Jamisen Clover

Just a little for your information here, this blog was written in January 2021, but like I mentioned in "hello twenty twenty two," I stopped writing much last year, but did have a few posts in my queue to share. Lots of readers enjoyed my Labor and Delivery Story for Jonas so I thought I'd go ahead and share this one as well. Happy Reading!

Well, hello. I’d like to just start by thanking Jesus that I’m still here - I know this is quite dramatic to say, but it’s so true. My pregnancy this go around was quite the opposite of my first pregnancy. With Jonas, everything was peaches and cream, void of my terrible terrible morning sickness; whereas with this pregnancy, it seemed that even though I wasn’t plagued with morning sickness, everything else wasn’t so amazing. 

About halfway through my pregnancy, I learned that I had gestational diabetes, meaning both myself and baby were at risk of many complications if not treated correctly. Fortunately, we found that my condition could be treated by visits to a perinatologist (to keep track of baby) and a diet change for myself. This meant, low carbs and no sugar (which all of those things are a pregnancy lady’s best friend). This also meant that I would need to be induced at 39 weeks so as not to put baby or myself under any stress. 

Anyway, to keep things short and to the point, we made it to the thirty-ninth week and we waited for the hospital to call and let me know that I could come in for my scheduled induction. It felt like that day we just sat here and watched the clock, but time was just at a complete standstill. We didn’t hear from the hospital at all on that day and we just decided it best to try to sleep. 

You know, when you’re awaiting something huge, you don’t actually sleep a wink (I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve all night long). As soon as I had fallen asleep, the hospital called around 4:30am and asked us to come on in to get the induction process started. Justin and I showered and kind of took our little time to get there as we knew that these were our last little moments before we would be parents of two (under two, lol). 

When we got to the hospital, it took us about 45 minutes to get situated and checked into our delivery room. Keep in mind, I’m not laboring at all - just kind of hanging out and waiting for showtime. Justin’s dad brought us Chick-fil-A for breakfast, which was the best because we all know you aren’t supposed to eat at all once you get checked into the hospital (I ate that breakfast like it was the last supper!). At about 9:00am, the nurses got me started on pitocin to get contractions started. Not too long after the medicine got going, I felt little quells of pressure, nothing toooooo bad, and just continued to push through and watch old seasons of America’s Next Top Model on Hulu. 

My doctor came to check on me around lunchtime to go ahead and pop my water back so that I could continue to make progress in laboring. At this point, though I had a steady rhythm of contractions, I was only about 2cm dilated, we had lots of time to go. However, the MOMENT my water broke, I felt like the contractions were going to rip me in HALF. I asked them to send the anesthesiologist to my room FORTHRIGHT - I needed an epidural and I mean I needed it at that instant! (I am not* the mom that will go through a natural birth, y’all. Give me the drugs - I do not care to feel pain because it proves nothing to me, lol. Why feel the pain on purpose, ya know?). After getting the epidural, I felt golden and drifted off into a nice little afternoon nap. 

Hours later, the nurse calmly comes into my room and asks how I’m feeling. She explained that she was noticing that the baby was reacting in a way in such that she may be ready for delivery - which was very random for me to hear because I was not feeling the knocks at the door yet (if ya know what I mean). She checked me, and at this point I was only 4cm. She started moving me into a thousand different positions on the hospital bed and then finally explained to Justin and me that the baby was under stress - her heart rate was pretty much cutting in half. At that point, what seemed like the entire nursing staff came into the room injecting me with this and that and that and this to stop contractions, to fight possible infection - just everything under the sun. 

So - sidenote. Justin and are freaking out, friends. We already knew that induction could bring about all types of craziness, but we also didn’t want to make any of our family and friends freak out. We told them all earlier in the day that we’d be in touch once the baby came. So, we were just awestruck to know that we were pretty much helpless. I’m in the bed literally puking up nothing from just FEAR, Justin is pacing the room and finally just stands in front of the monitor for what seemed like hours until the baby’s heart rate steadied. 

When the baby was in a better place, the nurses started kicking the pitocin back up. The baby hated this. With every contraction, her heart rate inched back down. So y’all, just imagine me just paralyzed with the thought that one of us may not make it out of the delivery. I hate to be so dramatic - but these were my most honest and vulnerable emotions in the moment. I was thinking to myself that I would without a doubt rather my baby make it through the delivery if I could and just in constant reflection and conversation with Jesus. Laying in the bed, pleading that He just help us through this moment. The nurses honestly never left our room - they were always in there with us pretty much trying to silently let us know that there was a possibility that I’d need to be taken to the OR for a C-Section. 

Many moons later, the nurse came in and told us that we needed to figure it all out. She told me that at this point, if I had not dilated to 10cm, they were going to have to wheel me to the OR for an emergency C-Section. She asked me for like the millionth time if I felt the urge to push. I explained to her that I felt pressure but not constantly and she decided to go ahead and check me to see if I had dilated any - y’all - I was FINALLY at 10cm at around 9:30p. 

Everyone rushed to my room. It was as if my doctor was just waiting outside for the moment to come. As soon as I knew it was time to push, I kid you not, y’all, I threw up everywhere. All over Justin, all in my hair, it was insane - but I think that pushed the baby out. When the doctor checked me one last time, she could see her head popping out. She asked me to do a practice push and after a “practice,” Jamisen Clover was born at 9:45p on December 16, 2020. God is. 

And that is all I have to say here. God is. 

XOXO