Birth Story

Jayne's birth story is not a long, drawn out ordeal. In fact, it was quicker than anyone (even the doctors) anticipated. For being 12 days late, little Jaynie sure made a grand entrance into this world.

It all began Christmas Eve. Scott's mom and sister were in town for the holidays, and our friends Mike and Raquel were coming over for the evening.

We made gumbo, a Christmas Eve tradition Scott and I are starting. All evening I felt HUGE and uncomfortable, but no contractions. After gumbo, chocolate eclairs, and a rousing game of Balderdash, I went to bed around 11pm.

I had been having trouble sleeping through the night for weeks prior, but I had never not been able to get to sleep. That night I tossed and turned, and could not find a comfortable position for the life of me! I think I finally fell asleep at 12:50pm, only to be awoken 10 minutes later by a "pop" and gush of water. There was absolutely no mistaking that my water just broke!

I woke up Scott, yelling that my water broke and we need to get to the hospital. His response was "Are you sure? Just give me 2 more minutes." His wife was going into labor and all he wanted was to sleep! After finally convincing him it really was time, we gathered our hospital bags and drove across town to Kaiser. In the car I started feeling contractions, but they were not unbearably strong at all.

Once at the hospital, the doctor hooked me up to the monitors and figured I was in for a long night of labor, since it was my first baby and all. She did not check my dilation at that point, since my water had already broken and she was concerned with the risk of infection. She decided to check my dilation once I got my epidural.

Going into labor, I was unsure of my pain management plan. Since I am quite familiar with SEVERE menstrual cramps, I thought maybe I could get by without an epidural, but as labor approached, I decided that the epidural was the way to go. But the contractions really weren't so painful, and I could easily breathe my way through them. My labor and delivery nurse, Traci, was an angel. she suggested different positions to sit/lean to get through the contractions. But then around 4 am the contractions went to a whole new level, and that's when I decided I really wanted an epidural.

Being Christmas day and all, there was only 1 anesthesiologist working in the maternity ward, which meant I had to wait my turn. The nurse said it would be about an hour. So in the mean time, she gave me a narcotic through my IV, which let me rest for about 45 minutes.

When the narcotic shot wore off, the contractions returned with a vengeance. Scott was concerned that they were coming so close together. All I cared about was the epidural at that point. Finally, the anesthesiologist arrived at 5:30am. He explained the process, I signed the waiver, he set up his supplies, and the nurse told me to sit up on the edge of the bed. I tried sitting up, only greeted my pain. The nurse firmly told me I had to sit up if I wanted the drugs, so I tried again, made it up, and immediately had the desire to push. I told the nurse this, who said "Lay back down!" and checked my dilation. "The baby is right there!" she said, and it was time to push. The epidural guy packed up his supplies and was quickly replaced by a midwife.

40 minutes of pushing later, little Jayne Carol McCarthy made her Christmas morning debut at 6:22 am.

So in the span of 5 hours on Christmas morning, my water broke, I labored, and the best Christmas present of the world was delivered into my arms.

Merry Christmas Baby Jaynie