Jackson's Birth Story: Part III

Sorry to keep breaking this up into parts! This was going to be the last one, but it got too long, so welcome to Part III of the four part story of Jackson's birth!

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I’m not sure how much time passed, but eventually my sweet friends left and my parents remained in the room for a little while. About this time a new L&D nurse came in (I think her name was Sharon, and feel so bad that I can’t remember because she WAS SO NICE and I LOVED her), and she noticed some decelerations in the baby’s heart rate each time I had a contraction. Basically he was in the birth canal for a long time and each contraction tried to push him further down, so his body was under a lot of stress.

I seriously hate this photo of myself because it's an awful angle and my chin looks gross.
But it's the only picture we have of me in the hospital bed, so sorry, I'm sharing it.

I immediately felt my heart race and the nurse calmly told us that she would just give me an oxygen mask to get some extra oxygen in my system for the baby. She said that this can be a serious issue, BUT she promised that she would tell me if she ever felt alarmed, and at the moment she was not. So she told me to take really deep breaths and to relax. I tried my best, but my eyes were literally glued to the contraction/baby heart rate monitor, and each time I saw his little heart rate dip, I started praying really hard. My mom was there and kept reassuring me that God was in control and would take care of my little boy.

This went on for some time, and I began to think that I was going to have to have a c-section because his heart rate wasn’t improving much. The nurse was with us the whole time, and she kept telling me that she wasn’t concerned yet. I seriously thought that lady was awesome…she kept me at such ease and was so knowledgeable. She was definitely a blessing from the Lord. She told me stories about my OBGYN and the babies she had delivered. She said that she really liked Dr. N because she lived about 30 minutes from the hospital, but she always made it a point to “catch” all of her own patients’ babies. She said that one evening, Dr. N was home alone with her two sons when she needed to deliver a baby. She got the call from the hospital, loaded her babies into the car, and came jogging into the maternity ward with one boy under each arm. She left them with a few nurses that she knew and ran in the room and delivered the baby. We all thought that was so amazing, and were laughing and wondering how she would come in soon to deliver our baby.

The nurse checked my progress and said, “How far do you want to be?” I replied, “Hmm…7 centimeters!” thinking that that was pretty far-fetched since I had only gotten my epidural a few hours ago. She smiled and said, “How about 8 centimeters?” I couldn’t believe it! It was a little after 6 P.M., and the super-awesome L&D nurse called for Dr. N to be paged because I would be fully dilated at any time. My parents told us that they would pass along the news and would be waiting in the waiting area. There were kisses and hugs, and I started to get the biggest feeling of nervous-excitement ever.

It felt like everything was a blur for the next twenty minutes. Dr. N came waltzing in the room and loudly asked, “Are we ready to have a baby?” She checked me and announced that I was fully dilated and ready to push. I was partially in shock and said, “What? Like right now?” She and the nurse assured me that yes, it was time. I frantically looked at Matt and kept saying, “I can’t believe it’s time!” It was so strange because part of me was so excited, but the other part (which felt like the bigger part at the moment) was scared out of my ever-lovin’ mind and I all I wanted was to cover up with a blanket and tell them to give me a few minutes…or hours.

The next thing I knew the nurse was helping Matt put my legs up. My crazy-numb “had-a-mind-of-it’s-own” leg kept falling and they had to keep picking it up and replacing it. Next they were helping me sit up a little on the bed, and I kept pulling away my oxygen mask to ask random questions in my nervousness. I don’t even remember what I was saying. Matt was amazing and was as cool as a cucumber. Bless him. That’s usually how we are anyways…me, a crazy loon and Matt, calm and collected.

I had no idea how to push, so Dr. N just told me that I would pull on the back of my knees and push three times for ten seconds during each contraction. She said a contraction was coming up so I could practice for this one. Praise the Lord for that epidural, because according to the monitor it was a big one. Without going into detail, it turns out that I had a secret talent for pushing out a baby. Who knew? Dr. N and the nurse were both wide-eyed and Dr. N said, “Girl, you are really good at this!” after my three pushes. I was like, “What?! I can’t even feel what I’m doing (thank you, sweet epidural), so I feel like nothing has happened!” As it turns out, the baby’s head was already visible, so the nurse paged for a second nurse to come in to “help have a baby” because he would be here in just a few more pushes.

“Do you want us to clean him up first or do you want him right away?” the nurse asked while we waited for another contraction. “I want him.” I said. “Then you can clean him up a little.” I couldn’t believe that that moment I had been dreaming of for months, the moment where they placed my baby on my chest, would be here in just minutes. It didn’t seem real, and I kept trying to imprint every single moment into my memory and savor it.

