We're Home!

Yesterday the doctors decided to send us home. They had originally told us that we were going to have to stay until Monday morning but since both Mommy and Jordyn were doing so well they decided to send us home yesterday afternoon. I was a little apprehensive about going home and having no nurses to assist us but so far it's been great. I have been recuperating nicely and can sit down and get back up by myself. Jordyn is doing great as well. Breastfeeding has been going well although we've had to also supplement formula since my milk has yet to come in. We got a pretty good rest last night as well. She went to bed at 12, got up from 2-4, slept again until 7:30 and slept again from 9-11:30. She has now been fed once again and Wayne and I are both working on cleaning up before she is hungry again. Thank you for all the prayers, emails and calls. We are so overwhelmed but the beautiful baby girl that God has given to us and love to show her off through pictures and hopefully we'll post a short video soon. She had her picture taken at the hospital yesterday and so we've posted the pictures below. She was the biggest baby born that day by almost a pound, and she was definitely the prettiest!

Pictures!!

We have already had many requests to post pictures and since the hospital has wireless we are able to do so. There aren't many pics because Jordyn looks the same in all of them, she's either sleeping, crying or eating but we have tried to post quite a few for you to enjoy and I'm sure we'll be posting more shortly. If the slideshow goes to fast or you want to look at a picture more quickly just click on the picture and a new page will load where you can see all the pics at your own pace. If you are unable to view the slideshow just click on this link http://picasaweb.google.com/wayates74/JordynAriannaYates/photo#5100227595338953650 and you will be able to view the pictures one at a time. Enjoy!!

Birth Story

Jordyn Arianna Yates

8 lbs 9 oz

21.25 inches

Born August 17, 2007 11:50 pm

We had a really long and hard labor experience to get our beautiful baby girl and we thought we would share it with you to the minute details.

6:00
Wake up and call the hospital to see what time we need to show up to be induced. They told us to show up at 7:30.
8:00
We arrived at Virginia Baptist Hospital...a little late.
9:00
Receive an IV with both fluids and pitocin to start the labor.
9:50
The nurse came in to check on me and asked me if I had been having contractions yet. I said no but she looked at my chart and told me that maybe I hadn't felt them but I had been having contractions for 45 minutes already. I had just thought that was Jordyn pushing on my belly. I guess it wasn't.
10:00
Since I now knew what they felt like I had my felt my first contraction at this time.
10:12
Dr. Kidd came in and broke my water to start speeding up the contractions.
11:00
The contractions began to be pretty intense but I stayed strong and avoided the pain medication.
2:00
After 4 hours of labor I was still 5 cm dilated, 60% effaced and -2 station which is what I was before I even started labor. I couldn't believe that after 4 hours of pain nothing had progressed. That's when I asked for medication.
2:15
Received pain medication through the IV.
2:55
After two vials of pain medication and no relief I received an epidural and went right to sleep.
3:40
While I was still sleeping the doctor came in and checked my cervix. I was now 7 cm dilated, 90% effaced and 0 station. She also inserted a catheter for measuring contractions.
5:50
I finally woke up after a much needed nap.
6:25
I was almost completely dilated and about ready to push.
6:55
The room was setup for delivery for our soon to be born daugher.
7:15
I was now fully dilated and made my first push attempt, the only problem being that because of the epidural I had no feeling and the pushing wasn't succesful.
7:40
Second push attempt after the epidural was dialed down. I still didn't have much feeling so it was also pretty much unsuccesful.
8:30-10:30
Pushing 4 sets of 10 seconds during every contraction which occured about every minute and a half. I only took a break during two contractions but every other one I pushed through.
10:30
Dr. Kidd evaluated me and said that despite two hours of pushing the baby had not progressed any farther down and so my pushing had been futile. She told us that if we didn't have the baby further down in the next hour a Cesarean was inevitable.
11:30
After another grueling hour of pushing, not pushing, crying and changing positions a lot Dr. Kidd evaluated me again. I had now progressed from 0 station to +2 station which was a success but not good enough. I was completely swollen and she told us the baby had to come out right away. We had two options, Cesarean or to use the vaccumn. After listening to the options and scenarios we chose to use the vaccumn.
11:50
After Dr. Kidd prepped, inserted the vaccumn and the most painful two pushes Jordyn Arianna was born to the sound of Mommy screaming and Daddy crying.

Jordyn received an Apgar score of 8 at one minute and 9 at five minutes which is wonderful. She laid on her table on the warming light barely crying and mostly looking around while I received many stitches for a third degree tear I received while delivering Jordyn. Finally after about 45 minutes I felt good enough to hold her. It was unreal. After more prodding, pushing and tests we were finally sent to our room at 3 am. It was hard to send her to the nursery overnight but Wayne and I desperately needed our sleep and so we sent her off and slept through the rest of the night.

Today she has been doing wonderful. We have received many calls and she had her first visitors, Uncle Aaron, Garrett and Aunt Cassandra. She has been doing wonderful at breastfeeding and hardly every cries. Wayne is doing well also. After the delivery last night he felt woozy for a couple of minutes after a day of no food and standing and being squeezed to death for so many hours. He stayed at the hospital with me last night and will do so again tonight. I have been doing ok. Because of my tear I have had trouble walking and need Wayne's help just to travel to the bathroom which is about five steps away. As the day progressed I have continued to feel better, mostly becuase of a lot of naps and many painkillers.

