Happy Birthday Jessie!!!!

Ever since my friend Bree wrote about her birth experience on her blog for her son’s first birthday, I’ve been thinking about what a good idea it was. I always wanted to write down Jamie’s story while I still remembered it (maybe I will for her sixth birthday). However, today is Jessie Rachel Choun’s first birthday and today’s blog will be how we first met.

The date was April 17th 2008. The time was about 5am and Jeff and I where arriving at the hospital. This was a scheduled delivery and we walked with a purpose to the nurse’s station. I lead the way since I had already walked this path a couple days before so I would not be lost in the hospital at 5 am in the morning. I was there in my jeans and my favorite purple hoody with enough adrenaline to keep me going at such an early hour. It annoyed me how everyone was so perfectly calm and I was buzzing with nervousness. Fast forward a bit and we where in a hospital bed with all the monitoring equipment hooked up and they took their turns poking me full of holes for their tests. I was a bit nervous with the one who was learning what she was doing. This was going to be her first I.V. Lucky me! It went just fine. The experience in general wasn’t doing a thing to calm my nerves. Jeff is smiling at me in his bunny suit wondering why I’m so nervous. I’m terrified of the idea that they are going to be cutting open my gut and I watched way to many of those maternity shows where everything goes horribly wrong (before it gets fixed).

My doctor shows up and her smile is reassuring. It’s a good sign when your surgeon is perfectly calm. She looks at my contractions chart and makes the comment “ whew, I guess it’s a good thing we have you in now”. This comment perplexed me since the contractions I was having seemed like the same ones I had been having for awhile.

I’m taken to the table for surgery. The anesthesiologist
is preparing my spinal block. I’m shaking uncontrollably. They get me a blanket. The anesthesiologist starts to insert the needle. This is hurting way more than last time. They ask me to breath through the pain. The pain becomes more then I can bear. He asks me to describe the pain and with no exaggeration I describe it as a baseball bat slamming in to my spine. He takes the needle out and tries again. Much better this time. There is some nervousness going around because now we have a time limit and the second surgeon hasn’t arrived. After everyone running in and out my Dr. says she is going to start anyway. The incision is made (didn’t feel anything). They start pulling her out and everything above the numbness is burning pain. I let them know (I had no choice). It hurts, it hurts. The anesthesiologist sends something in to my IV. Still hurts. Something more goes in to my IV and so it continues. Jeff later tells me that the dr. had to make a larger incision when she couldn’t get the baby out. I heard nothing in my pain. The dr. pulls her out and shows her to me. Her beauty and the way she looks at me is amazing and all is right with the world. Jeff and the baby head out together.

I’m now in the recovery area. I’m still in to much pain to unclench my jaw to speak. I’m nodding and making utterances. I can’t even think about the baby, especially since I know she’s being taken care of. During timed increments they are able to give me more pain medications. About 30 minutes to an hour later I am comfortable and all the pain is behind me. I held her all the way to our room and didn’t let go for months.

Jessie was a healthy 8lbs 10oz (almost twice as big as her sister). She did develop jaundice. We had to stay an extra day and she underwent constant light therapy for a week. She was out little glo worm. Just like her sister she nursed with ease and they told me to do it as often as she wanted to clear up the jaundice. She wanted to nurse a lot. I wonder if I had nursed Jamie more often if she would have been less fussy. Eh, new moms.

Four days later we went home. I could have stayed longer. Jeff’s mom stayed with us for a week to help absorb Jamie’s energy, which helped a ton. My parents also helped a lot and provided food. Thanks to all my friends who came to visit, it was great to see everyone. Nice this time the guys weren’t inching for the door and Nathan wasn’t green . ; )

Update: Not much has changed in this area. Jessie can stand up in the middle of the room and just stand there and she can walk while holding on to stuff, but we're not walking yet. Talking? I think we are still pretty much on the same words.. bye-bye, hi, up She talks all day though in her babble, which I love. She really loves her solid foods. She has been promoted to the big girl table at school and is doing really well with it (no longer a high chair). I've started adding whole milk to her sippy cup and will gradually increase it until it's all whole milk. Jessie is drinking from a sippy, since the bottle thing didn't really work out. She drinks about 3 oz from it her whole day in school. Most kids in that group will take at least that amount every few hours. Though, I'm happy to get what I get. When we go for our one year dr. visit I will give an update on the stats.