my world...: Cori's Birth Story

Finally getting around to posting Cori's birth story! As usual, I wrote it from the hospital as things were happening, and hopefully I remembered most of the details!

We dropped Mason and Luke off at my friend Melissa's house at about 6:40, then headed over to the hospital to check in. We got to the hospital just after 7am. My nurse's name was Carla, and she was super awesome! At some point during the day we mentioned we had moved here from Utah for school and she told us about her trip to Utah last autumn to visit some family; they were on temple square the day of Elder Hale's funeral! She said she thought the temple was amazing, like a castle :) Anyway, she started my IV at about 830. At 9:15 my doctor checked me and ordered Misoprostol to start softening things up, which they did at 9:45am. Around 10:45 or so I started feeling contractions but they weren’t super regular. Jenny showed up around this time too. Because I wasn't dilated too far and I wasn't getting an epidural soon, I could still eat!

They brought me lunch at noon, and shortly after I started having more frequent contractions. At 1:15, went for a walk around the halls. At 2:15, Carla checked me again, and I was all the way to at a 2. Super great progress. She stripped my membranes to hopefully help things get going! She also called my doctor and got approval to start pitocin. Carla went to go help deliver another baby, so Val took over, and she started pitocin at 2:45/3 or so. The contractions were generally two minutes apart and getting stronger. Val upped the pitocin a little at 3:50. And she approved me eating m&m’s! I watched Ellen and some other random TV while enjoying those blessed little chocolate morsels.

At about 5:30 Sean decided to go home and feed the boys and start bedtime with them. At 5:45 I turned on La La Land for some distraction. I was sitting on the edge of my bed and my contractions were getting more painful each time. I asked for the epidural at about 645 and my new nurse, Angie, was SUPER on top of it. She walked in just after 7 and I was in the middle of a contraction yelling at the ceiling in pain. She got the anesthesiologist in there fast! He got everything set up and in and it took a few minutes but I finally had a couple contractions that were less painful. Sean got back as they were checking me (I was at a 7/8!) and as I laid there, the contractions started hurting again so bad! Sean finally noticed it was leaking (from the tube connected to the drip machine, not from my back), and the anesthesiologist came back in, gave me an extra dose, and fixed the leak. It took forever but the front contraction pain finally eased up. Posteriorly, though, it never really did. I consistently felt a lot of pressure down there. Angie checked me periodically, and I was at a 10, but the baby still wasn't completely down the birth canal. They gave me the option of pushing her down, or letting her labor down, and I chose the second option. I was so tired! At 9 or so Angie checked me again to see if she was far enough down that I could start pushing. She wanted to wait a little longer but my doctor said let’s go! So they broke the bed, got set up, and I had 3 easy pushes (by easy I mean I literally was so tired I couldn’t push very hard, but what I could give worked!) and she was born! Apparently once her head came out, the rest just slid right on out after her, and the doctor literally had to catch her! She also came sunny side up, which explains the rectal pain! And, she had the cord wrapped around her neck twice, just like Mason did! She was born at 9:29pm, 6lbs 11oz 19 inches! She hardly cried, just snuggled right in!

They wiped her down with a towel and did skin to skin right away. We got to lay there for about 45 minutes. They didn’t put a diaper on her so she pooped meconium all over both of us. Oh well. They cleaned us up and at about 10:45 or so she nursed for a good 20 minutes on each side. Sean and Jenny went home about 11, and baby and I finished nursing and slept. At 1:30 I woke up and they helped me go to the bathroom and started getting me ready to move to a different room. Nursed her again at 2:30 in the new room, she nursed one side for 10 minutes and was out again.

Rebecca was my nurse the rest of that night, and Carla was my nurse in the morning again! It was nice to have a familiar face checking on me. They had me tracking her feedings and pees/poops on a piece of paper. Dr. Limanon came and checked to see how I was doing that morning, and the pediatrician came by mid morning.

We finally decided on the name Cori Grace in the afternoon. I have a cousin named Cory (male) who passed away when I was 12 so when Sean suggested the name a few months ago, I immediately thought of him. Sean’s paternal grandmothers name is Grace, and there are a couple more Graces in that line. I remember doing temple work for one and thinking, I really like that name! We had a few different names we were thinking about for this little girl but Cori just kept coming back to us.

Rebecca was my nurse again that night. Cori ate at 10:45, and finally got settled at like 12:30, when they came in to check vitals. It woke her up and it took forever to get her back to sleep. We finally got settled again at 3 (which was really 4 because of daylight savings) and at 5:45 they tried to do her PKU test and I kicked them out because I was so tired. We hadn’t really slept. They brought me my breakfast at 7 and I was so out I didn’t even hear them come in. At 7:30 the doctor doing rounds opened my door and flipped on the lights and I was MAD. He asked his questions and after lifting the lid on my breakfast plate and telling me it was getting cold, turned the lights off and left, without closing the door all the way. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t get back to sleep after that really.

My nurse that morning was Philly. She is Irish and was hilarious! I loved having her. The pediatrician checked on us and cleared us to go home. Cori’s bilirubin levels were off, so the pediatrician wanted me to nurse her, then express milk and supplement her with it. Boy was that a process, and a kind of painful one. Philly got everything ready for us to go home. Sean came after church, I ate lunch, got changed, nursed Cori, and we left the hospital at 3:15 or so.

That night during her feeding, we realized it had been over 12 hours since she had peed or pooped, and she spit up a bunch, so after talking for a few minutes, I asked Sean to give her a blessing. He did, and literally 10 minutes later she had a giant poop, and then another one 20 minutes after that. I’m so grateful for priesthood blessings!

The day after we got home, I had to take Cori to go get another bilirubin test in the morning, and took her to the pediatrician in the afternoon. Her levels were coming down enough that we didn’t have to do another bilirubin test, and her weight was good! No more supplementing! She had the smallest wet diaper ever at the doctor so I saved it to show the pediatrician and she said it was normal and they would be getting more (which they definitely have).

Since that appointment, my milk has come in full force (probably like oh yeah we remember feeding a hungry newborn lets give you ALL THE MILK but she isn’t as hungry as Luke was...) and she has gotten a lot better at nursing! We are adjusting to life as a family of 5 and praying miss Cori stops falling asleep when she nurses! She sleeps pretty well so far which is great! Just need to cut the time it takes to nurse down significantly lol!

Here we go! I was only at a 1 and "very thick" at this point

Apparently after the first picture Sean said "Jenny, you better take another one or she's going to kill me" haha!

She's finally here! I can't believe it! Also I was so exhausted.

My sweet little girl!!

Cori meeting her brothers!

Grandma and Grandpa Jones drove up for the day to surprise us in the hospital!

Mason eyeing the pediatrician to make sure she's being gentle with his baby sister!

Jenny has been there for the delivery of all 3 of my kids, but Cori's birth was the first time she got some fluid squirted on her. To Jenny Love Cori!!