A Birth Story: Jocelyn

Who doesn't like a good birth story every once and a while?  This is a good one.

Okay, it's not that good.  It's really short actually.

Jocelyn's due date was January 4th.  I was really late with Olivia so I was really excited to have a baby born in January, and still have my Chinese Dragon  baby.  I did not want to have a baby in December.  For some reason, when I was pregnant, I thought that all December babies were ugly and neglected.  I'm not sure why I thought that.  I blame the hormones.

On Christmas Eve, I knew the baby was going to come in December.  I could just feel it.  I thought she was going to just fall out any time.  I did not want a Christmas baby.  I thought to myself, if she can at least stay in there until after Christmas, I'll be okay.

The day after Christmas, I went to the doctor for my usual stress test and ultrasound.  I first went to do my ultrasound and they told me the same thing that they've been telling me every week for 2 months: you have a really tiny baby.  I knew that.  Next I went to take my non-stress test.  FYI: a baby's heart rate should be under 160 beats per minute.  During this NST, the baby's heart rate was between 180 and 210.  I was pretty sure by then that I was going to go to the hospital, but I was still in denial because I didn't want a December baby!

After 20 minutes, the nurse came in and said I needed to do another ultrasound to check the baby's breathing.  That was fun.  I just sat there and watched the baby breath.  Then I was walked down to my doctor who stopped me in the hall and said, "I think we are going to take the baby early".  My doctor knew about my December baby fear because he usually made fun of me for crazy pregnant lady thoughts.  When he said that, I asked, "by early do you mean January 1st early?"  He said, "I mean like today early".  I was a little devastated, but a tiny bit excited at the same time.

Early that day, I talked to my sister and she told me to pack bags for the hospital.  I knew that I should, but for some reason, I thought that if I didn't pack my bags, that meant that the baby wouldn't come.  Well, FYI, babies in the womb don't know if you packed bags for not.

The doc told me to go home, get what I needed and meet him in the hospital in an hour.  Olivia was already at my visiting teacher's house.  I called John, he came home from work, and we grabbed a few things, dropped them off at my VT's house for Olivia, then went to the hospital.

I was already dilated for a 4 when I got to the hospital.  I asked if I could have an epidural.  The doc said he wanted me to feel some contractions first, but the nurse didn't know that when I first got there,  she said sure and got me my epidural.

An hour into my epidural, I started feeling some contractions, but they weren't horrible.  They checked my epidural, and it wasn't put in correctly.  The medicine wasn't going into my back, so they took it out and re-did it.

Around 9 the doctor came in and said everything looked good.  He had already seen 29 patients that day and preformed 3 surgeries.  He said he was going to go home and take a quick nap then come back around 11 or 12 to break my water.

He didn't come back until 3.  It was a long wait for me.  He said he didn't go home to sleep, he just worked on paper work the whole time.  I was thinking, great, now I have a super tired doc that is about to deliver my baby.  He broke my water when I was dilated to a 6, then 10 minutes later, I knew I was ready to push.  At 3:20 the nurses came in to switch shifts.  I told them I felt like pooping and they checked me and said, "wow!  You're ready".  They ran and got the doc, finished preparing the room, then I started pushing at 3:28.  The nurse said that she was going to count to 10, then I should take a breath, then push for another 10.  She counted to 10, I took a breath, then pushed again.  She counted to 3 then I heard the doctor and two of the nurses yell, "STOP!"  They did a few things, then two more pushes and she was out!  Jocelyn was born at 3:30 AM after 2 minutes of pushing.  That was way better than the 3 hours of pushing I had to do for Olivia.

Best labor ever.  Pushed for 2 minutes, never felt a contraction, and the best part about it: the next day, I felt completely better!  I felt like I could run a marathon!  Best recovery ever!

Jocelyn is a wonderful little baby and Olivia loves her!

Ready for my mystery hospital disease?  I always manage to get some kind of infection from the hospital not matter how much I wash or wear shoes in the shower.  After I gave birth to Olivia I got a MRSA infection and after Jocelyn, I got hand, foot, mouth disease.  A few days after I got out of the hospital, my feet hurt so badly, I couldn't walk for almost a week.  Luckily my mother-in-law was here to do everything I couldn't.

Gross.  I hate infections.

But I love my little girls!