The Journey of Jaelie!!

Okay I know its long but its the WHOLE story...play by play!!

This last week has been the most amazing week of our lives. Jaelie Kay Griffiths was born on Friday, November 14th at 7:35 AM. She weight 8lbs 5 oz and was 19.5 inches long. The whole experience from the first contraction, to the birth of our little angel was quite the journey. We were fortunate enough to education ourselves a few months back about the whole process through some birthing classes offered by Dyanna and Laura. I had decided that I would like to give birth naturally (no c-section or epidural unless absolutely necessary for mine and my babies safety). I started the labor process when I began contracting at about 9:30 AM on Tues the 11th Of November. I was at work and began to feel strange cramps in my lower back. I asked some girls at work if you could have contractions in your back, they laughed and said that is where they usually start. I wasn’t feeling well so I decided to go home. My contractions began to be about 25 to 30 minutes apart throughout the afternoon. By Tuesday night they stayed constant at 15 to 20 minutes apart. They continued at 15-20 minutes apart through Wednesday night. We had our OB appt with Dr. Lunt Wednesday morning and he did not seem too concerned about having her anytime soon. I was 95 to 100% effaced but not dilating. So we went home with continued contractions at 15 minutes apart. About 7:00 PM they started coming on stronger and more regularly. By 9:00 pm they were 4 to 5 minutes apart and lasting approx. 2 minutes each. We decided to finally go into the hospital as we assumed we would be having her very shortly. I still was not feeling well and when we arrived at the hospital I threw up in the parking lot. Once in the hospital they hooked me up to all of the monitors and made me lay down in bed to contract. I was very uncomfortable and irritated as to the hospitals protocol of how they treat laboring women. Needless to say, my body was now under stress and my contractions slowed back down to 10 minutes apart. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to “maybe a two.” After a few hours of being forced to contract on the bed and no further dilation, we decided to return home to labor. I was frustrated and discouraged to say the least. When we got home, my contractions went back to 5 to 8 minutes apart. I tried to sleep but couldn’t. Every once in a while I was able to sleep in between contractions. At 8:30 Thursday morning we decided to call Dy one of our birthing coach and get some ideas and feedback. She gave us a few ideas and told us that she would stop by a little later that afternoon. When she got here, she saw how tired and worn out I was and was concerned. She decided that it would be best to contact our other birthing class instructor who is also a midwife. When our midwife Laura came to our house, she too was very concerned for my health. I was dehydrated, weak and throwing up. They literally forced me to eat a banana and yogurt. They were able to get me to keep fluids down. I started feeling a little better. We decided to have Laura check me, I was now dilated to a 4. I tried to get some rest, it wasn’t working too well. A few hours later she checked me again and I was 100 percent effaced and dilated to a 6. I was finally making some good progress. I was still very discouraged and displeased with the hospitals idea of birth, so Brandon and I talked and decided to ask Laura to be our midwife so I could give birth at home. She agreed and we began the preparations to deliver at home. My mom ran to the store to get some items that they needed and Laura ran home to get her medical bag and the sort. I felt so much better knowing that I would have my baby at home and not have to jump through all of the hospitals hoops. My contractions continued getting stronger and closer. At about 10:00 PM my water broke. That’s good right?!?! Well, once my water broke I literally stopped contracting. We decided that after about 60 hours of labor so far, that it would be a good idea to get as much rest as I could before the heavy labor/pushing stage. I was able to sleep for about an hour and a half while having minimal contractions. At around 2:00 AM on Friday morning Laura advised us that we should probably consider going to the hospital to get some pitocin administered. Pitocin is the drug that makes your contractions much stronger and more often (it is after pitocin is given that most women elect to have an epidural to numb the additional pain associated with the contractions, this scared me because I did NOT want an epidural. I wanted to go natural). Brandon and I prayed about the decision and felt that if I wasn’t dilated to at least an 8 -8 ½ that we would go to the hospital. Laura checked me once again and said that I was about a 7 ½ or 8. We then decided that after 65 hours of laboring I would need to go back to the hospital and get pitocin to make my contractions