I was scheduled for an induction on July 9, I was only 39 weeks but because in addition to being done being pregnant, my parents were caring for the other kids and my Dad was leaving for a mission trip to Africa on the 14th. We had been praying that I would go into labor on my own and not have to have the induction. I didn't sleep well the night before the induction; contractions, a bad storm and excitement kept me awake. I called the hospital at 6 am and they said to come in for my 7 am induction.
On the way to the hospital my contractions from the night before got more regular and more intense. We arrived at the hospital around 7:15 and were waiting to be brought back and my contractions got even more intense and more regular. Erik says I'm very timely, he figures I knew it was time and just decided to go into labor. They came out to give us an update on our room around 8 (they were cleaning it) and I told them that I was having pretty regular contractions, there was another lady who came into the waiting room in clearly much more pain than me. I told them it was a terrible thing to be a little bit in labor and have to watch someone else more in labor than you and know that's where you need to go (funny thing is after were all done with delivery she was still laboring- poor woman). I think they finally finished cleaning the room and came to get us around 8:45. The doctor checked me and I was 3 cm and 80%, so I decided to walk a little bit and the contractions got even worse and I started down my, "I can't do this...they should just do a c-section...I'm never going to make it..." path. This is where Erik intervenes and tells me that I need to get an epidural, which I get and I become the happiest person alive eating my popsicle and not feeling the contractions any more.
At this point the doctor checks me, I am 4 1/2 cm and they break my water, about an hour later my pain comes back. Now, I have several friends who have described labor with an epidural as "pain-free." This has never been my experience, even with all the epidurals I have gotten I have always felt pain and usually really intense pain at the end. What I think I didn't know is you can get more drugs in the epidural machine! Wow! This is such great news! My best friend, the epidural drug man, came back and got me so high on epidural I couldn't feel anything! The pain in my back had been really intense the whole time so I had been laying on a bag of ice, well in melted and laying in a puddle of ice water and couldn't feel a thing- I had 6 warm blankets on me because I was shaking like crazy but I didn't know about the ice water. So after I got all nice and numb they told me to call them when I was ready to push. Basically I laid there for maybe 2 hours and almost fell asleep- this has never happened to me before. Eventually my IV fluids were out and they came back in to check me and the doctor said, "You're complete, you ready to push?" Now, I have to say, Erik had been saying I was probably ready and was so numb that I wouldn't know but I was so relaxed I didn't really care I thought that if I just waited as long as possible I wouldn't have to push as long. So they break apart the table and get me ready to push, they have to tell me when I'm having a contraction (another thing that has never happened to me before) and I push once, twice, out pops her head, three times out pops her body and I'm done. I can't feel a thing- so all those people who told me they had pain free deliveries weren't lying after all! She was born around 4 pm, 7 lbs 12 oz, 19.5 inches longs.
Then after she was born she was having a lot of trouble breathing, she was grunting and couldn't really cry. They called over the NICU doctor who didn't like it either. In addition she and I both had fevers right after delivery (probably because of all the blankets I was under). After a chest xray they determined that she had a spontaneous pneumothorax (which is a pocket of air outside the lung pushing in on the lung). It was small but they needed to keep her in the NICU and we couldn't hold her or nurse her because she hooked up to a machine that put pressure in her lungs to keep them from collapsing.
The did lots of bloodwork and some of it was elevated. I can't tell you how grateful I am for all the prayers we received both for our souls and for her healing. They were all met. I was really sad not being able to hold her or nurse her, Erik was sad that she was sick but God met us both and set our hearts and hope on him. By late morning on the 10th she was off the breathing machine and I was able to hold her and nurse her and with 48 hours of her delivery all her x-rays and blood work had cleared up! It truly was an answer to prayer.
In God' amazing kindness, while Erik was in the car waiting for us to come down from the NICU he very randomly was going through his ipod and decided to play this song, he didn't know it. What a gift from God, this is exactly why we named her Jubilee and neither of knew this song.
We are so grateful to God for our girlie and for the way he grew our faith in him through her birth and healing!
