Janie Anne Griffeth

Here’s the story of how our little Janie Girl arrived.

My initial due date for this pregnancy was September 25th.  At my 20 week ultrasound, she was measuring a little small so they pushed it back a week in to early October.  I had lots of early pre-labor contractions that got me thinking she would arrive early.  But then September 25th came and passed and we were in to the week of my actual due date when my doctor and I decided to be induced on October 4th.  Ryan was almost 10 pounds and she didn’t want to run the risk of having an even bigger baby so October 4th it was.

We had everything all situated and set up to be at the hospital at 9:30am.  Then we got a call from the nurse that morning saying they were out of beds and they’d call later if one opened up.  So Wes & I decided to kill some time and take Ryan to our ward playgroup and at about mid-day I called to see what the status was and it wasn’t looking very likely at that point.  We went home, put Ryan down for a nap and in the meantime Sam was talking to my dad and my dad mentioned that he was working on a project with the Sr. VP of something for Spring Valley Hospital and he could call her to see if she could make anything happen.  Sam told him to but then he said she was on the golf course and it wasn’t an option.   I didn’t think he was going to call at all.  Then my phone rang 10 minutes later and it was the hospital asking if I was ready to come in.  My dad texted me and said “amazing what a phone call will do.”  Thanks dad.

So at 3:00pm Wes and I headed to the hospital while my parents took over with my kiddos.  After Sam & Ali were done shuffling Nate home, Sam headed to the hospital as well.  She offered to come as a photographer/nurse to the delivery and it was great to have her there {again}.

I checked in and got hooked up to all of the various machines and got my IV put in.  I was told for the 5th week in a row – “you are at a 2”. The started the Pitocin, upping the dose every half hour.  I wasn’t in too much pain for an hour or two and my nurse said the boys could come in to the delivery room to say hi and goodnight.  So my parents loaded them in the car to come and visit.  About five minutes before they came in they decided to break my water which always makes the contractions start coming.  So I was definitely in more pain when they came but not enough to scare the boys!  They loved seeing where I was at and I even got a nice foot rub from them!

Luckily I was next on the anesthesiologist rounds . . . he was just finishing up a C-section.  I had about an hour of pretty good contractions before he made his way in there.  He gave me the epidural {probably my most painful one of all} and my legs started getting tingly so I thought we were in good shape.  It did take away the edge on the contractions but they were still painful.  Twenty minutes later we pushed the green button for more medicine.  Nothing.  My night nurse, Andrea {who was absolutely fantastic} called him back in and after a few minutes of ridiculous questions from the man, he gave me more medicine.  He said things like “you don’t look like you’re in that much pain.” or “your legs shouldn’t feel numb when you deliver the baby.”  or “you’re supposed to still feel a little.”  Needless to say I did not have faith that this “know it all” anesthesiologist  was going to actually give me an epidural that works and at this point I was in so much pain that I just lost it.  The tears came and I couldn’t stop them. {first time crying during labor}.  At this point Sam dropped the camera and went from photographer to nurse to assist Wes in getting me through this.

It had now been over an hour since he initially put in the epidural and when he came back in and saw me with tears and obviously in a lot of pain, it was finally obvious to him that his first attempt didn’t work.  He took out the first epidural and did it all over again.  I’ll never forget the pain when he put the catheter in – ouch.  BUT – this one worked.  Hallelujah.  I was completely numb and was able to relax and enjoy the rest of labor – which didn’t end up being too long!  I was at a 4 when the second epidural went in and shortly after that I was finally at a 5.  I went from a 5 to a 10 in less than 30 minutes.  It was kinda funny – she checked me and I was at a 7 and about two minutes later while she was still in the room I told her I thought I felt her head down there and she was a little skeptical since she just checked me but was such a great nurse that listened to her patient and I was already at a 10 . . . she was ready to come!  Doctor was called and I was told not to move, laugh, sneeze, cough or we’d have ourselves a little girl.  I was able to wait for Dr. Shoenhaus to come and after a few pushes, Janie Anne was born on October 4, 2013.  She weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 20.5” long.

We were thrilled to meet our little girl.