The First

So, Jasmine is sick.  Sick, sick, sick.  She has a pretty bad cough and is extremely congested.  I feel so bad because there isn't much I can do for her! :(  It has made the last couple of nights rough, but I have her propped up tonight, so hopefully that will let her sleep at least a little longer!  She took one long nap and two short naps which made the day bearable.  She was quite entertained watching us rearrange furniture, which made that whole mess much better.

Josh had a plan to move the computer desk out of the front room and into the spare bedroom, move the sectional and entertainment center to the other side of the living room, and make the now empty side into a "library."  This did not go as he had planned.

The movement and set up of the computer desk and a bookshelf in the spare bedroom went well.  They fit perfectly and look good in the spot.  The sectional, however, didn't want to cooperate.  You see, it's opposite from most sectionals, which makes setting it up in a room difficult.  It's also rather large, which also makes things interesting.  None of his ideas worked so we had to put it back where it was, along with the entertainment center.  Where the computer desk was will have two bookcases along with my wing-back chair and our other love-seat.  We used the love-seat to separate the room.  It looks great!  After much frustration and moving every piece of furniture at least 3 times each, Josh is happy.:)

We went out and got snack foods from the dollar tree...don't diss.  It's not a bad place for snack foods...they have Bugles!!  Remember those?!  Anyway, we also got a $5 pizza and went home and watched Urban Legend.  And now I have two snoring Loves-of-my-Life in my room.  Gotta love it!

On another note, Jazzy has tried applesauce on two different occasions now.  She seems to like it and hasn't had any allergic reactions.  Allergies run rampant in my family so we gotta be extra careful.

Well, I better get done on here so I don't wake Jazzy up and so I can get some sleep myself.  Have a good night!

Get rearranged.

-Rachel

New Life

On to the good part: Jasmine finally arrives!

I woke up at 4 in the morning with extremely bad contractions.  I made note of the time so I could measure how far apart they were.  I feel another one and look at the clock: 4:02!  My contractions were two minutes apart!  After about an hour of this, I woke Josh up and told him about it.  With all of the false pre-term labor, he was skeptical that this was the real thing.  I took a bath and Josh brought me breakfast.  But, at about 9 am I couldn't take it any more and we went to the hospital.

When we got there, the nurse checked my cervix to see how far along I was.  I was at 2 cm at my last check up two days before.  When the nurse check me I was at a 4.  So, things were moving at least!  Also, when she was checking me, my water broke!  So there was no way I was going home this time!  The nurse was a little shocked when she saw the "water" because it had meconium (the baby's first bowl movement) in it.  It had so much that my "water" was thick and mucus-like...and green!  I was a little frightened, but the nurse didn't seem to worry too much.  Come to find out, it was more of a problem than they let on.

I wanted to try labor without an epidural, so I didn't ask for one right away.  I tried the intravenous drugs first.  This just made me have weird pipe dreams of big walls, mail boxes, and flowers in between my contractions but felt all of the pain of the contractions.  So, around 1 pm, I asked for the epidural.

The anesthesiologist came in and asked me if that was what I really wanted...uh, duh!  First, they had to give me an IV, which was no easy task.  My veins don't like to cooperate.  So, they had to get a specialist and it took her four pokes to get it right.  Then the anesthesiologist came back and cleared everyone but Josh out of the room because it would be dangerous if germs got into my spinal fluid.  He said that they usually put the epidural in between contractions, but since mine were so close together, I would just have to bear it...and hold as still as possible so that I wouldn't be paralyzed.  Yikes!  The only things that got me through it were twisting my foot around, tapping Josh's arm with my finger (nervous habits for the pain), and looking into Josh's eyes.  That was the most reassuring part.

After that, it was much, MUCH better!  I watched The Office (season 2...the BEST) that I had brought along.  I slept some, too.  It was kind of hard to because of all the stuff they had me hooked up to.  I was on oxygen because Jazzy's heart rate was low, an IV for fluids, epidural, internal fetal heart monitor, internal contraction monitor, catheter because of the epidural, and intrauterine water flush to keep the meconium out as much as possible.  It was the worst!

Well, I finally dilated to 10 cm around 5 pm.  I was so excited!  But, that excitement was cut short.  They told me to wait to push because the longer you wait and let the contractions push the baby further down the birth canal, the easier it is on you.  This can pretty much only be done when you have an epidural because otherwise the urge to push is so overwhelming you can't wait!  So, around 6:30 pm I started to feel the urge to push.  But, the doctor was doing an emergency C-section and helping another mother who had been pushing for a long time without meds (!!).  I had to wait a little longer.

FINALLY!  The nurse told me that the doctor on call (who just happened to be the doctor I had been seeing the whole time!) said that we could start pushing.  It was great!!  It was the most natural thing for me to do at that point.  I pushed for about an hour before she finally came all the way out.  But, there was another problem.

Because of how bad the meconium was, they weren't sure if she had gotten some in her lungs or eaten it.  Eating it isn't as bad as getting it into the lungs.  It can cause pneumonia, among other serious illnesses.  They were going to have several (I believe there were 5 all together) extra people there just in case there was something wrong with her.  While I was pushing, little Jazzy's heart rate dropped into the low 20s.  The normal heart rate for babies is around 70 to 120!  I was terrified!  They also had to do a little episiotomy because her head was stuck. 

