[Jessica C]

Well, I’ve tried to do an update twice now. The first time was a couple of weeks ago about 1:30 in the morning. I had just got done feeding Jaylen and was working on putting her back to sleep, but I myself was wide awake. So I responded to a few posts and then painstakingly typed for close to 2 hours (my hands were still in a lot of pain) how things have been and the birth story. I clicked submit and got an error message and lost everything! I was so disappointed I started crying.

Then today, DH was in the hospital getting surgery done on his shoulder due to a torn tendon so I thought I’d take the opportunity to catch up on JM…..which I did (as much as I could anyway). I also typed an update, again, and when I clicked submit I lost my internet connection at the hospital. Super disappointed, to say the least.

Since it’s been a month now, I’m not going to go into a lot of detail with Jaylen’s birth story. As most of you know by now, we were due on December 17th my hands had been killing me for several weeks by that point and I was asking for help, and the doctors didn’t want to do anything because they felt that a c/s wasn’t necessary and an induction would end in failure and still end up in a c/s. I had an ob appointment on the 17th (Thursday) and then again the following Monday where I was still not even 1 cm (close tho) so the doctor attempted to strip my membranes to get things moving along…no such luck as I ended up going to my appointment on Wednesday the 23rd. At which point I’m STILL the same cervically so it was decided to start the induction. At 5:30 pm the doctor inserted the Cervadil. By 10:00 pm I think I’d had only 3 contractions (I was having more of them on my own before the induction), so I figured we’d be there all night and got up and got ready for bed (you know, take the contacts out, make-up off and brush my teeth). When I got back in bed about 10:15 pm and the nurse hooked up my monitors Bug’s heartrate had dropped from her normal 140’s to the 70’s and was there for a few minutes before jumping up to the 170’s and staying there. That must have set up some warning bells at the nurses station because two doctors and two nurses showed up in my room very quickly. The doctor from my clinic took a look at her early monitor strip and said “this is a happy baby” then looked at her recent strip and said, “this is NOT a happy baby”. They took the Cervadil out (and I started contracting every 3 minutes then but apparently not in the right place). Anyway, the doctor said that if she didn’t settle back down to her normal rate or if I had any more decels/accels over the next 30 minutes that something else would need to be done and since I was so far from delivering on my own (still no change cervically) that it would have to be a c/s. Over the next 30 minutes Bug never settled back down and she had at least 3 more decels/accels….just not as bad of decels…they were only down in the 110’s. So at about 10:50 pm the doctor comes in and says we need to proceed to c/s because she’s not doing well…..I looked at DH, got tears in my eyes and said “ok”. My room gets tidied up real fast (things stowed away and cot folded up), DH takes a couple of things out to the car while I sign mine and Bug’s lives away on the c/s consent forms. I’m wheeled into the OR by 11:10 pm, and when I see all of the lights and equipment I start crying. I’ve never had a surgery (other than eye surgery and having my wisdom teeth pulled)….so it scared the crap out of me. While I was getting my spinal block I’m crying and asking where Paul is and I’m told he can’t come in yet….more tears. I remember them helping me move from my bed to what I’m going to call the crucifixion board (because I’m strapped down to a cross), then I hear them say that Paul can come in (thank God), I can’t feel them cutting, but I can feel them prying me open. I have a relief of pressure and then within 30 seconds I can hear her crying. Shortly after Paul says “that’s our little girl crying”, he turns around to see her on the warming bed behind him and says “she’s beautiful!” At which point I catch a glimpse of her behind him….and she is beautiful. I heard a nurse say she’s 7 pounds 4 ounces and Paul putting her to me so I can kiss her. I don’t remember him leaving the room with her, but I do remember hearing the doctors chat while they are stitching me back up (one of them thanked me for being skinny and the nurses doing their “sponge counts” and them putting me back on my bed). I woke back up in recovery with a nurse asking me where on my upper body I can feel her poking me....I thought it had been 5 minutes and come to find out it had been 2 hours! All this time I guess Paul was running around taking care of things with our little girl….who’s name is still Bug as we hadn’t decided yet on what to name her. Paul (or my mom for that matter, who had been hanging around scared she was going to lose her daughter and granddaughter) weren’t going to be able to stay with me in the hospital so they finally got to leave the hospital about 3:30 am. When I finally got to “really” see Bug the next morning I realized how pretty she really was I texted Paul and said we should name her Jaylen because it’s such a pretty name.

