Introducing…Baby Jenna

August 4, 2009 – We go to the hospital to be induced and luckily, I am already contracting pretty regularly.  When the doctor came in to break my water, she said the water bag was bulging and she suspects if I weren’t being induced, I probably would have gone into active labor that day anyway.  I was already 3 cm and my cervix was already thinning out on its own, and without pitocin, I was contracting every 2-3 minutes (but not really feeling it).  I actually fooled myself into thinking the contractions might not be that bad, but once that water was gone – OUCH!  I had the epidural in a few minutes after 10:00 am.  Why wait?  :)

By 10:30, I was 5-6 cm and shortly after that, the drama came.  Jenna’s heart rate had been decelerating during contractions, but was rebounding well, so they weren’t too concerned.  I guess they were concerned enough to get Dr. Tran in to take a look at the strip, and she was in the room when Jenna’s heart rate plummeted the first time.  I told Brent later on that I couldn’t hear it at all and really thought something horrible had just happened to my baby.  They moved me in so many different positions, and eventually hands and knees did the trick.  Actually, it may have just been the timing of when the terbutaline got into my system – I was basically having a never ending contraction so they gave that to me in my IV to relax the uterus and allow the baby’s heart rate to rebound.

Long story short, this happened one other time before they decided we weren’t handling the pitocin very well and they shut it off.  I had told my nurse not to give it to me that morning, mainly because I just dreaded pitocin contractions, but turns out I was right.  I didn’t need no stinkin’ pitocin – I was dilating on my own, and too fast for Miss Jenna apparently.  I was 10 cm by 1:30, but she was still pretty far up, so they sat me up for a half hour or so, to let gravity bring her down the birth canal a bit more.  I swear the epidural ran out during this time – either that or they’ve just changed the epidural for the better since I had Hunter because I felt major pressure every contraction.  I actually felt that need to push that I don’t think I ever felt while in labor with Hunter.  I strongly recommend to expectant mothers to turn down the meds before that magical time to start pushing – it was so much easier to know what to do this way, and as you’ll read below, feeling a baby come into the world can be a really great thing…

I had to push a bit more than we expected.  She was face up, so the doctor suggested possibly having to use a vacuum to help get her out.  They say this must have scared me because I pushed like a champ and she turned herself around.  But I don’t think it scared me since Hunter was a forceps baby.  I think what happened was that this time, I could feel her coming down – I wasn’t about to let her slip back up there so I continued to bear down just a little between contractions.  Once she turned, it just took a couple of pushes and there she was!  I felt everything (well, no pain, just the sensation).  Brent said my reaction when she came out was so tremendous that the doctor and nurses all looked at me and thought something was wrong.  I was just so ecstatic to see her and also feel that relief.  It was amazing.

And I know you didn’t necessarily need to hear all that – you just came here for the pictures.  So here they are.  The video has two clips – the first, I am ever so grateful to my wonderful husband for capturing when they handed Jenna back to me after cleaning her up and weighing her.  I didn’t know he was filming and when I saw it later that day, i burst into tears because it was so special.  The second clip is Hunter’s first encounter with his baby sister.  He did so good, and he gets better every day with her.

And plenty of pictures to tide you over until tomorrow, when I will post her 1 week pictures.  I am determined to post pictures of Jenna at least as often as I did with Hunter.  My guess is that I just won’t take so many this time – will only take and post the best pics instead of taking 100 every week like I did with Hunter and then picking one or two to post.  :)

Is that a smile?

Hunter’s Sibling Cake

 

Some of Jenna’s visitors while in the hospital…

     

I’m going home!!!

   

All strapped in and rarin to go.  She stayed awake until we passed the galleria – once she saw it, that was all she needed.  She slept the rest of the way home.

And I’ll admit there were about 16 versions of this last picture.  I picked the best one.  This girl is going to have bows in her hair for quite awhile!!