So let me first start with a couple weeks leading up to the birthday! at my 36 week dr appt my midwife had mentioned that they would like to induce me at 39ish weeks. That was totally not something i was expecting and i actually assumed she would be late since keton was a week late. so i had scheduled clients up until 2 days before my due date which was March 5th! So this kinda shocked me but i was also totally sold on the idea that she would not be coming late. The reason behind the inducing was because she had a 2 vessel cord. I guess it can cause more complications as the baby gets bigger so they like babies with 2 vessel cords to come around 39 weeks. Thankfully this hadn't caused us any complications throughout the pregnancy and she was thriving and growing right on schedule but that is why they wanted her to come sometime around 39 weeks. so i said ok and scheduled to be induced on March 1st (since my in laws were going to be in Hawaii until the 28th and i didn't really want to have a leap year baby and they were ok with waiting a could days after 39 weeks). So the following day i called all my clients that i had scheduled into the 39th week and told them it wasn't going to happen, but assumed i would be fine until March 1st, so i was booked and overbooked super solid until Feb 27th giving myself 2 days to prepare before her birthday on the 1st.
so skipping forward to Wednesday the 24th i went in for my appointment that morning and had my last ultrasound (which is crazy when they get that big cuz you literally cant see anything really, they are so squished in there) everything looked good. She checked me and said i was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. i thought that was great but nothing too concerning considering i was dilated to a 4 with keton for a couple weeks and he was still late. she asked if i wanted my membranes stripped and i agreed only because she said the thinner we make me before getting induced the easier it would be so i thought well then heck i better do it, i don't want that to be to crazy of a process. so she does it and she goes o ok now id say your about a 4.5. i was thinking woah don't do too good of a job lady i still have to finish out the work week im booked solid till Saturday afternoon hahah. but anyway i left and all was good the rest of the day. The next morning i woke up about 6:30 a felt some contractions that were a little harder than Braxton hicks but nothing bad so i went to the bathroom did my normal morning stuff. got keton when he woke up and i was noticing a lot of contractions so as we sat in bed watching some shows i noticed they were 10 min apart, very consistently 10 min apart. i was like hmmm i dont think these are Braxton hicks. i told scottie and he was like ya babe you are having this baby today, your not making it to Saturday. i was like o no its fine, they will go away! so i went about my morning. keton really wanted to go for a stroller ride, he had been asking for days, but i was trying to not do anything that could induce labor so i kept telling him no. this morning i asked sarah if she would take him on a little stroller ride cuz i was having consistent contractions and i needed to lay low until they stopped. so she came over and took him up and down the street a couple times and then alisabeth came over to watch him while i went to work. when i got to work i told the girls that i thought i was maybe in labor but i wasn't sure but id been having contractions all morning and they all freaked that i was there and didn't want to deliver any babies at the salon haha. i told them if they got serious i would leave haha i would make them deliver my baby at work i needed the drugs so i would make sure to leave in time to get those hahh. the whole day i kept my phone in my pocket so i could keep timing my contractions to make sure they didn't get any closer together. it make for a fun work day for the girls and our clients haha. it was cute every time i would look at my phone my client would be like o man you had another one... that was a close one, i would reassure them i was still fine. i was in denial all day that i was actually in labor. about halfway through my clients my contractions were about 7 min apart and getting stronger but nothing i couldn't walk or talk through so i thought for sure i could make it through them all. Nicole at work kept asking me if she should call my friday clients and tell them not to come and i kept telling her no i would be ok to work the next day. i told her to call my sat clients cuz i didn't think i was making it to Saturday. Finally about 4:00 i realized i wasn't going to make it for my clients on friday and i had her call them. by about 5:00 my contractions were 3-5 min apart and strong enough that i didn't want to walk through them but i could still talk through them. thats when i texted scottie and told him i think i was really in labor and he should probably gather some stuff together considering i didn't have anything packed. ( thats the denial part, i really was trying to hold off having this baby until my clients were finished and my in-laws were back from Hawaii haha) i also then asked Nicole to call my 6:00 client and let her know i was in labor and she would have to reschedule. The thought that kept crossing my mind is.. i have to get to the hospital in time to get my epidural but i also dont want to get there and have them tell me im not in labor and i need to go home. so i was conflicted. but anyway i finished up at work and got home, packed up, tried to have a sentimental moment with keton ( i was super emotional about him not being my only baby anymore. once i left i knew it wasn't going to be the 3 of us anymore so i was trying to soak in the moment. he was being a 2 yr old and really didn't care that i was leaving and was just really happy that sissy was coming over to play with him) and we were off. Scottie had to stop and get pizza on the way so we did that and i was just kinda nauseous so i couldn't eat anything. my contractions got a little more spaced out in the car like 5-7 min. still nothing super intense or anything tho so i was still just praying they would not send me home once i got to the hospital. we parked at the hospital, scottie ate his pizza in the car, and i got out and started walking and squatting in the parking garage. i was not getting sent home. i had a couple good contractions waiting for scottie to eat so i got back in the car and said babe i dont think they are going to send us home. i think we are for sure going home with a baby in the next couple days. so he finished up and then gave me a blessing and we went in. we checked in at 7:45 and the nurse in triage was soooo nice like super awesome i really liked her. she checked me and said i was at a 6! i was like yay does that mean i get to stay ha she said yes you are staying and having your baby today ha.
