Happy Thanksgiving!

Well the fun began Wednesday Night. I had been to the Doctor that morning. I was dilated to 2.5cm, but of course predicting the
arrival is anything but certain.


I returned home and napped most of the day, as Rob had been on call the night before so neither of us had much sleep.

Rob made it home around 3pm. He really was not feeling very well. Perhaps it was the suspect chicken curry salad he had had earlier in combination with his cold he has been struggling with the last 2 weeks (of coarse he thinks he has cancer, but that is another story). He took some Nyquil, we had an early dinner, then retired to the couch to watch some mind numbing TV.

Well I started having contractions, not painful ones, just regularly scheduled q5 minutes. I called my Dad, who is the experienced one as far as delivering a couple thousand babies. He said that if they were not painful, then it was probably not the real thing. So I sat and timed the contractions as I watch "Private Practice" - the Grey's Anatomy spin off with even poorer medicine than its parent. Perhaps that induced labor who knows.

Well I woke up at 11, and 12, etc. as usual these past few weeks. But then at 3am something seemed a little different. Uh, my water broke... I calmly got Rob up, but his body was not in it. Perhaps a GI bug, or anxiety, or his cold, or combinations there of - he did not look so good. We eventually made it into the truck with all the stuff we had previously packed. But I made Rob go grab a towel, so as not to ruin the new car smell.

We arrived at the hospital, which seemed abandoned and quiet. It turns out I was the only patient on labor and delivery. Which was awesome! I know some of you probably had reservations about me delivering at Salt Lake Regional, but I have no regrets. All the attention of the entire unit staff was with me. I got my first, yes first epidural shortly after arriving, and it did not due to much for the pain. It is what Erin Hinich refers to as an airball, and apparently is not uncommon, but of coarse it would happen when a Doctor is the patient. Well the second time around, with much patience from the nurse anesthetist, it made it into the epidural space. A little Zofran on board too, and I was feeling much better. By this time Mugs (my sister), and my Dad and Mary had arrived. My Dad was a wreck, Magan was pacing, Rob was pale and asking for IV fluids, and Mary was cool in the corner tellling stories to help all of us. I could feel a little pressure with each contraction. It seemed like I dilated from 4 cm on arrival to 9+ cm fairly quickly. Before I knew it I felt like I needed to push. Dr. Loewen was by this time en route to Honduras to scuba dive, again just my luck. Her replacement was Dr. Reiser, the spitting image of Mr. Peterman from Seinfeld.

I pushed for forever. Mr Peterman- I mean Dr. Reiser even threatened using forceps, but this the little dude could not make out. So after two hours of pushing, an intervention was made, and out he came. He peaked around, and gave a little peep. Everyone was snapping pictures, everyone was crying, it was happy pandemonium. Rob, Mary, and my nurse Sandy helped me with every push for 2 hours straight!

Overall it was a great Thanksgiving. I was so grateful for my family support, both near and far. I wished everyone could have been there, but as you can see from the pictures above, we had quite a lot of visitors.

Thank you everyone. Come and see the newest arrival.

Charles Floyd Jones
6 lbs 13 oz.