Pictures: Expecting Chloe; Happy Mama; Chloe's pout; Nona and Jocelynne visit the hospital; Introducing Chloe; Joss holds her baby sister.
Short version: Chloe Susan Jones, born 7/21/2007 at 11:14 PM. 19 inches long, 6 pounds 12 ounces. Present at birth: Me, of course, Landon, Jamie Garlick (friend), Sharon Sims (midwife and hypnobirthing instructor) and Betty Elliott (delivering certified nurse midwife).
Longer version: When I was 39 and a half weeks pregnant, I began to feel pretty uncomfortable. I decided that, while I was a work on Thursday, I would have the midwife strip my membranes to help induce labor. At that point, I was dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced. For 2 days I contracted on and off, but never at intervals of 3-5 minutes apart. I decided to let my body get a little more prepared for birth before heading into the hospital. On Saturday night, Betty (certified nurse midwife) called the house and asked Landon if she should go see Spiderman III or if she needed to stick around. He told her that I was dilated to a 5 then, and she decided to stay home and play Scrabble instead. I was at the mall watching Harry Potter at the time with my friend Jamie. I used her cell phone clock to time my contractions in the theater, but they were still 10-15 minutes apart. The person next to me probably wondered why I breathed heavily every so often. When I got home, I called Betty back and reported I was at a 6 with irregular contractions. She told me to come into the hospital. So we packed up, dropped Joss off at a friend's house, stopped by Subway for dinner, and then checked in at the hospital. By the time we were en route to the hospital, my contractions were getting serious. Betty came and broke my water, and Chloe was born about 3 hours later. Landon was thrilled that his hospital time had shrunk from 12 hours with Jocelynne to 3 hours with Chloe. Landon, Betty, Sharon, and Jamie took turns helping me relax with massage, birthing affirmations, and pushing on my knees (it helps with the back pain during contractions but is very tiring for one person). Up until I was dilated to a 9 I did pretty well with the hypnobirthing. The last 15 minutes, however, I did become slightly more vocal than I had planned on. I never screamed, but I might have yelped a few times. :) Pushing time at the end was reduced from 40 minutes last time to 3 with Chloe, and my tearing down from a 3rd degree to a 1st. I hemorrhaged postpartum again, but not as badly as last time. They gave me 3 different drugs to staunch the flow of blood, which caused me to contract for the next 6 hours. I didn't need a blood transfusion, however, so the extended contracting was worth it. Chloe came out bright and alert, apgar scores of 8 and 9. She took to nursing like a pro and the nurse had to pry her away from me after 40 minutes or so of eating. Landon and I were in love with our little girl immediately. She continues to be as cute as ever and spends most of her time sleeping, eating, and making diaper surprises. She's looking forward to meeting everyone!
