Janie Janer Jane's

Finally getting around to writing out the birth story of Janie. My most favorite easiest labor and delivery thus far.

The end of Janie's pregnancy was a bit scary. I was referred to MFM because I had too much amniotic fluid which can be a sign of a variety of different problems at the end of pregnancy. When I had my 3rd trimester ultrasound around 32 weeks is when they decided to start sending me for weekly ultrasounds and at that same appointment Janie had flipped to breech when she had previously been head down. She continued to flip pretty much every appointment after that. When there is more than enough amniotic fluid the babies have a lot more room to move around. Which was definetly the case with Janie. She moved WAY more than any of my other babies.

Anyway.... So on December 31st Adams family was over at our apartment celebrating new years eve. That night I was having some contractions but they didn't hurt much. We kept joking that I was going to go into labor that night and we were going to have the first baby of the new year. It would have been pretty cool but I was not even 37 weeks pregnant yet so I just did not think that was going to happen.

The contractions stopped. Then on January second I was 37 weeks pregnant. That morning I had an appointment with the high risk doctors in the morning. Everything looked great and they said I didn't need to come in anymore. Right after that I headed to get a prenatal massage. I had been having a strange sense of pressure and a few contractions all day so when I got home I told my in laws, who had been down watching Ali and Lena for my appointments, that I hoped we wouldn't be making them come back down again that day. Ali was still out of school for Christmas Break so I spent the rest of the day playing with my girls. Around 7pm when we had finished dinner I was laying on the couch and was having pretty consistent contractions.

My girls were having their nightly dance party and my contractions weren't going away. They weren't painful but they were consistent. I was pretty ready to have that baby so I decided to get up and dance my heart out to "shake it off" with my girls and see if I could make magic happen and get that baby to come out. At this point I still thought it was just a pipe dream because I was only 37 weeks. I was just sure the contractions were stop and disappoint me.

The contractions did stop. We put the kids to bed and I laid on the couch and carefully timed the contractions. They were coming every 3-5 minutes for over an hour. They still were not very painful but they were there! The pelvic pressure was increasing as well. Around 11 they kind of died down and I told Adam to go to bed. I laid in bed and the contractions started again. For over 2 hours I had contractions 2-5 minutes apart. Some of them were very painful and some of them were not painful at all.

Around 2am I woke up Adam and told him that he needed to call his parents. We needed to head to the hospital. I was still a little nervous that it was still false labor because I wasn't in that much pain but I was also nervous that if my water broke at home I wouldn't make it to the hospital. Adam called his mom and dad around 2:30. I WAS NOT prepared at all so I quickly packed a bag and got ready to go.

We got to the hospital a little after 4am. They checked us in and by the time we got back to triage it was probably close to 5. They came in, strapped me up to the monitors and checked me. I was having contractions every 2 minutes but I was only dilated to 2cm. Whomp Whomp Whomp. Steady contractions for 8 hours and dilated to a 2. I still thought they might send me home. They said they wanted to keep us in there for a little while and see if I made any progress. I laid there very uncomfortable. An hour or so later they checked me again and said there wasn't much progress but they were going to keep me until my OB's nurse practicioner got there and could check me and make a decision.

The NP got there close to 8am came in and checked me and said "you're almost a 3, that's progress, you are having a baby today". I was so relieved. We finally got moved over to a labor and delivery room. Got the IV's in and all that fun stuff. I told ALLLL the people that I wanted to get an epidural before they broke my water because I knew the pain would increase exponentially once my water was broken and I knew everything would go speedy once it was broken.

Around 9:30 or 10 they came in to do my epidural. I was soooooo nervous because of the horrible experience I had during Lena's birth. It was pretty easy though. They didn't let Adam stay in the room for it which I didn't love and I did let a resident do it which I always swore I wouldn't. Then around 11 one of the hospital OB's came to brake my water.

This guy had a BIG personality. She came it and checked me and says "I would not call that a 3. You are going to be here all day. This baby is not going to be here anytime soon." I was so annoyed because this was my third time and I knew once my water broke it would be fast. He broke my water and left. I could tell even through my epidural that the contractions were really ramping up just as i supposed. Janie's heart rate started going a little weird so they started moving me around and putting me on oxygen like they do. Around noon she checked me again because of the heart rate. She wanted to see if progressing was the cause. Sure enough I was a 10. "not a 3" to a 10 in an hour. Just as I thought.

She called the doctor and we waited. and we waited. and we waited. My doc missed the first page. She didn't show up to deliver the baby until 1:30ish. The nurse was freaking out ready to just bring in the resident to deliver her because throughout all of this Janie was having some heart rate drops. Finally the doctor got there. By the time she got all suited up and ready for me to push it was after 2pm. We waited for a contraction, I pushed once and her head was out. My doctor was in shock. She was like "whoa, don't push so hard! Slow down for a second". Then with the next contraction and the next push the rest of her was out. Janie Bonnie was born January 3rd. at 2:13pm. She weight 6lbs and 6oz. So tiny and so adorable.

My mom changed her tickets when we told her I was in labor and arrive at the hospital a few hours after she was born. She brought the girls with her to meet their new sisters. They were instantly in love. We had been debating between Janie and Ella for the name and finally decided on Janie the day we had to fill out the paper.... per usual.