Jane's Birth Story

We've been home from the over a hospital a week now so I suppose it is time for Jane's birth story to get posted so here it goes...

I actually went into labor on Miss Jane's due date (June 14th). I was on the couch since I'd woken earlier, was uncomfortable, and couldn't go back to sleep. I was just started to drift off when I felt a little something and I suspected it could possibly be my water but it wasn't very much so I couldn't be sure. A little bit later I felt more of the same but still wasn't 100% certain. I headed back up to bed and proceeded to get caught up on my journal entries. I was finishing up and getting out of bed when I felt something that I was fairly confident was my water. 

It was almost 7am at this point so I woke Kevin up and told him I was suspicious and that we should get started on some things around the house just in case. I wasn't having contractions...only mild cramping, and the amount of liquid wasn't crazy huge so I wanted to wait a little longer before paging the on-call doctor. A little after 8am I felt a much more substantial gush so I decided to go ahead and call the doctor. When I spoke to her she wanted me to go ahead and head into Labor and Delivery. I asked her how quickly and she said I didn't need to hurry but not to wait until afternoon. I was happy because this gave us time to get things finished up.

We notified our parents as to what was going on and finished packing our hospital bags and Anna's bag. Anna would be staying with Kevin's Mom and Dad for a few days while we were at the hospital. We were finally ready to head into the hospital and we arrived just before noon. 

On the way to the hospital!

 By 1pm I was in triage and they went ahead and did a test to confirm it was amniotic fluid. At that point I was only 1-2cm, 70% effaced, and still not feeling much contraction-wise. The test came back positive for amniotic fluid so I was admitted and hooked up to a portable monitor so I could walk the hallways. Kevin's parents were there and I got to say bye to Anna before they left with her.

Feeling great since contractions hadn't begun.

 Around 4pm I was examined again and had only dilated slightly more. I was feeling a little discouraged at that point. I knew they would want her delivered not much later than 5am (24 hours from water breaking) due to the increased risk of infection and I was feeling like I would be having another cesarean. 

At 6pm I still hadn't changed much so they started me on the pitocin at the lowest dose they use. It didn't take long before I started feeling some real contractions. About an hour later they increased the dose slightly and the contractions were picking up and hurting more. Another hour later they did another slight increase in pitocin and things were getting tougher for me. My nurse was going to check my progress at 9pm and that was my goal before deciding on an epidural. I wasn't set on drug free or anything but I wanted to make sure I was progressing before confining myself to the bed. Getting from 8 to 9pm was not an easy task. I relied on the birthing ball, gripping Kevin's hand, and really focusing on my breathing. My nurse was fantastic and helping me get through those contractions 

At 9pm I was 4-5cm, 90% effaced, and ready for some pain relief. Luckily the anesthesiologist was just next door so I didn't have to wait to long. By 9:30pm I had the epidural and in the next 15 minutes I was comfortable. Kevin and I were then able to get some much needed rest. At 11:40pm my nurse checked me and I was 10cm and 100% effaced. She went to page the doctor and then things started happening fast. People were coming in the room preparing things until the doctor arrived just after midnight. At 12:22pm I was on the stirrups and started pushing. I pushed for only 26 minutes when our beautiful Jane Everly was born!

Jane Everly Kent
6/15/2014 12:48am

 They put Jane on me right away but I only got to hold her a minute when they took her over to the table. She was crying but not as much as they would have liked and they wanted to get her suctioned out since there was a lot of mucus still left in her little lungs. I was looking over and they kept telling me "She's okay, she's okay". This only made me more worried. Jane was making a grunting noise as she was breathing and they were a little concerned...especially since it had been so long since my water had broken.

She was improving though as they got more mucus out and I was able to hold her more. They did mention taking her to the NICU for observation if the grunting stayed but luckily a bath helped her scream and get more junk out.  I did have to wait a little longer to nurse her but eventually I was able to.

A happy Mommy

Sometime in the middle of the night we finally were moved to recovery. Early that morning they took Jane for blood work. They wanted to check for signs of infection. The number came back slightly elevated but they redrew her blood four hours later and the number had gone down. By the next morning it had gone down even more and she was showing no signs of infection. We were pretty pleased about that!

So happy to finally see our beautiful little girl

 As Kevin wrote previously Jane Everly Kent weighed in at 8 pounds 3 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. We are all ecstatic about her red hair too. Right now her eyes are looking blue but we'll have to see for sure on that one. 

We were both pretty tired by mid morning but between nursing, nurses coming in every hour to check vitals on both me and Jane, the birth certificate lady, my doctor, the pediatrician, and the horrid hearing test lady (this is a whole other story) a nap was out of the question. We also had family stop by to meet Miss Jane. It was fun being able to show her off to everyone and we were excited to have Anna with us and watch her meet her sister for the first time. We managed one family photo before everyone left for the day.

Naps did finally happen that evening and  felt pretty amazing. We are so in love with this little lady.