On June 7, 2009 at 1:07pm Jayne Caroline Steier was born and changed our lives forever...we became parents.
I woke up at 2:30am and couldn't go back to sleep. I was uncomfortable and cramping, but never once thought it was labor. After all, I had no idea what it felt like to be in labor. I went downstairs to watch TV and try to sleep on the couch so I wouldn't wake Jared up. After about an hour I just felt like I was going to be sick and ran to the bathroom. My thoughts of course went to "great I'm 9 months pregnant and now I'm getting the stomach flu". I tried laying on the couch again but couldn't get comfortable, but eventually fell asleep. For eight minutes. Woke up to major cramps and then fell back asleep. For eight minutes. This went on for a couple hours. I woke every eight minutes exactly. Still in denial that this was "IT". (After having one false alarm and going to the hospital only to be sent home I really figured it was just another false alarm. Or worried that it was and didn't want to be "that girl"). Finally at about 7am I went upstairs to get my phone. Jared woke up and asked how I was doing. I said "Fine if you consider having contractions every eight minutes good."
Man, I've never seen him move so fast. He jumped out of bed, said " I knew today was the day. I had a dream we had the baby!" He began barking orders at me "go eat something, take a shower, call your parents". I listened and ate a bowl of cereal, took a hot shower, we called our parents to tell them "we THINK this might be IT!" All the while Jared was timing my contractions and writing them on paper. They ranged anywhere from 4-8 minutes apart. After my shower I began vacuuming the house...after all, we were going to have company and the house needed to be clean, right??!! When a contraction hit I would get on all fours and rock back and forth until it was done, then get back up and resume vacuuming. Looking back, I'm sure I looked so silly, but it helped!
Although we didn't know this at the time, my parents and Jared's mom already made the decision to drive down and were trying to pack and make arrangements to get to us. We called Jared's Aunt & Uncle around 8am and asked if they wanted to grab coffee. We threw the hospital bags in the car "just in case" and went to meet them. We sat at a table having normal conversations all the while I would have a contraction and nudge Jared and he would write the time on paper. After a about 15-20 minutes Jared's Uncle asked what he was doing. Jared told him "timing Tay's contractions" Then it hit them...then I was totally phasing out of conversations, couldn't focus during a contraction at all and they were coming closer together. After about 45 minutes we left them, went to get the car gassed and washed. I called the doctors on-call number and told the nurse what was going on. She, like me, thought it was probably just false labor since first labors usually take so long and said she'd call the dr. to see what he wanted to do. While she was asking me questions a contraction hit and I totally stopped talking or listening to her, that's when she told me to just come to the hospital. She said we'd probably just be checked and have to walk around for awhile to see whats going on. She knew then that it was real, but didn't tell me.
We arrived at the hospital at 9:35am and into a room. We went through the LONG admittance process, got hooked up to monitors, etc. Jared's aunt & Uncle decided not to go to church and came to keep us company. It was so nice to have the distraction of people around! At 10:30 the doctor came in to check me (not my doctor b/c he was out of town. I joked with him a few days earlier that I would have this baby over the weekend b/c he would be gone. Little did I know...). They were shocked that I was already 6cm dilated, 100% effaced and dealing with the pain so well. And it was painful. But it was different than I expected. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't handle it, but I also wanted to enjoy the process of birth so when they told me they were calling the Anesthesiologist, I didn't complain =) At about 11:30 Mr. Epidural Man (my new best friend) came in and within in 10 minutes I was wonderful. Only felt squeezing pressure, no pain and could actually rest my eyes. The nurse told me it would probably be a few hrs from that point, but at noon I asked her to check again b/c I was feeling a lot of pressure. She did and was shocked that I was 100% dilated with a bulging bag of water. The doctor came in to check, broke my water and said it wouldn't be long...and it went super fast from there.
At 12:38 I started pushing...pushed three times and at 1:07pm out popped baby! All 6lbs 1oz and 18 1/4". The umbilical cord was wrapped around baby's shoulder so Jared was unable to cut it. The dr. & nurses all commented on what "Super long" eyelashes the baby had. All Jared & I could say was "Is it a boy or girl??"
"It's a GIRL!!" Those words still echo in my head...I swore up and down I was going to have a boy and I was shocked. I have a daughter?? I was beyond thrilled and surprised. The nurses placed Jayne Caroline on my stomach...she was so purple and wasn't crying. Then they whisked her over to the little bed to suction her out and give her oxygen. Although the dr. & nurses were saying she was fine, she wasn't crying. I can remember crying myself and just asking "why isn't she crying" over and over again. When she finally took a big gulp of air and cried, my heart settled back into place. After a little while they brought her back to me and she was perfect. We took inventory...10 fingers, 10 toes, super long eyelashes, cutest little nose, perfect little lips. We were in love.
Labor really wasn't bad, I would have done it again right then. It wasn't painful like I thought it would be. I was actually laughing and joking with everyone through the entire thing. The funny thing is during our Lamaze class they made us do this exercise were I had to squeeze an ice cube in the palm of my hand as an example of the burning pain you will feel during labor. Jared & I laughed the entire time and the instructor smiled at us and said "You are going to be that one couple that enjoys this and laughs through birth!" Little did we know she would be right =) And to be honest the recovery was a piece of cake. I ripped really badly and the dr. took more time to sew me up than he did delivering Jayne...that was uncomfortable, but manageable. Jayne stayed with us in our room the entire time, other than having to get tests done. It was nice to be surrounded by family and friends and love on our sweet girl. She took to bfeeding like a champ (after a little work with lactation consultants to make sure we were both doing it correctly!) I really didn't expect that part to hurt, but boy did it. But after a couple weeks we were pros =) and Jayne was growing like a weed...although we had many weight checks with the doctor to make sure since she was itty bitty.
- T -
2 comments:
Love this! Your sweet Jayne is so loved.
OMG, I cannot believe she's already a year old. It seems like we were just at Ralphie's in Sylvania when you told us you were pregnant...
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