Mikelle Faith Rhoton

Mikelle was born December 23rd at 12:41 am. She weighed 6 lbs 12oz and was 17 1/2 inches long. I was hoping she was going to be here on the 22nd, but she wanted to be born on Joseph Smith's birthday.

At 3:00 I got my cerclage taken out. I had to get a spinal (it took them 3 different times to finally get me numb) and they also put in a catheter for an epidural. As soon as the doctor cut the cerclage out I dilated to 4, so I thought I was going to have her soon after, but I was wrong. It took about 7 hours to finally dilate to 6. My contractions were pretty bad so I had them add medicine to the epidural and it worked so I thought I was good to go, but when the doctor came to break my water and check my cervix, I felt it. The doctor was surprised and so was I, but he didn't act like it was a big deal. I felt tons of pressure and pain as she was dropping down. I kept telling the nurse I didn't think the epidural was working, but she just said it was normal to feel that. Finally at 12:10 I started feeling tons of pressure and feeling like I was going to die, so the nurse checked me and I was dilated to 10. I was really surprised and happy because the nurse kept saying it would be 3:00 before we had her. She had me do some practice pushes. I only did a few before she was ready to come out. So the nurse hurried and called the doctor and instead of pushing I just had to wait for the doctor to come. I actually thought I was going to die. Finally the doctor showed up and she was born about 5 minutes later...and I felt EVERYTHING! And to make it worse I tore very badly. As the doctor was sewing me up one nurse whispered, "Ouch," to the other one. So I knew it had to be bad. I was pretty angry I went through all that without an epidural even when I kept telling them it wasn't working. I was just glad to finally get her out of me! I'm so glad she's here and healthy. Everyone at the hospital was nervous about her only being 36 weeks, but she is very healthy.

We love our little girl. She hardly ever cries, only when she's gassy. She doesn't even cry when she's hungry. She just starts sucking. I can't wait to take her come to my house. By the time we finally get home it will be about 2 months since I've been there.

We took tons of pictures the last few days, so here are a few of them.

This is right before they took me to take out the cerclage


One of the times I was throwing up. Jory couldn't handle it.


At least he still likes me


Jory putting on her diaper


He's so happy!


Grandma Daley (she's trying to think of a good name for Mikelle to call her, Grandma Daley sounds old)


She was covered in the nasty white stuff because she was early


Grandpa Daley- he loves her and might not let me take her home with me


Our first family picture


They brought her in a stocking after they gave her a bath


Grandma Rhoton








Merry Christmas!

36 weeks...finally!

Well I ended up in the hospital again. But this time I'll leave with a baby. All week I have been having a lot of cramps. I told the doctor on Wednesday and he said that was normal, so I thought it was. On Friday it started getting a lot worse. I just wanted to lay around with a heating pad. So I decided to call the doctor. He told me they were contractions and the I needed to come to the hospital right away. I had no clue the cramps were contractions. I had never felt contractions like that. When I got to the hospital I was having contractions every 3 minutes, but they finally stopped them completely a few hours later. I was dilated to 1 1/2 so the doctor wanted to send me to Tucson because I wasn't 36 weeks yet (I was 35 and 5 days)and they can't take care of babies under 36 weeks here. Luckily he didn't. He just wanted me to make it until Sunday, which I did. Now I just have to make it to Tuesday and he will cut my cerclage and we will have a baby! We're pretty excited. Jory came down yesterday morning because Dr. Tran thought I was having the baby real soon. I told him my husband was 7 hours away and he said tell him to get here right away. Now I'm doing really good. And only 2 more days until we have our baby girl! I won't post a picture because I'm really swollen. They were giving me fluid in an IV and I was retaining it all. I gained 15 pounds in 4 days. This morning I didn't have ankles and could barely bend my legs. They took me off the fluid now and the swelling is finally going down, but I still look pretty disgusting! Hopefully it keeps getting better because I hate looking like a blimp!

We have a date!

Today at my appointment we set a date to cut the cerclage, which means I'll have the baby that day! It's December 28th. I'll be 37 weeks and one day. I'm so excited. Jory wanted me to ask the doctor if they would do it the 21st or 22nd. But he didn't really like that idea because I would only be 36 weeks and babies could have respiratory problems then. I'm just glad I only have 12 more days.

34 1/2 Weeks

Well things are still going good. The baby weighs 5 pounds 11 ounces. The doctor said the only thing holding her in is the cerclage, so it's a good thing I have it. I'm getting really tired of being pregnant, but I still need to make it a few more weeks.

We got some pictures of her part of her face and her lips.

The first one is of part of her face, up to her nose.


These are her big lips.


34 1/2 weeks


I'm almost done! I'm so excited!

Another hospital visit

I have decided I might only have one kid. I really don't like being pregnant and apparently neither does my body. I ended in the hospital yesterday. For the past couple of days I haven't been feeling very good. I was having a lot of contractions and anytime I stood up I just hurt everywhere, especially my cervix. I thought it was really thinning out. So I called the doctor yesterday morning and they told me to go straight to OB. As soon as I got there they hooked my up to the contraction monitor, took my blood, gave me 2 shots of trebutaline, gave me an IV to hydrate me, and gave me an ultrasound. Luckily my cervix is still okay, I just have a really bad yeast infection. That's what was causing me all the pain. Since I have a foreign object inside me (my cerclage stitch) it causes bacteria and all kinds of other things to grow inside me. It's really annoying that something that's supposed to help me is causing me so many problems. So after 7 hours in the hospital they let me come home because everything looked okay. I just need to hold off having a baby for another 2 1/2 weeks. If not they will fly me to Tucson and I really don't want to pay for that!

My brother Derek left on his mission yesterday. I really am proud of him. Not only for making the right decision and being worthy to go, but by proving all the doctors wrong who said he wouldn't be able to leave December 2nd. It was sad to see him go, but I'm glad he was able too.