It's a GIRL!!!!

NonaJane was born at 38 weeks and 4 days, so this was our last belly picture :)

Our sweet baby girl 

 NonaJane Susanne Schwatken 

was born on May 10th 2012 at 12:58 A.M.  She weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces, was 18 1/4 inch long, with a head circumference of 13.4 inches. This post is my journal of her birth story, a way for me to preserve the details and memories.  It may seem long or a bit too detailed for others, but I know I will cherish it... as will Adam, Jack and NonaJane.

Our first picture as a family of 4

NonaJane

On Saturday May 5th Adam, Jack, and I spent the day perusing garage sales and making our big "fancy" camper purchase (see post on fancy camper for details). Throughout the afternoon and into the evening I noticed my Braxton Hicks contractions becoming more and more regular. I kept teasing Adam that I was going to go into labor. At 12AM I woke up realizing the contractions were still happening. (Adam and Jack were out camping in the driveway). After 2 hours of no sleep I convinced myself I needed to go to the hospital. I called and woke my Mom and Dad at 2 AM, who then drove across town to sit with Jack. I proceeded to ruin Adam and Jack's camper party and off to the hospital we went. After being monitored at the hospital for 2 hours they decided my contractions, though regular, were NOT labor contractions and sent me home. So at 5:30 AM we made it home in time to get a short nap before Jack awoke to start our new day. I felt like a big loser, it was lovely.

Hanging out on Mema's blanket

The Braxton Hicks contractions continued thru Sunday (but I knew to ignore them), and then on Monday morning I noticed some (excuse the grossness of my next comment) bloody show.  How EXCITING! This happened at work, and luckily I work with all women. So when I bounded out of the bathroom to share my fantastic news, I think everyone appreciated it!  So now I was convinced that labor would start any moment.  I did have a few twinges of pain, some back ache, some hip aches, etc.  Tuesday I called into work, I was having more contractions and really didn't want to get too far from home. Sure enough on Tuesday night we sent Jack to Mema and Papa's house and off to the hospital we went.  Again they monitored me for two hours before determining that despite my regular contractions... that I still was not in full fledged labor.  At this point I was humiliated and frustrated. I told Adam we weren't going back till the baby's head was sticking out! (which I did not follow thru with.)  We headed home for bed with some medication to relax my uterus and help me sleep. It worked great, for about 2 hours.  At 2 AM I was woken with the first contraction that hurt.  They continued every 10 minutes until 7 am when I said, "forget it! We are going back to the hospital. This HAS to be labor."  We arrived close to 8 am and found I was dilated to a whopping 1 cm.  They again monitored me for two hours before sending me home in shame (at least that's how I felt about it.)  We spent the afternoon at my Mom and Dad's diligently timing my contractions. They were consistently 4-5 minutes apart for 3 hours, and were definitely making it onto the pain scale.  We headed to my 3:20 doctors appointment.  She checked my cervix and sure enough I was finally dilated to a 3. She admitted me to the labor and delivery unit, and I was IN LABOR!! woohooo

Time with Daddy

First Bath, with big brother Jack Jack helping out in the background

My amazing sister in-law Julie, my mother, and Adam were by my side.  From 4:00pm to 10:00pm I labored with their support, and was managing it all pretty well.  I was calm, breathing thru the contractions, and mentally preparing for our baby's birth.  At 9:30 I started to get very uncomfortable, as the contractions were now longer than the rests.  We called the doctor in to check my progress, and we were ALL thinking for sure I would be at least a 7.  After a quick check, the Doctor calmly stated I was  "nearly a 5".  All hell broke loose as I totally LOST it.  I was no longer in control of my emotions, which means I also lost control of the pain and the contractions.  It was a horrible feeling of loss, feeling like I was failing, and could no longer do it.  I opted to get an epidural, to at least allow myself the ability to regain some form of control.  The anesthesiologist, though quite nice, seemed to move at a snails pace.  I highly refrained from screaming at him. Especially as he made me sit at the edge of the bed, hunched over through multiple contractions.  Once the epidural was in, the doctor came back to talk to me about our options.  The babies head had still not dropped, or engaged into my pelvis.  They could barely reach the baby's head when checking my cervix, which meant there was no pressure pushing down on the cervix to help it dilate. SO... I could
A) Keep laboring, potentially for quite some time, and hope the head would lower into my pelvis. But the risk of an emergency c-section, forceps, or suction would increase with time.
OR
B) Have a c-section.

Jack adores her already :)

After about 10 minutes of discussion, we opted for the c-section as it seemed like the least risky route for the baby and me.

The c-section seemed to take forever, as they had to work hard to get thru the scar tissue of my last c-section.  Thru out the entire procedure I laid on the table with uncontrollable shaking from my chest up (they say this is common, but it had me truly freaked out).  No matter what I tried to do, I could not control the shaking.

They finally pulled and tugged our baby right out of my abdomen, lifted the baby up over the curtain... and I saw for myself that our baby was a baby GIRL. 

A GIRL!

 Tears began, shock, excitement, and the start of a new life.

Welcome to our family NonaJane.  We love you so much already. 

Grandma Sue

Aunt Nicole

Aunt Julie and Mema who were wonderful and never left my side thru the whole ordeal :)

Uncle Michael, Aunt Julie, Henry, Ethan and Luella

Your very handsome and proud Daddy and Big Brother

Papa

For those who may be wondering, Nona was my father's mother's name.  Jane comes from Adam's father's mother's name (MaryJane). Susanne is after his mother, Susan, and his sister (Nicole Susanne).  We do tend to call her "Nona" for short.