Joanna's Story

Whether through adoption or birth each child has their own unique story of how they came to be a part of our family. Joanna is no exception. Here is the narrative, from mom's perspective, of her entry into the world.
Beginning on Wednesday evening mom began to suspect something was happening. Around 10:00pm I had my first inkling of just what a contraction could be after months of wondering. Brent was a champ and woke up everytime I whacked him to tell him another contraction was coming and he timed and recorded every detail. Due to the other three children I wanted to stay at home for as long as I thought possible. I finally called my mother to come over and stay with the kids around 5:00am. I was sad to leave the kids but anxious to get to the hospital to sniff out some Vicodin or something. It was my intention to leave the house without a sound but due to some nervous energy Brent accidentally rang the doorbell to the house instead of opening the garage door. Nice. Once we arrived and checked in I got all hooked up to the monitors and we very interested to see what exactly was happening and most of all-don't send me back home! I also found that my very favorite Doctor was on call and I was super encouraged to see a friendly face. Turns out that at 5:30am I was around a 2cm (I tell you this detail because it is important to the story) and they said I could either go home or walk around the hospital for two hours. There was no getting me to leave at this point so we decided to walk. If you are ever at Beaumont and need to know where room 303 or 1467 or the gift shop or most importantly a bathroom is just ask me. I do apologize to all the good people at Beaumont who had to ask me if I needed a wheelchair as I braced myself against the wall in agonizing pain again and again. Finally after two long hours we went back to triage to see what was happening. We had high hopes. Turns out 2cm was still the number but we were admitted for delivery. Hooray! After getting to our labor and delivery room we were just waiting for the process to begin and feeling quite nervous about the unknown. At this point I was in quite a bit of pain and really surprised that I was still alive. I had no idea it was this bad. After seven hours in the room with contractions the doctor decided to break the water because guess what...still 2cm. I was so discouraged that after all this pain nothing was happening. The baby's fluid had dark merconium so that was slightly troublesome. It was about this time that I decided some pain medication was in order. The medication helped but still pain. Around 1:00pm still "2cm" so petocin was in order. I will summarize here to say that from 1:00pm until 8:30pm pitocin was increased to its highest level but still "2cm". We were so discouraged because after all this work we seemed no further along than when we came to the hospital 15 hours ago. When we asked how much longer we could expect for this to continue the staff suggested it could still be 4-6 more hours. I forgot to mention that I had been very nauseous all day and was periodically puking. Super. At this point my doctor (luckily still on call) came in to tell us that he was concerned about several things. The baby's heart rate continued to go around 180 which was too high, contractions we not causing further dialation (hence the theme of 2cm) and that there was no guarantee that continuing this would create any more progress. He suggested delivery by cessarian. Brent and I were very sad about this. We felt we had worked so hard but yet had failed to finish the job. I am so thankful to God that my doctor was there because I trusted his judgment and felt reassured by his presence. After some tears on my part Brent and I took some time to pray about this decision and felt it was the way to go. I mostly felt discouraged that things didn't end up the way I had imagined or expected them to. When the doctor returned at 8:30pm things really took off. Within 15 minutes the staff was ready to go and we were off to surgery. Wheeling me down the hallway, still puking I was not nervous about the procedure but overwhelmed by what was happening. Reassured by the face of my doctor with a scalpal in hand I was covered with the blue sheet and could only rely on my ears to tell me what was happening. Brent was holding my hand and watching the proceedings with keen eyes. As they removed the baby's head I heard Brent say that this was the most amazing thing he had ever seen in his whole life. At this point I heard the doctor exclaim that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck three times and he counted 1,2,3 as he unwound the cord. I could hear the baby crying and knowing that merconium was present I was hoping they were able to suction her out. They confirmed she was indeed a girl. As I waited for surgery to finish I felt peaceful that the delivery was over. I was finally able to hold my miracle girl in the recovery room and begin on this new journey with a life that included Joanna. Our bundle of joy weighed in at 6lbs 15 ounces and was 21 inches long.
As we talked with the doctor later we were so thankful for his directions because with the cord wrapped around her neck three times it is unknown how things might have turned out. We thank the Lord Jesus for his wonderful blessings.