I would like you to meet our darling little addition to our family:
Jesiah Edwin McCann
(Jed)
We love him very much. Quianna loved holding him in the hospital every chance she got, but at home she hasn't been that gung ho about it. Elijah didn't like being in the hospital (only came once for the initial visit) but has loved holding him at home.
Brian misses him through out the day and very shortly after he comes home, he takes Jed into his arms and doesn't really part from him unless Jed is hungry and needs to be fed.
Jesiah was born on January 17, 2013 at 8:42 in the morning, weighing 8lbs 12 oz, and measuring 19 1/4 inches.
Here are lots of pictures from the first few weeks of his life:
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| Sleeping next to daddy... 1 Day old! |
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| Day 1... I was on such a high! |
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| Home at last! |
And now for the birth story, if you're interested....
So it actually starts a few weeks before he was born. As a diabetic I was prepared mentally through out my pregnancy there was a good chance I would be induced at 39 weeks since this was my first child, and I'm a diabetic, both contributing for going past my due date. The reason they induce diabetics at 39 weeks is because before that, there's a higher risk of their lungs now being fully formed and after that, the statistics of having a still born baby increase.
I kept my blood sugar pretty good under control. The highest A1c I had was 6.1. On December 27 I went in for my routine ultrasound and they estimated him to be 7lbs 14oz. I thought, oh crud, he's going to be a big baby. I shrugged it off, and went on with life. My next appointment was on January 4 where I learned that if he gets close to 9lbs, they will do a c-section. My doctor said that with diabetic babies, the shoulders tend to be more broad and have greater chance of being stuck during labor, causing permanent nerve damage. He said that if I went into labor naturally in the next week, then we would do it naturally, but if not, we would wait for the next ultrasound (Jan 11) to see where he was at weight wise and then we would make a decision whether I could have him naturally or c-section. I came home and started freaking out. I called my sisters, and my mom. I said, "Ok, I have a week to have this baby naturally, or I might be scheduled for a c-section. How do I get this baby commin?"
I cut most carbs out of my diet to keep my blood sugar low. I didn't want any more weight gain on him. I went on walks, I kept preparing the nursery, I played just dance, I used prim rose oil, I did everything I could to get him to come but to no avail.
I went to my next ultra sound where they said they weren't going to estimate the weight, but I quickly corrected them that it needed to happen so I knew if I was going to be induced or have a c-section the next week. I then went into the room to see my doctor. The nurse had me undress bottom down so he can check to see how much I was dilated. I waited, and I waited... I started getting cold. Then the nurse popped her head in and told me he was called into a delivery. She knew that I needed to talk to the doctor that day and told me I could wait. It was suppose to be 45 min to an hour... What a day to not bring my book to my appointment! Thankfully I had my binder which gave me a chance to start planning the schedule of what needed to happen with the kids when Brian and I were in the hospital.
My doctor came in and I just looked at him and said, "How big?" he said, "he's under 9 lbs! 8 lbs something. I can't remember exactly, I'll look it up when we go outside" So we then talked about the plan for induction. Later he told me the baby was estimated at 8lbs 3 oz.
We scheduled the induction for the next wednesday. The plan was to have cytotec inserted next to my cervix every 3 hours through out the night in order to get it nice and soft. If that didn't start the contractions, then the next morning I would be started on pitocin.
I made the schedule for that Wednesday. Brian had an All-City rehearsal until 5:30 but I was scheduled to check into the hospital at 5, but not start the procedure until 8pm. So I planned for Jamie to take me.
Saturday night I started having regular contractions, not intense ones, but they lasted 45 sec to 1 min and were every 5-7 minutes all through out the night. I was hoping that we would be going to the hospital that Sunday, but they stopped in the morning. bummer! Monday through Wednesday, I kept having contractions. Monday night we went and played basketball at the church for family home evening. Brian decided we would play full court, which meant I was waddling up and down the court all night. I didn't mind, it kept contractions going... maybe I would go in that night!
Wednesday came and still no baby. I was getting worried. I had woken up with flu like symptoms, which I had heard was also a sign of labor. Our original plan was that Brian was going to go home and get some sleep because nothing was suppose to happen until morning and I wanted him to get a good night rest. But now that I had been showing signs of labor, I asked him to change the plans and stay over night with me which he agreed to. Jamie took me to the hospital and stayed with me until Brian came and said that Elijah could spend the night at their place since he was worried about Brian not being there over night.
The nurse came in at 8 and checked to see how dilated I was before she placed the cytotec. She said I was at a 1. A little disapointed that nothing was going to be happening soon, I told Brian to go back home, be with the kids and we would stick with the original plan. I would call him if I needed him to come back.
