The morning of May 7th, I was awake a lot of the early morning hours; between my bladder, a few Braxton Hicks contractions, losing my mucus plug, and worry about all the things to get done pre-baby.
We had already completed most of our list: I had a full freezer, months of diapers and non-perishable foods, the baseboards/walls/cabinets had been scrubbed, and the garden planted. We had also squeezed in a quick trip to St. George and a day trip to Antelope Island (during which the whole time I was concerned about being able to make it to the hospital if I were to go into labor). Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts had been purchased. I had a mani/pedi scheduled for that evening and a neighborhood girls' night out the next day. We were pretty much just counting down the days at this point.
I had lost a lot of my mucus plug over the last few days, so I figured we would have a baby before the end of the weekend. As we got the kids breakfast and got ready for the day, I suddenly had a familiar wet feeling---my water had broken again. 3 labors in a row all started with my water breaking, which supposedly happens in only 10% of the population, but 100% for me. I called my nurse since my doctor was out of town, and was advised to come into the office for my already scheduled appointment as soon as I could arrange for childcare. Steven commented that he had woken up and thought that this might be the day...
I sent Steve off to work to wrap things up since I was just having a slow leak and no real contractions. I called Papa Bill and asked if I could drop off the kids. I got the kitchen cleaned up, skipped my heparin injection, threw my hospital bag and a bag for the kids in the van, and dropped the kids off with Grandpa; warning him that I didn't know if/when I'd be back.
When I got to the doctor's office I had to wait for what seemed like FOREVER. Normally, here is very little wait, but this felt particulary long. I got checked, and was found to be almost completely effaced and dilated to a 2. It was also confirmed that I was leaking water.
Since I still wasn't having any real contractions yet, the doctor allowed me to go home and give the van to the grandparents, feed my kids lunch and give Steve some time to get ready before checking into the hospital for an induction. But she wasn't going to let me make it to my mani/pedi or the 2 wedding receptions I had planned for that night due to the risk of infection with a broken amniotic sac.
Anyway, I cancelled all my plans, called both sets of our parets to let them know what was going on, and told Steve to meet me at home. We were having a baby!
When I went to pick up the kids, I let them know that their baby sister was on her way and hopefully they would get to meet her after dinner. They didn't really seem to understand what was going on, but I didn't really expect them to.
I got the kids lunch, and Steven packed a few last-minute things for the hospital, then we decided to grab a celebratory lunch at Felman's Deli on our way to the hospital. Both of us were too nervous to really eat, so we just split an awesome meal since we didn't know when we'd get to eat next. When the owner heard we were on our way to have a baby, he came to congratulate us and told us to come back after the baby was born.
We got to the hospital around 1:30 or 2, and I was hooked up to a slow drip of Pitocin to get things going. I had flashbacks to William's 32-hour birth and hoped I wouldn't have to go through that again. We laid out our guesses for the time of birth. The doctor (not my regular OB, who was out of town), commented that she thought I'd have a baby before the end of the day. My guess was after dinner, but hopefully before bedtime so the other kids could meet her. Steven thought later in the evening.
Contractions started out regularly, but were not very intense for about an hour. Then, they started picking up and were very quickly difficult to handle so I asked for an epidural. That was the longest wait in my life (or so it seemed). Steve distracted me by reading to me from the book he was reading and it helped to take my mind of the pain which was pretty much all-consuming at this point. The pain was getting very difficult to manage due to the nature of my babies (especially this one) being sunny-side up. The back labor was INTENSE.
I got checked and was dilated to a 5. I was disappointed. I was in so much pain by tis point and it just seemed like time was slowing down. After the epidural started working, the nurse said she had a trick to turn babies. I laid on my right side, put my left leg in the stirrup, and the nurse pushed on the baby's shoulder. Then, I was left to hang out in that position for about 30 minutes. The nurse checked again and I was a 9.5! All I did was lay there and the nurse and baby did the rest.
The doctor was called and checked again, rotating her head slightly to help me dilate the rest of the way. I pushed maybe 5 times and then we had a baby! The epidural wasn't on full blast likeI've done before, and while I didn't feel pain I did feel the sensation of the baby leaving my body, which was kind of neat. Very surreal and I saw her sweet face and she didn't even cry, which is very much her personality so far.
Introducing the newest member of our family, Jane Marie Garff. 5/7/2015, 4:35 pm, 7 lbs 11 oz, 20.5 inches.
Just over 2 hours of labor was definitely doable! Jane had her cord around her neck a couple of times and had swallowed a fair amount of amniotic fluid (she was spitting it up for days), so the nurses had to work on her for awhile before I got to feed and snuggle her.
I found it really interesting to compare her to baby pictures of my other kiddos.
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| Jane |
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| Caleb and Lily |
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| Jane |
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| William |
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| Jane |
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| Lily |
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| Jane |
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| Caleb |
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| Jane |
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| Lily |
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| Caleb and Lily |
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| Jane |
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| William |
I mostly think she looks a lot like Caleb right now.
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| Jane |
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| Caleb |
No matter who she looks like, she definitely looks cute.
