A Girl Named Jamie: Baby Gyte

In an effort to remember some of the details of my pregnancy and delivery I am writing this post. So if you don't care you can stop reading now. :) Being pregnant is one of my least favorite things in the whole world. I know some women that absolutely love it, but I'm just not one of those people. The morning sickness, weight gain, and overall discomfort made it really hard to talk myself into having another baby, but I went forward in faith knowing that it was the right time for our family and it was what the Lord wanted us to do. Even though this past year has been one big trial, I feel extremely blessed to have this little boy in our family.

It took Jeff and I a couple years before we were finally able to have Jane, so I was expecting it to take a while to get pregnant with my second. This made telling Jeff I was pregnant even better because he wasn't expecting it so soon. I sent him this picture on his phone after he got home from school one day. His reaction was priceless. :)

Jane and I spent a lot of time cuddling on the couch watching TV. Gyte was such an active baby even Jane could feel him move.

Just a couple days before the baby came.

Gyte was measuring small so I went in for a couple extra ultrasounds. This one is a week before he was born.

I ended up being induced a few days before my due date because they were worried about his decrease in growth. I had been dilated to a four for a couple weeks and extremely uncomfortable so I wasn't too disappointed with the change in plans. The only problem was that my mom wasn't flying out to help with Jane for a few more days. Living far from all our family has been hard, but our friends out here have become like family. Several people offered to watch Jane and we worked everything out.

We dropped Jane off at the Ashworth's house and headed to the hospital on November 18th at 8 AM. After we checked in and settled down I started on Pitocin around 10. I didn't have a whole lot of progress the first few hours so they kept upping the dose. To kill time Jeff and I picked a movie to watch from the few select films the hospital offered. We watched E.T. because Jeff had never seen it and I convinced him it was a classic. The funny part was I couldn't get the alien image out of my head so by the time Gyte arrived with his cute fuzzy head, wrinkly forehead and big eyes, I couldn't help but see the resemblance to E.T. :)

By the time I started to get uncomfortable with my contractions I got an epidural. At first it was only working on one side. They tried tilting me to the side and giving me some more drugs and eventually I was numbed up evenly. The epidural is one of my favorite parts about delivery (besides the baby that is). It's so relaxing and peaceful. I wouldn't do it any other way.

After awhile the epidural started to wear off on one side of my body. The contractions were really strong and I was worried I would have to deliver without the full epidural. They gave me another strong dose of meds and it kicked back in. After a while the baby's heart rate started to drop more than it should so I had to be put on oxygen and go on my hands and knees. That is a lot harder than it sounds when you're extremely pregnant and can't feel the lower half of your body. I went from being dilated to a 4 to a 10 in forty minutes, which was causing his heart rate to drop.

My doctor arrived at the hospital for her shift just in time for the delivery. The only problem was I couldn't push because I forgot to take my heartburn medicine that morning. They gave me a dose of heartburn medicine and I was ready to go. After a few pushes and about 25 minutes later Gyte came right out. It was a surprise to see his peach fuzz head as Jane had massive amounts of long black hair when she was born. He was 6 lbs 5 oz, 19 inches long, and perfect as could be. I loved the first few minutes of skin to skin time. It's the perfect way to end a hard pregnancy and begin a new life. I remember how the nurses kept saying how perfectly pink he was and complimenting his round head. Ha ha. One nurse told me he looked like a c-section baby because his head was so round.

My recovery went a lot smoother than it did with Jane, but the hospital stay was much worse. With Jeff in and out to take care of Jane I was left alone more than I would have liked. I only got two hours of sleep both days and was exhausted. I was on the overflow floor of the hospital because it was so busy and just happened to be right next to a door that the nurses liked to open and close a lot and have very loud conversations nearby. For some reason I was in one of those beds that fill with air and adjust every few minutes to prevent bed sores. But all it did for me was wake me up every time I fell asleep. I spent the second night alone so Jeff could go home to Jane and when I tried to send Gyte to the nursery to get a couple hours of sleep I was told the nursery was closed because they needed all the staff on the floors. Although my stay was a little rough, all the nurses and staff were extremely nice so I can't complain.

Jane meeting Gyte for the first time was probably my favorite part of everything. Just watch the video below and you will see how excited she was. She has been such a good sister to Gyte... most of the time. But hey, she's only two and that's a lot to ask from a two-year-old.