Introducing...

Jansen Harvey Clark

born July 15, 2010 at 11:48 pm

7 pounds 3 ounces and 19.5 inches

(not sure why this uploaded sideways...)

It's time!

Allie and Charlie agreed that getting up at 4am to have a baby was way too early!

Here's a look at what 41 weeks pregnant looks like - I'd say I look like I'm ready to have a baby.

After being told to hold off on coming into the hospital Thursday morning, I finally received a call around 11 saying they had a room ready for us. Chris had decided to go on into work that morning - so my Mom drove me to the hospital where we met up with Chris.

We arrived at the hosptial around noon on July 15, 2010. Hard to believe the time had come where we were going to become parents.

Enjoying a tasty orange popsicle...and I'm smiling and no epidural - so this must have been fairly early in the day. :)

Labor was like nothing I expected - and fortunately - I was expecting the worst. I honestly thought it was such an awesome day and enjoyed every minute of it. Well - okay maybe if you asked me if I wanted to keep having the pain of contractions - I probably would have declined. But something about knowing that the pain was going to lead to the birth of my son - I really was okay with it. And I'm sure it didn't hurt knowing I was going to get an epidural...even though I didn't expect to have to wait 2 hours after requesting it.

We got admitted to our L&D room fairly quickly after arriving at the hospital. The nurse got me settled in with my gown and monitors and asking me the thousand questions that they have to ask. Around 2:30 the nurse started my IV - a slow drip of pitocin to get things started. Not long after the IV was in my doctor came in to check on me. I was at 4 cm so she went ahead and also broke my water. No turning back now!

Contractions were not bad at all for the first hour or so and that all started to change around 4pm. That was the time that I started to think...so how do I know when I want the epidural? I knew that I wanted to go as long as I could without it, but wanted to be sure I could still get one before I was in too much pain. Hard to know what too much is...especially when you don't know how much worse the next contraction will be.

By 4:30 - Chris and I decided - it was time to go ahead and ask for the epidural. We let the nurse know and she started the fluids. We had learned at the comfort measures class that they have to give you at least a bag of fluid before the epidural. I ended up getting about 4 or 5!

So at 4:30 - we're thinking that by 5pm I'll be all set. But it's almost 5pm and we haven't seen or heard anything from the anesthesiologist. My nurse stops in and informs me that he's in a c-section and wrapping up. He should be by to see me in about 15 minutes or so. So as the contractions start coming on top of eachother...thanks pitocin...I'm dreaming of the clock reading 5:15. 5:15 comes - and nothing! My nurse said she doesn't know what the hold up is, but would be happy to give me some pain medicine to take the edge off. I declined...thinking the epidural is coming anytime now. 5:45 - still nothing, but contractions that feel like they don't end. I finally decide I've got to get up - why I didn't think of this before I have no idea. But standing up made the contractions so much more manageable. Chris rubbed my back and I was able to feel a little more control. Although I was starting to wonder if I'd ever get the epidural. I was really impressed by how intense contractions are and while I respected them - I really wanted that epidural. After two hours that felt like eternity - not a moment too soon - the anesthesiologist arrived and by 6:30 the epidural was working wonders. Wow. I told him he must like being the doctor that everyone loves to see coming. :) I am so glad that I got to experience real pain with labor - and I'm also so glad that I got to relax with the epidural.

I was checked after getting the epidural and had progressed to 6 cm. As I lay there all nice and relaxed, monitors started to go off because my blood pressure had dropped too low. Also - Jansen's heart rate would drop whenever I would have a contraction. The nurse came in and had me wear an oxygen mask and had me lay on my side. She also gave me some medicine to raise my blood pressure. She had to come back a couple more times - readjust me to the other side and then make me lay completely flat on my side and also give me a couple more doses of the medicine. Thankfully those things worked and my blood pressure, as well as Jansen's heart rate stayed where they were supposed to.

