The News (and Pictures) You All Have Been Anticipating

Eva Marie arrived yesterday at 8:31 PM.  She has dark brown hair, big eyes and petite hands and feet.  She weighs 8 lbs 1.4 oz and is 21 inches long.  We are so happy that she made it safely.  In maintaining tradition of recording my first hand account of the birth of our children, if you would like to read about her birth, please continue to read. 

Eva began making her journey of coming to this world on August 25^th, 2008 at 5 AM.  Jan woke up and was having regular contractions.  The regularity continued all day.  I arrived home at 12:10 PM that day so that I could eat lunch, take a quick nap and then head back to the library as the next day I had a test in hematology.  Turns out that I never made it back to the library, except to pick up my books.  Jan felt that we should go to the hospital.  We arrived at 2:30 that afternoon and checked-in at University Hospital’s labor and delivery.  After hooking Jan up to the fetal heart monitor and contraction sensor, we sat back and waited.  The contractions weren’t that hard, but they were regular.  After some time, Nurse McGill, the staff midwife, came and visited with Jan.  She checked Jan’s cervix—only dilated to a 2.  So, she proceeded to strip Jan’s membranes.  This produced strong contractions, which was good to see.  After 2 hours they checked Jan again—still only dilated to a 2.  We waited some more.  The doctors didn’t want to start Jan on an IV drip of Pitocin (oxytocin), because Jan had a c-section with Clark and Jan wanted to have a vaginal birth with this baby.  Vaginal birth after cesearean (VBAC) poses a slight problem, in that there is a less than one percent chance of uterine rupture if a woman has delivered a baby via c-section and then wants to try a vaginal birth, Pitocin only increases this risk.  So, after consulting they told Jan that she could stay and they would give her some morphine to help her sleep, but she couldn’t eat, or we could go home, she could eat and then if she was still contracting and the contractions were getting harder and more frequent, we could come back. 

Jan chose the latter option.  We came home, I prepared tomato soup with toast for her and she got in the bathtub.  After a few hours of being home the contractions slowed down.  We went to bed.  Jan was able to sleep, as was I.  The next day’s test was still weighing on me.  I woke up at 4:30 hearing Jan talk on the phone with her sister Emily.  After she got off the phone, I talked to Jan about the next day’s test and decided that I should ask for an excused absence as we had been at the hospital and I had not had sufficient time to prepare effectively and I couldn’t afford a bad grade.  I e-mailed the Dean with my request and he wrote back “of course, I hope that all goes well.”  What a relief!  Jan continued to have contractions throughout the day, but despite walking around Target for an hour, we couldn’t get the strong contractions started again.  This continued on Wednesday and Thursday. 

Jan’s mother, Susan, arrived at 1:00 AM on Thursday morning, which was a big relief for Jan as Clark had stayed with her friend Nicole Jennings the previous two nights.  On Thursday night, Jan and Susan went on a nice long walk together and Jan returned home having nice strong contractions.  We waited to see if they would continue to be regular and increase in intensity, which they did.  After watching Barack Obama accept his nomination as the Democratic Party’s 2008 Presidential candidate, we decided it would be best to go to the hospital.  We arrived at about 10:30 PM and checked in at labor and delivery.  Jan was again hooked up to the monitors.  This time the contractions were stronger and more frequent.  Baby was doing well through it all.  When the doctor checked Jan, she was still dilated to a two.  The contractions continued, but Jan’s cervix just wasn’t thinning.  I thought for sure that Jan would make some progress, but she just wasn’t.  So the doctors finally told us that they couldn’t admit us, because Jan wasn’t making progress and they were getting ready to send us home again.  Jan was at her ropes end, she couldn’t spend another day or night in labor, with no result.

Before we came to the hospital on Monday night, I had given Jan a blessing and I was prompted to bless her that her body would secrete hormones properly to deliver the baby vaginally.  In that blessing, I also was prompted to instruct her to take minimal amounts of medication, as her body was sensitive to it.  As we were sitting there I was praying.  Why was this happening?  Was my faith insufficient that the blessing I had given her was not inspired or wasn’t received and administered according to the Holy Ghost?  The doctors had just told Jan that they were going to send her home because she just wasn’t progressing.  They had just left and Jan went to set back on the bed and she said, “I think that my water just broke, opp, there is some fluid and some more.”  The doctors and nurse verified and sure enough, her water was broken and they would be admitting Jan—an answer to a prayer.

