Jenna Cole Barnes - Birth Story

 

On Sunday February 9th at 8:28 PM, Jenna Cole Barnes made her grand appearance.  Jenna weighed in at 6 lbs. 7 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long.  She was 3 days late, smaller than we thought, and the absolute picture of health.  Below is her birth story --- something I will certainly forget if its not written down.

I woke up Sunday morning around 4:30 to contractions.  They were about 15-20 minutes apart, so I thought --- no big deal.  I had been having contractions off and on for several days.  By 7-8 AM on Sunday they were as close as 8 minutes apart, but then then stopped.  I told Matt when the contractions stopped that I might as well just give up on this baby coming naturally.  My doctor had planned for me to be induced on Tuesday if the baby did not arrive before then.

We went about our normal routine that Sunday and I continued to have random contractions.  By about 1 PM, I told Matt I was going to skip lunch and just lay down because the random contractions were getting annoying/tiring.  At 2 PM, I got up from bed because the contractions were getting stronger, but not closer together in frequency.  By 3:30, my contractions were coming every 5-7 minutes.  I decided I had better call the doctor's office.  The doctor on call instructed me to come in to the hospital.

We called my mom who was out at Target and asked her to come back to the house to stay with Katie.  I packed the last few toiletries into my hospital bad and we left by around 4:15.  We arrived at the hospital around 4:30, and guess what --- my contractions had stalled again.  The doctor checked me and despite the slow contractions, I was at 6 CM dilation.  He said --- and I quote --- "Well, since you aren't contracting frequently you can go back home if you'd like.  However, you aren't that far away from having a baby in the car if you leave."  Matt looked at me and said --- "We will be staying!"  LOL.  Pretty sure he didn't want to deliver this one on his own.

We were admitted around 5 PM and I thought a few laps of walking around the delivery ward might help get my contractions going.  It worked.  By 6:30 my water broke.  I immediately asked for my epidural because I remembered how much more painful contractions are AFTER your water breaks as compared to before.  Good thing too, because I was already at 8 CM by that point.  I got my epidural --- and proceeded to tell the anesthesiologist he was my FAVORITE person that day.  No joke!  He was my favorite, until around 8:28 PM.

Things were going great.  Right?  But you know --- you can't have a birth story without a little drama.  It wouldn't be normal.  So, a little after 8, I told Matt that I didn't think it would be much longer.  I suggested he get the camera out and ready for when the baby was born.  He took out the camera and was taking a test picture when --- UH OH!  No camera card in the camera.  I went CRAZY!  Certifiably CRAZY!  I told him to leave immediately.  He HAD to go to CVS/Walgreens/Target --- WHATEVER.  This baby was NOT going to be born without pictures.  He tried to tell me the iPad and iPhone pictures would work.  Okay, that was NOT a good idea.  It just made me more NUTTY.  He kept saying "I'm not going to miss the birth because of a camera card."  I told him I would try to hold off until he got back.  (Yes, he was far more sane that me at that moment).  Poor Matt!!

Our L&D nurse (Whitney) overhead the discussion.  She said the hospital had a camera and we were welcome to use the hospital's camera card.  Phew --- boy did she save the day.  Poor Matt was rescued from his insane wife.  LOL!

In the midst of the camera card madness the doctor came in to check me.  Around 8:15/8:20, the doc said "Its time."  So, with one camera card meltdown and a very quick labor --- Jenna Cole Barnes arrived at 8:28 PM. She had an APGAR score of 8/9 and was pronounced perfectly healthy. She looks a bit like her sister Katie, but has Matt's dark hair.  We are so very blessed!