10-25-2011

(From a journal entry)

Dear Linkan,

Wow, another year has already passed. I remember going through that like it was yesterday but really a ton has happened in the past year. I did start running again and I trained hard for the half marathon in January. I completed London's Run in 1:44! I was on Cloud 9! I beat my previous time by 20 minutes which I though was pretty good:) Right before my race in January Duskin left on his mission. He was called to serve in the Bolivia, Santa Cruz Mission and has been doing absolutely great!

I finished up that semester of school and took an insanely large load of classes in the spring of 2011. I had all of my senior capstone EXW classes and although it was a TON of work, I did very well in all of them and managed to get straight A's. I finished up all of the in-class classes I needed before the program moved to downtown Phoenix. 

A couple of weeks into the semester I found out I was pregnant again! I was so excited, but also very nervous because I didn't want to get my hopes up again if it wasn't real this time. Well everything worked out and it was real! THe baby developed perfectly ad my pregnancy went great! I never got sick and I never had any weird cravings. I didn't start showing or really telling people until about 16 weeks, and I was able to weak normal clothes until about 30 weeks. Then I blew up!!! 

But in the meantime, all summer I did my internship at Queen Creek High School. I assisted in the summer weights program. I worked with each of the different teams and coached them each day in their weight training. At the end of the summer I was then offered a volleyball coaching position. I accepted and spent the season as the assistant varsity and head JV coach. Our season went great and I had a wonderful time coaching them. I learned a ton and am so glad I accepted the position. Having the opportunity to coach with the other coaches was so much fun. My JV team ended the season with a 15-2 record, and the varsity finished 14-3. The second to last game of the year was against Seton Catholic. They are a very good team but we really wanted to beat them! Basically it was just a great day... It was October 19. My girls played really great and pulled out the win in three very close matches. It was the best game we had all year and my girls were thrilled to get the win, as was I. My due date with baby was the 18th, so I had many parents come up to me after the game and tell me that if that game didn't put me into labor than nothing would! Well I was scheduled to be induced on the 20th so immediately after the game I headed to the hospital to get checked in. 

We got to the hospital at 10 PM to get checked in. By 12:30 I was in my room all hooked up to the IV bags and ready to go. Marcus was there and was totally ready for bed! We usually go to sleep by 9:30 or 10 so to be up passed midnight was crazy, especially for Marcus, but he was a trooper. Julia Klingler also came with us to the hospital and that was such a blessing, especially since mom wasn't in town yet. Do basically here's what happened at the hospital and throughout labor... I was dilated to a 2 and effaced 80%. Since you are first baby the doctors wanted to gibe me cervix softening gels first to make sure my cervix was as soft as it could be before they gave me pitocin. At about 1 AM they game me the first gel and I almost immediately went into labor. I started feeling mild contractions and was really excited about that. After the gel application I laid in bed for an hour, then walked around the hospital for forty minutes, then bed again for 20 minutes and the plan was to do that three times. Well, after the first two hour cycle was up I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. They gave me the second gel. Again I immediately started to feel more intense contractions. Laying in bed for an hour was not fun at all and I was in quite a bit of pin. After the hour in bed my nurse asked if I would rather bounce on a birthing ball instead of walk and I said yes!! I honestly don't know if I would have been able to walk! After about twenty minutes on the ball I told them I was ready for the epidural. At this point I was dilated to a 5 and fully effaced. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural and it was absolutely heavenly!!! The pain started to go away  immediately and I felt great. It was now about 5AM and right after the epidural I was able to fall asleep for about 2.5 hours. I woke up at 7:30 and now I was dilated to a 7 so they broke my water. From here on out everything seemed to be in fast-forward. I was still waiting for my mom to get to town so I was just hoping she would make it in time. At 8:30 I was dilated to an 8, and by 9:30 I was at a 9. The nurse said she'd be back to check me in an hour but at 9:45 I started to feel some pressure from baby's head. It was a weird feeling because I hadn't felt anything for quite a while. So Julia went and got my nurse and when she came to check me I was dilated to a 10. So the nurse wanted me to do some "practice pushes." Around 10 AM I did my first "practice push" and after one push the nurse said, "Oh, I'd better go call your Doctor." She then told me that the average first time mom pushes for about two hour. I almost started laughing and I asked "How long is the average first time mom in labor?" She said it was about 24 hours and i started to laugh. I had only been in labor for about 9 hours and it was NOT going to take me two hours of pushing to get that baby out of me! Ha so at this point I pushed a couple more times then took a break until about 10:30. I started pushing again and shortly thereafter, about 10:40, my mom and Danica walked in. I was so glad that they made it in time! About 5 minutes later my doctor walked in, and that is when I started pushing with every contraction. About 25 minutes of pushing later our sweet Linkan Kate Klingler made her way into the world:) I could not have asked for a sweeter, more beautiful baby! She is absolutely perfect for Marcus and I and we love her so much!! She was born on October 20, 2011 at 11:04 AM. She weighed 7lbs 8oz and was 20.25 inches long. We stayed one night in the hospital and were then discharged on the 21st. I was very grateful because we were supposed to stay one more night and I don't think my back and bum would have liked me too much if I had to stay another night in that hospital bed!! Since being home we have already had lots of visitors, so many people already love Linkan so much! Her personality is so cute, she is a very calm and attentive baby. She likes to just sit and look around at everything. She also loves her hands! She is constantly moving her hands and really likes to keep them by her face, because of this she is always poking herself! Well thats about it for now! Marcus and I are loving being new parents! It is an adjustment and I'm sure it will be a continuous learning process but I am so excited for what the future holds for our little family!

Love, Mom