We will probably be in the hospital until Monday morning and are expecting a lot more visitors tomorrow. Please pray for all of us as we start our new journey. Please pray that Jordyn will continue to stay healthy and eat well and that Wayne and I will be patient with her. Please also pray for us parents as we are now going to receive a lot less sleep and as I recuperate from my stitches. I was told the time will be about a week before I start to feel comfortable sitting and walking well so please pray as I adjust and that I continue to take things slow. We are so thankful for all your prayers and phone calls. We will continued to keep you updated. We love you all.

A Scary Visit

Well, last Thursday we had a wild and somewhat scary day. I had been sick since Tuesday and finally on Thursday I called the doctors to see what to do and make sure everything was ok. After talking with them and describing my symptoms they sent me to the hospital thinking that I was in early labor. Thankfully I was able to get ahold of Wayne right away and he came home from work to take me to the hospital. They put the heartbeat monitor on my stomach and realized that the baby was fine. Then after the doctor checked me and said that I was not dilating; they decided that I would be ok but decided to put me on an IV. Wayne and I spent 5 hours in the hospital and finally got home around 11 that night. Since then we have both been fine but it was definitely a scary moment when they told me to go to the hospital right away! And to end on a happier note, Wayne created these animations of both himself and I that he wanted me to post on the blog for people to enjoy so I have posted them below. Have a great week everyone! If you want to create your own Meez, go to www.meez.com and refer us to get points for more personalized options: Wayne_Yates or Alicia_Yates. (We get points too!)

July Update #2

Well, I am down to a doctors appointment a week. I had my appointment yesterday, Monday, and found out that I am 50% effaced and -2 station. I've been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions and at one point thought we were going to be on our way to the hospital. We took our last trip before the baby comes this weekend to visit Wayne's mom and brother Kirk, wife Jen and daughter Mackenzie. We had a fun time visiting and finally got the rest of the stuff we need so now the baby can come any time! My sister-in-law is also expecting the same week as me and so it was fun to compare stories and experiences and I got a lot of advice from Jen on things to buy and how to be prepared. I've posted a picture of us below. We will continue to keep you updated as much as we can and please keep us in your prayers.

July Update

It's been a while since I've updated on this blog, mostly because there hasn't been much to tell except that I continue to get bigger and more uncomfortable with each passing day. But, there have been recent requests for an update and so I've decided to post another one.

Wayne and I recently took a long vacation although mine was longer than his. We decided to visit family and friends one more time before the baby comes. It started with a trip to New York on Friday, June 15. I was given a baby shower by the church that next morning. It was a lot of fun and we recieved so many wonderful gifts. The following day, Sunday, June 17, my youngest sibling, Cassandra, graduated from high school. She will be attending Liberty University in the fall. We had a big party afterwards to celebrate and it was a lot of fun. On Monday Wayne returned to Virginia for work and I stayed, filling my days with movies, strawberry milkshakes and tons of my family, the Royces and the Lyons.

Wayne returned that Friday after work and on Sunday we left to head up to Maine. We had a relaxing five days there. We were given a shower with Wayne's family annd friends. We also were able to attend a baseball game of Ryans, go out to eat and just relax.

That following Friday, June 29, we left to go to Pennsylvania and my grandparents camp for the weekend. We had a family reunion to attend on Saturday which was filled with food, poker and sports. I made the mistake of playing both volleyball and softball which felt pretty good at the time but my body later punished me for it. The trip was tons of fun and now we are back in Virginia awaiting the birth of our daughter.

As far as an update on the pregnancy, there isn't much to tell. She is still very active despite the little room she has left inside me. Her favorite time to kick and squirm is between 10pm and 11pm, when I'm trying to get to bed. I've now gained 30 lbs. and feel slow and lazy much of the time. Having the weather be in the 90's doesn't help much either. In two weeks I will be down to one doctors appointment a week which means we are getting so close. This past weekend Wayne and I put together the baby's room, building the furniture, organizing things and washing all the sheets and clothes. Also, this week I developed a pregnancy related rash on my belly referred to as PUPPP. Don't ask me what it stands for becuase I don't know except that it makes me itch constantly. I'm on both oral medicine and cream to help clear that up but it won't completely go away until the baby is born. Despite the growing uncomfortableness we are both so excited and counting down the days until we will meet our daughter face to face. Please keep us in your prayers and we will continue to keep you updated. Below is a slideshow of our vacation. Enjoy!

May Update

Well, here we are, a month closer to meeting our daughter! We are getting more and more excited with each day and it seems she is too! She kicks almost non-stop and makes me uncomfortable A LOT! Wayne finally got to feel her kick Saturday night and that was pretty exciting! She's kicked hard enough that he's been able to feel her a couple more times since then. I had a doctors appointment today and the baby is doing great and I have gained even more weight! Wayne and I have been busy this past month not just over the baby whirlwind. We've joined a small group at church, emptied our guest room to change into the babies room, registered for the baby at babiesrus.com and we were able to go to take a vacation for a weekend. We traveled to Wayne's moms house with my brothers and spent the weekend watching videos, eating out and going to Busch Gardens. Even though I couldn't ride any of the rides I did enjoy my time hanging around with Jen and Mackenzie. And we have even more exciting weekends to come before we're parents! Due to a big request I am going to post some pictures below to show the progress of my growing belly. The first picture is 21 weeks and the second is 26 weeks taken 5-15-07. Enjoy and we will continue to keep you updated.

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