The next thing I knew I was pushing again, and Matt kept shoving my head forward to my chest with each push. I kept thinking, “Is that really necessary?!” but he later insisted that was what the doctor told him to do. Uh huh. I was constantly asking if I was still doing well when I could breathe. Matt kept reassuring me that yes, I was doing great and that he could see the baby more each time. I wish I remember how many times total I pushed, but it wasn’t that many. It might have been three or four contractions total. Before I knew it, it was 7:00 P.M. on the dot and Dr. N was holding up this little red-faced newborn with a very pointed head for us to see. 

He looked like he had been through the ringer, but he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

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To be continued...

Jackson's Birth Story, Part II

I spent the whole weekend cleaning my house like a madwomen. I randomly decided to organize the guest room closet and clean out the microwave (two things that had been put off…and then put off some more!). I enjoy cleaning, but I don’t look forward to it. Those two days, however, I COULD. NOT. STOP. I suppose it was nesting, but I also knew when the baby would be coming, so I thought it was a necessity.

On Monday we packed the rest of our bags, loaded up the car, and headed into town. We were spending the night with some friends so we didn’t have to drive in early the next morning (Thanks, Kate and AB!), and we were going to see a movie. We met Kate and AB and our other friends Isaac and Crystal at the movie theater to see The Dark Knight Rises. We had a great time, and the baby moved around so much during the movie! I wasn’t surprised because I first felt him move around 17 weeks while in a movie, and we had also went to see The Avengers about a month before and he had moved like crazy then too. Superhero movies are obviously a favorite of his…total boy even before he was born!

That night at Kate and AB’s it took me hours to fall asleep. Partially because I was getting up to use the bathroom every hour and I was pretty uncomfortable, but also because I was so excited it felt like Christmas morning! The next morning I got up, showered and shaved my legs (just being prepared, people!), and had Kate take my picture before we left. The hospital had asked me to try to eat a very small, light breakfast before coming in, so Matt drove me to Panera for a bagel without cream cheese.

We arrived about 9:30 A.M. and went in a little early since they asked us to arrive at 10. I was starting to get super nervous and was talking Matt’s leg off. We buzzed into the maternity ward and were taken to our room. The nurse said that they had had a “baby boom” that day and were super busy, so it would be a little while before they could start my induction. She gave me some paperwork to fill out and we settled into the rocker and other chair in the room. At about 10:45, the nurse came back in and said it would be a little longer, so she gave us vouchers to go down to the cafeteria and eat lunch. I was getting really frustrated, but about that same time, my parents got to the hospital, so we went down to see them in the main lobby.

Sorry, babe, I've got you beat.

After a quick lunch (I think I ate a few bites of a wrap, not wanting to upset my stomach), we went back upstairs hoping they were ready now. They were! I changed into a hospital gown and began the long process of answering medical questions and getting hooked up to monitors and I.V.s. They started my Pitocin right around noon and my doctor came in about 15 minutes later. She checked my cervix and said that I was at a 3 and close to 80% effaced. We all joked and chatted (probably because I hadn’t felt a single contraction yet), and she felt my belly for the baby’s position. She said, “My guess is that he weighs 7 pounds 10 ounces!” 

Boy, were we in for a surprise…

She broke my water to give my labor and kick-start and asked the nurses to keep her very updated on my progress. She left and Matt went to the car to get the rest of our bags. I sat in the bed texting and wondering if the contractions were going to hit me like brick wall…but they didn’t. For the moment, that was just fine with me!

Getting excited!
Eek...I just realized how puffy my face looked! 

Cue the woman screaming during a contraction down the hall. I kid you not. I took this opportunity to tell the nurse that I really wanted an epidural when I was ready, and she assured me that that I would get one.

I did not want to be the woman down the hall.

What else was interesting was that the monitor that recorded my contractions had three rows: top, middle, and bottom. Each row had a different room in the maternity ward attached to it. My contractions were recorded in the middle, and the woman in the room next to me had hers on the top. I could already see how small mine were compared to hers. Hers looked like spikey mountains going up and down frequently. The anesthesiologist came in a few minutes later and asked if I would like to go ahead and fill out the paperwork for an epidural even though I didn’t need one yet. She said that it might be nice to already have it done so when I was in pain we could just go ahead with the process. 

Smart woman.

I started to feel some twinges of pain in my lower back about 45 minutes after the Pitocin started, so I told Matt that I thought I was starting to finally feel some contractions. I figured that meant we had at least an hour before I started having regular contractions…uh, no. Try in the next ten minutes they were 30-45 seconds long and 3-4 minutes apart! When I started having to breathe through them, I asked Matt to have the nurse check me to see if I had progressed enough to have the epidural. The nurse came in and said that I had moved to 4 cm and was 100% effaced. She then said she would page the anesthesiologist to come in and give me the good stuff. At least that’s what I was calling it in my mind. J

Matt was wonderful throughout the contractions, but when I wasn’t having them, he was texting constant updates to a list of 20+ people through a group text in iMessage on his iPhone. I still don’t know how much information he shared with those people, and I really don’t mind, but needless to say, they probably felt like they were right there in the room with us! 

