Jace's Birth Story

Well, I am going to give my best account of my birth story. I have never actaully written one out, because as my husband says I have the memory of a goldfish! But here goes:Monday morning I had an appointment at the OB, where I was going to be checked on my dialation progress (it takes me a LONG time to fully dialate) and then the Dr. was going to decide our next course of action. After Dr. Brown checked me she recommended cervical ripening to be preformed later that afternoon. I was to report to the hospital at 3 (pending available bed at St. Vincent) and Dr. Finn would then apply cervidel (spelling?) to try to get me going on my own. I asked the Dr. about membrane stipping, and she said "oh, I just did that!" I guess I was expecting that to be much worse, because I didn't even know she had done it. So I came home and prepared (called parents, checked the baby bag, cleaned up the house) and started to get super crampy. I felt like something was actually starting to happen! Jason came home around 2:30 and we packed up the girls and headed to the hospital. We arrived shorly after 3, and I was checked and was making progress on my own. Dr. Finn said it would be silly to apply cervidel because I was already in labor, so she ordered an IV and pitocin. By 4:08, I was hooked up and in labor! It all happened so fast (well, fast for me whose shorted labor was well over 9 hours). At about 5 pm the Dr. came in and was ready to do my epidural, and I wasn't even in pain yet! I declined for the time being because I didn't want to slow anything down. About an hour later however, I was not about to pass again becuase I didn't want to miss the opportunity. It went perfect, it didn't hurt (last time I had some lady miss twice, and it burned and I was in a ton of pain), and Dr. Glazer was incredible. From that point on it was just the waiting game. Alyssa came in the room and hung out. We watched some tv, tried to pass the time. Most of the time however was spent trying to pick a name... and thus shooting down all the stupid names that Jason was throwing at me! I was determined not to pick a name until we saw him. Frequent checks were indicated that everything was progressing well, but I was certain that I would still be in labor for quite some time yet. Then around 9:30 Dr. Finn came in, checked me and said we were ready to roll. I was thinking "what! already" (again, I am notorious for LONG labors) They broke down the bed, and we asked Alyssa if she wanted to stay... I have never seen a kid move so fast to get out of there! As soon as she was out I started pushing. 8 minutes and about 6 pushes later I met the new love of my life - yet to be named. Born 9:45, weighing 7.8 and 20 inches long.Once I took a look at him, none of the names we had picked out seemed to fit. We had considered: Colton, Collin, and Andrew (Drew) among others. But looking at him, and seeing how much he looked like Jason all bets were off! Jason wasn't crazy about making him a jr., so we started pondering... and then I just said Jace! It fit, that is what he looked like... a mini version of his Dad. Now we just needed a middle name... we picked Daniel because we like the way J.D. sounded. My little guy wasn't named until about 11:45 that night!I was only allowed to hold him a few minutes because he was grunting and really struggling to breath. So it was off to the nursery. They later determined that he had fluid in his lungs and was going to need to be monitored for quite some time. I wasn't allowed to have him in the room or anything! It wasn't until the next day at about 10 am that they requested that I come in and try to hold and maybe feed him, that contact with me might make him better. He still hadn't eaten due to the fluid, poor little guy. The NICU Dr. came in and checked him over and said if I could get him to eat that he wouldn't need to be taken into NICU. So we stayed in the nursery for a while, and just like magic he started to slow his breathing and I got him to drink 15 mL. Things were looking good. Later that afternoon, I was FINALLY able to bring him back to my room and get to know my little guy. Overall we had a tremendous experience, birth, and recovery. I love the L&D nurses at St. V! They rock. So that's it... long winded... but I am glad I wrote it out, otherwise within a week I would have forgotten it!