Annie's Birth Story

Before I Forget

Annie's Birth Story

I don't want to forget...

Week 35:

So, this story starts at 35 weeks. I went in for my appointment and I was already 3.5 cm dilated and 40% effaced. The doctor said that for a first time mom, I was doing awesome and would probably not make it to my due day.

Week 36:

Still 3.5 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Doctor changed his mind and said I would probably have her around my due date, August 13. 

Week 37:

We go over my birth plan. I hadn't progressed at all. So at this point, we think she will be born on her due date.

June 30, 2018 Week 38, 10:15 AM:

My doctor is on vacation and I'm worried because I don't know the doctor I'm seeing today. I tell Gleiser "I hope this doctor doesn't break my water because I don't know him and he might be too rough with the pelvic exam." So, we go and he does my exam and I'm still 3.5 CM and 60% dilated. He says she will probably just come on her due date and to wait for that to happen.

After this appointment, I went out with my mom and sisters to go look at model homes in West Jordan for fun. We stopped at Garbett Homes and I jokingly said to the salesman "we are just here to see if we can get this labor going." We walked around and looked at a few houses, then we went back to my parent's house and I took a nap because... well... being pregnant and walking is exhausting.

At 4:00 PM I came home because I needed to prepare to teach a class online with Qkids/VIPkid. I decided to take another small nap and then get going on that, but then I got distracted playing a game on my phone. I went ahead and just came into the kitchen and cleaned a little bit, then decided to really buckle down because my class was going to start soon and I hadn't looked at the lesson plan. 

At 6:00 PM I'm sitting there reviewing the lesson plan when I hear a pop. (I had been hearing pops the entire pregnancy and the doctor had told me it was just the baby's joints--just like ours pop)... But then, I got up and started dripping everywhere. So, I called my mom and said "mom, my water just broke." She hurried over with my sister, I called Gleiser, and he rushed over from work so at 7 PM we arrived at the hospital.

8:00 PM - My contractions start and they're about 5 minutes apart. Everything is looking good, we are using hypnobirthing techniques and although the contractions hurt, I'm doing okay. Everything is going awesome. They told me that they would come and check me in two hours to see how far I had dilated. In two hours, I had only dilated to 5 cm and I was 100% effaced.

10:00 PM - My contractions are now right on top of one another and my hypnobirthing techniques are NOT working at all. I can't get my body to relax and I ask them how long they think it will take at my rate to fully dilate. They told me that it would probably take another 6 hours, but the problem is that my temperature at this point had started to climb and if it got too high, they would need to do a C-Section for possible risk of infection. So, I had to make a decision. Do I continue without an epidural and suffer for another six hours with a possible C-Section? Or, do I get an epidural to calm my body down and hopefully get the baby out before I need a C-Section? 

I thought about it for a few minutes and then decided to just get the epidural. My body was in anxiety mode and I couldn't get it to relax at all.  (Before this, I had a little convo with God saying that I know Adam and Eve messed up and this was the consequences, but that also he gave people knowledge to create medicine.... soooo I was sorry but I was going to do the medication LOL). 

The anesthesiologist came in at about 10:10 ish and it was super scary, but he got it in. Took him about 5 minutes and the entire time I was having huge contractions. It was so hard to stay still. I had the normal body shakes and things for about 15 minutes, and then I felt nothing at all. All I felt was a little pain in my back (like when you need to stretch). The attending doctor told me that was good because I could still feel when I was having contractions and not have to wait for them to tell me when it was happening to push. 

11:00 PM - Less than an hour after getting the epidural I had gone from 5 CM to 10 CM dilated. (Why didn't I do this sooner???) Anyyyywayyyys, we did REST and DESCEND for an hour and at 12:20 AM, July 31 I started pushing. Thankfully, I still had feeling because if I hadn't, I don't know how I would've pushed. 

12:48 AM - 28 minutes pushing and she was born! There we go. She had some respiration problems in the beginning (too many respirations per minute and she had inhaled amniotic fluid). She also had low blood sugar so we had to supplement her regular feeding with formula. (Still on that a few days later). I had to have a dose of antibiotics because at this point, I did have a fever. Anyway, other than that, everything was perfect. I had the most peaceful birth ever (after the epidural) and was able to laugh and tell jokes and be in a good mood. Thank God for medicine!

Annie Elizabeth Escarate Lopez

Mondays are Date Nights

4 Months Left!

So, Gleiser and I were very productive over the weekend. On Saturday, we went to go get our wedding bands which are amazing! Mine is super cute and vintage and Gleiser's will be simple but it will be textured. We will put pictures up when we get those (after the wedding). Then, we reserved our transportation for the wedding thanks to some awesome friends! Finally, we went to Ashley Furniture home store and picked out the things that we want to buy for our apartment. 

It was a super productive weekend and we are so excited that it's all coming together. We are going to do our invitations today and will be mailing those out in April. We have also now registered at Best Buy. So, we will have a registry at Target and Best Buy.

On another sweet note, we decided that when we get married, we are going to have one day a week for date night. We will rotate who is in charge of planning every week, but we figured that we don't want to fall into routines and then lost the "spark" many marriages lose. No matter what (rain or shine, kids or no kids), we WILL have a date night once a week where we will be unavailable for anything else church, school or work related. It should be fun! 

"Mondays are date nights."