once we got there everything slowed way down. contractions spaced out between 10-12 min apart. they admitted me and started an iv around 9:15. my family came up and we all thought for sure she would be here sometime in the next couple hours! wrong. the midwife came in and told me that i was in labor but not active labor and that she couldn't do anything to help me along "inducing" labor until i was 39 weeks which was not until midnight. so i said great so you can come back at midnight and break my water and she will be out soon after cuz that worked really good with keton. she said she wanted me to sleep and she would come back in the morning and break my water. at first i was bugged, i was already at the hospital and i was ready to meet my baby. but it was really nice to sleep so i guess that was a good idea! so we sent the fam home and told them we would let them know if anything was happening but if not they could just come in the morning! so we slept that night as best as we could, i probably only woke up for like 4 contractions throughout the night cuz they were so painless, but i continued having them all night about 10-12 min apart. I woke up about 6:30 in the morn and the nurse came in and told me that Kelly my midwife would be making her rounds between 7 and 8. she said i could walk around or get in the tub or whatever until she got there. i decided what the heck ill take a nice relaxing soak in the tub until she gets here since contractions were so easy at this point i thought it would feel nice before things really got moving. so i did.
i soaked for a good like 45 min, until Scottie came in and said Kelly came in but they told her i was in the tub so she said she would come back when i got out. i immediately got out of the tub (i was starting to get sweaty and not comfortable in there anymore anyway) and told scottie to tell the nurse i was getting out so kelly could come back and break my water! i was so ready to get things going. Kelly and Lisa ( the midwife on-call the night before) came in and they said i was still a 6 but baby was engaged and i was more effaced so that was good. She broke my water at around 8:15 and they needed to monitor baby for 45 min before i could get up and try and get things going on my own. so i sat there in bed. contractions got about 7 min apart and started getting not so enjoyable, still tolerable but close your eyes and breath kind of contractions, so that was good. i was thinking yay the water breaking worked again! so at 9ish my family got there and brought keton so that was so fun to see him again before baby sister came to the fam. he was being his regular 2yr old self but we sat and watched a couple shows together on the bed so that was nice. they also brought mcdonalds breakfast which was sooooo good. i was starving. the midwives said i could eat so i didn't mess around with that nasty jello they think is food. it was great! at about 9:15 they said i could get up and do whatever i wanted to get things going until i wanted my epidural. ( side note. they said i could have my epidural anytime. before they broke my water up until she came out basically. for some reason i thought i needed to feel some pain before i got it... big mistake. i am writing this here to remind myself next time. i do not need to feel pain. just get the epidural before they break my water and i will be much happier !!) so at that time i got up to use the bathroom one last time and then i thought i would prob call in the epidural person. so i got up went to the bathroom and while i was in there i had like 3 hard contractions, then i got done and walking back to the bed i had a couple more. i knew it was not going to be long so i sat on the ball that i had tried bouncing on earlier and looked at scottie and told him that we needed to get the nurse to call in for the epidural. she came right in and called them and hooked me back up to the monitors. contractions were coming like 2 min apart and they were intense. i didn't feel any regular contractions with keton cuz i had back labor so bad, all i could feel was constant intense back pain, so this was a whole new experience. i didn't love the feeling but i have to say it still beats back labor 100%! so anyway i was on this ball which was actually really uncomfortable to sit on during contractions and in between but it was so hard to get off it after i was on it cuz they were coming so fast i could move fast enough to change positions haha.
