Birth Story

I figured I should write out my birth story before I forget, so while I know I should probably be getting myself and the kids ready for bed, I'm doing this instead. The girls don't have school tomorrow, so I don't need to get up at any certain time, anyway! yay!

Okay, I had mentioned in a previous post that my water broke around 12:30am on the morning of the 22nd. I went to the bathroom, got back into bed, and God answered my prayers. :)

We got to the hospital around 1:30 or so, and they put me in a triage room and hooked me up to the monitors. I was having contractions about every 6 or 7 minutes, but they weren't too terribly bad. The night before, from about 7-9pm, I was having them every 4-6 minutes. But right at about 9pm, they just completely stopped. That's when I went to bed and asked God to just let my water break! Thank you Jesus!!!

Anyway, in the triage room, they asked me the myriad of questions they typically ask. The nurse, Janet, asked me if I was still leaking fluid, and I told her that every once in a while some would gush out, but not all the time. She checked me to see how far I had dilated, and when she did that, a big gush of water came pouring out. poor lady.

At that time, Mike called my mom so she could be informed of everything happening, since she was at my house with the other kids. He called and called, and nobody answered. We figured that the phone cord had been pulled out of the wall when we were rushing around, trying to get everything ready to leave. So he decides to go home and plug the phone back in and let her know what was happening.

While Mike was gone, they moved me into a labor and delivery room, and started my IV, and started the penicillin for my positive group B strep. I asked her to dilute it as much as possible, because, holy moly, that stuff burns!! And she did just that. I felt no burning sensation at all!!! Yay for good nurses!! ;)

Mike got back and we started walking the halls at around 3 or so. She told me to be back in the room at 4 so she could check me. So we walked and walked the same boring circle around the labor and delivery unit. My iv pole was so loud rolling down the hallway, I was worried I was gonna wake the antipartum patients up. While we were walking, I heard the nurses talking about someone coming up for a labor check. We walked by the triage rooms, and I heard a woman moaning away in one of them. My first thoughts were, give it a rest lady. You're gonna seem too eager, and they're not gonna believe you. My contractions started coming about every 3-4 minutes after we walked for a while, but at 4, when I got back into bed, they spaced out more.

I had agreed with the nurse that they could start pitocin around 6 if I wasn't making a whole lot of progress.

When I got back into bed, my nurse came into check me, but right before she could, she got a phone call telling her that she needed to come help with a delivery. The triage lady was apparently not faking, after all. :) She was screaming at the top of her lungs and I just wanted to jump right out of my bed and go comfort her. All of the memories of my horribly painful deliveries came rushing back (just as they did when I was walking the halls with Isaac and heard a lady screaming at the top of her lungs), and I decided again, that I would be having the epidural.

Around 6am, they checked me, and I wasn't making much progress, so they started the pitocin. I am so not kidding when I say that the second that drug hit my system, I started having extremely painful contractions every 2 minutes. I had to breathe through them for about an hour, until the anesthesiologist could get to me. It finally kicked in around 7:30 or so, after trying twice to place it...the first time, he hit a vein (or something). Oh my goodness, having horrible contractions is one thing, but having horrible contractions while getting your epidural, and needing to be completely still is another. oy. My mom and 2 of my neices arrived just minutes after I got my epidural. I told them they missed the exciting part of me being in agony. ;) So, I labored for another hour, only feeling an insane amount of pressure, but no pain. My nurses asked me if my other labors went fast, and I told them that once I hit 5cm, things would take off. Sure enough, once I hit 5, it was no time until I was feeling the urge to push.

I was finally checked around 8:15, and she told me I had just a little anterior lip left, but I knew by the time she called the dr. in, it would be gone.

When he came in few minutes later, (it was Dr. Hall...the dr. I didn't want, but he ended up being super duper nice!!! :D Mike and I were pleasantly surprised!), I was complete and pushed a grand total of 2 times, and out came our sweet baby Jett!!!

Mike cut the cord and the minute Jett was placed on my chest, I was completely and totally in love with him!!!

He looks alot like Elijah did when he was first born. He has some hair, mostly in the back, and it's blonde. :) He's a little doll!

The nursing isn't going so great. It's so much more difficult for him than it was for the other kids. I know he'll get it eventually, but in the meantime, it's alot of tears shed, both from him and I!

He is very jaundiced (is that a word?), so he has to be on phototherapy. He's my 3rd child to need it...Chloe and Isaac also had to be on it. I really have a love-hate relationship with that thing. I know he needs it to get better, but gee whiz...it's annoying!

I'm sitting here looking at one of the five most beautiful faces I have ever seen in my life and thinking that it can't get better than this!

I love my little Jett more than I can explain. more than words can describe. He's absolutely PERFECT for me! He's exactly the one I wanted!! He completes our family!