Let me start with giving you a little bit of background. Throughout the second and third trimesters, I seemed to have high blood pressure at almost every doctors visit so I had to be monitored three times to test for stress. Whenever we were monitored, my blood pressure and the baby's heart rate were perfect. But I was always concerned I may need to be induced if my blood pressure were actually high. Also, I had been dilated between 3.5 to 4 for over a month. Because this is considered unusual for a first pregnancy, our doctor believed that I could go into labor any day in the beginning of November. But weeks came by with basically no change so I began to believe I would probably need to be induced. I continued to work full time and wasn't worried about going in to labor. I hadn't had any contractions and was feeling fine. In fact, on November 28th, I worked from 7:30am to 11:30am (15.5 hours) and I didn't have any contractions!
On the 29th, I woke up at 6:08am and was having some pretty terrible cramping. I woke Peter at 6:30am because I thought I might be in labor- even though my contractions weren't at all what I was expecting. Let me say I did a lot of googling that morning to make sure I could be in labor. I was in denial about being in labor because there were a few things I wanted to do over the weekend before the baby's due date. I did my hair and we tidied up our apartment. We called our doctor and the photographer around 7:30am and we continued to try to get in contact with my sister and dad. We left our home around 8:10am after I decided the pain was intolerable.
We arrived at the hospital at 8:30am. Peter dropped me off at the women's center and he went to park the car. A member of their janitorial staff, a really sweet woman, asked what she could do to help and opened the doors for me. She took me to the front desk and the front desk staff talked me into getting a wheel chair and wheeled me over to labor and deliver. Peter got there soon after I did.
I was blessed with the best nurse! The first thing she asked me is if I wanted to have the baby naturally or not. I told her that I was hoping to have the baby naturally and she said, "Well, you're talking to the right lady. I've had all four of my children naturally and you're going to do it too!" I definitely wasn't expecting to have a nurse like that- what a tender mercy! I was already dilated to a 7 and she showed Peter how to do counter pressure on my knees to make the contractions less painful. I'm serious when I say that I could not have had the baby medication-free without the counter pressure that Peter was putting on my knees. Our doctor arrived and our photographer too. Within 40 minutes after our arrival, I was dilated to a 10 and then they got me ready to push. In the third round of pushes, I thought I was about to pass out. The doctor noticed the babies heart rate was decreasing and so they put an oxygen mask on me. I pushed for about 20 minutes and our beautiful baby boy entered the world at 9:47am. He is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to us! We named him Pierce Richard Jones. Pierce is my maiden name and Richard is Peter's middle name.
One thing that is interesting is that I did get some major Petechia on my face and shoulders from pushing so hard. When I first saw my face after having Pierce, I thought that somehow blood had splattered on my face or I was having an allergic reaction to something. My doctor tested my platelets and those levels were fine so it was just from prolonged straining in childbirth.
Here are the pictures Jena took. I honestly cried the first time I saw them because they capture the moments so perfectly. We feel really blessed to have had such a great doctor, nurse, and that Jena was able to be there on time to take these pictures. I was also so grateful that Dorey and my Dad were able to get there so quickly. :)
