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N Sex: girl Born: 17 December, 1999 Age: 12 years & 63 days Birthday in: 302 days Starsign: Sagittarius Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

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A Sex: girl Born: 02 March, 2001 Age: 10 years & 352 days Birthday in: 13 days Starsign: Pisces Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

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H Sex: girl Born: 22 May, 2002 Age: 9 years & 271 days Birthday in: 94 days Starsign: Gemini Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

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Pamela Joy Sex: girl Born: 25 October, 2008 Age: 3 years & 113 days Birthday in: 252 days Starsign: Scorpio Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

Birth details

Original due date: Nov 15, 2008
Type of delivery: Vaginal (with pain relief)
Duration of labor: 27 hours
Weight @ birth: 6lb 4oz
Length @ birth: 18 1/2 inches

Pamela-Joy`s birthstory

Pamela Joy has finally arrived!! I went to the dr. Wed, the 22nd and she said I was dilated to 3--start walking and get things moving. I held off until Friday when I started walking a lot. By around 2:00pm the contractions were pretty consistent at every 4-5 minutes. I held off going to the hospital, though, as I didn't want to spend hours upon hours laboring there. THAT didn't work out so well!! Anyway, a friend came and got the girls around 7:30pm as the contractions were getting stronger. I soaked in a bath for a bit, and then headed to WalMart to walk some more. I got to Wal-Mart around 10:00pm and by 10:45 the contractions were steady at 3 min apart so I headed to the hospital. I was checked in by 11:00pm and was at 4cm. They monitored me for a bit and then let me walk for about 45 min before checking me again. I was thrilled that I was at a 5 by then. Little did I know that was just the start of a looooooooong exhausting labor. I walked the halls about 45 min out of every hour all night long. My husband took off work about 1 am and came on up to the hospital. By around 6:00am I was STILL at 5 cm!! :-( Needless to say I was getting very tired and discouraged, especially since my dr. was stretching my cervix each time she checked me with no results. By around 7:00 am I did finally make it to 6cm. I wanted this a very natural labor (like my other ones), but I was getting so tired I was starting to worry about having the strength to deliver, so I asked my dr. to break my water. The baby had been at -1 station since my arrival, so I was sure that would help her drop on down and finish the dilation. I knew the contractions would get worse (at least I THOUGHT I knew that!), but I felt it was worth it. It took forever to break my water. She got through the first layer, but the second would NOT give way. I've always had tough sacs, but this was worse than any of the others. Finally it gave, but was such a tiny hole that she had to really stretch me, pushing the baby's head up a little, etc to get the water out. That did take me to 7cm, but then.......the contractions actually slowed and eased in strength!! I could have cried!! In fact, I think I did! :-P I stayed at a 7 and the baby stayed at -1 for hours. I called a friend to update the prayer chain that I was stuck, and called another friend in California. She told me how to tilt my pelvis during a contracton to help the baby to move down and that helped a little, but by that point I was beyond exhausted. I'd walked about 12 hours total at the hospital, and that doesn't could all the walking I did Friday before I went in. At that point, we brought up pitocin. My dr. agreed (in fact, anyone else she said she would already have them on it--she just knew I didn't want it), and they put me on pitocin and gave me IV Stadol. It didn't help the contractions, but it helped me doze between them. I got the pitocin about 2:00 pm. Around 4:45 I could feel a change and tried pushing some during a couple of contractions, so I knew it was time. I called the nurse and told her I was ready to push. She checked me and said I was at 8-9 cm and I could tell she was brushing me off. I told her I had already pushed through two contractions and it really helped and that got her moving!! She got my dr. and they got the room set up and at 5:09pm Pamela Joy made her appearance. The delivery was sooo easy compared to the labor. I stood with one knee on a chair holding the back and pushed very little. With gravity helping, she made her own way down the birth canal. I pushed to deliver her head, then we paused as the cord was around her neck. The dr. couldn't get it loose enough to slip over her head, so she just pulled it wide and I pushed Joy out through it. I was then able to just turn and sit on the bed and be handed my baby immediately. DH cut the cord and then we just took a little time to marvel at this little miracle. She weighed 6lb 4oz and was 18 1/2 in long. We were stuck in the hospital until Monday afternoon as she had early onset jaundice, but with a night on lights and pushing feedings, it was caught and dealt with quickly. She went down to 5lb 9oz, but it eating good and even slept good last night. Only once did she really wake up, but we were able to get her back to sleep fairly quickly. I'm just so thankful that she's here and she's healthy!!

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