A Little-Jenkins: Introducing....Maya Jamie Jenkins!

Greetings family and friends! As I am sure all of you know, the moment we have all been waiting for finally happened and Brad and I are now officially the happiest couple on earth. As you can imagine, I am pretty exhausted so this will be little talk, lots of photos.
As some of you know, I was scheduled to be induced Monday the 23rd since I had been 4 centimeters dialated with no labor in sight. Maya had plans of her own. On Wednesday night Brad and I went to a breastfeeding class hosted by Babys R Us and dinner. We made it home in time to catch Top Chef and as they were sending the losing chef packing, my water broke. I always pictured the TV births with a gush of water so I thought maybe I had an accident, but later realized it was the real deal. Brad had fallen asleep so I gently said, "Brad, I think my water broke." The only response I got was louder snoring. After repeating myself 3 more times with no response, I finally screamed at the top of my lungs, "My water broke and the baby is coming!!!" I have never seen a person jump up so fast in my life.
We arrive at the hospital around 1am and after confirming that it was indeed my water that broke, we were admitted. After 6 hours of just tiny contractions and no sign of them getting worse, I was put on pitocin (a medication that causes contractions) to speed things up a bit.

Still chipper since the contractions hadn't intensified yet.

I'm starting to feel something now...

Daddy getting rested before showtime.

Our last photo as a childless couple taken in between contractions.

THiI

I'm smiling because the contraction finally ended...for now.

The pitocin finally kicked in full force around 6:30 pm. I had fully prepared myself for the pain and agony I was going to be facing and still decided to attempt an all natural birth. By 6:45 I decided to not get an epidural, but try the painkillers they offer. All this did was make me loopy and super high inbetween contractions. They did nothing to help me during them. By 7:30pm I was begging for an epidural. I am telling you, any of you moms out there that did it all natural, my hat goes off to you. You are truly a tough woman. That was the worst pain I had ever felt in my life and can say pushing was easier than the contractions.

Once the epidural kicked in, Brad and I took a nice nap. I was awakened at 9:10pm by the nurse to tell me I was 10 centimeters dialated and it was about time to push. I had no idea since I was numb from the waist down. By the time I was close to crowning, the epidural had COMPLETELY worn off and I was in agony again. My push time was 2 hours and 30 minutes. During this time I managed to yell at the doctors repeatedly for both physically hurting me and lying to me by saying "one more push." In the end after 23 hours of labor, Maya made her apperance into the world kicking and screaming. Brad says she came out with her eyes wide open and alert. She immediatley turned pink, which the doctor says is unusual.

Maya only 2 minutes old, getting weighed.

The happy and exhausted family.

Maya Jamie Jenkins made came into the world on February 19, 2009 at 11:52pm. She weighed 7lb 1 ounce and was 20.5 inches long. She has an amazing set of lungs on her and used them until she was in mommy's arms. Brad was an amazing husband and father throughout the entire process. He kept his cool and was a great support system. He watched the entire delivery while holding my right leg and cut the cord afterwards. Brad says he became the man he's supposed to be at that moment.

We had to stay in the hospital for 48 hours after the delivery and we were grateful for it. We had 3 meals a day, including a filet and lobster dinner provided to congratulate us. We also had nurses 24/7 to help us with any questions and the ever so tricky breastfeeding. Trust me, it is not as easy as it looks.

Daddy and Maya getting to know eachother.

A cranky Maya waiting to be fed.

Our friend Kirby visiting our new addition.

A happy Maya finally at home.

Relaxing before her appt for a blood test.

She definately has a lot of my mothers Asian features in her.

Sadie protecting her new master.

After we were discharged we had an appt to bring Maya back for a blood test to see her bilirubin level. This is a test to see if she is jaundiced. An hour after we got home from the test, we recieved a phone call saying her levels were high and we needed to admit her immediatly. Maya was in the hospital for 2 nights and 3 days for treatment of jaundice and dehydration. I was lucky enough to be able to stay with her the entire time and Brad was a trooper by traveling back and forth to tend to Sadie, work, and stay the nights with us. Her levels are finally back to normal and we were discharged yesterday late afternoon.

Brad had a smile a mile long once we were leaving the hospital and it hasn't left his face yet.

Maya in her little tanning bed.

Her treatment set up. We could only hold her to feed her. It was torture.

After they finally turned the lights off.

A elated daddy ready to take his daughter home for good!

So now, here we are, finally at home with our daughter, trying to find some normalcy. Thanks to adrenaline I am moving along fine with only about 8 hours sleep since last Thursday. All I have to do is look at her beautiful face, and we keep on moving. Thanks so much for all the prayers and kind thoughts we received from friends and family. It is so nice to know that Maya is surrounded by so much love. Here are a few more pictures of our little bug. Bare with me if it takes awhile to respond to calls and emails, since you can see I have my princess to watch over. Speaking of, I better go, it's lunch time for Maya. We love you all!

Ready to be dressed for the day.