Jayla's birth

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!

(updated 10-31-12.....Wow, now she is 10 years old! I never found anything that I may have written down previously, so this is it, unless I remember more as I am reading......)

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 D&C 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 D&C 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. :)

#1 - Jonathan's birth

I had my final Dr. appt. on May 3rd (fairly typical prenatal care). I was dilated to a 3, but had been dilating already for about 2 or 3 weeks. My doctor scheduled the induction for 6 AM on Friday morning the 5th. Myles and I planned to go on a date on Thursday night and just have some fun by ourselves before our little one invaded our privacy, but Thursday morning (the actual due date) my doc called me and asked, "How would you like to have your baby today?"! Well, I told her yes and about 4 hours later we were admitted into the hospital!

Of course Myles had to leave work early. We arrived at the hospital at around 11:30 AM. By 11:45 we had our room and an IV in. They started the pitocin at around 12:45 and I was considered in active labor by around 4:00. Soon after that the contractions started getting sharp, and fast. The doctor had an internal monitor put in, after I had been trying to tell the nurses that the contractions were hurting pretty bad, so that they could actually measure the intensity of each contraction. At around 6:15 I was given an epidural when they were finally convinced I was in much pain by that time. (Apparently I can take more pain than I thought. The nurses were expecting me to be crawling off the bed!) Once the nurses saw how intense they really were by inserting an internal monitor, they were quick to get me the epidural and backed way off on the pitocin!

The epidural was wonderful! I still had some feeling on my left side, but it was tolerable. I could feel all of my contractions, but they didn't hurt at all! By 8:00 I was still only dilated to a little more than a four. The nurse had me turn on my side to see if that would help. At this time everyone was expecting Jonathan to be born in the early hours of the morning.

About an hour later the nurse was about to go have some dinner and decided to check again before she left. We were glad she did. I had already dilated to an eight! Things began moving quickly after this. The nurse didn't even get to eat. Myles went out in the lobby to give everyone an update and while he was gone I reached a nine! I didn't think he'd make it back in time, and our moms were wondering why he even left in the first place! (He was just excited and wanted to share it with everyone else.) After a few more minutes went by, his mom went to get him and said he was watching TV! (He said he just happened to look at it for a second when she walked in the room! They give him a hard time about that now.)

I don't remember the exact times of everything, but by 11:15 I was at a 10 and pushing. By about 11:37 he was crowned and the doctor came in for the catch. She almost didn't get gowned in time! Everyone told me not to push, so I didn't, but he came out on his own on the next contraction! The doctor turned around just in time to catch him! Myles' mom told me later that she thought she was going to have to run over there and catch him before he hit the floor! It was pretty funny actually. :)

Jonathan David was born on May 4th at 11:39 PM weighing 9 lbs. 2 ozs. and was 21 3/4" long. He obviously had a great set of lungs and beautiful skin color! Everything went so well. We were so excited!

When Jonathan was about 5 days old it was very apparent that I had a UTI. I was able to get an antibiotic and recover fairly quickly, but that first day or two of it was horrible. It was around the time my milk came in and I was still having problems with breastfeeding (learning to use a nipple shield due to flat nipples), so it was not a good few days there for a little bit.

Skip ahead almost 7 years......Wow, I can't believe he is about to turn SEVEN!

As I look back on this account of his birth, I do have a totally different perspective now. First of all, I do NOT want to be induced any more! I really don't see any medical need for it, and it can put the mother and baby at risk, not to mention that the contractions are so much more painful than when you go into labor on your own! I would not want to be checked for dilation and effacement either. What's the point? I'm going to progress regardless, and it can only make things worse, not better.

I would refuse to be monitored, and I would not get an epidural. I remember the epidural not giving complete coverage, and when I think about that now, it's pretty scary! I remember being very uncomfortable on the bed. I had no option of getting up and walking around because of the monitors, pitocin and epidural. I was getting miserable just laying there. I remember changing to my left side, which helped me dilate more quickly, probably because I was able to change positions.

The UTI I know was from the catheter and internal monitors. They also had put some type of monitor on Jonathan's head, so he had one or two SCREWS in his head!!! It really is true that all they (medical professionals) want is a good outcome, and they don't care how it comes about. We were disillusioned into thinking that everything was great because I didn't have to have a c-section, I didn't feel any pain after the epidural, I didn't have to push very long and our first child was very healthy. If I remember correctly, I think he scored an 8 and 9 on his two apgar tests, so that was pretty good.

Actually, another thing I just remembered is that right after he was born, they did all the routine things that hospitals do for babies; eye drops, shots, heel prick and then a bottle of formula for his FIRST feeding because his blood sugar was "borderline high"! I am so sad about that now, that I didn't get to nurse him for his very first feeding. :( Honestly, I don't even remember them asking me or giving me a choice, they just tested his blood sugar (because he was "big") and then gave him a bottle....right in front of me, but I didn't get to do it.

Another thing that scares me thinking back on all this is that Jonathan was seriously coming out on his own with each contraction. There were probably 20 people in the room (can you say "privacy"?), and NO ONE was moving to get him. I was on the bed where they break away the foot part and put my feet in stirrups, shine the lights right on that area and raise the bed up high, about to chest level. Now picture a baby being born from that height with no one to catch him and about 20 people standing there just watching! That is seriously what was happening, and my doctor had her back to me putting her gown, mask and gloves on! She literally turned around just in time! They were telling me not to push and to wait for the doctor, but HELLO, I couldn't stop him from coming out! Scary, scary, scary!

Also, I tore really bad and was sore (bruised) for a good 3 months. I wonder if this could have been avoided if I had not had such hard contractions and progressed at a more natural rate rather than them increasing the pitocin and making me go faster. I also couldn't feel anything when pushing, so I don't know if I was actually ready or if I pushed too hard, etc. The entire experience, really, was not fun looking back on it. And I hate to admit it, but this was probably the best experience of my 3 labors/births.