Candice was such a doll and has brought so much joy to our family. 

She got off to a rough start though.  A few weeks before she was due, Dr. Smith was checking me and said Candice was turned the wrong way.  He pushed and pulled and tried to move her, but she wouldn't budge.  He said, "well, she will probably turn within the next little while"  So the next week, he checked me again with an ultra sound and said she was still in a bad position.  He tried pushing and manipulating her again, but it wasn't working. (that really hurt)

Dr. Smith was afraid I would go into labor with her in this position (which he said would be very bad for both of us...she had one leg down and the other up) so he scheduled me for a c-section the next day.  I was so afraid and remember laying on the gurney, waiting for them to give me the epidural.  I was shaking so much, they brought in warm blankets to calm me down. 

Getting this epidural was not cool.  With the other girls, I had been in so much pain, that getting the epidural was a great relief.  But just laying there waiting for them to stick that big needle in my back when I felt just fine was pretty scary.  Then when they did it, it was like I got an electric shock that went up my spine.  They have to give you more deadening for a c-section, and I didn't do well with it.  Laying in the delivery room with the curtain up between my belly and my head, I remember just turning my head to the side and throwing up.  But I hadn't eaten  or drunk anything like they tell you, so I just wretched and wretched.

Then in comes Dr. Smith.  Now by the time Candice came along, Dr, Smith had gotten old.  His hands shook pretty bad.  He was such a good doctor though, I hated to change, but I knew I would have to after she was born.  So when he came in the room to slice me open, I was  a bit concerned.  He came and talked to me for a minute, then assured me that everything would be OK because his assistant ( a woman obgyn)  was going to do the cutting. Whew!

I couldn't see what was going on down there, but Kelley said it was pretty awesome.  They have to cut through several layers to get to the baby...then she was here!  I wanted to hold her, but they whisked her right away to another room.  I was like "what is going on...is she OK?" 

They said she was having a little trouble.  I found out later, they had not clamped off the umbilical cord quick enough and she had lost a lot of blood.  They had to give her blood to replace it.

I was not feeling too hot either.  After they sewed me up, I laid there in the recovery room for about an hour...coming out of that much epidural gave me the shakes and I was still so nauseated.

When I got in my room, I  wanted to see Candice.  They told me to rest for a while, then they brought her in.  She was beautiful and perfect....But she seemed uncomfortable and cried a lot.  They took her back so I could rest.  I was worried about her and could not rest.  A while later, they came in and told us that they had taken her to Primary Children's hospital.  They thought she might have something wrong with her stomach because she cried so much and wasn't eating.  Oh man.  Now I was really freaking out.  I called mum and  told her what was going on.  She said they would put her name on the prayer roll at the temple.

Kelley would go up and spend time with her at Primary's.  He said she looked so odd in the nursery there because most of the other babies were preemies or were really small.   Candice was a good sized baby...She weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz.  She was hooked up to all these wires and tubes and  monitors though so that made her look pretty sad.

I had to stay in the hospital for 5 days with a c-section.  I don't know why anyone would ever choose this route to go if they had an option.  It was pretty horrible.  The pain the first day was something I had never experienced before. I thought I would never get out of bed.  But the next day, the nurses came in and said they were going to take me to the bathroom.  No way.  It hurt so much to try to sit up...I didn't think there was anyway I could stand.  But they got one on each side of me and eased me out of bed.  We shuffled to the bathroom and they helped me sit.  I can still remember thinking I was surely going to die from the pain.  They kept telling me it would get better each day and to be patient with myself.  They were right...it did feel a little better each day, but  I was still worried sick about Candice.

On the fourth day, they brought Candice back to LDS hospital and said she was doing better.  We spent that last day in the hospital getting to know each other.

I came home to a wonderful surprise.  Mum had come to stay with me for a few days till I could get my feet back on the ground.  She was such an amazing help to me!  I wasn't supposed to lift anything for a while, so she would pick Candice up and hand her to me to nurse her.  She would bath her and change her and dance around with her when she fussed.  It was surely a blessing to have her with me.

 That wasn't the end of Candice's troubles though.  I noticed when she cried, (which was a lot!  she was a fussy baby!) her belly button would bulge out.  She had a hernia.  We waited till she was a few months old, then had the surgery to fix her hernia.  A while later, we noticed she was having the same trouble again.  The surgery hadn't held.  So we had to have it done again.  This time it held and she hasn't had any trouble with it since. 

Sure makes you appreciate  a healthy baby when you see how many things can go wrong.  It really is a miracle when every thing works just right!