Jillian Louise

Jillian Louise has arrived! She is the most beautiful baby we've ever seen (of course because her parents are good looking)! We couldn't be happier. So, here's the story:

Garrett's friend, Brandt, had come on Friday night to help Garrett work on the garage. He was staying through Monday and they jokingly told me to wait to have the baby until Tuesday. They were up until 1:30am and then went to bed.
I woke up at 3am on Sunday October 24 with a moderate cramp. Though I was suspicious, I heard that labor usually starts off slowly. Before I could fall back to sleep I felt another cramp. I looked at the clock and it had been five minutes. So as I was then more awake I stayed in bed and waited for five more minutes to pass. Sure enough, another cramp. I now determined this was the beginning of what ended up being a very long day. The doctor's office had given me a sheet with beginning labor signs and at what point to call the phone number listed for after hours. I waited the one hour, contractions five minutes apart. I then woke Garrett up and told him I thought I'd gone into labor and then called the doctor. The doctor said to take my time and shower and eat something if I wanted. I went ahead and showered thinking the hot water would help me relax. By the time I was dressed and got downstairs I couldn't hardly walk. Garrett got Huntley taken care of and grabbed a few last minute things. My bags and car seat were already in the car ready to go and had been for a couple of weeks. We left for the hospital and got there around 5am. The contractions were on top of each other and when we pulled up to the Women's Center at the hospital a couple of nurses had just finished their shifts and were leaving but went back in to get me a wheel chair as I couldn't walk with the pain. I was admitted quickly and got into the room. After getting examined I was already 4-5cm dilated. The baby had passed meconium but the nurse and doctor weren't concerned about it being an issue. The nurse poked me three times in my hands to get my IV started. My veins were blowing. She gave me a dose of narcotics for the pain, which didn't make any difference in my pain level. I wanted to avoid an epidural due to the possible side effects for the baby and myself but after a couple hours I decided to get one. It seemed like foreeevver for the anesthesiologist to come. As soon as he got it put in I started to feel relief. Apparently my water had broken before arriving at the hospital but I didn't have any indication beforehand. The doctor and nurse thought we'd be welcoming our baby before noon. It took me until around 3pm to get completely dilated so things slowed down a lot after getting the epidural. I started pushing and pushed for two hours. The doctor came in at that point and suggested a cesarean because of the position of the baby and lack of progress. I asked about using forceps but he said Jillian wasn't far enough into the canal to use them. If I had been more aware I would have asked about trying other methods for getting her into better position. She was trying to come out forehead first and wasn't turning. I really didn't want a c-section and started crying when the doctor suggested it. He gave me the option of pushing up to another two hours but I was worried about stressing out Jillian and I didn't want it to turn into an emergency situation. My Mom and Danny had arrived after we called them at 7am to let them know we were going to have the baby. They came into the room and I cried even more. 20 minutes later, I was in the OR getting scrubbed while Garrett waited outside the doors. As soon as I was prepped they let Garrett come in and he stood next to my head and he brushed his fingers across the side of my forehead and my cheek. I felt the doctor pressing across my abdomen cutting through the layers. He then said I'd feel a lot of pressure. 30 seconds later I felt a lot of weight come off of me and heard my baby cry. I immediately started to cry but tried to not cry too hard because I could feel my abdomen moving with my crying. The nurses took her straight over to her station and suctioned her and cleaned her up. Garrett then brought her over to me. She was perfect. Everything at that moment was perfect. 8 pounds, 20 inches. Garrett went with Jillian to the nursery to get a bath and finish getting examined while the doctor stitched then stapled me. I went to the recovery room and stayed there for the required minimum of an hour. It was driving me crazy knowing that I was missing being with my baby. But, it was really nice to lay there in the quiet with the lights only partly on in the recovery room. After a long day mentally and physically, that gave me time to relax and reflect on everything that had happened. It's a lot to take in. I actually relaxed so much that my breathing had gone down so much that the machine was reading that I wasn't breathing so the nurse asked me at one point to take a slow deep breath for the machine to register that I was still breathing. My epidural came out along with other monitoring devices and I headed back to my room. Jillian and Garrett arrived a few minutes after I got into the room. The nurse that had been with Jillian then helped me get her to latch and she did so without any problem. The hospital stay was very pleasant. The nurses were all great, the food was good and it was quiet. I couldn't have asked for a better experience with the hospital. We went home that following Wednesday around lunch time. Brandt was so helpful and stayed at the house and took care of Huntley until Garrett went home on Monday and took him to the vet for boarding.

The first few nights at home were rough because Jillian had gas and was up until 3am crying. We are now in the groove and Jillian is a great sleeper. She only cries when she has gas (which we're still working on) and when she's hungry. She sleeps through the night except when it's time for food and even then she really doesn't like to wake up to eat. The last few days she's been eating a lot and sleeping more so I think she's going through a growth spurt. She's opening her eyes a lot more often and I feel that she's getting heavier. We don't have a scale so I don't know how much she's gained. We go to the pediatrician Dec. 9 so we'll see then. We are loving her so much and couldn't ask for a better baby.

I'll try to give updates more regularly than once a month :). We are staying home for Thanksgiving this year and will be in Missouri for two weeks over Christmas. We hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving!