{A Baby's Story: MJ's Arrival}

It all started on Thursday, October 21st. I was feeling very uncomfortable and hadn't felt MJ move at all and was contracting and called my OB and wanted to find out where they wanted me to go, (mind you I had gone in earlier that week, Monday to be exact for my regular appointment). They sent me into Labor & Delivery, of course they hooked me up to the monitors and yep I was contracting every 2-6 minuets and as soon as they put the heart monitor on MJ she started moving like crazy. They checked me and my cervix was only a finger tip wide and was high up and still thick and long. Soon they sent me home because there was no change and there was no point in me being there.

I was still contracting when they let me go but my cervix had no change. I felt like I had just wasted their time but at least I knew that MJ was doing well. I couldn't really sleep well that night as the contractions started to come closer and stronger.

I waited until my OB office opened in the morning and called and asked them what I should do. Of course they told me to head into Labor and Delivery again. I was feeling a bit crazy as I figured they were going to find no change and I would be sent home again and I would just be taking up space.

I decided to take the kids out to McDonald's for lunch and let them play and get out some energy since they didn't have school that day due to parent teacher conferences. Afterwards I decided I better go to the hospital just to be on the safe side, hoping they would do a quick ultra sound to find out where MJ was positioned in my tummy.

So I went into the Maternity ward and got all hooked up to their monitors and soon they checked my cervix and guess what, I was dilated 2 cm so they kept monitoring me and soon my contractions were slowing down and so they checked me again. I was dilated 3 to 4 cm and they could feel my bag of water but MJ's head wasn't engaged, it was just floating or hovering above the cervix, (which was still high and fairly thick, it had thinned a bit but not a ton).

The nurse was surprised and said I must be a silent dilator, that comment made me laugh. My doctor came in about 8 pm and checked me again. I was dilated to about 5 cm and my bag of water was very prominent but MJ still wasn't engaged, they did a quick ultrasound and found out that there was a gap of fluid between MJ and the opening to my cervix.

I was given the option of trying to go natural which could possibly end in a prolapsed cord and hard labor since she wasn't in the right position and it could end in an emergency c-section or we could just do a c-section. Well I opted for doing the c-section because I figured the risk was too great to go naturally.

I was supposed to have a spinal drug so that I would be awake but unfortunately that just didn't work and needed to be put under, (which was a blessing in disguise). The c-section took a bit longer because she was curled up all funky and up really high. Once my belly was cut her hand, foot & head came out all at once but then she straitened up and got herself all stuck and they had to cut my cervix for a second time (kinda like the letter "X") and it took 4 doctors to pull her out and get her unstuck. They had to not only pull and yank on her but they also had to use the suction on her to help so when I saw her for the first time her feet were all bruised up and she had a slight bruise on her head. I am glad I was asleep thru all that since they were pretty brutal with my body.

Myrna Joy was born October 22nd at 10:01pm and weighed 8lbs 12ozs and was 19 3/4" long with a head circumference of 14 1/4". She has dark hair and I think she is going to have her daddy's eyes instead of the varing shades of blue that the other kids have...I forgot how tiny babies could be, she is so tiny and perfect, but then again I am biast.

I made it back home Monday afternoon. Due to my body being brutalized during the c-section and having my tubes tied I am super sore and so happy I can have some pain medication. I am walking around but have to temper it with keeping my feet up as they are swelling like crazy.

Anywho, that's the birth story for MJ. The images thru out here were taken on my cell phone and I do have others on my regular camera but those haven't been downloaded to my computer. Enjoy! I promise to have more images up soon. I just need to get my energy up.