Jayla's First "real" bath.

Jayla had her first bath at 3 weeks old. After we brought her home from the hospital she could only have a sponge bath until her cord fell off. I was definitly nervous about immersing her into her little tub because I wasn't sure if she'd like it or not. SHE LOVED IT! She was very happy the entire time and did really great! (Thank God!) She was kicking her little legs and moving her little arms and splashing and it was very cute. Grandma Landrum gave her her first bath so that I could take pictures!!!

Delivery Day

12-02-2008
I went into my doctor appointment and was really expecting to get sent home empty handed. I was told they were going to induce me, but it never seemed to happen they just kept setting up doctor appointments for me. This day, they checked me and I was still only dilated to 1cm and effaced about 50%. (According to that doctor.) According to other doctors on other visits, (I saw many different doctors at the clinic I went to.), I was at least 80% effaced. I had 3 false alarms into Labor and Delivery and was definitly getting frustrated with being sent home. The doctor had left the room so they could do one last ultrasound on me to check my fluids and when he came back into the room he gave me the paper to make another regular doctor appointment. The appointment prior to this they told me that they would schedule an induction if my blood pressure was still high. So, I was immedietly irritated when he told me to come back for another regular doc appointment. I think my mom must have been too because she said, "Now they told us last time that if her blood pressure was still high that we'd be induced." The doctor gave us a funny look and said, "But your blood pressure isn't that high and it comes down immedietly." I was getting furious, I had a terrible pregnancy and I wanted to have this friggen baby outta me! I responded with, "I've had a bad pregnancy and they promised me that they would schedule me to be induced today if I still had high blood pressure." The doctor was definitly not happy about it and I could tell he didn't want to but he left the room to set me up an appointment. This was a Tuesday and i was expecting him to tell me that they could get me in sometime toward the end of the week or sometime the following week. He came back into the room with, "you need to be here tomorrow, go to Labor and Delivery and check in at 5pm. We'll start the induction." I was speechless. As ready as I was for this, I was totally not ready. He told us that we could expect this delivery to be very hard and a very long process. He told us it could take days before Jayla was actually here. I told him I understood and thank you and he left the room. I sat there and slowly looked at my mom and said, "I'm not ready." She laughed and said I didn't have a choice.


12-03-2008
5PM. My father had just gotten into town and we all went to the hospital. They got me checked into my room and told me that I needed to get undressed and into a hospital gown and get into my bed. I did as told. They came and verified all my information and got me hooked up to the blood pressure monitor and baby monitor. They inserted the medication that helps soften your cervix and again explained to me that this could take days before she was actually here. They told me that I definitly didn't need to worry that nothing would be happening that night and that we all needed to get as much rest as we could because the following day was going to be a long and hard one. My parents hung out in my room for a while and left to get me something to eat. They came back and chatted for a little longer and then when the nurse came back into check me, she stated that I was 3cm dilated and still only about 50-80% effaced. My mom asked one more time, "Do we need to worry about anything happening tonight or are we safe to go home?" The nurse replied, "the chances of anything happening tonight are about 20%. With as little progress as Casey is making and how slow she is making it, we doubt anything will happen tonight and possibly not even tomorrow." She left the room and my parents decided to go to my apartment and get some rest. They left and I indulged myself in my book "Twilight." I had just started it and couldn't seem to put it down. The nurse came in about 10:30pm and checked me and I was still about a 3-4cm dilated and no change in my effacement. She told me that I really needed to try and get some rest and if I needed the would give me medicine to help me sleep. I denied the medication and she said they'd check me one more time at 11:30pm and after that let me sleep until 4am and then they'd need to start me on Petocin. I told her okay and continued to read at least until 11:30. She came back in a little after 11:30pm and checked me again. I had made no progress whatsoever. She look at my monitor and asked if I had been feeling the contractions. I told her yes but that they didn't really hurt they just felt like someone barely punched me in the stomach and I felt a little short of breath for a minute. I told her that people kept telling me how bad contractions were and that I thought I had really psyched myself into this horrible pain and I thought I was expecting more than they actually were. I said all this with a huge smile on my face. She laughed and said, "well i think you'll find that they do hurt, you just might not be quite to that point yet." She told me to put my book away and get to sleep. (She was a Twilight fan so she knew how hard it was.) She left the room and I got up to go to the bathroom.

