Birth Story…(sort of)

Welcome little one!!!! Miss Jossilyn Claire made her entrance into the world on Tuesday, February 16, 2010, at 10:26 am CST. She weighed 8 lbs. even and was 19.5" long with an APGAR of 9.9. She could not be more perfect!

Most of you were aware I had a scheduled C-Section which had been scheduled for about 4 months. It was supposed to be at 12:30 pm CST. The hospital called me on Monday and asked me to be at the hospital by 9:30 am on Tuesday because my Dr. wanted to move the C-Section up to 10:30. Okay, no problem… they could move it up, just so long as they don't push it back. =)

Later that day, I got a phone call asking me to arrive by 9 am, but they didn't say why. Okay, no problem. So Tuesday morning, Mom, James and I dropped the kids off at school and headed up to the hospital. at 9:01 am, as James was unloading the car in the parking lot, I noticed I had a voice mail. It was the hospital asking me to arrive by 8:00 am because they wanted to do the section at 9:30 am. WHAT?!? We raced upstairs and as soon as the elevator doors opened, a nurse quickly asked, "Are you Dr. McDonald's patient?!?" Uh-oh. Turns out I was first on the docket and the whole OR had been waiting on me. Too bad they didn't clue me in on that a bit earlier(!).


I was prepped in record time and within 30 minutes, I was back in the OR getting my spinal. They gave me both a spinal and an epidural this time, but I forgot why. Last time I only had the spinal. We had begged an pleaded with the anesthesiologist to allow my Mom int the OR as well as James. I was pretty worried about James' ability to stay vertical during the procedure and I knew my Mom could. (She watched and photographed my entire section with Matthew!) He was really nice to bend the rules and allow her in! (They told us that never happens, but they liked us, so the thought they would try it out.) Later, the anesthesiologist would tell us that was the first time he had bent that rule and that we had made it a very positive experience for him. Awesome!

While I was getting my anesthesia, Mom and James suited up in the hall. James would later admit he was incredibly nervous, though he was super strong for me and hid it well. =)


James would later tell me that when they finally brought Mom and James into the OR, Dr. McDonald had already started operating on me! Unfortunately, due to door placement, they had to walk right past the gaping hole in my abdomen to get to the refuge of the tent in front of my face. James said he got a little queasy, but Mom thought it was super cool. James immediately hid behind the tent, but Mom stayed off to the side so she could get a good view of the procedure. She took some awesome photos, but they are a little graphic, so I decided not to post them. However, here I am during the section. I got pretty woozy and nauseated this time – that didn't happen with Matthew – so I look a little drunk.

Jossilyn's first cry was such a miracle – they always are! She sounded so pitiful and I wanted to hold her so badly, but I was dry-heaving and they whisked her away so fast to get her vitals and clean her up that I had to ask the nurse if she was for sure a girl… I didn't get to check! After numerous people assured me that she was, in fact, a she, I relaxed and waited for them to hurry up so I could see her little face. It was worth the wait!

She has a full head of medium brown hair that is about an inch long! She has James' feet, hairline and mouth, my eyebrows and dimples, and her Nonnie's nose. She is perfect in every way! She came out looking like Matthew, but 48 hours later, she was (and still is) the spitting image of John as a baby. She looks so much like John that sometimes it throws me off a little. Here are her first photos…