She has Arrived!

Well Friends, She has finally arrived! My beautiful Daughter (Jocelyn Johanna Brimhall) was born August 15th, 6 lbs 5 oz, 19.5 in long at 7:02 P.M.

Warning, here comes the story of Jocelyn's delivery so read on if you want. A few weeks before I was due, I had asked my Dr. (Dr. Howell) if I could be incuced if the due date came around and I still had not had her. The reason I asked for this was because the ultra sounds were showing that she was a big baby (birth weight being around 8 to 9 lbs) and that her head was really big. I was scared to have to give birth to such a large baby especially my first one and did not want to go past my due date so Dr.Howell agreed to induce me on the 15th.

August 15th finally rolled around and Jon and I arrive at the hospital, both of us as nervous as could be! I did not know what to expect and what induction methods were going to be used which caused more anxiety on my part. Not to mention the fear of how bad labor was going to hurt and the possibility of any complications. Well despite the anxiety and fear, we signed in at the front and then a few minutes later we walked back to my room for the next 12 hours. There I met my nurse (polly) She was the greatest nurse ever! She was so kind and sweet the whole day long and really made me feel cared about. She hooked me up to the monitors and then tried putting the IV into my arm. Tried is the key word here. My vein in my forearm where she wanted to put the IV was not participating and after trying to get the IV to slide into the vein for a good 5 mins, she had to choose a different place and had to put it into my hand. Not the most comfy place to put an IV at all. Every move you make you feel the needle pinching you and it is so hard not to bend your wrist all day. Polly tried so hard to get it to go in and my forearm that my arm ended up having a huge black and blue bruise on it for a few weeks after birth. It was pretty impressive.

Once the IV was in she hooked up the oxytocin and then my journey started. :) Going into the hospital I was already dilated to 2 cm. My mom got to the hospital once everything was in place and ready to go and we sat and played games and watched some TV and everything was going great. A little contraction would come every so often and I thought "wow these are no big deal. I can go through labor without an epidural"... All I have to say now is HA!!! Later on the contractions were horrible!

Anyways after a few hours my dr came in and checked me and I was only about 2 and a half cm dilated so she decided that we should break my water. After that was done it took about 3 hours to get me dilated to 4 cm. Oh and it took an hour to get me into actual labor (contractions every 4 mins apart). So about 3 O'clock I made it to 4 cm and the contractions were getting pretty intense. Jon felt so bad that he could not do much other than watch me go through pain and hold my hand. So by this time he was telling me how horrible it was to watch me go through so much pain and I was so done feeling the pain that I asked to recieve an epidural. I wish I was tough like a lot of people I know who have gone through labor without one, but I just could not handle it anymore. Once the epidural was in I felt immediate reliefe but only in my right side. Unfortunately it did not take in my left side.

So for the next hour I was told to wait and see if it would kick in and I continued to feel every contraction. Every painful contraction. OUCH! The anesthesiologist came back in and had to inject more meds because it never took on the left side and after he injected it, I started to feel a little relieve and my toes were going numb finally. But an hour later I was still feeling some pretty intense contractions. They were so bad it was making me so sick and I almost lost my stomach contenets (I probably had nothing to loose from the stomach so thats why nothing came up thank goodness). I was so sick that my mom called the nurse and asked them to bring anti nautious meds in for me. Well an hour later no one came in to give me that medication so I was still sick as a dog and sweating bullets and still in so much pain. We called the nurse again and she brought the meds in immediately telling us that she had to be in another room for a delivery and another nurse was supposed to bring me the meds. But she gave me the meds and I finally felt some relieve from feeling like I was going to vomit but the contractions were miserable now. So the anesthesiologist came in and gave me one more injection and that finally did the trick and my left side went numb. Just in time too. (by the way I went from 4 cm to 9 cm in the matter of a couple hours once the epidural was in. I dilated so fast that Dr Howell could not believe it)

Dr Howell kept asking me if I felt any need to push because I went through the transition stage that many women go through right before they are ready to push, but I honestly felt no urge. So she checked me and I was at 9 cm. Not a good situation for my her because she had another patient delivering down the hall and she was a mother of 3 already at 8 cm. Dr Howell did not know if she was going to have time to deliver the other lady and make it back to me before I had to push. Luckily the other lady delivered realy quick and my dr came back in to check me since I still felt no urge to push. When she checked me though she almost laughed because the babies head was right there able to be seen. She looked at me and said "its time to have a baby" and could not believe I had no urge to push yet.

So after pushing through 3 contractions, my baby was born. I was in "actual labor" (what the nurses kept calling it) for 4 hours but was in the hospital for 12 waiting for he induction to kick in.

There are no words to describe holding my baby for the first time or seeing her laying on my stomach right after birth. I was so happy and could not believe that I actually had a child that was mine. Oh and I could not believe how small she was! I was expecting a big baby, but a baby in the 14th percentile for weight and 32nd for head circumfrence is not big at all. Now we have been home for 3 weeks, and we are very happy. She has been such a good baby. Very mellow and content with life. She normally sleeps through the night, and I have to be the one to wake her up to eat through the night. Lately she has been having a hard time sleeping at night keeping me up all night, so we are trying to figure out why. But honestly I am so happy to have her and would not trade her for anything in the world. My dad and I always had this saying as I was growing up. He would ask "what do you know Jo"? in response I would say "I love you more dad" he would just shake his head and say, "just you wait for your first kid. You will then know you are wrong". But he was right. I now know how it feels to love your child. This love is without limits and I am so happy I get to experience such a gift. I was going to add some pics of her on this blog but it wont let me upload them tody. I will try tomorrow uploading some pics.