The Jarrell Journal: She's Here!

Yeah, so I know it's been almost a week since she's arrived and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. With the grandparents visiting and trying to get into a bit of a routine, there hasn't been much time for blogging. So, here's the re-cap:

Monday, September 13th
Went to work like any other Monday. Got up around 5am and was headed out about 5:45am. I had noticed some contractions but nothing really different than Braxton Hicks, maybe just a bit stronger. I got to work and went about my day as usual, but noticed that about mid morning the contractions started to feel like what I would think a real contraction might feel like. Not necessarily painful but something to notice versus the BH contractions. I started to be more aware of them and had called my sister-in-law in Dallas just to put her on standby since she's the farthest away. I was still thinking that they would never organize into anything productive and go away in an hour or so. As the day went on they did start to get stronger and after someone asked me how far apart they were, thought it might be a good idea to note that too. At that point in time they were still 8-10 minutes usually and I could still do what I was doing. As we got into the afternoon, the contractions were a bit closer together but definately stronger. They would stop me in my tracks for a few seconds until it passed. I think I had my OR nurse worried one time because she told me she doesn't deliver babies. I finished out the day and went to my office about 5pm because I thought if something did happen overnight, I better have some of the dictations that I left from the week before signed so they weren't waiting on me. I spent about an hour at my office and headed home about 6pm. Jason was in Norman helping some friends put in a water heater and I was suppose to meet them for dinner. I called and told him I wouldn't be much fun with these contractions so I was just going to go home.

I got home and decided to put some final touches on our hospital bag so it would be ready if we decided to go to the hospital. At this point in time the contractions were quite strong and flirting with the 5 minute apart time frame. I decided a bath sounded good so I began to run the water for it. I must have had a fleeting nesting moment because as I waited for the bath, I vacuumed our room and our bathroom and closet. I spent about an hour in the bath alternating contractions with the jets running and noted we were now consistently about 5 minutes apart but it hadn't been an hour yet at this consistency. Jason stopped to get some food on his way home and once he got there he ate and I attempeted to. I got through my fruit and then my appetite was gone and little did I know a few minutes later the fruit would find it's way back out too. Jason warned me that if I wanted to go to the hospital that he needed a shower because of the work he did all afternoon with the water heater so I told him he better go ahead because this isn't getting any better and starting to get downright painful.

So, we load up and head out about 9pm to the hospital. Just in case you were wondering, bumps on the on-ramps are not fun in the middle of a contraction. We get to Mercy about 9:30 and head to triage. The whole time walking in I keep thinking if they send me home I will lose it and bawl my eyes out right there because there is no way I'll last very long at home with contractions like these. We get checked in and they hook me up to the monitors and when she checked me I was a 4 with a bulging water sac so I was staying! Hallelujah! Now, when can I get my epidural? After blowing 2 veins before getting an IV started on the third attempt, they wheel me upstairs to the Labor and delivery suite. Apparently you have to have a full bag of fluids before they'll give you an epidural and that bag hanging only to gravity was dripping as slow as could be. I was there about an hour before they brought the anesthesiologist in. I actually knew who he was because he was a resident at OU and he was a good one so that was a nice perk. He got me all set up with the epidural and my those things are awesome! I was able to get some rest from the pain but unfortunately, the stupid BP cuff would go off every 2 minutes it seemed and disturb any rest I was attempting to get.

Tuesday, September 14th
So, Jason's parents arrived about 10:30pm Monday and my sister-in-law came in from Dallas about 1:30am. I progressed through the night and my water broke when I was about an 8. After that my progress slowed so they started some pitocin to get me going again. Everything was going good until about 5am. For some reason, my epidural decided to stop working then and contractions with pitocin onboard hurt a whole lot more than when I first arrived. Jason's favorite line from the night was me asking "how does something so small cause me to hurt so bad!?!" My anesthesiologist was putting in another epidural so it took about 30 minutes or so for him to get to my room again. After working his magic, it began to work again (and work VERY well) an hour after it had stopped. I was able to rest again for about an hour then the nurse checked me and said I was pretty close. My doctor arrived at 7am because he had a c-section scheduled and told me he do that then come back for my delivery. My awesome nurse thought he needed to reconsider and check for himself and when he did, decided I wouldn't wait for him to finish a c-section before my baby arrived.

The circus began then as a scrub tech came in and started getting everything ready and about 3 other nurses came in to help me and be on standby for the baby. About 10 minutes after 7am they had me ready to start pushing. Again, that fix the anesthesiologist had on the epidural was awesome and made the pushing and delivery quite plesant. I pushed for about 10 minutes and at 7:22am Callie Paige Jarrell arrived! She was 5 lbs, 13 oz, and 19.5 in long.

All in all I had a good labor and delivery experience. My hour without the epidural helped reinforce the fact that if we do this again I could never do it without it and I commend all the women out there who are able to accomplish that feat. We were able to go home from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon and we are now just loving on our sweet baby girl and soaking it all in. My parents arrived this past weekend and will stay the week. I hope to visit my office this week to show Callie off and get some newborn pictures taken. We will go to Jason't parents this coming weekend as my parents head home and also get to introduce Callie to her great grandparents. Here are just a few pictures from the past few days: