Birth Story of Jessica Marie

Jessica Marie
September 21, 1992 at 7:52pm
6 lbs. 8 oz.
19 inches

After a long rough pregnancy of severe morning sickness, mountain sickness, dehydration, premature labor, and terbutaline, Jessica Marie was finally born 3 weeks early on Sept. 21rst, 1992. My journal records my feelings about the day before her birth, I was so depressed and sick of everything. (Meaning the pre term labor and sickness) I was so depressed I wanted you to out or I wanted to die. (Later I found out this is normal for mom's on terbutaline.) The contractions finally came and with the help of nipple stimulation they continued. At 2 A.M. on the 21rst we called the Dr and he said to go ahead to labor and delivery. I was excited to find out I was dilated to 2 cm! An hour later I was at 3 cm! After that everything slowed down considerably and at 9 am I was still only dilated to 5 cm even after doing a lot of walking and sneaking on to the stairs! My ob broke my water to help speed things up.

At noon I was only dilated to 6 but felt like I was in hard labor. Daddy was tired of coaching so I asked for an epidural. The epidural was given to me by a student and the test dose worked but the rest went into the blood stream and didn't help. I was on pitocin and screaming as I dilated from 7-9. Finally an anesthesiologist heard my screams from the c-section room and came in to check my epidural. It made me sleepy when he put in a dose and so he had to restick me about 10 times to get it to work. The screaming had almost stopped my labor and the contractions were 20 minutes apart on the pitocin!

I was finally able to relax and take a nap. At 5 P.M. I was finally dilated to 10! Yeah, I thought I could push, but no luck. You were floating up so high that I had to wait until your head was engaged. About an hour later I was allowed to push during one contraction. Sometime after my grandmothers sister got off work she came to visit and see how things were coming a long. She didn't have kids and I told her she could stay for your birth. I really didn't know she was there when I had to push! I had to wait 20 minutes for another contraction to push again. It was like that until my ob came back at 7:45 PM. I pushed once for him and during the pushing he did an episiotomy. I freaked out and stopped pushing. I was very frightened at that point as I saw the scissors and heard the skin being cut. My ob told me I needed to push again because you were really blue and one more push would get you the help you needed. I pushed hard and your body slid out at 7:52 PM! After my ob suctioned out your mouth and nose, he put you on my tummy! It was incredible! Your 1 minute apgar scores was 8 and 5 minutes 9. You looked up at me with the biggest blue eyes! They reminded me of a china doll with the whites of your eyes being so white. You have lots of hair. It's a coppery red color.

I don't remember how long it was before the placenta was delivered, but I do remember wanting to see it and had to pass you to the nurse. It was very difficult to give you up! As I looked at the placenta the nurse weighed you and took a warm wash cloth to your face and head. Well, the new daddy was on the phone! The nurse announced you weighed 6 lbs. 8 oz. and 19 inches long. Then my ob came back in and told me I'd better feed you! Oh, yeah, I had forgotten that I needed to put you to the breast, it was just amazing to watch you. You were very hungry and knew exactly what to do. You ate for 20 minutes on each side! I was able to hold you for about an hour and a half and then we had to separate again. Just as we were leaving mom's friend Carol, her husband and baby came to see you.

For some reason they bent the hospital policy and let them in to see us for about 3 minutes! Daddy went to bathe you and put a pink bow in your hair for pictures and I went to the postpartum room. I was glad I had a private room when I started to bleed heavily and my nurses came in every 10 minutes to massage my uterus down. I was given extra fluid by an IV. One of my nurses went to the nursery and came back and said. I saw your beautiful girl, she has red hair and it's not uncommon for moms with red hair genes to bleed a lot after giving birth. It was about 2 hours before you were back in my arms, and it felt like forever! Daddy spent the night on a rollaway bed. I don't remember sleeping, just listen to your little squeaks. When the morning nurses came in they sent me to a breast feeding class, because you had already made little blisters on my breasts. Your pediatrician came in and did your newborn exam. Your perfect! A minor hear murmur that he heard was gone by your 3 day appointment. When I got up out of bed finally for the first time to use the restroom, I passed huge clots. My bottom was so sore I was afraid to have a bm! We had a few visitors during the day as they were excited for us having our first baby!

We left the hospital at 8 PM on the 22nd and headed straight to the grocery store! The hospital didn't even have a disposable diaper to send you home in! A nurse was able to get one from another mom! You see you were born about the time we were suppose to be in our last prenatal class with the instructor telling the parents to bring diapers to the hospital! I remember at the grocery store a mom with her teenage daughter asked to peek at you. I was feeling like I was going to drop you, but I showed her anyway. She asked how old you were. I looked at my watch and said about 25 hours! Boy did I hear it about getting you home!