Well, our baby girl did not want to wait until March 4 to be born! I had been feeling pretty uncomfortable the last few weeks of pregnancy. My feet were very swollen. I was having more and more Braxton Hicks contractions, and I felt like the skin on my stomach was going to split open. I truly felt like I couldn’t get any bigger. I was supposed to work until February 26, but my boss jokingly said on Friday, February 5 when I was having a contraction that this better not be my last day. I laughed it off. Little did I know…
Without going into too much detail, the next morning I started having early labor symptoms. I shrugged it off at first thinking it was just a sign labor would be coming in the next month. When I consulted my “What to Expect” book, it said the symptoms I was having meant the baby could be born in 24 – 48 hours. Then I began to panic. So that day Chip and I went into overdrive washing every outfit, blanket, and burp cloth, installing the car seat and packing our bags for the hospital. I felt fine most of the day and didn’t even have any contractions. By the end of the day, I wondered if it was just a false alarm. Sunday morning I woke up and was still experiencing the same symptoms, so we decided to call the hospital. The Labor & Delivery nurse said not to come in until my contractions were 5 minutes apart. At that point I wasn’t having any. Of course, I felt fine most of the day but then at 3:30 pm I began having contractions. They were pretty painful, but were 2 hours apart.
Monday morning I called my doctor and she had me come in. She checked me and I was already 2 – 3 cm dilated and 80 – 90% effaced. She agreed that I would be having this baby before March. I asked her when she thought I might go into labor and she said it could be a day or two or a week. All we could do was wait.
I was having contractions off and on for the next 2 days, but they never seemed to progress. Most days they even stopped. I was having constant lower back pain, which I know now was actually still labor pains.
That Wednesday afternoon I took a nap on the couch around 3 pm. About an hour later I was awoken by a contraction - a quite painful one! Before I could get off the couch to walk it off, I felt a pop and then a gush. My water had just broken! I knew that meant I needed to get to the hospital ASAP. Chip and I grabbed our bags and the car seat and headed out. Within 5 minutes I was already having contractions, luckily not very painful. They were less than 5 minutes apart within another 5-8 minutes. Once I got to the hospital I was taken by wheelchair to labor and delivery.
The nurse hooked me up to the fetal heart & contraction monitor. My contractions started getting really intense and my back was killing me! Plus the contractions were "coupling" and coming in waves of two back to back. Not fun! The nurse checked me and I was already 6 cm dilated in just a few minutes. The nurse said I’d be having this baby tonight. I knew my mother would be excited – she liked the idea of the baby being born on 2/10/2010. My doctor was called in and she checked me out and said this little girl was down very low and that was why I was having such painful back labor. It wasn't much longer until I wanted an epidural.
I debated getting one since I didn’t know how bad the pain of child birth would be. Chip and I did take a Prepared Child Birth (Lamaze) Class where I learned breathing techniques I used up until it got to be too painful for me. In the end I am glad I got the epidural, it made things much more bearable. After I got it the nurse showed me the at least 4 inch needle that was stuck into my back - at that point I didn't care, I felt so much more comfortable. The only bad thing was that the epidural made my blood pressure drop suddenly (a potential side effect that I was concerned about since I have low blood pressure to begin with) which in turn made the baby's heart rate drop. I was put on oxygen and laid on my side and my pressure and the baby’s heart rate came back up in a few minutes.
By 8:45 pm (4 hours later) I was already 9+ cm dilated and by 9:15 pm I was fully dilated. I started pushing at 9:30 pm and the baby was born at 10:21 pm. When the baby's head came out the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. I had to stop pushing while the doctor tried to get some slack on the cord to loosen it (she couldn't), tried to get it off the baby's head (couldn't, it was too tight), and then she clamped it and cut it. A few seconds later the baby was out. We decided to name her Jordan Elizabeth.
Jordan was laid on my chest for just a second. She was so blue and looked like she wasn't moving. The nurses took her immediately to the warmer and began to clean her and suck out her nostrils and throat. I asked if she was breathing because she didn't cry nor did she seem to move much. It seemed like a long time, but in reality was a few seconds, before I heard Jordan let out a cry and squirm around. She had a much more normal coloring to her by then. The nurses noted she seemed to struggle a little when she was breathing and they thought they heard fluid in her lungs, so she was immediately taken to the NICU. It would be 3 hours before I saw her again. Chip went with Jordan when they took her off to be examined. He would take pictures of her and then come back to the delivery room I was in and let me see them on the viewfinder. He also told me she was 6 lbs 4 oz and 20 ¾” in long. Not too bad for being born 3 weeks early.
At 1:30 am I was wheeled into the nursery to see her. She looked so much better! The nurse said she was breathing fine now and that she coughed out most of the fluid in her lungs. All her tests came back good and she was in good health. We stayed and watched as the nurse gave her first bath. I noticed how much hair Jordan had! There must be some truth to the old wives’ tale about heartburn during pregnancy! After they put her in the warmer to get her temperature back up, she was brought to me and Chip at 3:30 am and we got to hold her for the first time. She was so tiny, but so adorable! We are truly blessed that Jordan had a safe and healthy birth and that my health throughout this pregnancy was good as well.
