It recently dawned on me that I have never shared either of the girls’ birth stories on here [even though I have them meticulously written down]. A couple weeks ago I went through Jess’ to ease the mind of an expecting mama preparing for a scheduled c-section and have since decided to publish it.

Jessie’s due date according to our dating ultrasound was April. 3ʳᵈ 2017 – basically two years after Brynlee’s. However, with the option of a repeat c section, I knew that she would come early and therefore had the privilege of scheduling her birthday for March 30th, 2017.

Late in my pregnancy with Brynlee, I experienced Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH) and was waiting for that to pop up again. Thus at my routine 38 week prenatal check up with Jess, it started. I had +2 protein in my urine, a normal blood pressure and was sent to the lab for a protein creatinine ratio test.

The following day I experienced a headache and blurred vision from noon onward (pretty indicative signs of PIH). So once Craig got home from work we decided to head to the hospital while Brynlee was with Lola. At the hospital my urine was dipped and had +3 protein & my blood pressure was 123/72. For most, this is considered a normal blood pressure but for me it was high. They did a few other tests that I won’t bore you with – some came back higher than normal or previous and some came back just fine. However, the decision was made to move up my c section to March 24th and we were sent home to recoup.

A couple days later I got up with Craig before work and felt a little trickle. I wondered if my water had broken but expected it to gush like it had with Brynlee. Every time I changed position or moved it would trickle again but never gushed, even when I stood up. My sister had given me an amniotic fluid swab so I tested and it instantly turned blue. So we grabbed our bags, dropped Brynlee off at Lola’s and headed to the hospital to meet our new baby!

There are many perks of having an older sister who works on the l&d unit you’re delivering at. However, the best was that we were greeted by her good friend Erin as soon as we stepped onto the unit. She had my chart under her arm ready to go and I knew that we were in the best of hands. Erin went to work double checking that my water had indeed broken, hooked me up to the fetal monitor and gave Dr. Chua a call. At this point my contractions were really starting to come – I remember her looking at the monitor and asking if I could ‘feel that’. I looked up at her and said, ‘oh yea!’ Very briefly I considered a VBAC and then remembered the odds my doctor had stated when we discussed a ‘birth plan’ – 20%. NO thanks.

The original plan was to wait until the end of Dr. Chua’s clinic day but because my labour was coming on quite quickly, they changed their minds. Erin started my IV, got us ready for the OR and provided some quick education on what to expect during surgery. We walked over to recovery in preparation to go into the OR no more than 90 minutes from arriving on the unit. This was it!

In the OR my fantastic nurses were Natalie & Kristen and Sara & Ashley. I hopped up onto the operating table, and once the anesthesiologist came in, he tipped the table and administered the spinal into my lower back. I was instructed to hold a pillow but something I had remembered from my epidural with Brynlee was to ask a nurse to place her hands on my shoulders. My contractions were fairly strong and quite regular at this point so this felt extremely grounding to me. They continued to get everything prepped and finally brought Craig into the OR at 12:58pm.

Jessica Olive Hunt was born at 1:15pm on March 23rd, 2017 weighing 8 lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long. I was able to hear her first cry and remember crying myself. Craig cut the umbilical cord and the nurses washed & weighed her. In true Hunt fashion, she went through 3 diapers before the nurses were able to get a clean one on her. We were so overjoyed that we had another beautiful healthy baby GIRL!

Craig snuggled her and did skin to skin while they finished up surgery. When all was said and done, we hung out in recovery for a bit to keep an eye on my vitals and assess dermatomes. I also got a dose of Gravol since I was feeling nauseous from the anesthetic. Eventually I felt well enough to hold Jess and just like her sister, she latched easily and started to feed immediately.

We had a bunch of people eager and excited to meet Jessica. But most importantly, her big sister Brynlee wanted to figure out what all the fuss was about. Seeing the two of them together made Craig and I’s hearts burst with love. We could already tell that they were going to be best friends for life and that the love we had for our children had multiplied.

We luckily only spent 2 nights in hospital with Jessica. Unfortunately my hemoglobin had dropped significantly post-op and Dr. Chua mentioned a possible blood transfusion. I declined in hopes that my levels would rise on their own. I was determined to get out of there quickly and be able to celebrate Brynlee’s birthday with her at home. Thankfully that is what happened and we were discharged on March 25th, 2017.