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05.13.09
It is my pleasure to finally write this, Grace Taylor Jantz arrived on Friday, April 24, 2009 at 12:31 PM weighing nine pounds and measuring 20" long. She is now 2.5 weeks old, and such a pleasure to have around the house. She is a great sleeper and a good cuddle-bug. Aubrey and Caleb both love her a lot; Caleb even gets mad at me when I pick her up to nurse her because he knows he isn't suppose to bother us while Grace is eating. It's so cute.
Many people have requested details on Grace's birth, and I've been meaning to sit down and write them -- I've just been busy adjusting to our new family! Although it wouldn't have taken long because Grace's labor was amazing and easy -- the ideal labor.
Even though we hadn't reached our due date yet, I was growing anxious to deliver Grace, so I persuaded my midwife to induce me with prostaglandins (just like we had done with Caleb) on Friday morning. The nice thing about them is that if you're body isn't ready for labor, it won't put you into active labor. Thankfully, however, I was ready!
Ryan and I met our midwife assistant, Brenda, at 7:00 in the morning on Friday to get things started. Brenda told us that she didn't expect contractions would even start until Noon -- Ha! During the whole process, we also made an unusual connection: my cervix faces the wrong direction! I knew my uterus was backwards, and never thought much it until we started connecting the dots from previous pregnancies. Brenda said we were lucky that we hadn't experienced trouble conceiving -- Ha! again.
Anyway, Ryan and I left our early morning appointment at 8:00 and headed to his parents house to wait for things to start. By the time we arrived in Derby, my contractions had begun, coming every 4-5 minutes but only lasting 15-20 seconds. Over the next couple of hours they began to increase in duration, so Ryan and I headed to my mom's house where I continued to breathe through contractions.
At 11:15, my mom asked me if she should call the midwives to let them know where I was at because my contractions were only 90 seconds apart. I told her I didn't know because my contractions just didn't seem that "hard." She went ahead and called them, and they arrived at 11:45. Kathy checked me upon arriving, and happily announced I was already 7cm dilated. I also had a contraction while she was checking me and she accidentally broke my water. It relieved my discomfort in my low-back, though, and gave me a little break in the frequency of my contractions. I was shocked that I was already 7cm because that meant I'd made it through transition, the "hardest" part of labor, without even knowing it.
By 12:05 my contractions were really causing me to focus and concentrate hard on relaxing. Twenty more minutes of those difficult contractions, and a few more good laughs in between them and I was nearly complete. Kathy helped me finish dilating during my next contraction, then we pushed through two contractions before meeting our beautiful Grace.
Like my previous births, I was blessed not to have any tearing (Kathy says that's because I've got "good control" and allow her to help ease the babies out) and just some minor swelling that subsided within a few days. We were blessed to have my mother and little sister, Jenni, present during Grace's birth, so we got some great pictures and even a video of the big event!
I hope everyone will get to meet Grace someday. She's a wonderful little girl, beautiful too! Love, Click Here to View More Journal Archives
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