The Birth of Jacquelyn Rebecca

 So I am such a slacker but here I am finally posting another birth story.
This one was submitted by the wonderfully beautiful Veronica- one strong woman and an amazing mama.

Around 7am on September 26th, 2007, I woke up with a "cramping" feeling. I had read that if you have "cramp pains" while laying down, you can change positions and they will go away. So I rolled from one side to the other, and continued to have more pains. I got out of bed, and went out to inform my family that today was the day! I just knew.

My daughters biological dad had left me, homeless, when I was 8 months pregnant. Just 20 days before the day I gave birth, I moved 13 hours from Boise, ID, to my parents house in northern Wyoming. My parents were amazing. My mother and I spent the morning walking the path behind our house, she drew me a bath, we watched our favorite movie, and spent quality time together. My parents never made fun of me for whining on all fours on their living room floor...or maybe they did. I was just too focused to notice. ;)

Around 1pm, my contractions were about 4 minutes apart. We made the 3 minute drive to the hospital, which we could literally see from their house. I had preregistered, so I had to do very little paperwork. When we walked in, we were all very calm, and spirits were very high. The staff was hilarious! I Walked in, announced that I was in labor, and they panicked! I assured them that I wasn't THAT far in labor, and everyone calmed down. The staff was very, VERY warm and accommodating.  They got me settled into my delivered room, and introduced me to my nurse team. All of the nurses were very nice, though some were more "no nonsense" than others. At that time I appreciated their professionalism. My parents and I relaxed (as much as I could) while various machines were set up, and nurses came in and out. 

About 4pm, the anesthetician came in to do my epidural. I had decided before hand that I would be getting one. As my mother said; "They're not going to write on your head stone 'Here lies Roni: She didn't get the Epidural!' ". The epidural was great in many ways, and very bad in others. At first, it felt amazing! What a great "high"! Until...it made me sick. Thankfully, it let me relax enough to nap a bit.

Around 7pm, I felt things were ready. The doctor confirmed, and we got things ready to start pushing. Here is when I made my biggest mistake- I pushed the button that administered the pain meds, to give me one more dose before I pushed. It ended up being SO effective that I couldn't feel to push! I ended up pushing for over an hour! Towards the end, things got very scary. Because I was taking so long to push her out, her arm became lodged around her throat while she was in the birth canal. By that time, it was too far along for a c-section, and people started to worry. They brought in a crash cart for the baby and one for me, and I had to lay on my side between contractions so that her arm would fall away from her throat.

Finally, at 8:13pm, Jacquelyn Rebecca made her grand entrance into the world. She scored 10 out of 10 on the APGAR, and had no negative effects from the delivery. In retrospect, the whole labor and delivery was blissful (aside from the very last 15 minutes).

As of this coming Friday, my Amazing father of a husband and I are going to start trying for baby no. 2. I am very seriously considering natural in home child birth. As easy as the epidural made the whole experience, I think I can handle the real thing this time.