Jaclyn Emily
Here we are at last to tell our little story. I know you've all heard bits and pieces, or perhaps the whole thing, but since it's such a crazy story, I'll be telling it all again anyway.
Friday afternoon while at my sister, Katie's house, I had the courage to go buy some castor oil after many conversations with Jeffrey. Katie made me a milkshake to take it with and I about died trying to down it. There was no flavour really. The oil cancelled out any goodness involved in the shake and all I could feel was the greasiness in my mouth. So I drank half of it and gave up. Jeffrey heard from his Aunt Amy that she drank hers with pop and didn't taste it at all. So I took the other half of the dosage with some cream soda, and miracously, I didn't taste it! I wish I'd known about the pop thing when I drank castor oil with Jacey. Anyway, I felt sick for the rest of the afternoon, but didn't really have any of the symptoms that castor oil gives you. Which I guess was good, cause that's no fun! Friday evening right before Jacey's bedtime, we decided to go to Palmers to put Jacey to sleep there, in case we went into labour that night, so it was easier for Cyndi to watch Jacey for us. Michael and Melinda had called us and wanted to do something, so we decided to meet there and watch a movie or something after Jacey went to bed. So we went over around 7:30 and by 8pm, Jeffrey was putting Jacey to bed. I had given him his goodnight kiss, and I went to the bathroom to attempt to get the castor oil working. :) While in the bathroom, my contractions turned from just being there, to PAINFUL, in one second. And after that first contraction, there were 4 more right after, with no break! All within about 6 minutes. I managed to get out of the bathroom and to the room where Jeffrey was putting Jacey. He came out of the room to find me on the floor breathing very heavily, trying to get through the contractions. We grabbed our stuff and told Michael & Melinda we were heading to the hospital (they were sure surprised, they left me in a normal state, to change Claire's diaper and came back to find me in hard labour). By the time we got to the front door, which was 30 seconds later, I knew I was in trouble, because I already had to push!! Really bad. I also thought I had to go to the bathroom (due to castor oil) so I tried, while Jeffrey called 911 to have an ambulance come. I knew if we drove, I'd never make it to the hospital in time and we'd have to stop for all the lights and traffic. Anyway, so 911 was trying to get Jeffrey to get me off the toilet and into a room where I could lie down. The closest room was the den, which has glass, french doors and hardwood floor. I refused to do that because of the pain of lying down and because I was NOT under any circumstances, prepared to deliver my baby while at home. The lady on the phone was giving Jeffrey all the instructions to deliver our baby himself, including having me take my pants off and not cross my legs. Funny instructions to include. Jeffrey ran around and grabbed every dry towel he could find and Michael and Melinda were fully prepared to help Jeffrey out in anyway, having just been through the experience themselves. Oh yeah, and Brett and all his friends were all downstairs watching a movie and received very strict instructions from Michael to under no circumstances come upstairs, Emily was in labour! Two firetrucks showed up, an EMS truck and an ambulance all within 5 minutes (seemed like an eternity) and they all came in and were trying to talk to me all at once, while I was just trying to breathe and not die. Melinda was so great and got all the information from my wallet and gave it to whoever was supposed to get it and she got all our baby stuff and our hospital bags from the van so Jeffrey could take them with us in the ambulance. Meanwhile, I was getting mad at everyone for asking me to lie on my back on the stretcher. I had horrible SI joint pain throughout the pregnancy and lying on my back was probably the worst thing you could ever have me do, especially while having really intense, non stop contractions. Obviously, I had to do what they asked and they strapped me on to the stretcher. I wanted a blessing this whole time, but Jeffrey couldn't find oil and there was just no time for anything. So next they carried me out to the ambulance and Jeffrey tried to get into the back with me. For some reason, they wouldn't let him!!! I was so mad. And Jeffrey was MORE mad! He, at least, convinced them to let him in long enough to give me a blessing. I didn't hear any of it though as it was very rushed, but just knowing that I got one, probably saved me on the lonely, very scary trip to the hospital! Jeffrey was forced to get into the front with the driver and two EMS workers were in the back with me. Then we took off to the hospital at very high speeds with sirens, flashing lights and the whole deal! The captain of the team was not very nice and very insensitive and was just too casual about the whole thing. He made me feel very dumb for acting the way I was. Which was pretty much freaking out!! The other EMS guy in the back, I didn't find out till later, was doing his practicum and this was his first birth ever! I loved him though, and without him, I don't know what I would have done! His name was Lars. Anyway, so Jeffrey kept asking if he could come back there to hold my hand and comfort me, cause I kept screaming and moaning and pushing (even when I wasn't supposed to...how can you not??) And the driver said it was their captain's decision. To which the captain kept saying, "No sir, you can stay up there, we're just fine back here." WHO was fine?? Not me!!!! Not Jeffrey!!! So poor Jeffrey was sitting in the front trying to see me, bawling his eyes out at having to just hear me going through it