Jessalyn finally made it! Her birth story is kind of here, there and everywhere, and the last couple of weeks before she came felt like they were months instead of days. Here's kind of a timeline of what happened and then I'll share the actual event!
Monday, October 1st: 37 weeks. Went in for my normal doctors appointment. She decided to go ahead and strip my membranes early; really hoping to get Jessa here before she left on vacation.
Wednesday, October 3rd: 4 hours of intense and very painful contractions. Thought for sure we would be having a baby late that night. However, they just stopped as quickly as they had started.
Thursday, October 4th: Very little movement from Jessa all day, which was very unusual. I knew she was okay because she would move if I
really poked at her, but I was still concerned enough to call. Of course, they sent me in to be monitored for an hour just to be sure. Found out everything was okay and that I was already dilated to a 4. Was told by the nurses that since I was already at a 4 that I needed to come in asap with anymore contractions.
LATE Friday night, October 5th: Woke up with worst contractions ever. After 30 minutes of contractions 5 minutes apart, we decided to go in. Was sent home an hour later with a lecture about "real" labor.
Monday, October 8th: Another doctor's appointment. I was still dilated to a 4, and she stripped my membranes again hoping to get me to go into labor by Wednesday. Felt icky for the rest of the day and asked David to come home from work that afternoon. By 9:00, my contractions were bad enough that I wanted to go back to the hospital (I was terrified they would send me home again!!). We dropped the boys off at a friends, and went to triage. I was monitored for what seemed like forever before a nurse came in to check me. I had been told that if I was dilated to a 5, they wouldn't send me home. Lo and behold, I was almost a 6. I was SO happy, but started getting nervous about not getting an epidural (as they had told us as soon as we got there that there were no beds available in labor and delivery that night).
Eventually, they kicked another girl out of her labor and delivery room to put me in it (I felt SO bad, but they assured us that she wasn't laboring near as quickly as I was and that I needed it worse than she did). After a little more than an hour, I finally got my epidural; being between 7 and 8 cm dilated. PHEW!! The doctor came in, broke my water, and they just left us to let me rest a little and let the epidural try to catch up with what my body needed. At 1:25 in the morning, my nurse came to check my progress; and I heard her say "Crap! Your baby is just going to fall right out!". I quickly woke David up, the room was instantly full of nurses and a doctor (I have no idea how they all got there so fast) and after a grand total of 4 1/2 hours and half of a push, Jessalyn arrived at 1:30 am.
**I do have to say that David just about passed out right as Jessalyn was born. I'm not sure what happened to him; one minute he was holding my hand and actively participating, and the next thing I hear is my nurse asking him if he was okay. I looked over and he was completely pale, staring at Jessa and not responding to any of us. So half of my nurses ended up over with him making sure he was okay!! You would think that by the 3rd child he would have this whole process down pat... ;) But, because he was ordered to sit and not move, we didn't get any photos other than these two**
Jessalyn looked so perfect!! Her head was perfectly round and covered with dark, dark hair on bottom with blonde hair on top. Her skin was totally blemish free with no splotchiness or marks anywhere. Such a perfect little baby doll!
8 pounds, 4 ounces and 20.25" long.
It's a good thing she was a week and a half early.
I'd hate to see how big she would have been with another 10 days of baking!!
Jessalyn is named after two of her great grandfathers.
David has always wanted to name a daughter after his grandfather Jesse, and had planned on having a Jessica so he could call her Jesse. I was not fond of the name Jessica, just because I know too many of them, and the name is too common for my liking. So, we settled on Jessalyn.
Her middle name, Claire, is my grandfather's middle name.
We are so happy to have her here! She is absolutely perfect and we already love her so much. Her big brothers are absolutely infatuated with her, and this little girl already rules the roost. She can't make a peep without all the boys (including the dog!) running to see what she needs.
Hopefully I'll get some photos of her first 24 hours at home up soon!
