Arrival

You have finally arrived. And nothing will be the same again. That is both a wonderful and scary thought.


Here is your birth story.
Sunday after a long day, I went to bed and when I rolled over I thought I felt my water break.  I got up and sure enough a small gush.  So I woke up Adam and we were so giddy the whole way to the hospital.  We we brought up to Triage and the nurse checked me out although we told her what happened because I was no longer leaking she had decided that I did not break my water, but instead had an infection.  Super disappointed and very confused we headed home. 

But.. I was still having contractions.  All day Monday  the contractions were about a half hour apart until about 3 and then they were 15 mins then by 4pm we were 10 mins apart and they had gone from annoying to painful to so bad I was in tears when I called Adam at 4:30 and told him he should be on his way home from work.  We called the doctor but they said come on in, but after being sent home the night before I just did not want to go into the hospital until we were sure. By 7 there was no denying we were in labor, so back to the hospital we went.  A quick check in Triage showed we were fully effaced and 5cm dilated so we were almost instantly brought up to labor and delivery.  Thankfully an epidural soon followed.  But it also slowed down our progress so it was 4:30am Tuesday before we started to push. (At 3am in an attempt to speed up the process they decided they would break my water, which is when they discovered it really had broke the day before, it was just not a complete break.)

Pushing began great! Better then I thought it would be, and it seemed like delivery would be a piece of cake but then the minutes turned to hours.  Little Jacqueline was stuck  by a band that they thought would tear on it's own, but it didn't.  So after two and a half hours of pushing we decided to have an Episiotemy it took a few cuts with both scissors and blade to finally allow little Jacqueline to be pushed out.  After the next push her head appeared (facing up, a part of why she would not come out on her own) but the cord was wrapped around her neck.  I was told to quickly push her the rest of the way and that is when they saw the cord looped around her body too. 

The next few moments are a blur of panic in my mind, one minute she was squirming in the doctors hand then she was still and rushed to the warming lamp where they started to provide air for her with the bag.  It seemed like a very long time before we finally heard her cry.  (Adam and the nurses said the truth is she only was bagged for a minute.)  Finally my little girl was in my arms.

And now we are home.  Jacqueline Ray Meeuwsen arrived on her original due date April 5, 2011 she was 6lbs 13.3ozs at delivery and 20.5 inches long. She is the most beautiful and wonderful little baby ever.

I'll add more pictures another day.  Right now Jackie is sleeping so I am going to lie down too.