On Tuesday, January 31st, I had my 39 week appointment for Jelly Bean. I didn't know what to expect since I had never been pregnant this long. Jayce was born just after 37 weeks and I was 39.5w at this appointment. I knew my (new since Jayce) doctor would be wanting to schedule an induction around 41 weeks. At the appointment, I was still 2cm dialated and 75% effaced. The effacement was a 25% increase from the past 2 weeks. That was the only change though. After my appointment, I knew I had to try all the old wives tales about how to naturally induce labor. I started to use my breast pump at night, sex, and Jerome even found accu-pressure points to try while massaging my ankle/feet swelling.
On Friday morning, February 3rd, I woke up at 7:30am to go to the bathroom before Jerome left for work. When I got up to change, water kept randomly leaking down my legs. I called for Jerome, who was apparently opening the front door to leave for work. Thankfully, he heard me and came back to check on me. The leaking wouldn't stop and we knew that Jelly Bean would be making an entrance at 39 weeks 6 days! At 8am, Jayce woke up like normal. Jerome was able to get him up, dressed, and fed. By 8:30am, my contractions had officially started! We were in the car by 9am heading to my parents house. They live 5 minutes from the hospital that we were delivering in this time. Since we live outside of Houston now, we didn't want to risk the possibility of traffic when I was in labor. From 9:30am to noon, I labored at their home with Jerome. A sweet "little sister" came over to watch me labor, learn for her upcoming delivery, and take pictures of the process for us. When I would sit on an exercise ball, my water would continue to gush out. However, I felt more progress in the contractions when I was standing up. I leaned over the bar counter when contractions were getting more intense.
At noon, we left Jayce at the house with my dad. That was such a hard thing for me: leaving my baby knowing that his world was about to change and he wasn't going to be my baby any more. My mom drove Jerome & I to the hospital while C.K. followed. When we were on the way, Jerome was able to text a friend from high school who is an L&D nurse at our hospital. She was free and put herself in our room! I was so thankful to have a friendly face in the delivery room. My doctor left that morning to get away from the Super Bowl craziness! When we got to the hospital, I was measured at 5cm dilated and 90% effaced. I was so thankful change was happening! My SIL arrived soon after bringing the one thing we forgot, our printed birth plan for everyone to see. Jerome and I walked around the room to help my contractions progress me even farther. Every time I sat on the birthing ball, my water continued to gush! I hit transition around 2pm. The contractions were so intense, I needed to lay down in the bed. I couldn't deal with them and try to stand at the same time. We got a peanut birthing ball and put it between my legs while I laid on my side. Jerome was amazing the entire time and kept reminding me to breathe through my contractions instead of fight them. Every time, I said, "I just want to hold my baby." Jerome would keep reminding me that the harder I worked, the sooner I could hold my baby.
Around 2:45pm, the on call doctor came to check on me. My nurse/friend had her check me because she couldn't tell if I was fully dilated or not. The doctor said I was 9.5cm and pretty much fully dilated. She had an appointment up in the office so she chose to leave and come back after the appointment. I heard my nurse tell Jerome she didn't think I would make it that long. She thought pushing was coming soon. Sure enough, within 5 minutes or so of the doctor leaving, I was screaming through contractions begging to push. They called the doctor back down to my room. I begged to push again and she said "I'd love for you to push." I was so thrilled!! It was right around 3pm when I was allowed to start pushing Jelly Bean. I was holding onto the bed rails, pulling my head back, and screaming through the pain. Unfortunately, this is not ideal. I found out later that it was causing Jelly Bean's heartbeat to go from the 120s to the 80s. My nurse & Jerome had my feet but she encouraged me to grab my thighs to help push through the contractions. As soon as I did that, progress REALLY started. I could tell Jelly Bean was getting closer every contraction. It was maybe 3-4 good contractions (3 10 second pushes each) later that I saw my baby's face....and a blue cord around her neck. I immediately started praying that he/she was ok and then I heard a cry. I was in shock that the cord wasn't affecting my baby very much. Jerome leaned to me and said "It's a girl" through tears.
During one of my last pushes, I felt Jelly Bean stop being pulled out. I found out later it was when her shoulders had just come out. The cord was wrapped around her neck and they stopped her progress to unwrap the cord. That's when they saw it was wrapped around a second time. That's what I saw when she was being lifted up. They were able to remove it quickly that it didn't affect her breathing for very long; hence, why I heard her cry so soon after I saw it.
Our sweet Averi Joy entered this world at 3:27pm on Friday, February 3rd, 2017. She weighed 8 pounds even and was 21 3/4 inches long. Jayce came and met his little sister around 5pm. He wasn't sure about her at all. However, after we moved to the recovery room and everyone was holding her, Jayce wanted his turn to hold "Ave-ee." Around 6pm, we were a family of 4 in pictures. I couldn't believe how sweet of a big brother Jayce already was.
