The Higginsons: Jane's Birth Story

Luckily I wrote this on June 11 while it still pretty fresh in my mind. I'm sure I have already forgotten small details by now. So here is Jane's birth story (beware, it's kind of long):

My last day of work was tentatively set for May 31st, but I changed my mind and made it the 24th instead. Boy was I ever glad I did! I probably would have made it even sooner, but my hours got cut from 40 to 20 for the last few weeks. At my doctor appointment on the 16th, I was 50% effaced and 0 cm dilated. At my appointment on the 23rd, I was 70% effaced and 1 cm dilated. I figured at this rate, I would have the baby in no time at all. Not so, apparently. At my appointment the following weed on the 30th, I was still 70% effaced and 1 cm dilated. I was definitely bummed. I was even more so when I got a phone call the next day scheduling an induction for the 15th of June. I wondered if my doctor had any confidence in my body's ability to get this baby out on it's own.

Saturday, the 1st of June came and I had been noticing more cramping, but nothing consistent whatsoever. I went to a bridal shower for my sister-in-law Sarah and then to one of Richard's cousin's baptisms. Sunday the 2nd arrived and during church at 1, I started having consistent cramping, but then it stopped. (I later realized those cramps were contractions.) We left church early because I wasn't feeling very good. We went back after it was over to see Richard's brother David be ordained an Elder and for Richard to be set apart for his new calling. Did I mention I was a nursery leader for almost the entire duration of this pregnancy?! Not fun, but a good experience nonetheless.

After all that was said and done, we headed next door for Sunday dinner with Richard's family. We decided to stay late and watch a move with them, even though I wasn't feeling particularly amazing. To be honest, I don't even remember what movie we watched and we missed the last 20 minutes of the movie. During the first half of the movie, I had a few consistent contractions every 10-15 minutes apart and then they stopped. Bummer again I figured. Then again, at this rate I figured we would at least get to meet our baby before her due date on the 8th. Well, at least I was right on the one part. Not too shortly after 7:30 p.m., I felt a gush of liquid and decided to quickly run to the bathroom. Rich caught up to me by the side door after I had changed my mind and decided to run next door to my own bathroom. By the time I had got next door, I was completely drenched. Needless to say, my water had broken. It was definitely good timing that I had decided to pack my hospital bag that morning. We rushed and dawdled around for an hour or so getting together everything we thought we might need. We went next door again to visit and have Richard give me a blessing. Shortly after leaving next door, I started getting contractions about 7 minutes apart. They stayed this way on the drive up to the hospital.

We got up to Ogden and parked close by the main entrance of the hospital. We made our way inside and up to labor and delivery on the fourth floor. We checked in and got into a delivery room. I put on an awkwardly huge hospital gown and then waited until a nurse came in. They verified that my water had in fact broken (I would have been slightly worried if that test had come back negative for amniotic fluid) and I would get to stay. At this point I was at 2 cm dilated. My doctor wasn't on-call that night, so the on-call doctor from my clinic told the nurses to put me on pitocin because my water had broken. When the nurse was telling us this, I started to feel uneasy about it and I could tell Richard felt the same way by looking at him. Eventually, I spoke up and asked the nurse if we had to do the pitocin because I was regularly contracting every 3-5 minutes. They went and called the doctor who agreed to let my body try itself for 6 hours to see if any progression would happen. We felt much more calm after that. It was about 9:30 p.m. when we got to the hospital. We were progressing slowly, but at least progressing. By 1:30 a.m. I was at 4 cm, and the contractions were getting pretty unbearable. I decided on an epidural, which was done in less than 5 minutes. The worst part was the local pain relief. I felt so much better after getting that.

I tried to sleep despite being woken up every half an hour to hour my machines or nurses checking me. By 3:30 a.m. I had only progressed to a 5, so I was very disappointed and exhausted. The nurses switched shifts and apparently forgot about us. So by 6:30 a.m., we got checked again and I was at an 8. By 8:30 a.m. I was at a 10. Since the baby was sill high up in the birth canal, they were going to let me rest for an hour or so. I was so grateful, because I couldn't keep my eyes open. Unfortunately, we had a very impatient nurse who decided she would put me on pitocin to get the baby to drop farther. I was too tired to even protest. This lovely nurse also started me on pushing, but then shortly realized that her head was slightly turned the wrong way. So needless to say, I pushed for an hour for nothing. The on-call doctor came in around 10:30 a.m. and turned her head the right way. I proceed pushing for another hour or so. My arms were so sore from holding the bars and pushing for so long. I kept falling asleep in-between contractions for almost the entire hour. Then at 11:51 a.m., (exactly 1 month ago while I am writing this!), little Jane Abigail made her entrance to the world. She weighed 7lbs even and was 19 inches long with a full head of dark hair. She never screamed or cried after she was born, just a few yells here and there. I was the one who was crying. The extra hour of pushing did a lot of damage and the epidural had worn off enough that I was feeling all the repair work. The doctor did local pain relief, but I was just so tired and miserable. Once that was over, I finally got to hold my beautiful, perfect baby girl. We were finally a family of three. Welcome to the world baby Jane :)

Now enjoy a slew of pictures from our 3 days in the hospital:

All hooked up ready to wait

Last family picture with just the two of us

The board I looked at all night long (the nurse who wrote Jane, is the same one who did the IV and messed up on the first arm (she went all the way through my vein) and had to go to the second arm. I was still bruised up until about a week ago.

There she is!

Amazingly blurry shot of Richard cutting the cord (I'm pretty sure I was falling asleep here)

7lbs even (the scale says 7lbs .4 oz, so pretty much 7)

Happy and proud new Daddy

Happy new baby

Very, very tired new mom

Had to throw this one in of my little brother who was so excited to be an uncle

Loving getting her hair washed

She had to be in a transitional nursery and get an IV in her tiny hand because I ran a fever during delivery (kind of crappy because we only got to have her for an hour every two hours)