1.29.2007

Here I come - ready or not!!

Judah Spencer James Morris
January 27th, 2007
6:03 pm
5lbs 14oz
His first picture - taken moments after birth by his proud daddy
Such a sad picture - all those wires and tubes! This was Saturday night, most of the wires were taken off Sunday morning.

Daddy and Judah's first cuddle

Mummy and Judah's first cuddle



Judah bubbling


He's got the cutest head of hair!

Daddy holding Judah

Daddy changing Judah's first diaper


His birth story

Saturday, January 27th, 2007 (I was 35 weeks along) I woke up at 8 am because something was leaking down my leg. I thought nothing of it and got up to use the bathroom. The leaking was slow but constant, and it didn’t stop, and I couldn’t hold it in. Thinking it could be that my water had broke I got online to Google it and ask a couple of online friends what they thought. From my description of it I was told it sounded like it and that I should call the hospital. Knowing the hospital would just tell me to go in I decided I should probably find someone who would be able to drive me to the hospital – Paul was an hour and a half away working, and he wasn’t answering his phone! I ended up calling Tammy, one of the ladies from the church here that I have known for three weeks! She got to the apartment quickly and brought me to the hospital. At this point Paul knew I was going in to be checked out.


The doctor examined me and told me that my water had broken and I wouldn’t be leaving the hospital without delivering!! I was excited – but not able to get a hold of Paul!! I kept calling him, and others from the church tried calling him. He was finally able to call me back and when he told the Sgt what was going on he was told he could come back here – two of the guys at work were told to drive him back – the driver being a professional race car driver!


While all this was going on Tammy was still with me, and another lady, Ashley, joined us, and a little after that another new friend – Jamie- joined us too! My body wasn’t doing contractions, and the doctors were trying to find my medical charts in order to figure out what to do about cutting out the cerclage, so I had everyone play a game with me.


Paul got to the hospital about 1:00pm, and our friends left soon after that. At this point I wasn’t quite 1 cm dilated, and there were still no contractions.


At 2:45 the doctors came in to cut out my stitch, it came out without any problems, and once it was cut I was measured at 3cm dilated.


At 3:15 they decided to give me Pitocin in an IV to encourage the contractions. The contractions started soon after that. Ouch! I had opted to try this without any pain medication, and there was definitely a lot of pain throughout all the contractions! My nurse had told me that when she’d had her babies (twenty years ago) she hadn’t had anything, so I asked her if she would be encouraging and supportive of me – that I needed positive people to help me get through it.


At 5:40 the nurse came in and asked me how I was feeling. I told her – through clenched teeth and with great effort – that it hurt. She said to tell her like I was mad, with a lot of emotion how I felt. At that moment the baby dropped, and I seriously yelled at my nurse and told her “I FEEL LIKE I AM GOING TO POOP!” I think she actually laughed out loud at me over that comment.


The nurse called the doctors into the room – there were so many people in there! In the end I had four doctors, two med students, three nurses and two or three student nurses. (And that was just for me, Judah had four or five different doctors/nurses that came in right after he was born!)


At 5:45 I was told to start pushing. To think… I had thought contractions hurt!! My contractions didn’t last long – only 30 seconds – but they were making me push even when there weren’t contractions as the baby’s heartbeat was slow and they were concerned. I surprised myself as I yelled and screamed throughout most of the pushing (my throat hurt for the next eight hours!) I kept telling them it was too hot in there and asking them to just give me a break and that I couldn’t do it anymore. The doctor told me that they were going to get forceps to pull the baby out if I wouldn’t push. Later on my nurse told me that I yelled a loud “No, no! I’ll do it. I’ll push.” Minutes later Judah came out – it was 6:03. I had only pushed for 18 minutes!! I was so sure I had been pushing and screaming forever! I got a five second glance at my baby before they took him to NICU.


I ended up with second degree tearing, which they stitched closed. They kept telling me that they were using a numbing “stick” – I presumed they meant a Popsicle stick type thing. I didn’t pay much attention to them, but when they told me that they were using it for the last time (about the seventh time they’d used it!) I decided to look and see what they were doing. When I saw the needle (aka “the numbing stick”) I screamed. One of the doctors asked me what was wrong. I told her I’d just seen the needle. She looked shocked and told me that they’d been using it over and over again. I told her she’d always told me it was a stick, that seeing it was a needle startled me. She laughed at me and told me that was the highlight of her day.