all alone, THEN to have to hear them announce that the baby's head was crowning!!! So he might have potentially missed the birth of his baby! Meanwhile, I was holding on for dear life as every bump and turn and corner was increasing my pain by a million. Every contraction I would tell them I had to push, and they would say, no, breath through it, don't push. Well, that didn't work and I pushed. When they first checked me in the ambulance, there was no crowning and after the next contraction, my water sac had come out and the head was crowning. My membranes were still in tact, so they broke those and then there was just her head threatening to pop out at any time! They kept saying not to push and Lars was just holding her head in. I don't know how long or how many contractions I desparately tried to not push through, but we finally reached the hospital. Just then, I was told I could push, but when the ambulance doors opened, there was Carol Stehmeier yelling at me NOT to push! So I didn't. Jeffrey had called her on the way and asked if she could meet us there. I'm SOOO grateful she was able to do that for us, I might have had a whole different recovery without her! So with me now huffing away with Carol and doing all I could to not push, we rushed through the hospital with me fully exposed, no pants on, baby's head half out of me with about 6 people running along side my stretcher. Talk about a movie scene!! Good thing I was in SOO much pain and didn't notice and couldn't have cared less that about 50 people saw me in this condition! We were in the elevator and in a delivery room so fast it didn't make sense. Within 2 minutes and with about 20 people around me (or so it seemed, it was more like 12 I guess), I gave my final push and our beautiful, baby girl was born! They handed her to me and Jeffrey said that I just kept saying over and over again, I love her, I love her so much! We had a moment just the three of us to cry and snuggle and then they took her to do an assesment and clean her up a bit. I was then removed from the stretcher, onto the delivery bed. There hadn't been time to even do that when I got to the delivery room. I was then checked and miraculously, I had NO TEARS!!!! Seriously, what a miracle. I was totally pushing when I shouldn't have been. Except for when Carol was there, and I know that it was her coaching me not to push and then when to push, that did it for me! And because of that, my recovery in that area has been 100% better than it was with Jacey. Which has made all the difference in the world so far! Oh, I failed to mention that all of this took place from 8:11pm, my first really painful contraction in the bathroom, to 9:16pm, when Jaclyn was born. So one hour and 5 minutes total. I'm just soo grateful that this all didn't happen one hour after I drank the castor oil, because that would have been a nightmare!! We were definitely in the right place at the right time for all of that to have taken place. Jacey was asleep and Michael and Melinda were there to help so we were able to leave within the few minutes we had, with no worries about getting someone to watch Jacey. Heavenly Father was certainly looking out for us.
Not a posed picture! He loves holding her hand!
"Good job Mommy!"
As far as Jaclyn's health is concerned, she appears to be totally normal, with no symptoms of any problems in her lungs at all, let alone signs of cysts. Her lungs sound clear, she's breathing great, her skin was pink, pink, pink and she had a GREAT first feeding. All good signs! We feel IMMENSLY blessed by our Heavenly Father that she arrived into our family so healthy! We still have followup appointments to go through, and there is a chance of surgery after one year, if the cysts are still there, but other than that..she is a perfectly healthy baby!!! And man, is she fat!! She weighed 9lbs, 7 oz, and was 21 inches long. And she has the chubbiest cheeks and double chins and neck fat. I love it!! Although Jacey didn't weigh as much as she did, they looked very similar at birth, and you can totally tell they're siblings. Jaclyn's been a really good eater so far, with only problems of tummy aches due to the fact that she didn't poop for the first 48 hours. And she's not a great burper either. But since she had that really huge poop finally, she's been much easier and sleeps better. There are so many things I could say still about her and how things have been going so far, but I've already written the world's longest post, which I wouldn't blame anybody for not finishing! So I will forego other details at this time. We were able to leave the hospital 2 days later, which was sunday afternoon and have been trying to adjust to life with two kids. Jacey's been really good, still sleeping perfectly, napping and through the night. He loves to snuggle Jaclyn and hold her hands. He hasn't appeared TOO jealous or concerned so far, I hope it stays that way. Jeffrey and I are both making sure to spend LOTS of time and attention with him, so he doesn't have any negative association with her joining our family. It's great having Jeffrey at home to help with everything so I can rest and recooperate. My abdomen wall, or whatever it's called, split and I'm not supposed to lift anything over 10 pounds, which is almost Jaclyn, to make sure that nothing permanent goes wrong and things don't start popping out of my stomach that shouldn't. Okay, seriously, enough talking already! Here are tons of pictures. Sorry that this blog is massive, I just had a lot to say! Enjoy!
"Don't worry, I'm here to protect you."
Don't they look like brother and sister?
This was not a posed picture. Jacey was having his bottle next to Jaclyn, who was also having her bottle and he started playing footsies with her! How cute is that??
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