Since it's now the evening of her birth one year ago, I'm feeling the need to retell the birth story. If all of you out there are thinking, not that story again...not another birth story, please feel free to log off, but here goes...
At this time a year ago, it was a kid weekend. I was thinking thank you God, because I really wanted Jed and Erin to be there and they were. Jubilee wasn't due until the 24th, but I was feeling done. My mucus plug had come out, so I knew it wouldn't be that much longer. I really wanted to Jubilee to be born on my mother's birthday, which is March 11, but I was so seriously uncomfortable at that point, I really didn't care.
I went to bed early, before everyone else--which isn't really anything new. At 2:00 AM, two warm gushes woke me up. I got up to go to the bathroom to see what was up, but there wasn't much to see. I figured it was just the rest of the mucus plug coming out. I went back to bed. But then about 10 minutes later was feeling crampy. The cramps dissipated shortly and I went back to sleep, only to get more cramps in another 10 minutes. Then the crams started hurting more and became more regular. I woke up Mike and asked him to time them because I thought I was in labor. He didn't believe me, but indulged my request anyway.
My contractions were three minutes apart. I told him I thought we should call the hospital, but after consulting the paper the doctor gave to be about what to do, Mike informed me that I couldn't be in labor because the contractions were supposed to gradually get closer together. He figured I was in false labor. I figured otherwise.
By this time the contractions were causing serious pain to the point where it was difficult to get dressed. Mike woke up Erin and Jed--amazingly they both leaped out of bed as if they had never gone to sleep. We drove to the hospital while I braved the contractions on the way. I only had to sit a little while in the Emergency Waiting Room area before someone came with a wheel chair. I remember that Jed was talking to me and asking me all kinds of questions but I couldn't answer him during the contractions. I had to wait until they were over to talk--and even then it seemed like there was only a minute or two between each contractions.
Soon they brought us all up to the room. I told the nurses that she was coming out. They told me to go to the bathroom and take off my clothes, and put on that lovely gown. At that point I knew it would be difficult to keep my privates under wraps, so Jed and Erin went to the waiting room. I was annoyed that the nurses didn't seem to believe me that I could feel her coming out. I laid on the bed and they checked me. I was 10 centimeters. Then the room magically changed and all the medical equipment was brought out. They kept telling me not to push, but I pushed anyway. Couldn't help it.
Then the doctor came. She was mad that I wasn't listening to her. She kept telling me not to push and I kept telling her "no". The one thing that did help was the nurse who said to breath little puppy dog breaths and for some reason I was able to cling to that and actually follow directions and not push during the contractions. It wasn't long before I was officially aloud to push, so I did. The whole time Jubilee was moving around and kicking in side me. It really hurt. The nurses had tried to put all those straps and monitors on me, but they just fell off. I pushed a few times and her head came out. I couldn't feel it. It just felt like enormous pressure and burning. I didn't feel any burning when Jed was born, so I was a little surprised by that. With the next push, her body slipped out and my mom walked in the door. As Mike described later, "bloop, bloop".
It happened so fast that we hadn't even got the camera out. And I had wanted to watch her being born in the mirror. So much for that. Luckily my mom had the presence of mind to start taking pictures.
They put Jubilee on my belly as soon as she came out--which was great. (When Jed was born, he was blue and not breathing, so they had to work on him for a little before they laid him on me.) Jubilee did not cry at all. She was just looking all around with her big, dark eyes. She looked right at me. She started crying after a minute or two, then the nurses took her and cleaned her off. I remember the nurse washing her elongated cone-head. She did a really good job! You couldn't really tell she had a cone-head though, once they put the little cap on her.
She was so beautiful. I just kept looking at Mike, thinking how did we create such a beautiful baby? How did this happen? What a miracle. It was hard to take it all in.
Then Jed and Erin came back in. They were both really excited. Jed couldn't keep his face out of Jubilee's. They both held her a lot. Mike then had to bring them home and get some sleep. The next day all my family came and the sisters. What an amazing day it was. What an amazing year.
She is our glue.
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