Heaven sent...

Piper Jane Joncas

October 21, 2011

8:48am

8 pounds 20 1/2 inches

On to the story...

It is no secret that the last few weeks of pregnancy are hard. I hadn't made any progress in the last 3 weekly appointments and was feeling discouraged. Along with some dissatisfaction with my Dr I was pretty beat. I went in on Thursday afternoon to an appointment and met with another doctor in the same office because mine was gone for 2 weeks. He was great and was on board with me wanting to get induced asap. I was 39 weeks 2 days and ready for a baby. He suggested stripping my membranes to see if that would help, I said sure. I have had some friends who had suggested doing it and had success so I was willing to try. When he went to do it he said I was already very soft and dilated to a 3. Yay! That was nice to hear. He said if that didn't work then he would see me bright and early Sunday morning.

That night Lee came over to watch the kids and I went out on a looong walk. I had a few contractions while I was walking but nothing huge. Jer was so sweet. He kept calling and texting me to see how I was. I kept telling him I was fine and we would probably be going in on Sunday so not to worry. After Lee left I took a relaxing dip in the tub and then went to bed.

Jeremiah came home from work around 1:30 and brought me some jalapeno poppers. My guilty pleasure. He brought them home a week or two ago and it made her go crazy inside of me. He gave them to me and told me he thought they would make me go into labor cause she would go crazy again. I laugh and said no I felt fine but would eat them anyway. We went to sleep and I started getting contractions around 2:30. I started timing them around 3:30 and they were consistently 10-12 min apart. Laine had a bad dream and I went into tuck her back in and went to the restroom. I pasted a huge mucus plug, fyi I will spare none of the dirty details here. I was so glad to be on the potty for that. I got up and laid down intending to wake up Jer and get things going but the contractions stopped. I was disappointed. They were gone for about 30 min until Laine had another bad dream and Jer took care of her. I sat up and they came back full force. Jer came in I told him I didn't think he would be going to work that today. He insisted on calling Lee and getting her down here as soon as she could come. I didn't want to rush things but he called her and I took a shower. The hot shower relaxed my body which was nice but it also brought my contractions harder and faster. Needless to say I was really glad he had called Lee and she was nearly there.

By the time we got in the car they were getting really hard. We stopped at a light during one and all I could do was breath through it and at the end I wiped my eyes and realized that I just had tears running down my face because of the pain. We made it up to the OB triage and they started to get me all check in. Finally the nurse realised that I wasn't even answering her questions because my contractions where so painful and coming so fast. She checked me and her eyes got all wide and she says you are at an 8. She hollered out the curtain to page the anesthetist, doctor and to get the room ready quick. Then she rolled me on my side and said not to move so my water wouldn't break. I turned and looked at Jer and not going to lie, I was feeling pretty panicky. An 8 is pretty far along and I was so not prepared to deal with the pain I was feeling. He looked concerned and looked about as anxious as I felt. 

They wheeled me into a labor room and it became a buzz with people getting things ready as fast as possible so I could get and epidural. I honestly don't remember too much of this time. I was just trying to get through the contractions. Jer was worried I might rip someones head off, I am sure that from his perspective it seemed like a valid point. Finally they got every thing in order for the epidural to be put in. I was worried with the amount of pain I was in that I would move or they would have problems putting it in and I would be out of luck. So I put my head down and starting to breath really deep and concentrated on not moving. I must have done a good job because soon the nurses were wondering if I had passed out. Thank goodness for the epidural doctor. He was awesome and got it in really quick and gave me a huge dose of medicine. It took about 5 minutes for some relief to come. They checked me again and said I was just about a 10 but that since my water hadn't broke I could wait for the epidural to take full affect before I started pushing.

We waited about 20 minutes for it to work and then I felt like I wanted to push. I pushed for about 20 minuets and she was so very close to coming but in between every contraction she would go back in a bit. So rather than tear she made a small cut and she all but flew out of me. She came out crying and beautiful. We had 4 names we were tossing around but right when I saw her I knew she was a Piper.

They put her straight on me skin to skin and there she stayed for about an hour. She nursed on both sides and latched on so well. She is a nursing pro, hopefully that trend continues. That was such a neat hour for me. Both Bode and Laine were cleaned up and weighed before I really got to look them over. It was so sweet to have that time with her.

The rest of our hospital stay was pretty routine. The rooms where nice and I like all my nurses. We had friends and family come and visit in the evening and the consensuses was the she looks just like a "Joncas Baby". Rather than rush home the next morning I asked if I could stay a bit longer and ended up coming home around 7 last night. It was just so nice to spend undivided attention on her and test a bit.

It was so fun when Jer brought Bode and Laine into see Piper.  I heard them out in the hall and I got so excited to have my whole family in the same room for the first time.  Laine and Bode we genuinely excited to meet her. Laine wanted to hold her right away. Bode was more of a look don't touch kind of visitor. That evening after the kids got home my little sister stayed overnight to watch them. She tuck Bode in and she said "Bode, you have 2 sisters!" He rolled over and said "yeah, wish I had 100 brothers". Sorry bud, two sisters might be it. He really likes her though. He likes to be close to her and call her Piper Jane.

She has been such a sweet, content little baby so far. She caught on to nursing very fast. She looks just like a "Joncas Baby" but still her own little person. I thought Laine had hair but I was wrong. Piper has SO much hair! All over her head. I love having a fresh new baby to snuggle. We all love having her here and are ready to get to know her.