Ok….so I fibbed about not going into detail. I’m sorry it’s so long!

As for the current…..because I ended up taking the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy off due to my hands I got really behind with work, add to that my usual additional January work I’ve been extremely busy. Oh! And, add to that the learning curve of being a new mom….whew! Very tiring. My hands are doing better. I saw an orthopedist on Wednesday and ended up getting a cortisone shot in each wrist and the feeling is slowly coming back. I’m no longer crying in pain in the night and I’m able to actually do things without my hands hurting. Now, with DH being out of commission for at least 3 months I’ve got a long road ahead of me.

I will do my best to try and get some pictures of Jaylen uploaded to PB to add to JM. We can’t believe that she’s a month old already! She’s growing like a weed and Paul and I feel so truly blessed. He was actually telling me about a week ago that he’s ready for another one and that he misses my pregnant belly. I was back down to just about pre-pregnancy weight within a little over a week, but still have a fluffy belly. I can’t wait for my 6 week check so I can get the go ahead to actually start exercising.

I do apologize for this being such loonnnnnnng update. Thanks for reading. I have missed all of you and have thought about you daily!

[mum74]

Hi Jess, I'm glad you DID end up going into detail and managed to get it saved this time . I love to read the stories. I'm sorry it ended it in a c-section. I know myself how disappointing it is. I also know how scary it is to have the baby's heartrate drop as that happened when I was trialing my vbac and they had to stop my induction drip and ds's heartrate picked up again, but combined with other things (suspected rupture of scar which was dangerous for us both) ended in a c-section. While it's not what I wanted, I was of course so grateful that ds and I were both okay. Sorry, didn't mean to make that about me... just wanted to say that while I know it's disappointing, at the end of the day I am glad that whichever way it had to happen, you and Jaylen came out of it all safe and healthy.

I can't believe your hands have still been so sore. It seems unfair and I thought it would be some miraculous thing where once the baby was born, they would just get better.

You must be doing an amazing job as I don't know how I would fit in working with a newborn... I hope she is a good sleeper for you!

[BeckyM]

Yay, sweetie, you were finally able to get your story posted!!! You know how happy I am for you guys!! I hope Paul is recovering from his surgery and that your hands continue to get feeling back. Give Jaylen a big huggie & kisses from Auntie Bek!!

[Jessica C]

Originally Posted by mum74

Hi Jess, I'm glad you DID end up going into detail and managed to get it saved this time . I love to read the stories. I'm sorry it ended it in a c-section. I know myself how disappointing it is. I also know how scary it is to have the baby's heartrate drop as that happened when I was trialing my vbac and they had to stop my induction drip and ds's heartrate picked up again, but combined with other things (suspected rupture of scar which was dangerous for us both) ended in a c-section. While it's not what I wanted, I was of course so grateful that ds and I were both okay. Sorry, didn't mean to make that about me... just wanted to say that while I know it's disappointing, at the end of the day I am glad that whichever way it had to happen, you and Jaylen came out of it all safe and healthy.

I can't believe your hands have still been so sore. It seems unfair and I thought it would be some miraculous thing where once the baby was born, they would just get better.

You must be doing an amazing job as I don't know how I would fit in working with a newborn... I hope she is a good sleeper for you!

I'm not too overall disappointed that I had a c/s in the end. Like you said....we are both healthy and safe. But, I also think that in the end it was waaaaay less painful for me in the end It was a little difficult to move around for a couple of days, but I was doing very well right after that. Jaylen is sleeping great! It's pretty normal for us to have to wake her to feed her every four hours......I was so tired after yesterday that she actually went 6 hours last night! I didn't produce enough milk so we ended up supplementing with formula after the first week. DH has really enjoyed it because he gets to help with taking care of her and since he's not working (he doesn't work during the winter) he's been able to help me by letting me get more sleep. But, I guess that's changing since he won't be able to help for awhile because of his arm. I too was hoping that my hands would miraculously go back to normal right after delivery....but no such luck.

Originally Posted by BeckyM

Yay, sweetie, you were finally able to get your story posted!!! You know how happy I am for you guys!! I hope Paul is recovering from his surgery and that your hands continue to get feeling back. Give Jaylen a big huggie & kisses from Auntie Bek!!

Paul was extremely loopy when I left the hospital last night....and that's putting it mildly. I sure hope he's feeling better today. I did give Jaylen a hug and kiss from you and she gave you a smile right back!