12-04-2008
(12:17am) I came back to my bed and sat down and felt a HUGE gush of water. I jumped up and the water just kept coming. It didn't feel like I was peeing but I wasn't sure and was too embarrassed so I wasn't sure what I should do. When it didn't stop and just kept coming I finally paged my nurse and told her I was pretty sure my water just broke. She got me back into my bed and told me I needed to get my coach to the hospital. She checked me and I was 7cm dilated and about 90% effaced. (FAST!) All these nurses came rushing in and I was getting a little nervous, I didn't really know what to expect. I was trying to text my mom this entire time and wasn't getting any response. They got the medication out of me and started me on Petocin. They told me it could go very slow from this point on or it could go very fast. They all left the room and I called my mom in tears because I was so freaked out. She was so asleep I don't think it actually hit her what was going on. I didn't live that far from the hospital so I expected them to be there really fast. It took them a while to get there as they were so deep into sleep they had to shower to wake up! They finally got there and I was progressing quickly. Right before they got there, my contractions really started hurting and my nurse asked how I was doing, I told her the contractions definitly had me hurting and I was having a hard time. Now, when I got to the hospital they asked me my plans for pain management during delivery and I told them I was sure I would need something but that I wanted to only be offered anything at my "last chance point." I said please don't ask me at all during labor. I'd say less than an hour into labor after my water broke, I was SCREAMING for an epidural. The nurse told me she'd speak with the anestesiologist. She came back and told me he was in an emergency C-Section and that it would be AT LEAST an hour before the could administer me one. I told her I'd definitly need drugs then because I couldn't handle the pain anymore. But first, "Can I still have an epidural if I take pain meds?" Nurse-"Of course if you absolutely need it." She went to get the medication and that's about when my parents finally walked in. Everyone was trying to have conversations with me and I just wanted everyone to SHUT UP!!! Finally the nurse came in with medication and told me it was going to make me feel very drunk. That it did. My mom said I was mumbling to myself and talking about going to IHOP right after we got outta the hospital. (I don't remember any of this by the way.) Finally the epidural was avaliable and I definitly needed it. I couldn't tell any difference in the pain with just the pain medicine other than feeling loopy. So the anestesiologist came into administer it. He kept asking me all these questions and was getting irritated that I needed a minute to get through contractions. (Don't mess with a pregnant lady.) He was asking my health history and I was giving it to him as I knew it and he kept telling me that I or my doctors didn't know what they were talking about with my heart problem because they had told me wrong and I'm thinking DUDE!... I can only tell you what I've been told. I'm having painful contractions and getting ready to have a baby, you BETTER get this epidural in me before I rip your head off! UGH! (If only I had the guts to say it!) Finally we got the epidural in and I was feeling completely drunk from the waist up and completely immobile from the waist down. 6:00am...nurse came in and I was 9 cm dilated and fully effaced. "Lets try to start pushing." Okay, so they don't give you stir ups, the nurse was on one side holding my foot and knee and my mom was on the other holding my knee and calf. And they told me to push thru the contraction. I pushed through that one in an awkward sort of way and when I was done told the nurse she needed to get my mom and glove and told my mom she needed to hold onto my foot because I wouldn't be able to get this kid out otherwise. (My mom has this huge thing with feet, she hates them! And she told me before I went into labor that she was stressing about having to touch my feet.) My mom said, "oh i don't need a glove I think I can do this." So we got to pushing, and my doctor finally came in and told my mom she needed to start counting for me thru the contractions. Well I felt like my mom was going way too slow so I told her to speed up the process. So she started counting faster and my doctor told her that she needed to slow down. Ha. (Just so you know, Dr. Astin was my on call doctor for the evening and his shift ended at 7:00am that morning. Dr. Astin delivered me when I was born and I wanted him to deliver my daughter. He did and I think it's awesome!=]) Well Dr. Astin was saying things trying to make me mad to push harder. "Come on Casey you're being whimp, get this baby out. You call that a push? Were you a cheerleader in high school?" I told him he better shut his mouth or I was gonna kick him in the face. "You don't think I've heard that before?", he said. They kept talking about Jayla's hair and how it was right there. I kept thinking GOD! Reach in there and pull the dang baby out! I can't push anymore! Finally I got the head out. And Dr. Astin said "Oh look, there is her head." And just kinda looked at me and got a big smile on his face. I yelled at him and told him to get her out! He told me I needed to push...1...2...3...and she was out!!!
(7:15am). Ah, much better. My mom cut her cord. When Jayla was born she would not cry at all, she just looked around at everything and was completely quiet. The nurse was freaking out asking the doctor why they couldn't get her to cry and beating on Jayla to try and get her to make a sound but she just wouldn't. I was crying and asking what was wrong with my baby but no one seemed to be able to hear me. My mom just kept looking at me and calling my name and crying her eyes out and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Finally, I heard the best sound in the entire world...my babies first cry. Giving birth is definitly the most amazing, most painful, most difficult thing in the world...but so worth it in the end. Jayla Skye is the most perfect little girl in the entire world. I am very blessed to be her mother and I thank you all for your prayers throughout my pregnancy and during my delivery. We love you.