Being Thankful - Day 4

I am thankful to be Jayna's mommy!  Jayna Ray is the beautiful baby girl that made me a mommy!

In late June of 2005, Bonham and I found out that we were going to be parents for the first time!  We were overjoyed!  We referred to Jayna as 'her' without knowing if she was in fact a 'her' or a 'him'.  Bonham really wanted to name our baby George if it was a boy and at that time, I wasn't completely sold on the name, but we didn't have another boy name picked out.  Because I came from a family with an older brother, I expected to have a boy first and then a girl.  When we found out that Jayna was a girl, everyone asked Bonham if he was okay... he said, "I am fine.  Ask Cristina!"  I wasn't upset about having a girl, I just had this feeling that if we had a girl first that we may never have a boy.  (I guess we know that this wasn't the case!)

When we were picking out baby names, Bonham was looking through the book of names and the conversation went as such:
Bonham:  What about Jayna?
Me:  How do you spell that? (knowing that I had never heard that name before...)
Bonham:  J-A-N-A
Me:  That's Jana
Bonham:  We will just call her Jayna
Me:  You can't just call somebody something.  If we add a 'Y', it will be Jayna

And that is how her name came to be.  :)  Jayna's middle name, Ray is after my dad.  People suggested that we spell it R-A-E, but I love the way that Jayna Ray looks and I wanted to use my dad's spelling.

 

This was Jayna's room at our house in Denton:

My due date with Jayna was originally February 22nd, but after a sonogram, they moved it to March 6th.  I was so upset at the time.  I am a number-person and I loved 2-22-06 (all the 2s add up to 6 and I thought that was fun).  I had asked early on in my pregnancy if I could be induced, because we lived an hour from the hospital and I wanted all of our family to be there (and I am a planner).  This was the first niece, grandchild, and great grandchild, so I wanted to be able to let everyone in on the going-ons of the day.

As we got closer to my due date, my mid-wife (certified and working in a hospital with doctors/not a deliver-your-baby-at-home-type) said that we could schedule an induction since Jayna was measuring to be about 8 pounds already.

 

This was me about 2 months before Jayna was born...

I looked so young!  haha!

 

The plan was that I would head to the hospital on the evening of Thursday, March 2nd to start cervidil and be induced on Friday, the 3rd.  This was family could come in Friday after work and we would have the weekend for everyone to spend time together and see the baby, etc.  I was told to call ahead to make sure that they had room for me.  I called and they said that I couldn't go in that night and would have to come on Friday night instead.  Same plan was in place for Friday night... call ahead.  I was supposed to be there at 6:00pm, so I called at 5:00pm and they said to come in at 8:00pm.  So we headed to Fort Worth to meet up with my in-laws and eat some dinner.  I went to the hospital at 8:00pm and they said that they still didn't have room and to come back at 10:00pm.  We went to Half Price Books to walk around and kill some time.  We went back at 10:00pm and had to wait a little longer.  I was finally in a room just before midnight.  They started the cervidil, which did nothing to help me progress into labor.

The next morning, the nurses started my Pitocin drip.  I was told that they would come in and turn it up every 30 minutes or so... they weren't coming in my room anywhere near that often.  After several hours and very little increase in the Pitocin and the contractions, I was informed that too many women were going into labor naturally and that they were going to stop my induction and start again the next day.  I was allowed to eat and they tried to place the cervidil again that night.  It was much more uncomfortable the 2nd night and still did nothing to help me progress.

The next morning (Sunday), the nurses were much more aggressive with the Pitocin, but I still wasn't progressing much.  Around 11:00am or so, the doctor on call came in and said that they might send me home since it didn't seem like this baby was ready to come out.  I was so upset.  I remember thinking that I would never get to have a baby.  It's kind of funny to think that way now...

Less than an hour later, my mid-wife came in and broke my water, so that they couldn't send me home.  That's when the pain of the contractions really increased!  They were coming so hard and so fast, but I wasn't dilating hardly at all.  I begged them to please give me an epidural.  I was only at a 2, but they gave it to me and it was magical!  I got the epidural around 6:00pm(ish) and the nurse asked everyone to leave the room to give me some time to rest.  It had been a long few days. 

(still smiling)

Jayna wasn't cooperating with the monitors and the nurses were constantly coming in to "find" her again.  The nurse came in to try to move the monitors and decided to check me to see where we were at.  She told me that I was at a 10 and that's why Jayna's heart rate was hard to pick up!  Bonham came in right as she was telling me, so he went to the lobby to tell everyone!  While the nurses and my mid-wife were getting everything ready, our families came in the room to wish me luck.  I asked my mid-wife if I could have one extra person in the room since it was a large room.  So I had Bonham, my mom, and my sister-in-law, Erin in the room. 

My mid-wife asked me to do some practice pushes.  I did one and she said, "Okay, that's good.  Don't push again." (I was a good pusher)  :)  She had the anesthesiologist come in there for the delivery.  I pushed through 3 contractions and Jayna was out!  She was born on March 5, 2006 at 8:43pm.  She weighed 7 lbs, 14 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long.

Thanks to Erin for getting this picture of Bonham putting on Jayna's first diaper! 

Jayna grabbed his hand - I love this picture! 

She stayed wide-awake for the first 4 hours of life!  And to be completely honest, this girl doesn't require a lot of sleep to this day!


Jayna is the most thoughtful, tender-hearted little girl.  She loves her brothers and she is always saying that I am the best mommy and Bonham is the best daddy, even when we don't feel like we are doing our best.  She loves to show off her skills in all areas, whether its hula-hooping, running, playing piano, school work, etc.  She has a lot of self confidence and she loves to talk! (We're not sure who she got that from!)  Though she can be stubborn at times, she is a people-pleaser and has good manners.  Jayna loves to be outside finding bugs, playing with her goat, hula-hooping, working on the garden, riding the tractor, or just running around.  She also likes the computer, but mainly watching shows about animals.  She likes to watch home-improvement and nature shows with Bonham too.  Even though she is completely comfortable doing "boy" things like building with Lincoln logs and Lego's, she likes to wear dresses and bows like any other girl.  She will also play baby dolls, school, and restaurant with Barrett as her side-kick.

I just love, love, love Jayna and I am so proud to be her mom.  My prayers and dreams for Jayna are that she grows up knowing that she is loved and important in this world, that she is a strong confident young woman, who works hard at whatever she attempts.  I pray that she is happy in life and that she finds a good, Christian man that will love and adore her (when the time is right... after college) :)

Here are some more pictures of our sweet girl....



 

 

 

Love you Jayna Ray!