On August 6, 2006, Sunday night after some time with my husband, I began to feel contractions slowly at first until around 12am. My husband goes to work around 3am, so even though they were nice contractions, I decided to wait it out until he came home and see what the pattern would be. After hours of pain, I told my husband to come home so that we could prepare to go to the hospital. I got the kids up and headed to the Waffle House around the corner to get the kids something to eat.







By the time I arrived home, my husband was there and the contractions had slowed down. I figured I would call my doc to try to get in to be seen that day if they had any cancellations. I was called back later and told they had one for later that day (Monday, August 7) at 11am..Since I was past 37 weeks, I was hoping the doctor would strip my membranes. I got ready for the appointment and arrived fairly early to see the doctor hoping that this would be my last appointment. During the appointment, they measured the baby (and still maintained that she would be a nice size), the doctor stripped my membranes and made an appointment for an induction date of Sunday, August 13, 2006. Although it felt like Sunday would be like a world away, I was relieved that we AT LEAST had a date to look forward to! I called the parents to let them know the status and to at least be on stand-by the next couple of days just in case she decided to show earlier.







I went home and decided to start walking that day! I went to Walmart, Target and other stores to walk the baby out!!! I finally got home around 5:30 pm or so and took a long bath because I could feel the Braxton hicks again! Hard to remember how hard it is each time you give birth! Around 6pm I could feel the contractions getting stronger and I started to warn my husband that THIS may be it. He laughed and said “Girl you ain’t ready to have this baby yet………….walk it off!” Oh yeh, like that was going to happen! I also called my friend, Raine to ask her advice, because I know that pain………….is not her fortay!!! (lol) I decided to take his advice and walk the pain off a little. After about 2 hours of hard contractions, I told him “I am going to the hospital and I will drive MYSELF!!” Oh, how delusional labor can make you, lol!! At the time my children were sleep, he was outside socializing and I was just fed up with the pain!! I went into the house grabbed my bag and bolted out the door to the car. The whole time Raine is coaxing me through the contractions and telling me to get the epidural!! Driving to the hospital by myself really wasn’t that bad, but I had a package sitting in my lap (lol). By the time I arrived I could feel that the contractions had gotten much closer and that this was really worse than last time! They checked me in and decided to monitor me for an hour.







*9:30: they checked me and determined that I was contracting about every 2 minutes, dilated 4cm, and 80% effaced



*11:00: checked again and there was no change. The nurse decided to call the doctor and see what he wanted to do. Around this time, my little brother also arrived and was there to massage my back and talk me through the contractions, which helped A LOT!!!



*11:25: The doctor decided to admit me







Although the decision was made to admit me, I was still kept in the triage area, because it happened to be FULL upstairs! Strangely enough it was a FULL MOON and there were TONS of pregnant women waltzing in the hospital in labor! By now, the parents were already on their way in from Houston and the mother and I were text messaging back and forth about the progress! Finally at 12:45, the nurse came in to let me know that I would be in LD Room#1. I was wheeled upstairs to the room and hooked up to the machines to monitor the baby and me. After about 30 minutes the nurse came in and I asked her about the epidural. She let me know that they wanted to monitor me a little closely and then I could get one, once I made progress. At 1:35 am, the parents finally arrived. I could tell by the look on the father’s face that he was REALLY nervous, yet excited at the same time. The mother kept fanning herself and I am sure she was overwhelmed with what was to come also! The nurse, Jennifer, came in to meet the parents. They were really shocked at how HAPPY and BOUNCY she was, lol. The whole time she was singing and dancing and everything else in between. I think although the contractions were pretty strong, her attitude made me forget the pain and brought on the laughter!







4:30am: Epidural was finally given!!



4:35am: The nurse checked me and I was dilated to 5cm!!







It was really overwhelming how fast things were going now! Although we started out slow, I had a feeling that it was not going to be a long time before we meet Miss Drama Princess!!







6:25am: They broke my water



6:30am: They administered pitocin







Although I was given the dreaded “pit”, I could not feel it, because the amazing epidural was really working! They upped the dosage every 5 minutes to speed along the progress. With each added press of the “pit drip”, I countered with a press of the epidural drip, lol. Soon, I could not press the epidural drip anymore and noticed they were still pressing the “pit”………..OH shoot!! I guess you have to feel some pain, lol!! I started to feel a little pain, but only in my stomach. By this time, my legs were feeling like lead and I just wanted to sleep. I dozed off………….







8:00am: The doctor checked me and said I was 5cm (which he has pretty large hands)



9:00am: Checked me again and I was 8cm!!!!!!!! COME ON BABY!







At that time, the mother shook her husband to tell him that it was ALMOST TIME! He was sitting in the corner of the room sleeping and when she announced that, he sat up and said “For real?” Throughout this entire journey I’d seen many expressions on his face, and this one just about took the cake, lol. It was a look of fear……….fear of the unknown. Almost as if he were a little kid again, the innocent look in his eyes. The mother stood up to look at the monitor that showed heartbeats, etc to see how the baby was doing and ask whether I could feel any of the contractions. I called my husband to tell him to come back to the hospital because it was almost time to push.







My husband arrived around the same time that the nurse came in to check again, which was around 10:50am. As she was reaching “in” (lol) I could tell by the look on her face that I was complete. She then stood up and asked “Are you ready to start pushing?” I shook my head yes. The parents about fell out of the chairs they were in when they heard it was time. At that time the nurse summoned in another nurse and they walked in singing “Ah………...push it!! AHhhhhh..push it!! Salt and peppers here…………” (lol) I think I about rolled off the table! She then took the bed apart to prepare for pushing and got me ready for the task ahead. We started to push at 11:00am. Jazlynn was born on August 9, 2006 at 11:15am weighing 7lbs 5oz and wailing loudly! (Lol) I tell you the truth, you anticipate HOW everything will go and look forward to responses, but NEVER did I imagine this! The experience was ABSOLUTELY amazing! Seeing the look of my IPs once she was born was priceless. My IF, who has maintained his macho-ness during the course of this journey, became VERY emotional. It was really a site to see! From the time she was born, he held her close, not even allowing my IM to hold her ONCE! It was really funny; because he always maintained that he would not be “soft” for her once she was born. He kept conversing with Jazlynn about what her plans were (ballerina, sports, etc) I really found it adorable. What really touched me was in the midst of her being checked by the nurses, my IF walked over to my side (while the doc was massaging my belly) looked me in my eye and said "You are heaven sent. You will never know how much you mean to us" Here I had this macho football player type standing beside me with BIG tears in his eye. To prevent my own emotional collapse I grabbed his hand replied "I know....now walk over there before I cry" It was really emotion-filled.







I really thank GOD for allowing me the opportunity to be apart of a wonderful experience like this! Helping another family add to theirs has been one of the MOST rewarding things I have ever been apart of. It’s truly amazing and I will definitely be doing this again………….if the Lord allows!