After I push her little head out, the doctor told me to stop pushing.  The umbilical cord was around her neck...TWICE!!!  The doctor cut it and got it "unstuck" and told me to push some more.  I had done it!  She was out!  My little baby girl was born at 8:16 pm.  She was 8 lb, 7 oz and 21 in. long.  Her chest was bigger than her head, which is unusual, so it was like I gave birth to twins!  They put her on my chest.......and she was very floppy and didn't make any noise!

I got to see her for about 10 seconds before they took her over to the area where the other doctors were waiting.  They worked on her for about 20 minutes and couldn't get her to breathe on her own.  So, they took her into the ICU and worked on her some more.  Josh went with her so that she wouldn't be alone.  They had her on a CPAP machine and finally she started breathing on her own after about 45 minutes!  They were debating sending her to either Eugene or Portland for more intensive care, but after talking with the doctors there, they decided that she would be just fine staying there for now.

I had to wait in my delivery room for 4 hours before I got to see her.  They expected me to eat and take a nap before finding out much of anything about her condition!  I finally got to see her around midnight.  She had to stay in the ICU because they had her on IV antibiotics because of the meconium.  She also had on heart monitors, blood-oxygen level monitor, and various other things.  She was so beautiful!

We had to stay an extra day in the hospital because of Jazzy's condition.  We finally had her in our room on Sunday night and went home Monday.  That is another story.

Love is worth it.

-Rachel

Oh, Brother!

So, where did I leave off? Oh right, the accident.

One night (February 15th, to be exact) I was taking Josh his lunch. His lunch break started at 9:30 pm, so it was more like a late dinner, but whatever. I had spent 4 hours making calzone from scratch (you heard me, COMPLETELY from scratch) and was excited to bring it to him because he likes it so much. I was driving down Three Lakes Rd, which has no shoulder, few street lights, and it was raining. I come out of the S-curves and see one car going in the same direction I'm going and two coming toward me. I must have been paying too much attention to the cars coming toward me because I didn't realize the car heading away from me was parked -- IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!!! I have about a two second reaction time from when I see the driver of the parked car waving his arms at me FROM THE DITCH (!!!) and when I go crashing into the car going 50 mph. I did have time to slam on the breaks and think, "Please don't hit it!!" But, my car didn't listen to my brain.:)

I ended up with nerve damage in my left thumb/hand, a severely sprained ankle (which still hurts most of the time), and bruised ribs.  There was nothing wrong with Jasmine, luckily...that was what I was most worried about at the time.  I got taken to the hospital in an ambulance, an experience I hopefully never have to live through again!  (The EMT was trying to put an IV into my arm over railroad tracks...enough said).  Josh was great helping me recover from the accident.  He would help me to the bathroom in the middle of the night, while he was working 10 hour shifts, mind you.

But, that's when things started to go downhill again.  Josh really hated his job and would take out the anger he had for his boss and his job on me.  I, of course, had some problems dealing with him being constantly grumpy because of the pregnancy hormones (which are THE WORST).  We fought a lot.  We almost split up on a few occasions.  But, we do love each other, so we worked it out. 

I had the worst pregnancy ever!!  I had 6 weeks of pre-term labor and was in and out of the hospital.  All of this stress wasn't helping our relationship at all.  On the day before our love was born, Josh told me he hated me because he had to work at Selmet to provide for me.  I got very depressed and ended up in the ER because I was having suicidal thoughts.  Spent 5 hours there before they would let us go home.  Not my favorite day. 

Ok, so I've covered a great amount of time in this posting, and I'm going to save the birth story for tomorrow night (hopefully!).  :)  Then we can move on to happier times in our life!!

The Beginning...

Let me give you some background on our little family:

My husband, Josh, and I met a couple of years ago through mutual friends. He was married to someone else at the time, which is a long story so I won't get into it. Their marriage ended due to infidelity on her part. Josh and I reconnected several months after that and got to know each other playing poker with our mutual friends. We started dating on Memorial Day weekend '09 and fell in love. :) He proposed to me on August 15th, 2009. We wanted a short engagement and set the wedding date for November 7th. As we were planning the wedding, we had a little suprise: I was pregnant!! We found out officially on October 24th and were both nervous and excited!

The next few months were tough. I'm a cosmetologist and worked at Supercuts cutting hair. Standing on my feet for 8+ hours a day was causing me to have contractions, and after spending the night in the emergency room in December, I quit my job. Josh worked for Selmet at the time working 60+ hours a week, so we had very little time to spend together. We didn't really need the money from my job, but it was nice so I was looking for something I could do and not stand all day long. When I quit, it caused some problems between Josh and I becuase he had to work all the time and I could "sit on my butt all day." I took a job doing childcare at the school my mom worked at.At home, I would clean house as best I could and bring him lunch every night (he worked swing shift: 3:30 pm to 2 am). That is, until the car accident.

Well folks, that's all I can tell you today. Tune in next time to hear about the accident; same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel. :)

-Rachel