At 9:00pm they took me down to the NICU and I got to really look at Judah for the first time. I wasn’t allowed to hold him though, and he was covered in wires and tubes, so there wasn’t much to touch, or really even see. We didn’t stay with him long – it was so hard seeing our little boy with all these things poking into him and to not be able to hold him. I was taken to my recovery room shortly after 9. I was pretty miserable and cried a lot, just missing the baby. At 12am Paul fell asleep, but I wasn’t able to. So at 1:30am I woke him up and asked if he would take me down to NICU to see Judah. He kindly took me down (and then left me there, he hadn’t had much sleep the last 48 hours because of his work schedule!) I stayed with Judah for the next two hours, just sitting beside him. The nurse let me help with washing him, but I still wasn’t allowed to hold him. I finally went back to my room and eventually fell asleep.


Sunday morning he was taken off the oxygen and we were able to hold him for the first time. He still had IVs and other tubes and wires attached to him, but at least we could be near him!

13 comments:

Crystal said...

Yay!!! Congrats!! He's so beautiful. I love the picture of Paul holding him. It made my eyes water. Soo sweet.

WTG mom, for pushing for only 18 mins! Wow! You're my idol! ;o)

I hope he gets better really soon and is able to go home where he belongs.

Congrats again! (((HUGS)))

Anonymous said...

this is caleb, and.... WHOOOHOOO! ya! uh, ya, so wooot! i ussually just thought that all babies were esseintially into 2 differents sections the ugly ones, and the not-so ugly ones. your baby made a new section. the gorgious ones. honestly, this is probably the first baby that i have actually thougth was sincerly cute. the other ones just managed to not be ugly, and then everyone says it looks cute, but yours is actually cute. so, ya.
im gonna look forward to being an uncle, but try to get jude to call me caleb... or cale or something... no uncle prefix, k?...
ps... i can no longer refer to you as my VPS, or make cracks about your big belly... all that joke fodder... and, you now have to face the fact that your forgeting suff is cuz your old, and not becuase you have a baby... haha :P :D

Essie said...

He's so cute!!! I can't wait to see him!!!
Auntie Essie:)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Jessica!
Congratulations! I'm glad that everything seemed to go pretty well and I'm glad that there were people that were with you until Paul could get there. When you say Jamie, do you mean Jamie from the chapel? Just curious.
Anyway, would you mind if we stopped by Wednesday to drop off a couple things for the baby? We could bring lunch as well if you would like - and banana bread. :)
Let me know if that's alright. E-mail or facebook are fine.
Again congratulations!!!
*~*--Holly--*~*

Anonymous said...

He is so cute, congratulations to both of you. Now I will try to take these pictures off for my used. We love you and are praying for God to put much strength into wee Judah. I like the names.

Great, great aunt Polly

Anonymous said...

Hey Paully,

Congrats your little man is very cute. I'm so happy for you guys. luv ya Amanda Zahra (Narramore)

Unknown said...

Hey Jess!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! That is SO exciting! (And you're so quick to post pictures complete with the whole story!) :)
I had a friend deliver this past week, and she was in labor for about 36 hours... yikes! Not to make the 18 minutes seem like a breeze, but I'm glad it was a quick delivery!
I hope this new chapter of your life as a mother now is filled with pictures of how God is our Father/parent, and that your little Judah grows up to be a man of God!
Way to go Jess! I'm so happy for you! :)
Laura Wahab

Anonymous said...

I am so happy for you
despite the wires and tubes your baby is absolutely gorgeous!!
The picture of you holding him is beautiful
I am so happy for you

I can feel your joy!! Reading your birth story is like reliving my own experiences with my son

Congratulations Again!!!

Rebecca :)

Anonymous said...

Jessica and Paul:

Goodness, he is so beautiful -- and good job to both of you for getting there and for being so strong in these first few really hard days.

I can't wait till you are all 3 home and snuggled in!

Congratulations!

Jeanie from Crosswalk

Becki said...

So exciting! And you tell the story so well. I love your details! :-)

I'm praying for him, and you, too.
Love,
Becki (an adoring auntie!)

Bethany said...

I can't believe it! I was so shocked when I came to your site and saw you had your baby! Congratulations and may God bless your little family! He's adorable :)

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