more regular again. When we got to the hospital they took me straight in and to a room. (Laura had called the hospital and gave them a heads up that we were coming and that I need the pitocin.) They didn’t waste any time they hooked me up to an IV, and started pumping pitocin in me. The nurse checked me and said I was pretty close to an 8. She finished breaking my water while she was there, Man did that feel weird. They found out that there was meconium (Our little Jaelie had pooped) and this raised a few problems. When meconium is present they like to take the baby as soon as it comes out and suction the lungs to make sure meconium does not get in. We had planned on leaving the umbilical cord attached as long as it was pulsating in order to give Jaelie all of her blood supply. We had also requested that Jaelie was to stay on my stomach for at least an hour before they could take her from me. With the meconium present I had to make a decision as to which I thought was more important. I went opposite from what my doctor had recommended as he wanted to immediately cut the cord and suction her. I didn’t want that, and I told him I would take the chance of the meconium going into my baby’s lungs. Chances of that happening are very, very slim. Once the pitocin entered my system I began to have regular contractions once again. I finally felt like this journey was coming to an end, it had been 65 hours of continuous labor; I was tired and was ready for our Jaelie to be here. The nurse kept “upping” the amount of pitocin they were giving me, meaning harder and longer contractions with not much rest in between. At about 5:30 Friday morning I told my midwife I felt like I was ready to push. She went and got the nurse. I figured I would push for 15-20 min and my precious baby would be here!! Ha ha ha, Yeah right!! It wasn’t going to be that easy, especially not for me. I pushed and pushed and pushed for just about 2 hours. I was exhausted, I was pushing hard and making very minimal progress. Finally at about 7:30 the doctor said he knew that I had not wanted an episiotomy but that he thought I might need one, right as he said that I had a big contraction and I pushed as hard as I could knowing that if my baby wasn’t further out after this contraction then I was going to let him give me the episiotomy. I pushed and made little if any progress. So I told him to go ahead. He told me I would feel a little pain and I did, and the next thing I knew was Lara saying oh my gosh she is transverse, Jaelie was coming out facing my leg, most babies are either anterior (faced down) or posterior (faced up), Mine got to come out facing sideways (which makes a much harder delivery by the way)!! Two pushes later and she was out!!! They laid her on my stomach, she was crying (crying was a good sound, meaning no meconium in the lungs). Jaelie was finally here! After 70 hours of non-medicated labor, pitocin, an episiotomy a transverse baby and no epidural, I was exhausted. But I was overwhelmed with joy and with happiness. I knew that I did everything within my power to do the right thing for my child. After about 10 minutes the cord stopped pulsating and Brandon cut the cord. It wasn’t shortly after that I birthed the placenta and the Doc started stitching me up. In addition to the episiotomy, I tore to a level 3 (for those who understand what that means)! The Labor was over! We now where holding our beautiful little girl in our arms! After a few minutes I tried breastfeeding her and she took right to it! We were shortly moved out of labor and delivery and up to the mother/newborn floor. We knew that it took a lot to finally get a discharge from the hospital so we decided to get the ball rolling as soon as we could. We were hoping to get out of there by 7:30 that evening. They were really good at getting everything started and it looked as if everything was on track. Around 4:00 that afternoon Jaelie started to have trouble breathing. She was coughing and gagging on the left over mucous and amniotic fluid that was still in her mouth and stomach. It got really serious in a hurry so we rushed her down to get her stomach deep suctioned. The emergency response was incredible and within a minute they had suctioned out 12 ml of amniotic fluid from her stomach. It is normal to have the fluid in your system but you normally digest and pass it out. Jaelie was just having troubles with the excess fluids. After that episode we decided to spend the night at the hospital just in case. Everything went smoothly after that. We checked out Saturday morning and home we came! She is such the little angel! She sleeps well and she wakes up about every 3 hour on average throughout the night, she eats well, hardly ever cries (but when she does…watch out!) She is as cute as can be! We are so blessed to have her in our lives!
A huge thanks to Brandon, my mom, my sister, Dy, and Laura for all their love and support throughout this whole process!!! THANKS!!