Jodee's Birth

I was going through some old stuff last night, and found my birth story that my mom had written... so I thought I'd share.

Jodee's Birth:

On Friday before she was born, I started having pains. They came and went. By Saturday the pains were, at times 10 minutes apart. I went to a ward dinner that night and had pains all during the evening. I was up most of the night with pains that were very irregular - 30 minutes - 10 minutes - 1 hour apart. I couldn't figure it out. It was so different. By Sunday (her due date March 27) I was pretty miserable, but pains were still irregular. They were pretty strong so we decided we should go to the hospital and have things checked out. When we got there the nurse said I was only dilated to a 2 - I about died! All that time and only a 2! The nurse called Dr. Williams and he said for me to "walk the halls" for awhile. That was at about 9am. My fourth child and I had to walk the halls!! Dr. Williams came to check me at about 10am. The baby was posterior (face-up) and so he pulled on the uterus a bit so it wasn't pressing down on the bone. That hurt a bit, but was worth it as it got my pains coming more steadily.

We got settled in a labor room. Pains were 5 minutes apart by noon and dilation was slow. I was pretty worn out. Posterior births usually do take long. Finally at about 3:45pm Dr. Williams came in and said "Oh, let's get this baby born!" I could have kissed him. He broke my water and we moved into the delivery room. He gave me a series of shots for the episiotomy. I was pushing and having a hard time. It seemed she just didn't want to come out! Dr. Williams turned her as she was being born. [at 4:21pm] I was so thrilled just to have her born- but then especially thrilled as we saw she was a girl. The total labor from Sunday AM was about 7 hours. She weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces and was 22 inches long. A doll! I went home the next morning. The boys were so thrilled - wanting to hold her constantly! It was such fun to dress her and put bows in her hair. Girls are so fun! We're so pleased! 3 boys and a girl - Couldn't have done it better if we had planned it!!