baby Joslyn Elizabeth is here, PIP

mcwifey · December 2010

Here's the birth story, it's very long, sorry!!

Joslyn arrived on her due date, just barely. She was born at 12:15am Dec.5., 7lbs4oz and 19 inches long. She was born just 29 minutes after we got to the hospital--talk about cutting it close!

I woke up at 6am Saturday morning with some decently strong contractions. I started timing them and they were about 10 minutes apart. I called off work since I was supposed to go in until noon. The contractions stayed 10 min. apart until about 10 o'clock. I took a nap for a few hours and when I woke up my contractions were gone, but I still felt crampy and "off". I sent DH off to work (he's a cop and works 2nd shift). I figured we didn't know if it would happen that day or not so he might as well go in. I hung out with DD all day and at about 7:30, when I was giving Hailey her bath, I started getting contractions again. I got DD off to bed and started timing them and they were about 10 minutes apart again. This time they were very painful though. They hurt a lot more than they had in the morning.

They got to about 8-9 minutes apart and I decided to take a shower (9:30). While I was in the shower I had 3 contractions, so when I got out I started timing them on contractionmaster. All of a sudden they were 4 minutes apart and lasting for over a minute. I called DH at about 10:00 and told him he should probably come home and be with me through the pain. He got home at about 10:30. At this point my contractions were 2-2 1/2 minutes apart. We called the midwife to let her know at the hospital. Luckily she was already there with another mom about to give birth so she gave us the ok to come in. We left to drop DD off at my MIL's house. The ride was the most miserable car ride of my life. I was in a ton of pain and my contractions seemed to be right on top of each other. At home, all I could do when I had a contraction was get down on my hands and knees and moan.

When we were finally at MIL's, about 15 minutes away, I had to get out and get down in her driveway. Luckily the snow wasn't sticking yet! We let her out and went on our way to the hospital, about 7-8 more minutes. I had no relief, they were so close together. I got a little worried because I started shaking and that's what I've read happens when you're in transition. So we got there and DH dropped me off at the door by the ER so I wouldn't have to walk from the truck. I got down on the floor by the front door and the security guy came out asking if I was ok and he started freaking out a bit. He got 2 other guys and they came out to see what was wrong with me. They probably thought I crawled in from outside haha. They couldn't tell I was even pregnant since I was on my hands and knees. Finally DH got in and we got wheeled upstairs to the maternity ward.

They took me by the scale since the first thing they do when you get there is weigh you but I couldn't get off the wheelchair since I was contracting. Finally I got a break to stand up, but I was only able to get down on the floor again in the lobby. They got a bit concerned so they tried to hurry and get me into a room to get checked. I got in the room and was able to get the hospital gown on. I noticed when I was changing that I was starting to bleed. I got in the bed and the midwife came in right away to check me. I was asking for an epidural asap. She said, oh no, I'm going to break your water and you're going to have a baby. You're already about 8 cms. I started crying and said I couldn't do it, I needed something for the pain. They put the IV needle in my arm to see if they could give me some nubain to take the edge off, but it turned out there wasn't enough time for that even. The midwife went to grab the stick to break my water but then I heard the pop and it broke all on it's own.

They said to go ahead and start pushing when I contracted. I was already involuntarily pushing anyways so that definitely wasn't a problem! It was the most painful thing I have ever been through in my life, pushing out that child. Finally, Joslyn was born at 12:15am exactly. We arrived at the hospital just after 11:45. I'm just so glad my midwife was aleady there b/c she wouldn't have made for the birth otherwise. After Joslyn was born, I was really out of it for more than an hour. I was just so in shock that it happened so fast and all of a sudden there was a baby on me. It was a really strange feeling. I was never expecting to go natural and I really just didn't prepare for it. Looking back, I wish I would have looked up some breathing techniques and just prepared a little more for the labor. It took my midwife almost an hour to stitch me up. Just a little tearing she said, but it took sooo long. I was getting annoyed and it wasn't exactly comfortable.

Here she is! She has reddish/blondish hair and her coloring is really good and pink. She's a pound and a half bigger than Hailey was so it's kind of strange! She doesn't have any bruises on her face or anything which is great cause they said when it happens so fast they usually get all bruised up. Thanks for reading if you made it this far...