To make a long story short....I started contracting painfully on Friday the 6th,but not consistently. The contractions would be anywhere from 5-30 min apart and then I would have a couple hours of rest. This lasted from Friday all the way to Monday night before we went to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around midnight and being a Birth Center RN I was pretty sure that they were going to send me home because my contractions were not every 5 min. I was just hoping they would give me some morphine to go to sleep and then home. When my cervix was checked I was 4cm dilated, so this meant that I was not leaving without a baby in my arms! I was very excited to be dilated this much because I had a C-Section with JJ just 21 months ago. I now knew that it was a great chance that I would be able to have a successful VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C-section).Soon after being admitted an epidural was offered...I did not think twice. I love epidurals and how great they work for my patients who are interested in a decreased painful labor. My epidural was in place and our midwife offered to break my water to speed up the contractions and labor. Wes and I both agreed that a 2-3 hour wait would be nice...to nap, since we had little sleep over the last couple of days and we knew what would be coming with a new baby! Wes, my mom, Donna(Wes' Mom), and I all napped for about 3 hours. Pitocin(medication to increase contractions ) was started around 445am because my midwife was busy delivering in the next room. My midwife then came in at 0615 to break my bag of water after checking my cervix, I was 5cm at this point. 2 1/2 hours later at 0845 I started feeling a little pressure and asked my nurse to check me. My nurse checked me and I was 9.5 cm. This meant .5 cm away from pushing. My midwife came to check me around 1005 am and I was complete with the head being visible. I started to push at 1012am exactly and the Baby JoElle was born at 1014am! Yes I only had to push for 2min with a total of 6 pushes. All I can say is Thank you Jesus!
We had a lovely time at the hospital with our new Baby Girl, the wonderful hospital staff, and our lovely visitors. Our most important visitor was a new Big Brother named JJ. To say the least, his initial reaction was confusion, on the verge of tears, and then to all smiles. He has been quite emotional over the last couple of days but we believe he will eventual step up to his new role and position as Big Brother.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers, thoughts, congratulations, and excitement for this new season we are currently walking through. We know that it will be super busy with diapers, feedings, sleep deprivation, and just plain ole craziness at times. We also know the bible says, "Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children are like arrows in a warriors hands and joyful is the man/woman whose quiver is full of them." Psalm 127.
He has given our family an awesome gift, JoElle Teanna Bell. In these last nine months God has not just allowed us to have time to prepare our home for Baby Girl, but he has prepared our hearts!
