Introducing Jessie Nicole Hardy. (Birth Story)

Jessie is one week old! I need to get going on this birth story..

Let's just start out by saying women who go unmedicated during child birth just for the 'experience' are absolutely crazy. Needless to say.. The epidural rocked my world. (Insert rock on sign here)

It all started about three thirty a.m on Sunday morning (6/26/11) I got this pain in my back that woke me from a wonderful sleep. It felt like someone was popping my back or even punching me. I laid there for a minute thinking to myself, "Could this be it?" I was hoping that I would feel another pain. I remember thinking.. 'Bring it on.' After laying there hoping not to be disappointed for ten minutes along came another. I tapped Cody and he shot out of bed. He was ready. We waited for a few more contractions and grabbed our hospital bag (it was packed and by the door) and left for St. George. I felt as if I might just die during contractions but when I wasn't having one I could do this all day. Hahaha. I'm glad there was a break between them to give me the umph for the next one. My contractions went for ten minutes apart to three-four minutes apart on the way there. With this being my first labor I was scared we wouldn't make it to the hospital so my hubby drove fast.

When we got to the hospital they took me into a room and checked me. They said I would be staying and was five plus centimeters dilated and pretty much completely thinned out. They asked me if I was wanting an unmedicated labor. I responded with a "Heck no" and asked when I would be able to get some medication. They told me that they had to get some water pumped into me first. So off we went to another room. They got the iv in me very fast and got water going to me. I was doing good. I thought that I would be ok if I just kept breathing. The nurse left the room and I looked at Cody and told him that this was not too horrible and I was expecting worse. Not even one minuted later I started to gag and throw up. I threw up all over my gown and bed. That Costco cake from the night before was much better the first time I tasted it. My mom came shortly after I got into a new gown and they changed the sheets on my bed. Dr. Astel came in and broke my water before I got the epidural. HOLY COW. The contractions after this were unbearable. I seriously was panicking because I did not think I could do this now. Thank goodness Dr. Lynn came right away. He was the Dr. that gave me my epidural. He did a great job and I hardly felt anything. After this I laid down and relaxed, visited with family, and waited. They checked me a couple more times and I was soon fully dilated. They wanted to let the baby come down on her own so we waited a little longer before we started to push. I pushed from about an hour and our sweet little one came at 1:35 pm weighing in at 8lbs 9oz and 21 inches long. When I first seen her I was in shock. I think that it finally had his me that I was pregnant and there REALLY was something inside me. She was perfect and I couldn't believe that she was here. When the nurses were cleaning her up they noticed that she had a tooth. It hadn't broken though but they said that it wasn't uncommon and they have seen it before. Both of our families were there to hold her. We got moved to our new room and settled in. I had noticed earlier that she was breathing kind of funny. And when she started coughing up weird fluids I called a nurse in. They took her to the nursery to suction her out some more. They said they would be back in a few minutes. Twenty minutes went by and they still weren't back. I started to get worried. Then a nurse practitioner came in and told us that they needed to take the baby to the nicu. My heart stopped. With all the shows I watch I knew that the nicu was for sick babies. I was so scared. She told me what was going on and that the Dr. was going to be coming in to talk to us. When he came he told us that he thought she either had fluid in her lungs still or she had an infection in her body somewhere. They were going to be doing tests on her and we would know more in 24-48 hours. We then went down to the nicu to see her. Seeing my baby with an iv in her little foot and oxygen up her nose broke my heart. I just cried and cried and cried some more. I was so worried that there was more wrong than we could imagine and didn't know what to do for her. I was felt so useless. She had monitors that were hooked up to her that kept beeping and blinking that stressed me out beyond belief. It was now one a.m. We fed her and went back to our room. It killed me not being able to take her with me to our room. And it was not fun hearing a babies cry in the rooms around us. The nurses in the nicu were awesome and helped with whatever they could. We were there for four days while our little one was on antibiotics and having tests done to make sure the inflammation was going down. It was a long four days with lots of tests and blood work. She has little scabs all over her feet from being poked. I got released the second day that we were there, but since I was breast feeding they let us board at the hospital for free. It was so nice to be able to stay there. The room we got wasn't much. Just a couch with a pull out bed and a bathroom, but we are so grateful.

On Monday Glen and Shirlee came up and Cody and Glen gave Jessie a blessing. I'm so grateful for the priesthood and to have it in my home and all around me with neighbors friends and family. It is such a wonderful blessing in my life.

On Wednesday night they did a test to make sure that her inflammation had gone down. And thankfully it had. We spoke to the Dr. on Thursday morning and he told us that we would be going home. We were so happy!! We had to watch a few educational baby videos and then we could go home. We got home Thursday afternoon. We are so grateful to be home and to have a healthy happy baby. We love her so much and are so glad she is part of our little family.. Even if she does keep us up at night.;) So for now we are just enjoying being home changing poopy diapers, feedings, spit ups, with out any monitors going off or nurses to tell us to go back to our room and rest.
We love our Jessie Girl!:)