It was 2:50 AM when Jan’s water broke and the contractions intensified now, they were hard and strong.  After a little while we were moved over to a delivery room.  I felt that for sure Jan should be dilating, but after 3 hours she had only dilated to a 3, not very good progress.  Jan had been requesting an epidural and the anesthesiologist came at about 6:00 AM and inserted the epidural catheter.  Jan decided to rest and get some sleep and I came home, got Clark up and got myself ready for school.  I sent Jan a text message at 10:00 AM to check on her and she wrote back saying that they were starting Pitocin.  After I called her, she told me that her contractions had all but stopped, so that is why the elected to administer Pitocin.  I left class and headed over to her delivery room.  They titrated Jan up on Pitocin slowly and her contractions increased.  At 5 PM Jan had dilated to a 6, not great progress, but sufficient.  I came home for some dinner with Mark and Dani Rowan.  Susan had fixed some pizza and I was very grateful to eat a nice meal with some good friends.  We talked about Barack’s previous night’s speech and enjoyed each other’s company.  Jan called at 7:15 PM saying that she had not dilated any further and that after consulting with doctors, they all felt that it was in the best interest of Jan and baby to have a c-section.  I hurried back to the hospital and they took Jan in to get prepped for surgery.  I insisted that they let me go with Jan rather than coming in later.  They consented.  After they got the drape up, they brought a stool right over so I could sit by Jan.  I think that they thought that they might have two rather than one patient to take care of if I saw the preparation process and then surgery, I stood up anyway.  I assured them that I had been in on plenty of surgeries and that I would be okay. There is something about that surgical drape that allows me to separate myself from the person.  It is a strange feeling to look over the drape and observe the surgeon’s as they cut, stretch and pull and then look down and see that it is your wife, but like I said that surgical drape allows my mind to separate the two.

The surgery was uneventful.  They weren’t in as much of a hurry as Dr. Falk was with Clark, but they delivered Eva well.  She was purple and covered in vernix, but she cried and was very active.  It was another sweet moment to look down at Jan and feel that binding of two hearts and minds together by the Holy Ghost as you both realize what a joy it is to have children and be parents again.  There was meconium in the amniotic fluid when Jan’s water broke, but after listening to Eva cry for a minute I knew that everything was just fine and that we didn’t need to worry about meconium aspiration.  In addition, Eva had been positioned nose up, rather than nose down (normal), which was making the labor difficult.  The doctors all agreed that Jan made the right decision to deliver with a c-section.  The surgeons showed me Jan’s uterus and ovaries (pretty cool stuff) and then stitched her up.  They told us that Eva weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz and then a few hours later we found out that she was 21 inches in length. Jan was shaky from the Demerol that they gave her with the spinal block, but after an hour or so, it wore off and she was better.  They brought Eva to us, Jan put her to the breast and after only a few minutes, Eva latched on and began to suck.  There was nothing but pure in joy in Jan’s eyes as she watched her nurse, what a sweet end to a long day.

As for the blessing that Jan would be able to deliver naturally, I think that that was dependent upon the amount of drug that Jan received.  I believe that if Jan would have been able to continue without the epidural, she would have delivered vaginally, but it would have been a long hard labor, probably many many hours of waiting and I don’t think that Jan could have handled it.  Something changed between the time that I gave Jan the blessing and Eva was delivered.  Sometimes our faith is tried and we have the choice to doubt, but we also have the choice to continue to believe and we shouldn’t let one thing that doesn’t work out as thought shake our faith.  We had prayed Eva would be born on Friday, August 29^th, she was.  I had been praying that Jan would be able to progress in labor, my faith was tried and when I finally turned it over to God, Jan’s water broke. God is in charge and he knows what is best.  Sometimes that mean that things don’t go as we plan or think they will, but if we will trust in him and his eternal wisdom and love, all will work together for our good.  Jan went as long as she could, before she decided to have a c-section, she is one tough mama.  She didn’t have a c-section because it was the easy way out, she had a c-section because it was the best option given her situation.  I am proud of her for being so mentally tough and my hat is off to her for being willing to sacrifice her body to bring our children into this world.  Women have a great work and to them I am grateful for their bravery and self-sacrifice.