Without going into too much detail, the next morning I started having early labor symptoms. I shrugged it off at first thinking it was just a sign labor would be coming in the next month. When I consulted my “What to Expect” book, it said the symptoms I was having meant the baby could be born in 24 – 48 hours. Then I began to panic. So that day Chip and I went into overdrive washing every outfit, blanket, and burp cloth, installing the car seat and packing our bags for the hospital. I felt fine most of the day and didn’t even have any contractions. By the end of the day, I wondered if it was just a false alarm. Sunday morning I woke up and was still experiencing the same symptoms, so we decided to call the hospital. The Labor & Delivery nurse said not to come in until my contractions were 5 minutes apart. At that point I wasn’t having any. Of course, I felt fine most of the day but then at 3:30 pm I began having contractions. They were pretty painful, but were 2 hours apart.
Monday morning I called my doctor and she had me come in. She checked me and I was already 2 – 3 cm dilated and 80 – 90% effaced. She agreed that I would be having this baby before March. I asked her when she thought I might go into labor and she said it could be a day or two or a week. All we could do was wait.
I was having contractions off and on for the next 2 days, but they never seemed to progress. Most days they even stopped. I was having constant lower back pain, which I know now was actually still labor pains.
That Wednesday afternoon I took a nap on the couch around 3 pm. About an hour later I was awoken by a contraction - a quite painful one! Before I could get off the couch to walk it off, I felt a pop and then a gush. My water had just broken! I knew that meant I needed to get to the hospital ASAP. Chip and I grabbed our bags and the car seat and headed out. Within 5 minutes I was already having contractions, luckily not very painful. They were less than 5 minutes apart within another 5-8 minutes. Once I got to the hospital I was taken by wheelchair to labor and delivery.
The nurse hooked me up to the fetal heart & contraction monitor. My contractions started getting really intense and my back was killing me! Plus the contractions were "coupling" and coming in waves of two back to back. Not fun! The nurse checked me and I was already 6 cm dilated in just a few minutes. The nurse said I’d be having this baby tonight. I knew my mother would be excited – she liked the idea of the baby being born on 2/10/2010. My doctor was called in and she checked me out and said this little girl was down very low and that was why I was having such painful back labor. It wasn't much longer until I wanted an epidural.
I debated getting one since I didn’t know how bad the pain of child birth would be. Chip and I did take a Prepared Child Birth (Lamaze) Class where I learned breathing techniques I used up until it got to be too painful for me. In the end I am glad I got the epidural, it made things much more bearable. After I got it the nurse showed me the at least 4 inch needle that was stuck into my back - at that point I didn't care, I felt so much more comfortable. The only bad thing was that the epidural made my blood pressure drop suddenly (a potential side effect that I was concerned about since I have low blood pressure to begin with) which in turn made the baby's heart rate drop. I was put on oxygen and laid on my side and my pressure and the baby’s heart rate came back up in a few minutes.
By 8:45 pm (4 hours later) I was already 9+ cm dilated and by 9:15 pm I was fully dilated. I started pushing at 9:30 pm and the baby was born at 10:21 pm. When the baby's head came out the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. I had to stop pushing while the doctor tried to get some slack on the cord to loosen it (she couldn't), tried to get it off the baby's head (couldn't, it was too tight), and then she clamped it and cut it. A few seconds later the baby was out. We decided to name her Jordan Elizabeth.
Jordan was laid on my chest for just a second. She was so blue and looked like she wasn't moving. The nurses took her immediately to the warmer and began to clean her and suck out her nostrils and throat. I asked if she was breathing because she didn't cry nor did she seem to move much. It seemed like a long time, but in reality was a few seconds, before I heard Jordan let out a cry and squirm around. She had a much more normal coloring to her by then. The nurses noted she seemed to struggle a little when she was breathing and they thought they heard fluid in her lungs, so she was immediately taken to the NICU. It would be 3 hours before I saw her again. Chip went with Jordan when they took her off to be examined. He would take pictures of her and then come back to the delivery room I was in and let me see them on the viewfinder. He also told me she was 6 lbs 4 oz and 20 ¾” in long. Not too bad for being born 3 weeks early.
At 1:30 am I was wheeled into the nursery to see her. She looked so much better! The nurse said she was breathing fine now and that she coughed out most of the fluid in her lungs. All her tests came back good and she was in good health. We stayed and watched as the nurse gave her first bath. I noticed how much hair Jordan had! There must be some truth to the old wives’ tale about heartburn during pregnancy! After they put her in the warmer to get her temperature back up, she was brought to me and Chip at 3:30 am and we got to hold her for the first time. She was so tiny, but so adorable! We are truly blessed that Jordan had a safe and healthy birth and that my health throughout this pregnancy was good as well.
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