Part 2

*Warning - Following post may be TMI.. read at your own risk ;)*

Because it was between 7 pm and 7 am, we had to enter through the ER entrance. We walked up to the desk and a girl (probably late 20’s and with 2 other people) was checking in, who appeared to have broken her arm. As we walk up, they all turned around and looked at us and the girl said, “Oh my gosh, you’re about to have a baby! Here! Go ahead of me!” I assured her I was just fine (haha) but she took her check-in paperwork and moved off to the side so we could get checked in.


A guy brought down the wheelchair and after asking if my water was broke and finding out that it was, laid down a pad over the wheelchair seat. He rolled me into labor and delivery and the nurses at the desk were trying to figure out if I needed to go into “triage” to be checked and monitored for true labor or taken right into a delivery room. I told them my water had broken and the nurse told me to stand up. When I stood up and they all saw that I had soaked the pad on the seat, she said, “Oh! She’s a keeper!” And they took me straight to a delivery room, lol.

Three nurses were in the room to get me all set up. They sawTyler walk in pulling the duffle bag behind him with the Boppy strapped to it and a pillow under his arm. A nurse said, “Wow! Ya’ll look prepared!” and then turned to Tyler and said, “You must either be in the military or a Boy Scout.” To which he responded, “Both!” We all cracked up! Lol

I got dressed in the hospital gown and they started hooking me up to the monitors and getting my IV put in. The nurse blew my vein with the IV on the first try… WOW, talk about painful!!! That junk hurt. Bad. On the second try, it went in just fine. They asked me about dilation and I told them I was 3 cm at my appointment on Thursday and she said she would go ahead and check me. I warned her how hard of a time the Dr. had finding my cervix though. To which she responded, “Ooo, let me get Pam to do it then! Her fingers are longer anyways” LOL, Yeah, that sure made me feel good! “Pam” came in and briefly tried to check me, but said, “Nope, I can’t even feel it so we just won’t worry about it for now. No need to add to your discomfort” (whew!)

We were finally all settled in our room and left to ourselves by about 5:00 am. At this point, Tyler contacted family to let them know what was going on and my mom got right on the road from Valdosta, GA with my Dad and Chandler leaving shortly after her.

Contractions started kicking in at 5:30 am. Tyler was fully prepared to coach me through each contraction! He was instructing me to “breath” and “relax” and doing all the things we learned about. Poor guy, after a few contractions, I told him, “Please don’t talk to me. It just bothers me.” He obliged but after a little while said, “Can I please talk to you? I hate just sitting here watching you.” =( I told him he could but to just say “breathe” and “relax” a couple times.. not over and over. Lol

I just continued to labor through contractions as my family arrived. At first, they were just sitting in the room watching me and I suggested they play a card game. They looked bored and I think my Dad and Chandler were a little freaked out watching me go through the contractions, haha. So Tyler got out a new Monopoly card game we had recently bought. We will laugh about this for years to come (as we already have several times)… Tyler was sitting in the bed with me so we pulled up the table to my bed and my family brought up chairs and they played Monopoly Cards as I labored! When I felt a contraction coming on I’d let Tyler know and he’d pause from the game to be with me, then when it was over he went back to the game. And even in between contractions I was involved in the game too, haha. Here’s a picture to prove it, lol:

I think it was a really good distraction... I wasn’t thinking about the last contraction or even the next one to come! I was completely relaxed in between them, enjoying the card game. Although they were definitely getting more intense and closer together! At one point, Tyler said, “OK, We’ve got to figure something out here because you are about to break my fingers.” Haha My mom said, “Jenna! You aren’t supposed to be squeezing his hand, you should be relaxed!” OOPS! (I knew that! Thanks for the reminder though Mom, it did help) =)

Dr. Baird came in to check me at about 9:30 am. I really didn’t have any expectations as far as how much I had dilated. I felt like I was still handling the contractions pretty well and didn’t plan on getting the epidural for about another hour. I was surprised to find out that I was 6 cm dilated and the Dr. recommended that I really consider getting the epidural (he knew I planned on getting one) soon because I was progressing rather quickly for a first time mom. I felt good but didn’t want to miss my opportunity to get the drugs, ha, so I told him I’d go ahead and get it now. It’s a good thing I did too because it was kicking in at around 10:00 am and at noon I was fully dilated! I imagine that would have been a rough 2 hours without it! But instead, I was just relaxing in bed hanging out with family… modern medicine is amazing ;)

Next up... time to push!