The night did not seem to last long - although I'm really not sure what we did to keep busy from the time I got the epidural until it was time to push. We had some love and support from my Mom & Dad, Brian & Jennifer and Mammaw out in the waiting room. As it got later, Mammaw and Brian had to head home. And Jennifer and Dad were about to leave when the nurse came by to check me - I was "complete" - dilated to 10 cm! I believe this was about 10:30 or so. Not long after that I began to feel the urge to push so we started to prepare for delivery!

We pushed with the nurse for about a half hour she said it was time to call in my doctor. The next thing I knew - my doctor was there and before I knew it I was holding my sweet, precious son on my chest. It was such an awesome moment! And I have to say - Chris was absolutely amazing...not that this surprised me all that much because I think he's pretty much absolutely amazing all the time. But - I just want to recognize that sharing this experience with my best friend and husband was incredible. Jansen is so lucky to have him as a father.

holding pattern...

and so the life of little sleep begins. falling asleep last night was not an easy feat...but i do believe at some point i did actually sleep. chris and i got up around 3:30 to start getting our things together...and at 4am my phone rang. who on earth is crazy enough to call me at 4 in the morning? well - the hospital - that's who. there are no available delivery rooms at the hospital this morning so we are in a holding pattern. waiting for either a phone call from the hospital giving us the green light to go in OR if i haven't heard by 9am i am supposed to call back to get an update. good news in this situation - the nurse told me i could eat breakfast. and hopefully as soon as i publish this post i'll be able to fall back asleep for awhile. another note - Chris didn't feel all that great when he woke up - so maybe this little bit of extra sleep will do him good - still needing prayers that he continues to feel better.

doctors

Chris and I were off to the doctor yesterday morning...not a baby doctor - a sick doctor. :( Chris woke up feeling terrible - so we stopped at urgent care in Lexington. Turns out he has a sinus infection. He got some antibiotics and we're hoping that he starts to feel better soon! He's been getting lots of rest, but still feeling pretty rough. We're hoping he starts to feel much better today.

My 41 week appointment wasn't until the afternoon, but since Chris was sick - we headed on over to my doctor's office to see if I could get in earlier - which was no problem. The appointment was pretty brief overall. I had progressed to 3 cm and my doctor said she wasn't going to let me go to 42 weeks. She said she didn't think I'd necessarily make it to 42 weeks, but would like to go ahead and schedule an induction and most likely before Friday. Chris and I had already accepted this because we had been told last week that they may keep us after our appt. We were just relieved to be able to head home and give Chris a chance to get better. I couldn't imagine giving birth with him feeling as bad as he felt. My doctor said she'd have the scheduler call us to set up a day and time and that was that.

Before we could get out of the parking garage - my phone rang - it was the "scheduler". She said that we were scheduled for Thursday morning at 5 am - to report directly to labor & delivery. 5am means we'll be getting up around 3:30 or so! I suppose we might as well get used to being up at all hours. :)

We finally have an end in sight - I'm not going to be pregnant forever! We are praying that Chris starts to feel better today and so excited to meet our son tomorrow!

waiting..

welp...still no baby yet. we had our dr appointment yesterday am - my doctor had called in sick - so i saw another doctor (who used to be part of the group/practice, but left some time ago - she works a week here and there to help the office out - so she is working this week. she was awesome - really liked her). i was dilated 2 cm + and 80% effaced. she "stripped the membranes" - which was QUITE uncomfortable. this is supposed to/can help get labor moving along. she thought i may have been leaking water - so she had me get an u/s to check my fluid level. fluid level was pretty high - so she said definitely not leaking, but that i'd be sure to know when my water broke. (as i picture myself at work or at the grocery store and with a grand splash...boom i'm in labor) she was very excited for us and seemed to be pretty confident that we'd be back at the hospital in the next 24-48 hours. welp...we're 24 hours down...24 to go to see if she was right. neither chris nor i slept very well last night...we're on edge wondering if it's time...but alas nothing to indicate that's the case. having contractions, but they're kind of all over the place as far as intervals are concerned. still waiting...