The nurse came in at 1am and asked if I had been feeling the contractions that had been picked up by the monitor. I told her only some. She gave me the next dose - I was still only dilated to a 1. At around 2am, the contractions picked up and I was getting really uncomfortable. The contractions were so intense, lasted a long time and were right on top of each other. They were worried about the baby being under distress so they gave me oxygen to help calm me. I asked if I could take a bath, they said yes. I called Brian and asked him to come back. At about 2:15am, my water broke so I called up Brian and he said he was saying goodbye to the kids, the car was started and packed and he would be right there. They had to recheck with the on call doctor if I could take a bath since my water had broken. Thankfully he said yes, as soon as my contractions were under control.
I am so glad that I got in the bath because I was able to sleep for a bout a half hour. Brian stayed next to me, watching West Wing while I slept. I then got out of the bath, slowly between contractions walked back to bed so they could monitor the baby again.
The rest was a blur because I would just lay there on my side and then when a contraction would come I would say, "It hurts!" and Brian would rub my body. Sometimes I would say, "It hurts" and brian would just stay there looking at me, probably for some direction and then I would say, "Brian, I need you to do something, I don't know what, but do something" So then he would start rubbing me, or something else to help me cope with the pain. All along, he was looking at the monitor and he would sometimes say, "wow, that was a big one!" to which I was like, "uh, yeah." However, I was thankful he was watching that because somehow it felt like it validated the pain I was feeling. At this time I had contemplated getting an epidural because I was getting worried. The last time they checked me was when my water broke and I had only dilated to a 2.5 at that point. If this was only the beginning and I was in this much pain this often, what will come later? Shortly after that thought, I opened up my eyes, looked at Brian and said, "I feel like I have to push!"
A nurse came in around that time (I don't know if he called her in, or what) and I said again with the next contraction, " I feel like I have to push!" She said, "don't push, I need to check you..." and she started doing thing around the room, and again I said, "I have to push!" she again discouraged me and Brian had his hand on me saying, "not yet, don't push yet" I said, "I don't know how NOT to push!" The nurse, still doing things around the room said, "Control your breathing, puffs of air out." so I tried, it worked a little, but when you hit that point, when a contraction comes, your body pushes on it's own somewhat. She then came over and checked me and said, "Oh yeah, you're at a 9+. Let's get people in here"
While people were coming in, Brian asked if I wanted him to call my mom. I said yes. Apparently it went somewhat like this, "Just wanted to let you know that Kimberly is going to be pushing soon." my mom said, "Ok, well enjoy the moment!" and that was about it.
At that time, Brian's phone started going crazy with text messages. I think my sisters were one of them, not sure which one texted, but Brian said, "Your sisters wanted to know..." and I said, "Brian, Shut up, sorry!" that was the rudest thing I said to him, and I apologized right after :-)
The doctor came in and said, "Oh boy, he's way up there. It's going to be a long time pushing." I was thinking, "Oh great! That's not what I wanted to hear!"
I started pushing around 7ish and he was born at 8:42am. He was right, it was a long time pushing! I have heard from people that birth is so cool when you can feel them come down the birth canal and everything. Well the only thing I felt was burning and hurting as he came through! He was a big baby at 8 lbs 12 oz!
The nurse and doctor were great. The nurse told me when to push, because I couldn't feel my contractions very much. The nurse started with counting to 10 when i pushed, but then the doctor recognized that I was quickly running out of steam so he said, "Ok, we are going to count to 5, but I want you to save some and at 5 I want you to give it all you got!" So Brian started counting too. I was still running out of steam so the doctor said, "A little faster dad!"
When they could see his head, the doctor told me I could reach down and touch it if I wanted. I had heard about this before and I thought, "no, that's gross, I'm not going to" But I ended up doing it hopefully to help me get more strength. I don't know if it had any effect on me at all... All I knew was "It hurts!" It burned like crazy! The doctor told me that's "The ring of fire" I didn't care what it was, it hurt!
I think the cord was wrapped around his neck because I saw them pull something over his head like unwrapping it when his head was out. His head was dark and kind of blue. I don't remember him crying. I had a hard time pushing the rest of him out and so I could feel at the end the doctor pulling with my pushing.
Once he was out they tried doing everything on my stomach, but he wasn't looking good so they took him over the baby station in my room. Brian went with them as they were sewing up my tears. It was scary seeing them using a hand pump to help him get oxygen. Then Brian said after he was breathing, he still was not responsive - they would pick up his arm and it would just plop down again. They called a NICU nurse to the room and she said they were going to have to take him for 4 hours or so. Then he started being responsive and pinking up, so they thought he could stay with us. - What a relief!
They started measuring him and weighing him, taking his foot prints. They gave Brian a tattoo on his arm. then they came and gave me one. It was fun, but I wanted my baby! Brian spoke up enough (because they ended up not doing anything with Jesiah) to get him back to me that they finally brought him to me. That was when I named him. It was such a weird experience to think he was mine, I just went through all of that to get him here to earth, to join our family, to be my son. It was such an amazing experience to hold him in my arms.