Registry Links

Target Registry

Best Buy Registry

5 Months to Go!

Wedding Stuff:

So, we are down to five months to go. It's crazy how fast time flies when you're busy working and having fun! We have almost every down except the small details. In a couple of weeks, we will be ordering our invitations. (One major thing that we still need to reserve is the transportation on the big day...yikes!) From there, we just need to figure out the small things like decorations and blah blah blah. All the big stuff (Reception, Photographer, Honeymoon, Flights, Bridesmaids Dresses, My Dress, DJ, PhotoBooth, and Ceremony place) is done! So many people have stepped up and helped us out with so much and we are so grateful to have such an amazing family in Christ willing to do that. 

Job Stuff:

Gleiser just started working at Netflix and so far he is loving it! I am still plowing through the school year (I can't wait for it to be over--if there are five months left until the wedding, then I only have 4 months left of school!) I don't know what grade I will be teaching next year, but I'm hoping that I don't have to teach this same group again. I love them, but they are giving me gray hairs. 💆💆💆

Other Stuff:

We are still registered at Target. :) That is all. 

Bridal Shower Date: COMING SOON

New Everything!

Wedding Information

So, after a lot of consideration, Gleiser and I decide to move our wedding reception to Gardner Village. Heritage Gardens was just way too small for the amount of people who are interested in going, and was quite pricey compared to Gardner Village. We have the times set for when everything is set to happen, which is awesome! We were also able to book our DJ and a surprise for our guests as well! :) 

Gleiser and I created a registry at Target and we also created a website for those that wish to give us cash in lieu of a physical gift. That website can be found here. We are so excited that there is just a little over 7 months left until the big day!

Down to 10 Months!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Engagement Pictures

Wow! I can't believe how much has happened since my last post. Let's start with first things first. Gleiser and I took our engagement pictures (and got them back!) and they are just gorgeous! We absolutely love our pictures. It was hard to pick just a few of them to print for now. We can't wait to see the wedding ones. We had a blast taking them at Albion Basin. Here is my all time favorite picture:

Wedding Registry

We also finished our wedding registry. We are registered at Target under "Gleiser Escarate" or "Betsy Lopez." We decided to just register at the one store so that we don't get a million blenders or toasters. I let Gleiser use the scanning machine and he was having so much fun! Hahaha. Cute boy. If people would like to help us out and not actually buy us a gift, we have a bank account set up for people to deposit money as well.

Wedding Dress

I finally ordered my wedding dress! My future mother in law and sister in law went with me. As well as my BESTEST friend ever, Kiersten and my mommy. :) It will be custom made, so I will be the only one in the world with one like it. Uu-La-La. I'm super excited for Gleiser to see me in it on our wedding day.

Honeymoon

Okay, this just happened today! (Sept. 5, 2016). We finally booked our honeymoon today. What better day than Labor Day, right? The deals were A-MA-ZING. I won't be giving away any details just yet because I don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone, but I will say this: CRUISE. I'm super excited. I've never been on a cruise before, so I'm excited that my first time will be with the love of my life.

Up Ahead

Sometime next month, I will need to go with my bridesmaids to start looking at dresses for them and figure out what they want to buy. We also still need a DJ, so I'm hoping we can figure that out soon. We are down to the final BIG details, and then it's just paying it all off and figuring out that small stuff. Be sure to check this often to keep yourself updated since I'm sure people on Facebook don't want to hear about it. (Or at least, don't want my posts to crowd their news feed.)

Registry Information

Hello people! We are down to 1 year and 5 days left! It's so crazy how time flies by.

After many conversations and going back and forth on registry ideas, Gleiser and I decided that we will have just ONE registry and a BANK ACCOUNT for people to deposit money if they want to help but don't necessarily want to buy us a gift. :) The bank account will be at Chase Bank so that people out of state can deposit as well, and the registry will be on Amazon so we can easily keep track of what we need.

The registry link for Amazon can be found here.

The bank account information will be up soon. Check back next week for more details. :) Thank you so much. God bless. We love you all!


¡Hola gente! Faltan 1 año y 5 días hasta la boda! Es una locura cómo el tiempo ha pasado.

Después de muchas conversaciones y yendo y viniendo en las ideas del registro, Gleiser y yo decidimos que vamos a tener un solo registro y una cuenta bancaria para que las personas depositen dinero si quieren ayudar, pero no necesariamente nos quieren comprar un regalo. :) La cuenta bancaria será en Chase Bank para que la gente fuera del estado puedan depositar también, y el registro será en Amazon porque alli podemos fácilmente ver lo que todavia nos falta.

El registro de Amazon se puede encontrar aquí.

La información de la cuenta bancaria será pronto. Revise aqui la próxima semana para más detalles. :) Muchas gracias. Dios les bendiga. ¡Los queremos a todos!

Finding the Dress!

Dress Shopping - One and Done

So, I went dress shopping on May 28th, and I wasn't really expecting to find a dress that same day. I was very lucky to be able to go with my grandma, mom, and my sister.  :) I went in with the expectation that I was probably going to have to make more than one appointment and that it would take at least 10 dresses tried on before I found "the one."

When I got to the store, the people were super sweet. They were amazing at getting me into the undergarments that go under a wedding dress (corset and spanx, yikes!) and they were great at making me feel comfortable.

I tried on the first dress and I really liked it, but I didn't want to go with the first dress because I also know that sometimes the excitement gets to you and you say "yes" to the first thing you try on. So, I tried on about 5 more dresses, but each time I kept thinking back to the first one.

After I tried on like the 6th dress, I decided to re-try the first one back on, and I decided to go with that one. It looks absolutely amazing on me and I can't wait to walk down the isle in it! I know everyone will be just blown away. We are going to custom add some some princess-like sleeves to it and change the color of the dress, so it will be a one-of-a-kind dress. No one else in the world will have the dress I am going to wear! I'm super duper excited. Only about a year left to go and I couldn't be happier.