New Years Eve was a Sunday. We went to church and throughout the day I had some contractions but nothing serious. That night we went to play some games with some friends. While there, I had some more frequent and painful contractions that were making me uncomfortable but I didn't think much of it. When we were driving home around 8 pm my contractions started getting more and more frequent. When we got home I went to the bathroom and threw up with one of my contractions. This same thing happened with Reese so I knew deep down that this was real labor but I was still second guessing myself. I wanted to absolutely be sure before we took Reese over to someone else's house and ruin their New Years party. After laboring at home for a little while I told Jared we definitely needed to get a babysitter for Reese. He called up the Pulsipher's who said they would be more than happy to take Reese. What they didn't tell us was that they had company over and were having a big New Years party at their house. I felt horrible when Jared told me that. By the time we got Reese over there and everything else packed up I was in quite a bit of pain and my contractions were very frequent. I couldn't get myself to get off the bed and walk out to the car for a while but then I think Jared was nervous I was going to have the baby at home so he forced me out.
The main hospital entrance was closed because it was after hours so we had to go in through the emergency room. Jared ran in and told them his wife was about to "poop out a baby." The lady was slightly confused but then realized what he was saying and grabbed a wheel chair and came and got me. She ran me up to L&D while Jared parked the car. The check in process felt like it took FOREVER! By the time they got me back in my room it was a little after 11:00 pm. The nurse had me change my gown and then she checked my cervix. She said I was already dilated to a 9! I probably should have gone in sooner. I asked how quickly I could get my epidural and she said they needed to draw labs first so it would be a little bit. I continued having lots of contractions that were very strong and frequent and I was quickly dilated to a 10 and ready to push. I kept asking over and over again for an epidural when finally the nurse told me there was no way I could get one. She said I was too far, the baby was crowning and if I sat up to get an epidural the baby would come out. I then kept asking if I could push the baby out. The urge to push was SO strong. All the nurses in there kept telling me I couldn't push because the doctor wasn't there yet. They wanted me to just breathe through contractions and withhold pushing. That was really really hard. My body just automatically bore down and started pushing with contractions but I was trying to suck the baby back in because the nurses said I couldn't push. I was a little bit miserable for a while waiting.
I didn't know this at the time, but they were having some problems getting a doctor there. They first called my OB Dr. Lovitt, even though he wasn't on call, because he had written on the chart that he wanted to be called in for my delivery. Well, since it was New Years night he had had some champagne and didn't feel it would be okay if he came in. They then called the on-call doctor who started driving to the hospital but then got stuck on the freeway because of a big accident. She called and let the nurses know she wasn't moving and didn't know how long it would take. They tried to page the rest of the doctors in the group to see if anyone else could come but no one could. They then had to page another doctor from a different practice to come in because they were desperate. While she was coming they also paged the ER doctor to come up because the baby was basically out.
My L&D nurse at one point came in and told me the doctor who was coming in was coming straight from a Great Gatsby party and was apologizing because she was all dressed up for the party. I honestly didn't care what she was wearing, I just wanted her there! The second she got there, they put a coat on her, she opened up my legs, and told me to push. I pushed twice and we found out our little baby was a GIRL!!!
Although I had waited far too long to deliver that baby it was pretty fun having a baby just a few minutes after the new year! We found out shortly after that we had the first baby born in all of Kansas City. Over the next 24 hours we had 3 different news stations come and film us. We had no clue we were going to be famous! We were able to watch the different channels later that night on T.V.
We also had two different random families stop by to give us presents. These families in previous years had the first baby of the new year and came to bring us gifts for being the 2018 baby new year. It was very unexpected but so nice of them. We also got a gift basket from the hospital for being the first baby.
It took us until the next day to decide what to actually name her. We both love the name Jade and felt it fit her perfectly.
It was so fun seeing Reese meet baby Jade for the first time. I think she was a little confused but loved pointing to all of her body parts and giving her kisses. After a few minutes she didn't care about her anymore and just ignored her. Reese was able to come to the hospital twice to see her.
We found out on Wednesday, the day we would be going home that Jade's bilirubin levels were high. With Reese we got to take a bili bed home but they don't do that here so she had to go stay in the NICU for the night. I didn't want to leave her so I decided to sleep in the NICU with her and nurse her as much as possible so we could get her levels down. I was a little emotional about it, probably mostly because of all the hormones, but no one wants their baby in the NICU. We found out the next afternoon that her levels had dropped enough that we could go home. I was SO grateful when we brought our little girl home.
We still had to go back and get labs drawn the next morning to make sure her levels hadn't gone back up since being off the bili bed. I was again so happy when the results came back and she was okay. At her one week appointment she looked wonderful and had even passed her birth weight which doesn't normally happen until about 2 weeks. Because she was doing so well Dr. Cattaneo didn't feel like we needed to make a 2 week follow up appointment and told me to just schedule the 2 months visit. That was GREAT news.
We got to have both Grammy Tammy and Grammy Bodine come to visit us. They were both very helpful and it was their first time coming to Kansas City to see where we live!
Heidi and I attempted to take some newborn pictures. While they definitely aren't professional, I love these little pictures.
Jared is the best daddy to these two little girls. I hope they one day understand how lucky they are to have him as their dad.
We love our little Jade and are so blessed to have her in our lives!
