baby's heart rate did not go down again. This time, my water had to be broken, which was different than what happened with Caleb & Natalie. After a night of waiting and laboring, Ella was born at 7:02 AM on Friday, January 13th. At that moment, I did not care that our baby was born on Friday the 13th. I thought this was the luckiest thing ever to happen to us.

When Ella was born, I remember feeling so excited that the VBAC had worked. Rick was the first one to call out, "It's a girl!" That moment was so wonderful. Rick said it was the happiest he had ever seen me. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. They immediately put Ella on my chest, and I was able to cuddle with her for a whole hour. It was wonderful. This was the first time I was able to hold my baby right away. With the other two, the babies were rushed off to get testing done, and I was rushed off to recover. This was the first time Rick was able to cut the cord. It was really wonderful.

Ella was born right at dawn. The sky was just coming to life. I felt like she was a little miracle. I had completely accepted that it would be okay to have another baby by c-section. I was okay with it. But, I feel like Heavenly Father gave us one of those tender mercies by letting Ella come by VBAC. My grandmother texted me that she thought my Grandpa Robison was there helping make sure everything worked out the way it should. I think she was right. My grandpa passed away about six months ago, and he was an OBGYN. I also think he was watching over us to make sure everything worked out alright.

Ella Grace was 8 lbs 6.5 oz and 19.5 inches. She weighed the most of all my babies, and she seemed as sweet as could be. I am so grateful to have her in our family, and I am so grateful for the blessing we received by having her come in her own surprising way.