I can't seem to find where I have journaled about Jayla's birth right after the event, but I know I have written down SOMETHING about it. I'll add it to this when I find it. So this is all from memory from a birth that occurred nearly 5 years ago. FIVE YEARS?! WOW!
The pregnancy was pretty routine, though I did have a lot of swelling (again) in the last couple of months and high blood pressure for the last 2-3 weeks. I hadn't gained as much as I did with Jonathan, and I could tell just from how I felt and looked that she was going to be a smaller baby. Boy, was I right! She was 3 pounds smaller!
So it was 6 days before my due date, June 7th (my brother's birthday), when Myles and I were going to go on "one last date" before she was born. We expected to go another week or so, possibly longer if I wasn't induced. The doctor had wanted me to go in at my own convenience and do a NST, so we decided to do that right after dinner. This was a Friday night. I'm so glad we ate first. :)
I laid there for what seemed like FOREVER, sipping juice and watching Jayla's heart rate. It seemed fine to me the entire time, so I couldn't figure out why they wanted me to stay for so long. (Myles remembers the nurse being really rude.) Once they took the monitors off, the doctor showed me one spot where her heart skipped a beat when they were messing with the monitors and pushing on my tummy. (Now that I think about it, maybe it just didn't pick up a beat! Hmmmm....) So she strongly recommended an induction right then! Wow! We knew there was a possibility, but really didn't expect to have her for a few more days.
We got everything situated and called my parents to let them know that they'd be keeping Jonathan for a couple more days. They finally started the pitocin around 1-something in the morning. I was still pretty wide awake because I am typically a "night owl" anyway, plus I couldn't think about sleeping with all the excitement that was stirring! I remember talking and laughing with others in the room. I think Myles fell asleep at some point, but I can't remember for sure.
It was around 4:30, I think, when the contractions really started going! They were much stronger and regulated. I don't remember when I requested an epidural, but I don't think it was this early. As the morning went on, family members started waking up and coming to visit. I don't even remember who all was there (I need to find what I wrote down at that time!!!), but I do remember one visitor; my brother Craig, who had just had the birthday the day before. I think his girlfriend (now wife) was also there, but the reason I remember him being there so well is because he came in at a really bad time! The nurse was about to check my dilation, and I was really close to delivering when he just waltzed on in the room carrying a Braum's bag full of breakfast. LOL!
Back to the epidural....I never got it! For at least a couple of hours I was begging for an epidural, but the anesthesiologist was stuck in the OR from an emergency c-section and couldn't leave to come to me! I think he was finally free right after she was born! I don't think there is anything worse than having pitocin-induced contractions while planning for an epidural and then unexpectedly not getting it! OUCH!!! I didn't even try to relax in the end, I just gripped the bed rail with all the strength I had in me! I know now that is the last thing you want to do, but it was the only thing that seemed to help at the time. I think that because I was induced it would have been nearly impossible to relax. I was so tired by this time too. :(
At one point, just as I was entering transition and really trying hard to focus internally, the doctor leaned forward to tell me in her most gentle voice possible that if I didn't progress more soon, they may have to do a c-section. What? After only a few hours?! Well, she was talking to me while I was contracting, so I just caught the gist of it. When she saw my face and body language, she had the nurse check me again. I was at an 8 (I think, maybe more) and she had dropped! I remember her laughing and saying something like "Well, I guess the threat of a c/s was all it took!" Ha ha
It was somewhere around this time that Craig walked in with the bag of food. When I updated him and told him he might want to leave before he gets an eye-full, he did a 180 and almost ran out! LOL! Despite the "condition" I was in at that moment, I had to laugh!
Jayla was born about 10 minutes or so after the doctor "threatened" me with a c/s. I tore a little, likely because she came quickly in the end, but not as bad as I did with Jonathan. I didn't know about this until I was pregnant with Jacob and talking with a midwife, but after she was born the doctor PULLED on the umbilical cord to get the placenta out! Oh, I was so mad that no one told me that, but more upset that it happened, and without my knowledge!!! The way I found out is that it came up in conversation with the midwife, and my mom was with me and said "Yes, your doctor did that after Jayla was born!" Oh! The nerve! The midwife was talking about how a lot of doctors do that, so even if I had known about it, I probably could not have won the case if I chose to sue. That disgusts me that they get away with things like that! As a result of something the doctor did, she had to do a DNC after I had already delivered Jayla without medication (so now I was totally out of it and could not even hold her), and was then expected to pay for her mistakes! Ugh! Not only that, but she didn't even get it all. She prescribed an anti-biotic as a precaution, and when Jayla was 8 days old I passed a large piece of placenta at home! What was the point in the DNC if it was going to come out on its own anyway?! (I'd better move on or I'll be in a bad mood about this the rest of the day...LOL!)
I remember trying to hold her after I woke up, but I felt like I was going to drop her. I couldn't even keep my eyes open, so it wasn't exactly the "moment" I had dreamed of. :'( I had to give her back after just a few seconds, and I think I may have fallen back to sleep.
I don't really remember a whole lot about the hospital stay except that we had a smaller room than the first time, and we quickly got booted out the next morning to make room for more deliveries. We went to the overflow room, and by afternoon were sent home just because of lack of beds! How irritating. I'm glad we were well enough to be able to go home, but I was enjoying the privacy of our room and being waited on. Of course, I have since changed my mind about that, but I wasn't ready to go home at that time!
Once we were home and settling into our new routine, things went great. I recovered from the tear pretty quickly and she was nursing well....all was great!
I sure wish I could remember more about the birth other than the absolutely horrible things. I'm sure there were tons of "little" things that I was not happy with, or at least would not be now.
So, Jayla Dawn was born on June 8, 2002 at 9:43 am. She weighed 6 lbs. 3 ozs. and was 18" long. Her head circumference was 13". She was certainly a small little thing! She even wore preemie clothes for nearly 6 weeks! She was the best baby too, which is probably why I don't remember many of the details of her babyhood. She was just always so pleasant and fun to be around. :)
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