Jess Lorraine Calico

It's high time I posted about this sweet girl that entered our home last week. She wasn't "due" until August 12th but apparently she couldn't wait the extra two weeks and wanted to come in July instead. 

My water broke in the night and I woke up Friday morning around 4:15am to find out. There wasn't enough of a breakage that our bed was soaked but I knew that I hadn't wet the bed either. My water broke on Payton and Porter so this wasn't a first. I was not too excited about my water breaking because I wasn't having consistent contractions and knew that meant I was going to be receiving pitocin at the hospital--which I haven't had the best experience with. Another reason I wasn't thrilled about my water breaking is that my Dr. was not going to be in town until Sunday night. I had been to see him the Tuesday before and I was only at a one so I felt pretty confident that I could wait until he got back into town. So much for my plans.

I woke Todd up and let him know what had happened. I told him I was going to shower and then I needed to put some things together (yeah, I was prepared with all this stuff with baby #1--but let's face it. This is baby #4--and I had 2 weeks left! No preparation). At least I did have the car seat washed and ready for use.

After getting things put together for myself and the three kids we all loaded up in the truck for our next adventure. One cute thing that Payton did was got dressed and made his bed before we left. He was so excited to think we were on our way to the hospital.

We called Todd's mom when we were about to the hospital thinking maybe they wouldn't allow the kids into the room before I had been admitted to the hospital. She was willing and waiting at her back door when we dropped them off around 5:45am.

When we got to the hospital (around 6am) I told them my water had broke and they took me right into a waiting room to get changed and then hooked up to all the goods. When I told them who my Dr. was they already knew he was out of town and knew that his partner, Dr. Chalmers would be doing the delivery. When I came out of the bathroom changed they told me that Dr. Chalmers was actually out of town too and Dr. Fagnant would be doing the delivery. I had never heard of him but the nurses assured me he was really good. They got me all hooked up to the monitors and checked to make sure my water had broken. The test was not as positive as I thought it would be but the nurse said it was enough to let them know I had really ruptured and could be admitted. While we were waiting for the test results I was informed that Dr. Fagnant was also out of town and Dr. Dickens would be doing the delivery. At that point I just wanted someone to be able to deliver this baby!!

One funny thing--ok so maybe funny's not the right word--while we were waiting we had to share a room with another girl in labor. Every contractions she had we could hear. Eventually it got to the point that every contraction turned into a moan. Todd and I would just look at each other and smile. I knew my turn would come but I was sure going to try and be tough enough not to make such great noises. I guess you can't be admitted into the labor and delivery ward unless you're dialated to a four and are having consistent contractions 5 minutes apart...or have your membranes rupture. I guess I got in "easy".

We let the nurse know we were trying to have this baby without an epidural and that we really didn't want the pitocin if we could avoid it. Dr. Dickens (who by the way was a big black female doctor filling in that night and day--wish I would have taken a picture of her!) put me on a very low dose of pitocin to get things started. She actually seemed shocked that the standard amount administered was so high. By 7:00am we were underway and playing the waiting game. We watched TV, made a phone call to my parents, slept, ate ice chips, suckers and pop cycles...and waited. My contractions were no closer than 8-10 minutes apart and I was only at a 3+. They decided they were going to try and break the rest of my water (I guess there was another bag?) That was one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever done. Dr. Dickens tried and tried to break it. She even pulled out some long tool that supposedly had a sharp hook on the end that was supposed to break it--NOTHING! They decided to wait and let it break on its own...which it did about an hour or so later--much easier! We still had a lot of time.  They thought the baby's head was face up so I had to lay on my side--alternating every 20-30 minutes to try and get her to turn. By lunch time Todd went and got himself a sandwich and then came back to hang out with me. By the time he got back around 12:30 my contractions were getting closer (about 5 minutes apart now) and a little harder. I was only at a 4.

That's when I had my epidural chat with Todd. I know he really wanted me to have the baby natural because he's seen what happened to Porter when I had an epidural. I, on the other hand, was the one having the pain and let him know that if it was going to take a really long time I didn't know how long I could put up with the pain. That's when he gave me the ok to have an epidural if I really wanted one. All that time I had wanted to try and be so tough just to make him happy. Now I knew that it would come down to me and what I really wanted.

 A couple hours later I was getting the urges to push but it felt more in my bowels than where is should be. The nurse checked me and let me know we were almost there. I was at a 7 and my contractions were every 2-3 minutes. They started getting things set up in the room which made me very encouraged that I really could have this baby with out drugs! I really kept feeling the urge to push and the nurse told me a breathing trick to keep myself from pushing before I was fully dialated. One of our other nurses taught Todd a trick of pushing on my knees during a contraction to help decrease the pain. IT WAS AWESOME! I'm not saying I was pain free but it really didn't hurt as bad.

After 30 minutes of that it was time to have a baby. I was fully dialated, Dr. Dickens was ready, and so was I. I am not going to lie. It was a harder delivery than I've had in the past. I was almost hyperventilating and I couldn't feel my fingers because I was squeezing the side bars so hard during the contractions. I'm sure people down the hall heard me a time or two and my delivery team all had to tell me to stay focused and push. I remember pushing so hard one time that I got to the point of seeing black and thought I was going to black out. The next push I was determined to get that girl through the burning I was feeling so I could just breath. Dr. Dickens said she must have gotten stuck under my pelvic bone because she heard a pop and she came out face up and then flipped herself over. I didn't see or hear anything! I was just glad I felt her come through so I could breath again and stop pushing. 

They put her on my belly and I had never been so happy to see that blue baby girl and hear that first cry.

  She was born at 2:26pm and weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz. I guess it's good she came two weeks early. Her face was so bruised. Her pictures at the hospital almost make her look dead. Her body was nice and pink though.

Dr. Twiggs, our pediatrician, just laughed at her pink tongue against her blue face when he came in to check her out. She had been through heck to get here but she was healthy and that's all that mattered to me.

We made our phone calls to let family know she was here and just enjoyed holding her and loving her. We had no idea what we were going to call her but decided we had time to figure that out.

We brought Baby Jess home, without a name, Saturday afternoon. I will have to post later about our trouble coming up with a name later. It's just nice that she's here and she's healthy. She can't seem to get enough love from her brothers and sister...and I wouldn't want it any other way!