Birth Story of Jaiden

December 16, 2007

Today was the day that it all began. Robert and I were taking a nap. It was 6:00pm when I woke up on the couch with this weird feeling as if I was peeing on myself. I went to the bathroom and was wet everywhere. I thought to myself how embarrassing this was. I remember hearing about woman who were 9 months pregnant peeing on themselves due to the baby sitting on their bladder. Well soon as I changed clothes it happened again. Once again I changed and thought this was so odd. Then it happened a 3^rd time. This time I turn the shower on and wrap a towel around me to go into the living room. At this point I start to wonder if this was really my water breaking and not me peeing on myself. I sat on the chair in the living room and grabbed the computer to look up things on water breaking. As I am sitting there, it happens again. I then wake Robert and say to him I think my water has broke. He wakes up from a dead sleep and says ok lets go. I explained to him I needed to take a shower really quick and was putting a call into the doctor. The doctor called me back and said it sure sounds like my water breaking and for me to get to the hospital. I went to take a shower and got dressed. I had to wrap a towel around me for the ride in the car as fluid kept coming out. I left the towel around me as we walked into the labor and delivery area at the hospital. They tested the fluid and it was the water breaking so they admitted me. I was not having any contractions or pain at all at this point. They explained to me that if I was not starting to have contractions on my own by the following morning there were going to start me on pitocine.

December 17, 2007

The nurse walks into the room at approximately 730 am and said they are getting ready to start the pitocine. She did an exam on me and I was not dilated at all at this point. It was at 800 they started to induce me and said we were going to start with 2cc and increase it every 15 minutes. Usually woman will start to get cranky around 10cc. I did not feel anything till 14cc which was around 1000am or so. It started to feel like strong cramps. The pain would come and go repeatedly. The nurse looked at the machines I was connected to and said the machine was not even registering I was having contractions. I thought to myself if I wasn’t feeling contractions I don’t know if I can do this whole birth thing. She was talking about putting in a internal monitor to see what was going on. The doctor came in and did another exam on me and said those were contractions I was having. At this point I was dilated to a 3. He asked me if I wanted an epidural and if I did, he recommended doing it now since I was dilating pretty quick at this point. I had them call for the epidural. I think this was the most uncomfortable part of the whole birth. It was hard for me to lean forward into a semi ball for them to stick me in the back. The epidural took about 10 minutes to complete. They told me I would start to feel better in about 20 minutes. I actually started to feel better the moment I sat up. Robert had to help me move my legs back onto the bed because I couldn’t feel them. The remainder of the afternoon Robert and I watched tv and a movie. I also took 2 naps. Then around 330 the nurse checked me again and said I was dilated to a 9 and we would start pushing in about 30 minutes. It was almost 430 when she came back and we started to push. I pushed for about an hour and 15 minutes. The doctor made it back in for the final 30 minutes of pushing. Jaiden was born at 538 pm weighing 8 pounds and 21 inches. The birth was a lot easier than I expected it to be. It was almost painless. =)

*************February 19 2008*****************

Jaiden went for his 2 month checkup and shots. He weighed in at 14 pounds 3 oz and was 24.5 inches long. I have never heard him cry so loud like he did with the shots. The entire day he just slept. My poor baby!

*************February 25 2008****************

We went back to the surgeons office today to find out the results of his lab work. Let me explain the story of what happened here first. He went to the pedi office several times for his belly button not healing properly. They put that silver nitrate stuff on it 3 times to help dry it out which didnt work. My pedi said we had to go see a dermatologist at this point for her to freeze it off. We went to see the dermatologist and she told me she thought it was a urichal cyst and not umbilical tissue and we needed to go see a surgeon. When we went to the surgeon he said well it can be a urachal cyst or it might be the umbilical tissue. He cut the remaining portion out that day and sent it to the lab. He said if it was the urachal cyst that my Jaiden would have to undergo surgery because that means his kidney was still connected to the belly button. That day I drove home looking in my rear view mirror at Jaiden crying. I was so scared. I was so thankful that the doctor told me it was umbilical tissue and nothing further needed to be done since he cut the remaining part out 2 weeks prior.

***************March 4 2008****************

We went to see the pulmonologist today. The doctor advised me that she thinks Jaidens breathing is due to his reflux. She called it stridor (Laryngomalacia). We have to get a chest xray, upper GI, and a third test ran on my little baby. In the meantime we are starting him with a breathing treatment 2x a day. I swear if its not one thing its another. I just want him to be happy and not hurting or uncomfortable. I am not sure when these other tests will be ran as they are going to call me when scheduled.

***************March 6 2008*********************

Today I took Jaiden to get his swallow test completed and the chest xrays. The swallow test came back perfectly fine which proves he is not sounding conjested due to swallowing the formula down into his lungs from the bottle itself. It still can be caused from going into his lungs after it hits his stomach and comes back up. The xrays I have to wait to hear the results of those.

************March 7 2008***********************

I tried to call his pulmonologist to hear about the chest xray results but they were closed today due to the colder weather. During tummy time today Jaiden rolled over for the very first time. I was lucky enough to catch it on video. I wanted to make sure it wasnt a fluke so I put him back on his tummy and he did it again. He is getting so strong so quickly.