Jocelyn's Birth Story

WARNING:  For those of you who know me well, you know I am not a woman of few words.  So, sit back and enjoy the novel!  :)

As promised, I wanted to post Jocelyn's birth story. 

On August 31st, I woke up to get ready for work (yes, people, I was still working on her due date!) and as I was getting ready, I felt a trickle of water down my leg?!?  I froze for a minute, then asked Derek what he thought I should do.  I had heard in passing that when your water breaks, it could be like Niagara Falls, or just a trickle.  So, we decided to call the doctor to seek their advice. 

Well, just my luck, "Dr. Precautionary" was on call.  This is the same doctor in the practice who sent me to the heart doctor around 18 weeks, only to find out that my heart had ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with it.  Of course he told me to come on in and get checked out.  No problem "Dr. Precautionary", we only live 45 minutes away from the hospital, and it is now morning rush hour traffic, fantastic! 

So, Derek and I pack up the car, and head down to the hospital.  It took us about an hour to get there.  The entire time, I am saying to myself, "geez, I hope this is the real deal, or I am going to be so annoyed!"  We get to the hospital, check in, and get sent to triage.  As I laid there on the bed, hooked up to all of these machines, I heard another woman in pain next to me from contractions, another woman who was 34 weeks and  several centimeters dilated.  I looked at Derek and said, "I think I am going to be sent home". 

They monitored me for about an hour.  I did NOT like the triage nurse at all.  A:  I couldn't understand her, B: she had fingernails (ewww), C: during her questionnaire, she asked "if my child came out to be a boy, would I like him circumcised?".  Listen here, lady, I have had several sonograms confirming the sex of this baby, and I have more pink than I know what to do with.  We are HAVING a girl, no if's and's or but's!!

Now, "Dr. Precautionary" has left, and Dr. Thurston was on call.  He came in and told me that my water had indeed NOT broken, but he thought it might be the outer membrane?  So, long story short, my time is coming very, very soon.  Then he sent me home.  Yeah!  Now it is like 10:30AM, I have almost missed a half day of work, I am in pain, I am fat and I have been crying.  Joy, Joy...let me go back to work!  I went by work, picked up my computer, etc. and got the approval to work from home.  Glad I did.

After work, Derek and I decided to go get dinner and run by his parents house to pick up one final piece of the bookshelf that his Dad made.  We ate, picked up the piece, and as we were standing in their living room saying goodbye, I heard a pop, and then GUSH!  I looked at everyone and said, OH MY GOSH, I think my water just broke, for real.  People, this was not a trickle, this was like Niagara Falls in my pants.  How embarrassing!  My water just broke in front of my mother in law, father in law and brother in law.  It doesn't get much better than that.  I am just glad that I was not in a public place, or worse, wearing khaki pants.  That would have been like a bad memory from kindergarten.

So, for the second time, I called the doctor.  The same one (Dr. Thurston) that sent me home earlier in the day, was still on call and told me to come right back in.  Derek and I rushed home, to pack, AGAIN, and headed to the hospital.  We got to the hospital around 10PM, checked in...again, and went straight back to labor and delivery. 

After we got settled in, we started to walk the halls from about 11-1AM.  The contractions were getting stronger, but weren't incredibly close together.  Finally, at about 2:45AM, I decided to get an epidural in hopes of getting some sleep.  Well, the sleep part didn't happen with all of the distracting noises and alarms going off in the background, but we tried. 

On Wednesday, Sept 1st, around 11AM, my contractions were starting to spread apart, so they gave me some pitocin to jump start the contractions again.  By this time, all of the family had arrived at the hospital, only to take turns sitting and staring at me.  We all thought this process was going to be a lot quicker than it ended up being.  After about 2 hours of the pitocin, they wanted me to start pushing.  At 1pm, I tried to push for a few contractions, but her heart rate was not in a safe place to continue.  So, they turned down/off the pitocin drip and monitored her for another hour.  (Longest day of my life by now)  Now, a 3rd doctor from the practice was on call, Dr. Hagood.  Ironically, she was the only one in the practice that I had never met?!?  Although, I felt comfortable with her because a friend of mine recently delivered a baby with her, and everything went well. 

At 2pm, I started pushing again.  I would like to give a little shout out to my L&D nurse, Nancy.  She is a trooper and definitely deserves a raise.  She was like the energizer bunny, and was very motivating.  I pushed until 4pm on pretty much every contraction ( I think).  At 4pm, Dr. Hagood came in to assess.  She informed us that Jocelyn's head was slightly turned, therefore making this delivery last as long as it has.  She and Nancy both said they sincerely thought I could continue to push for another hour and not have a c section, but at this point, it was my choice.  Either way. 

So, at this point, I felt the need to start negotiating?  She told me that she thought that I could push for 1 more hour and have good results.  I then spouted back and said how about 30 minutes?  She laughed, and said okay.  Well, apparently, I was tricked.  Because, she didn't come back at the 30 minute mark like I requested, she came back at the hour mark...nice.  By this time, it was 5pm, I was exhausted and ready to get this show on the road.  Dr. Hagood had to use forceps to get Jocelyn's head turned so she could come out. 

Jocelyn was born at 5:25pm on September 1st.  When she came out, her cord was wrapped around her neck, so they whisked her over to the other side of the room.  I had absolutely no clue what was going on.  However, when I didn't hear her cry right away, I started to ask questions.  The NICU nurses got her all cleaned up and then, we heard a sweet little cry.  She had a lot of fluid in her lungs, so they had to get all of that cleared out.  They gave her some oxygen, wrapped her up and gave her to Dad.  I couldn't believe it!  We were finally meeting our little girl!  Derek looked like a natural holding Miss Jocelyn. 

They left us in the room for a bit to be with our new little one.  Then I realized, oh my gosh!  You need to go tell the family.  Our poor family had been sitting in the waiting room for like 100 hours with no updates.  I am sure they were freaking out.  My sister said that she asked the desk to check on me several times, but unfortunately, I forgot to put all of their names on the medical information release form.  NOTE:  next time, put everyone's name on the medical information release form!!  All of the family took turns coming back to meet the new addition and love on her. 

This was truly an amazing journey, and I still can't believe I am someone's mom!  21 hours of labor was definitely worth it.  She is so sweet and precious.  We think she looks like Derek, so of course, I am positive she will have my dazzling personality and wit. 

Below are some pictures from the delivery, Enjoy!

At the hospital (for the second time in one day) 40 weeks & 4 days

One last belly shot, all hooked up to the machines

Not the best picture, but we tried.  Dr. Hagood delivering Jocelyn

7lbs 11oz, 20 inches long

Our little munchkin

Daddy holding his little girl for the first time.  Look at that grin!!

Mom holding her little girl for the first time. 

Dr. Hagood and Nurse Nancy.  (It's almost like they have done this pose before?)

All packed up and heading home.  Most nerve racking drive of our lives!

Hope you enjoyed the story, more to come later!