Alayna Michelle Jaeger

Well, it was a long, tough road, but she's finally here. I found out I was pregnant with Alayna at a St. Amant High School football game. There I was enjoying the night with Lance and Travis and all of a sudden I felt really sick. I started throwing up. I couldn't catch my breath. All of my energy was just drained out of me. I went to the emergency room to get checked out. It didn't dawn on me what it could be until the doctor asked if it was possible I could be pregnant. Immediately, I knew that was what it was.

If you know me, you know that I have a son, Travis, that was born with Spina Bifida. The first thing I was praying for was for the baby I was carrying to be healthy. I went to my doctor right away and we started prenatal care. Everything was routine and went well the entire pregnancy. Until close to the end.

The closer we got to the due date, the larger the doctor thought she would be. Travis was almost nine and a half pounds. We were afraid that she would be that big also. I had to have a caesarean for Travis for several reasons, but one was the fact that he was just too big for my body to deliver. Also, I hadn't started dilating at all and my due date was only a week away. I was really big and really tired. We discussed it with my doctor and decided to do a second caesarean. Since he wanted to schedule the caesarean before I actually went into labor we didn't have much time. It was May 28th and my due date was June 2.

The nurse told me to go ahead and get my pre-op tests done and she would call me as soon as she could with a date. Well, I kind of wanted to have her on May 29th because that is my daddy's birthday. But it was too soon to line everything up. So after talking to the nurse who told me it could either be Thursday or Friday, we decided on Friday, June 1st. This made it real easy for me and special for Travis because his birthday is July 1st. They are 4 years and 11 months apart.

Well, of course Thursday night I couldn't sleep. Travis was staying at Grandma's house and would be meeting us at the hospital in the morning. We had to be at the hospital for 5 a.m. At 3:30 a.m. we couldn't wait anymore. We loaded up the truck and headed for Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge, about 20 minutes away. We stopped at a car dealer and rode through the new trucks to kill some time. (And to look for a new truck since Lance wrecked ours on May 29th. What a week!) We got to the hospital about 4:15 a.m. and checked in. I was brought to a laboring room to wait for my doctor to arrive. Needless to say we were nervous and excited the whole time.

About 6:00 a.m. Travis and my parents made it to the hospital. My mom told me he had been up at 4 a.m. asking if it was time to go yet. He was as anxious as us! At 6:30 a.m. I was taken to the operating room to be prepped. Finally the doctor came in and said let's get this baby out. The delivery was easy. She came out crying and looking just beautiful. When they brought her to be cleaned off and weighed, measured, and checked out, Lance picked up the video camera to get it all on film. Guess what? He forgot to put the tape in it before we got in the delivery room. We watched them clean her up and just waited for them to bring her to us.

Finally, we got to hold her. She was perfect! She stopped crying as soon as I held her in my arms. I know I was crying, I think even Lance was. I was finally brought out to the family room so everyone could see her. As we were going down the hall, one of the nurses asked my where was her big brother. She went got Travis out of the family room and brought him to us so he could be the first person to see her. When we finally made it to the family room, he was so excited he was telling everyone to come see 'his baby'. I was brought to recovery and made it to a private room within an hour.

We had a surprise waiting for Travis in the room. Actually, it was at the nurse's station. We were all in my room waiting on Alayna to be brought to us after getting fully checked out in the nursery. When the nurse wheeled the bassinet in, there was Alayna, and a huge, stuffed Scooby-Doo wearing some pajamas for Travis.

We stayed in the hospital for 4 days so that I could heal enough to take care of her, then we went home. Travis was the most glad to be home I think. Life has gotten real 'interesting' since then. Alayna is a little over 3 months old now. She has learned how to turn from her stomach to her back. She's chewing on her hands. She catches her toes with her hands. I'm just waiting for her to put them in her mouth too. She loves to stick her tongue out at us. She thinks it's funny. Actually, we do too. Guess I'll have to teach her that little ladies don't do that.

I'll update this page later, but for now, why don't you go check out our baby picture page by clicking on this picture of the proud daddy.

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