finally i had scottie put pressure on my back during a few contractions and then help me off the ball and after that i just stood by the bed holding on to the hand rail. kinda swaying back and forth and that was better. the epidural lady came in like 9:50 and i was soooo happy to see her! i was not comfortable and kinda wanted to cry so it was such a relief to see her. so i sat down on the bed and told them i was feeling nauseous. i kept thinking brenee don't throw up you'll be pain free soon and then you'll feel great! i think there might have been a couple tears during the epidural not from the needle but sitting during those contractions takes some serious concentration and it hurts haha. the anesthesiologist asked my nurse if i could be going through transition and she said i dont think so cuz i just checked her before you came in and she was at a 6 so i dont think so. so she got done and immediately i looked at scottie and said babe im gonna throw up. they got the bowl in front of me and bam, all my delicious breakfast. but i felt much better after that and i was already starting to tell they weren't as intense and i was feeling better. i thanked her and she left. the nurse was like on let me just check you to see how your doing. she checked and i was a 9!! transition during the epidural every time haha but you better believe i am still so happy i got one even if i was super close cuz that was enough pain feeling for me. i felt great now that i was getting numb ha. i could still feel the contractions in my left butt cheek it was so weird haha but after we rotated and got the happy meds running through me i was numb everywhere! at this point it was 10:15. nurse said the midwife would be back around lunchtime and we would start pushing! the fam came back in and all was right in the world once again. she told me to let her know if i was feeling any pressure in my bum i was confused cuz i couldn't feel anything so how was i supposed to know if i was feeling pressure but i was like um ok ill let you know haha. at about 12 i had a contraction and all of a sudden i was like um mom i def feel some pressure in my bum all of a sudden i hope she isn't coming out haha. so my mom went out in the hall right away to get the nurse. she checked me and was like woah ya you are a 10 and baby is right here. i can see her head and she has lots of hair! i was like what the heck you can see her head. i needed to see all this hair she was talking about so i asked for a mirror. something i never thought i would do but she had me so interested in the hair i just had to see. i told her i just wanted to look for a min and then they needed to take the mirror away, they agreed. so i looked and sure enough a little bit of her head was showing a lots of hair i could see! so i did one practice push with the nurse and she was like whoa ok thats enough, i can tell you are going to have no problem getting this baby out so we will wait for the midwifes. she called for all the labor set up people and i looked at scottie and said this is my favorite part and its all going so fast hahha. i had to soak it in for a min cuz it was going to fast. he just laughed at me! timeline from there 12:22 at a 10 head showing 12:25 practice push 12:35 midwifes showed up and the real pushing started. i pushed like 3 or 5 sets of 3 hard pushes and then they kept telling me ok soft push soft push ( whatever that means i basically just did a little sneeze kind of push ) this whole time i kept the mirror and actually ended up really liking it. i could see the progress of my pushing and that was super helpful and awesome to see. so when she was crowning they told me to hold off pushing to prevent tearing and wow that didn't feel that great. i think that spot didn't get a good enough dose of the epidural cuz i could feel the burning. but it worked it really helped me not tear that much! and then after her head was out they let me pull her out and bring her to my tummy! as soon as i saw her head come out the waterworks started and i couldn't help the tears. i was so happy! so i pulled her onto my tummy which was much harder than it was for keton cuz she was so small there was nothing substantial to grab onto. her little arms and shoulders were so little! she was so blue too i kept asking to make sure she was ok but they reassured me she was just fine!!! it was the best. it always is! holding my sweet baby girl and looking at her for the first time, those are moments you cant get back and ones i will cherish forever. she was so little but still had some great cheeks that made her look bigger than she really was. it was really nice after that they let me hold her for like an hour before they took her to be weighed and stuff and that was so nice! we nursed and she did amazing the first time. takes after her brother with that. they took her to get weighed and she was 6lbs 13 oz. i looked over and saw a 6 on the scale and was like no way. i just had a 6lb baby and she has hair!! 2 things i didn't think were possible after keton! our time after that was amazing and it continues to be!
Lisa the midwife that was assisting Kelly
kelly the midwife that delivered jade
keton was happy to see me but mostly cuz i had chips that he wanted.
our labor an delivery nurse Jo. she was amazing!
keton needed to scope her out, every part of her.
She is the best baby. she eats well. sleeps well. is happy when she is awake which isn't often but its great when she is. she doesn't like to nurse to sleep or get rocked to sleep. she just drifts off in your arms while walking around its pretty amazing. she also will stay asleep when you put her down also something we haven't ever experienced and it is so nice!!! of course i still cuddle her all night cuz i cant bare the thought of her being all alone in her crib when i have a perfectly good arm for her to sleep on! we cant imagine our life without our Jade Brooklynn! She makes us so happy and we cant wait to see the woman she will become!!!
We love you Jade and are so happy you are part of our family!!! February 26th another special day for us to celebrate for the rest of forever!!
