Our Birth Story!!!

It all started on Friday night, October 21st, around 11:30pm. I had just been up with JJ calming him down from a little dream he had....when I got back in bed, my back started cramping really bad. I decided to go downstairs and lay on the couch with the heating pad, hoping for some rest! As soon as I got to the kitchen, I felt my first "real" contraction, and they didn't stop until Judah was born on Sunday night. I laid on the couch all night trying to rest through the contractions that were about 8-10 minutes apart. I texted my brother, Brad, to let him know I was in Labor and he was standing by to help with JJ if needed in the middle of the night. By morning, they were getting closer together and more intense...I woke Jason up around 5am and told him I thought it was time to get ready to go to the hospital. He got everything packed up and as soon as JJ woke up, we headed to my Mom's to drop him off with Grandpa. My Mom, Jason & I headed to triage where we were told that I was in early labor, but my contractions were not consistent enough to be admitted. They gave me some pain medication and told me to go home and rest until I was in A LOT of pain and the contractions were much closer together. I was disappointed and wondered how much more pain I was in for......I would soon learn there could be much, much, more!!

Saturday consisted of taking a warm bath, laying in bed, bouncing on a birthing ball, snacking & wondering when this would all be over. The pain medication seemed to slow the contractions a little, but they were definitely still there. We all went to bed early at my Mom's house hoping that I would be waking everyone up soon to go to the hospital. I chose to labor on my own, simply because I am a very quiet person when in pain and I was able to focus better on breathing and resting by being alone in a dark room! Jason & my Mom brought me whatever I needed when I asked for it and gave me a few back rubs....since I was having back labor. Did I mention that? All of these hours, my contraction pains were mostly located in my back:( NOT FUN
at all!

At 2am Sunday morning, I realized what the Doctor was saying about the contractions hurting A LOT!! For the next 2 1/2 hours, I had very intense contractions that were less than 5 minutes apart. It was time to go....I texted my Mom to wake up, woke Jason up from the couch & we went back to the hospital. Thankfully JJ was sound asleep at my Mom's & Steve was planning to stay home with him for as long as was needed to get this guy out. We arrived at Evergreen Hospital around 5:45am and I had to make multiple stops in the hallway on the way to triage to breathe through contractions (the Doctor from the day before told me this is how I would know I was in active labor!!). The nurse checked me and I was 3cm dilated ( I was 2 cm the day before). She monitored me and baby for just a short time before admitting me.

At this point.....I was soo done with feeling the pain. I told myself that if they didn't admit me in labor, I would be asking for the C-Section right then. It was soo intense and exhausting trying to get through the contractions....all thoughts of doing this without medication were gone and I was asking the nurse how quickly I could get the epidural? She told me as soon as I had one bag of IV fluids we would be good to go. Unfortunately, I have really tough veins and it took nearly 45 minutes to find a vein to put an IV in. I knew this coming in and this took every last bit of patience I had to get through the pain.

My Mom and Jason got all settled in our room and got breakfast while all of this was going on. I stayed very focused on my breathing and prayed a lot that God would guide this day and help me to be strong. Once the anesthesiologist walked in the room, I perked right up and got excited! The epidural was painless and the relief started within about 15 minutes. My back finally started to relax and I could now carry on a conversation....soo much better than the past 30 hours. From 9am-3pm, I went from 3cm to 10cm and was ready to push. They said the baby was still very high, but that if I did some really good pushing and made progress within an hour or two, then I could continue with my "Trial of Labor." This is what they call it when a woman has had a previous C-Section but has never experienced labor. The Doctor has to be careful to not take much risk with me because of the prior incision on my uterus. Well.....I pushed and pushed and pushed. I made some progress, but in the end, the Doctor did not think I was going to safely be able to push him out in a timely manner. He did not want to run into an emergency situation, so it was at this point that we decided to go ahead with the C-Section instead of continuing to push. I can honestly say that I was a little disappointed, but I feel that God really answered my prayers in allowing me to experience labor rather than just showing up for another surgery. At this point, things moved fast.

They started prepping me for surgery and got me into the OR within 20 minutes. I ended up needing to get a spinal because the epidural wasn't effective enough. This made it feel like it was hard to breathe because I was numb all the way up to my collarbone....this took a lot of my focus during the surgery because I was extremely uncomfortable. I was also very sleepy and had a hard time keeping my eyes open. Not a very fun way to welcome my baby into the world, but he showed up nice & healthy!! Jason and my Mom were in the OR with me and I remember looking through a little window when they pulled Judah out:) The rest was kind of a blur.

I was brought back to my room right after they were finished with the surgery and Jason walked back next to me carrying Judah! Within minutes, the nurse helped to get Judah latched on for breast feeding and he nursed for nearly 30 minutes....he has been a perfect nurser since:) I was really uncomfortable with chattering lips and itchy skin (side effects of surgery) for the next few hours. After those went away I was on my way to recovery. I had a great nurse Sunday night who helped me get out of bed and walk rather quickly after surgery (2am). Once I had accomplished this with minimal pain, much less than my first C-Section, I knew this time would be different. We came home from the hospital in less than 48 hours and my recovery has continued to go well. Jason is a great support in allowing me to rest and taking care of JJ since I can't pick him up right now.

I feel soo blessed to have had everyone's support during my pregnancy and labor & delivery. Notably, my Mom was there every step of the way, helping with JJ and Doctor's Appointments. My Brother Brad came to be a cheerleader while I was in labor & pushing. Steve took care of JJ. Jason was by my side the whole time. And I had a countless number of people praying for me to go into labor. In the end, we welcomed a very sweet little boy.

Please help us welcome:
Judah Allan Jarvie
Born 10/23/2011 at 6:09pm
8 lbs. 5 oz.
21 inches

We love him soo much!!!