Ashley and Tyler: Welcome Riley Jean!

This has been one crazy pregnancy! When we moved to Tooele, the one thing we were disappointed in was the medical care out here. We decided that if we ever had a baby out here, we didn't want to have it in the Tooele hospital. So when we found out we were pregnant, we did a lot of research of where we wanted to deliver the baby and what doctor to choose, because of my past pregnancies, I really wanted a doctor that would really take of me! So we finally decided that we would deliver at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake, and we found a doctor that had a clinic about 25 minutes away. Everything went well at my first appointment and we got things set up to discuss another cerclage. Right before my consultation appointment at the U, we got a huge bill saying that our insurance did not cover the University of Utah (even though we checked before choosing my doctor) I was stuck in a really hard situation, because I was already at 14 weeks in my pregnancy, and that is the prime time to get a cerclage, and I had no doctor! Luckily the doctor who did consultation at the University of Utah hospital, also works at the Intermountain Medical center, and was super great and got everything set up for me there. So I just decided to switch over and go to the Intermountain Medical center clinic in Murray. It was a 45 minute drive, but I was really happy with the care there.

So in October I got the cerclage placed, and started to do progesterone shots at home. Because the clinic was so far away, I didn't' want to have to drive an hour and a half every week for a shot. So they taught me how to give myself shots, and every Monday for 20 weeks I gave myself a shot in the thigh! At my 20 week ultrasound we found out that we were having another girl! Tyler and I weren't even slightly surprised! Also at my 20 week ultrasound, they found out that I had placenta previa, where my placenta was actually covering my cervix! Which could lead to some issues with bleeding and also lead to a c-section. They said 90% of the time, the placenta moves enough as the uterus stretches, so I would hopefully be okay.

After Halloween things seemed to move along great. I had no problems, and I finally had energy to do things again. At 32 weeks I had another ultrasound to check on my placenta, and strangely enough it had moved not only away from the cervix, but all the way to the top of my uterus! It baffled the doctors, but I was grateful I wouldn't have to have a c-section. But at that appointment we discovered the baby was breech, and we'd have to keep an eye on her, because yet again, if she was breech, I'd have to have a c-section.

At 36 weeks, I got my cerclage removed. We had been anxiously awaiting that appointment on March 9th, because we felt like once the cerclage was removed, I'd have the baby right away! But after the cerclage was removed, I wasn't even dilated at all, so it seemed that I'd be pregnant for a lot longer! At that appointment we found out that baby was still breech, so they scheduled for me to have a version the next day, where they would try to manually turn the baby from the outside. My mom came down and watched the girls bright and early so we could be to the hospital in Murray by 8:30. (During this week, my doctor decided to take a trip to Spain! So my doctor wasn't there for any of this!) They tried to flip the baby three times, but they were unsuccessful! It was extremely uncomfortable and painful at times! It was basically a lot of pressure- they were pressing down so hard it was impossible to breath! They told me to squeeze Tyler's hand the whole time, and I was pretty sure he couldn't feel his hand by the end of the whole process!

Because my doctor went to Spain and due to the COVID-19 virus, she had to stay quarantined when she got back. So I didn't have a doctor for these past weeks of my pregnancy! It was all very frustrating trying to explain to every doctor I saw how I don't labor, and how it'd be very dangerous for me to go into labor at home!

One week later after the version, I woke up at three o'clock in the morning wondering why my tummy hurt, and I realized it was most likely a contraction. Turns out I started having mild contractions every ten minutes. They were barely painful, they mostly felt like cramps. But I was terrified of having a breech baby on the side of the road, so after an hour, I decdied that we should drive to the hospital. Luckily my aunt Bertha lives near us, so I called her and she kindly drove over. We ended up getting to the hospital at 5:20 in the morning. I still was having very mild contractions, so we sat in the parking lot for a few minutes debating whether or not we should go in. I just didn't want to be sent home for nothing. When we went into the hospital, I felt a little silly telling them I was having contractions, but hardly any pain at all.

They sent us into the triage room, and we hung out there for a while, with Mythbusters playing in the background. They first checked baby's position, and sadly she was still breech. Then they checked to see how dilated I was, and the nurse had the hardest time figuring out how dilated I was. So they called in another nurse, who also had a hard time. Apparently my cerclage had left some scaring that made it difficult to tell what was going on. But they finally decided that I was dilated to a 5, and about 90% effaced. Since I'd only been contracting for two hours at that point, and was already to a five, it seemed like things were moving along quite quickly and they wanted to do a c-section right away. After they decided that to do a c-section, things moved very quickly. I had a swarm of nurses prepping me, getting my IV, and dressing Tyler. I met with Doctor Zarek, who would be doing the surgery. I was so nervous. I had been mentally preparing myself for the past couple of weeks that I might need a c-section, but I had really hoped that baby would flip in the end. Since it was kind of a sudden thing, I was super super nervous I started shaking with nerves!

We walked into the operating room, and I got my spinal super fast. The sheet went up, and they were ready to begin! My anesthesiologist was super helpful, and asked if there was some music he could play that would calm me down. So he played piano guys during the operation. Then things started to get really exciting! Just seconds after the doctor said "starting incision now" I heard a really loud rumble, that just kept getting louder, then suddenly the doctor and nurses seemed really confused, until somebody said "That's an earthquake! yup, that's an earthquake!" Suddenly I could see all the medical equipment, lights, and my IV shaking. My fantastic medical team surrounded me, and all Tyler and I could do was pray that everything was going to be okay for the baby! The earthquake didn't even last a minute, but it felt like forever! As soon as the shaking stop, everyone in the room was a little distracted, but my doctor was great and told everyone to focus on the task at hand, and immediately they focused and delivered the baby only minutes later! The earthquake hit at 7:09 and Riley's official time of birth was 7:12!

I was scared there would be immediate aftershocks, but everything was smooth from there. As soon as she was delivered, they dropped the sheet and I could see her right after she was delivered. Then while they stitched me up, Tyler got to be with her as they cleaned her up and weighed her.

Riley Jean "quake" Keyes was born at 7:12 AM

Weighed 6 lb 2 oz

19 inches long

She was born with lots of beautiful light brown hair!

They wheeled me into the recovery room in labor and delivery, where the news was going nuts over the earthquake! While we were in there we felt another pretty large aftershock.

Due to the virus, everything in the hospital was so strange! They weren't allowing any visitors at all. Tyler was the only one allowed to be with me. And I'm just grateful he was able to be with me, because our nurse told us that they already had to send two dads home because they had cold symptoms! I don't know what I would've done if Tyler couldn't have been there! Since there were no visitors, the hospital was super quiet. Usually there's so many visitors, balloons, kids, etc.. but this time there wasn't a soul in the hallway. Also, due to the virus, they didn't really want people sticking around in the hospital too long. Normally for a c-section, they have you stay 4-5 days. But they sent me home on day three! I wasn't complaining, but it was super strange!