Introducing Jayda Mae

Jayda was born on Thursday morning at 3:35. She weighed 8lbs 3oz and was 20 inches long.

On Wednesday night I decided to try some Castor oil. I heard it works, so I read the directions and mixed 1 tablespoon in a small glass of juice at 9:30 pm. I thought that it would work over night and maybe it wouldn't be as uncomfortable for me. I woke up at 1 am with cramps. Really a lot more intense than I was expecting them to be. The cramps were coming every 4 minutes or so, but they were coming in twos. One right after another followed by a 4 minute break. I wanted to wait for them to get into a pattern to be sure it was labor before I called the hospital. I woke Billy up at about 2:45 and asked him to call the hospital, I was contracting every minute or so and knew I couldn't carry on a conversation with the nurse. She got after me for taking the Castor oil and told us to come in and they would send me home if it was not labor. I went upstairs to change my pants and had a strong contraction. I laid down on the bed to get off my feet and rocked back and forth. It hurt like nothing else and I started screaming like you see those crazy labors on TV. While I was screaming my water broke (yup, on the bed). I yelled for Billy because I didn't really know what else to do. I almost told him to call 911 because I knew at that point that this baby was coming very very soon. Billy was on his way to put Jacob in the car and said he would be right back to help me to the car (he was totally freaked out). I decided not to wait for him and got my pants on and went downstairs. I had a contraction and Billy came back in and held me up because my legs were going to buckle. He said he had to back to car out of the garage so that I could get in and left me there to go do that. I had another contraction that brought me to my hands and knees and he came back and told me to stop pushing. If you don't know, it is almost impossible to control the reaction of your body when you are that far along in the process. Billy helped me to the car and raced to the hospital. On the way with every contraction I screamed and moaned and every time Jacob told me "feel better Mommy". We kept reassuring him that I was OK and that Jayda was trying to come out. Also, with every contraction more and more water came on out(yup, in the car. Was I sitting on a towel? Nope). I was also pushing, I couldn't help it. When I would realize that I was pushing I would stop and breath, but that sure took a lot of effort. I told Billy between contractions that no cop better pull us over because they would really regret it! We made it to the hospital in about 7 minutes and Billy got a wheel chair. The security guard had to do the pushing and ran us to the labor and delivery floor. When we pulled up the nurses at the station were just standing there, non-chalantly handed Billy the paperwork for me to sign. Billy says that he put the pen in my hand and held it there trying to sign my name, but I was having another contraction and I started screaming again and boy did those nurses hop to it! Like 6 of them ran from behind the big desk and were yelling and running me into the room. Two of them stood me up and took my pants down and put a gown over my shirt and helped me into the bed. I remember seeing two nurses at the end of the table and Billy at my left side. I looked over to my right and there was Jacob looking so small sitting by himself on the couch watching everything with his eyes all wide. Then I pushed her out in 2, one for the head, one for the shoulders. Then the doc came in and delivered the afterbirth and gave me local anesthetic and gave me a few stitches. The only words the doc uttered were "that is the biggest umbilical cord I have ever seen!" I got a shot of pitocin after that to keep the contractions going so that I wouldn't bleed to death. Jacob had been taken out by a nurse and was given juice and chocolate until Billy's mom came to watch him. And that is it! It was all done between the hrs of 1am and 3:35 am, the shortest labor I hope I will ever have. Jayda had a perfectly shaped head and is nursing like a pro. I am feeling great and the only pain I am really having is uterine contractions when I am nursing (and they are no punk). Jacob has seemed to forget he has a mother and goes straight for Jayda all the time. He loves to hold her and touch her and is already trying to take care of her.