Jillian's Story

Finally, here I am a week later writing about the birth. I now understand first hand just how difficult it is to get anything done with a baby in the house. Here's the play by play of how it all went down....

October 28th (due date)
2 a.m.--woke up to horrible lower back pain. Horrible.

4 a.m.--contractions started. These were at least 3 times worse than the 'fake' labor I had experienced a few days prior. 10-12 minutes apart, not able to sleep through these, and I was having some GI issues indicative of oncoming labor.

7 a.m.--Sent Matt to work, I stayed in bed and timed contractions, did a little work, etc. We agreed to meet at my 11:30 OB appt. I did my best to move around, shower, keep myself busy with work stuff....subconsciously just 'knowing' that this was 'it'.

11:30 a.m.--Met Matt at my 40 week appt. Contractions still about 10 minutes apart. I had lost 5 lbs from the week before, baby heartrate good, my bp was good. I was 2-3cm dilated and 90% effaced. Dr. said she suspected this was early labor. We did go ahead and schedule an induction for Halloween at 7:30 a.m., but she was quite certain we wouldn't need it. She instructed us to go walk around for an hour or so and see if the contractions got stronger, and go to L&D to get checked if so.

12 p.m.--I went to the cafeteria with Matt. He ate lunch, I ate some crackers, still lots of contractions and really feeling miserable. We walked around the Mayo subway for a good hour. Contractions were now 5-7 minutes apart and generally caused me to stop walking when they occurred.

1:30--Matt back to work, I waddled over to my work to try and keep my mind off things, get my laptop, check e mail, etc. I lasted about 45 minutes--way too uncomfortable. I called L&D to report my status. They instructed me to not come in until my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart for an hour. I decided to go home.

3:30 p.m.--I had been home about an hour when Matt arrived. Contractions were stronger and close to 5 minutes apart. We sat in the living room and played Scrabble while I was on the large exercise ball. At this point, I could not talk during the contractions, they were so strong and painful. However, somehow we did manage to play an awesome game of scrabble during this time. Not sure how. But Matt was right, it was a good diversionary activity.

4:45 p.m.--Contractions consistently 3-5 minutes apart, Matt said 'let's go'. We arrived at the hospital. I was checked and was 3 cm, 90% effaced. Having regular, intense contractions. They told me to walk around the hospital for an hour and then get re-checked. If I wasn't at a 4, we'd be sent home. We walked and walked and walked. I was hurting big time. Matt pretty much had to hold me through contractions at this point.

6:30--Re-checked. "Unchanged", the dr. said. My pain was horrible at this point and we both were frustrated. Contractions were every 2-3 minutes. They gave me a shot of morphine, sent me home, and told us only to come back if I continued in this pattern for another 3 hours, or until my water broke.

7:00 p.m.--Arrived home, tried to eat a bit of a bagel and an apple. Matt ate some soup and a sandwich. He was amazing at keeping me distracted with positioning, massage, walking, music, etc. Really, he was phenomenal. I was miserable.

9:30 p.m.--Knew we'd be headed back in, as my pattern continued and contractions grew stronger still. I took a shower amidst my nausea and vomiting.

10:00--Made one last futile attempt at walking around the block. I was done walking, hurt too bad. Got in the car to go back. Prayed the whole way there that I'd be at a 4.

10:30--Got checked. Resident said "I think you're a 4 or so". They planned at that point to monitor the baby for 20 minutes or so, recheck and then have me walk. The resident walked out of the room after the exam and not 2 minutes later my water broke. I cried with joy b/c now they could NOT send me home! This was real, it was happening and we were on our way. I was offered the epidural and jumped at the chance.

11:30--Epidural in and I was relaxing. Boy did I LOVE the anesthesia resident....

October 29th

12 a.m.--Called immediate family, as promised, to let them know I was in labor.

12:30--Got checked and was already at a 7!

1:15--I was feeling pressure, so they checked me again....almost complete! Just an anterior lip left on my cervix. At this point, we were instructed to rest and try to relax. This actually was a really amazing couple of hours. Matt held my hand and we talked and talked and tried to rest in anticipation. He fed me ice chips and ginger ale and made sure I had plenty of chap stick on. It honestly was an incredibly loving and emotional time for us.

4:00 a.m.--Pushing began. I must pause to talk about my amazing labor nurse, Anna. She was the perfect blend of calm and motivating. Very motherly, very loving. I get teary just thinking about her. I was lucky enough that my epidural was good enough that I wasn't feeling much beyond pressure, and yet I did feel the urge to push. Over the next couple of hours, Matt and Anna coached me and cared for me.

6:00 a.m.--Still pushing. I was getting tired. I think I had thrown up about 3 times. I could feel myself start to feel very disconnected and almost sleepy between contractions. Started to feel like maybe she wasn't going to come out after all. Baby's heartrate was dropping a bit, so Anna had me laying on my side for pushing. I heard someone mention something about a vacuum, which I was not interested in....Matt said I perked up real quick.

6:30 a.m.---Lots of people entered the room, I was assured that she really WAS coming and I only had a few contractions left to push through. At some point in all of this, I heard and felt a 'pop' (Matt did, too).....we know now that it was likely my tailbone fracturing. Yes, ouch...but that's another story.

6:41 a.m.--Jillian Michelle Howe made her grand entrance into this world! A most amazing, surreal, and wondrous moment in our lives. I remember just crying like a baby as they checked her and roughed her up a bit b/c she wasn't crying very loud at first. About 2 minutes later she was placed in my arms and the world was forever changed. We spent the next two hours holding her, loving on her, and just getting to know her before we called anyone. What a special and blessed time it was...as has been the case every moment since.

Before I conclude the longest post ever in the history of blogging, I should share how she got her name.....
About 5 years ago, Matt came home after his first pediatric radiology rotation in medical school and exclaimed that he had read an x-ray of a little girl who had a name he just loved--Jillian. We had been married about a year at that point, and it was uncharacteristic of Matt to talk of having kids, let alone mentioning names. He said, "I'd love to have a daughter named Jillian. I'd call her my little Jilly-Bean". It was a name I'd never considered before, but instantly loved it. It stuck and it's been our 'secret name' ever since. As for her middle name, it was given to her in loving memory of Matt's stepmom, Anita, who passed away earlier this year shortly after learning of our pregnancy. Anita's middle name was Michelle. We miss her dearly and know she would have been a fabulous grandma. Jillian would have loved her.

Tomorrow.....more pictures of Jilly-Bean, which is what you really wanted to see anyway, right? :)