Pretty soon the anesthesiologist came in, and I was so thankful that we had already gotten everything prepared ahead of time. While she was administering the epidural I was having the worst contractions that I had had, so I remember it being really hard to sit still as I curled over a pillow. Matt was standing in front of me and he and the nurse and anesthesiologist were laughing and making jokes. I was like, “Really?!” Oh, but as soon as that medicine started kicking in, it felt amazing. I could finally lie back on my pillow and relax. It was the strangest feeling too. I could see my contractions going up and down on the monitor, but I wasn’t feeling them. In fact, my left leg got so numb that I couldn’t move it myself. Each time the nurse would have me turn over, she or Matt would have to pick up my leg for me and move it. It was so weird! In fact, it slipped off the bed a few times and they had to pick it back up! Crazy, but so worth it!

After I was comfortable, we called my parents and had them come up to the room with us. It was so nice having them there to talk with. Mom kept telling me rest, but I was so excited I couldn’t even think about sleeping! My sweet friends Kate and Crystal had been waiting outside with my parents too and they came in later. Crystal even brought us cookies and milk (which I couldn’t eat unfortunately…but thanks so much, Crystal!). Each time the nurse came in they said I was progressing nicely, and we were very thankful that the epidural seemed to be helping me relax and let the contractions do their work. We knew it wouldn’t be long before we finally got to meet our sweet baby boy. 

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To be continued...

Jackson's Birth Story, Part I

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to take more time to blog in 2013. My family (especially my son!) and life is changing so much every day, and I really want to capture that. Not only for myself in later years, but for my husband, children, and grandchildren. So today I would like to share the detailed events of a day that we never, ever want to forget: the day Jackson was born.

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I suppose I will have to go back to July 20, a few days before Jackson entered the world. M and I (is it okay if I call you “M,” Matt? Okay? Thanks.) were at my now-weekly OB appointment. My doctor, who I absolutely adore, came in, chatted for a bit, checked my cervix to see if I was still dilated, and then dropped a bomb on us:

“Do we have a plan to have this baby yet?” she asked, looking at her calendar.

M and I looked at each other, and then back at my doctor. “No…” I started. “What do you mean?”

She laughed and said, “Well you’ll be 39 weeks on Monday, your cervix is dilated to nearly a 3, and if you want, we can induce you at any time next week.”

Now I know that some people might not agree with her choice to induce before 41 weeks, but to me, I was thrilled! I loved being pregnant, but I was so excited to meet my baby that I could hardly stand it.

“Just like that?” I said, still shocked and surprised.

“Sure.” She replied. “Pick a day.”

Pick a day. Pick a day!? Pick a day to have my baby! Waahoo!

She let M and I chat for a bit on which day would work best for us. Our friends had placed bets on what day the babe would be born, so we made sure to pick a day that no one had guessed, just to make sure that no one had a unfair advantage (sorry, guys!). I wanted an even numbered day because I’m weird, so we picked Tuesday, July 24…a mere four days away!

We spoke with the nurse about scheduling the induction with the hospital, but our happy spirits were dashed when the hospital we had planned on delivering at couldn’t get us in for an induction until July 31. My due date was the 30^th, so it wasn’t like that was a bad time, but we were so excited thinking about meeting our baby in four days that it was a big downer to hear. Saddened, M took me to lunch at a Chinese restaurant in hopes that crab rangoon would make my hugely pregnant self happy.

While we were eating, M brought up the fact that there was another hospital in town that the nurse had mentioned might be able to get us in earlier. I had not originally wanted to deliver there because we had not done our birthing classes in that hospital, and we hadn’t toured that hospital either. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I just wanted to meet my baby, and I didn’t care which hospital we used. As long as my hubby was there and my doctor was there, I would deliver in a Walmart if I had to! 

I kid, I kid.

We prayed about the situation over lunch, and we both really felt a peace about our decision. I then called the nurse back and asked her to see if the other hospital could get us in on the 24^th. We came home and I watched Netflix in bed for at least 3 hours while my iPhone was glued to my hand awaiting her call back. FINALLY she called back and gave me the news we had been waiting for…Jackson would be here on Tuesday! Praise the Lord!

To be continued... 

Happy Five Month Birthday, Jackson!

Dear Jackson,

You are five months old! I know I say this every month, but I can’t believe how fast time is flying by! This month you have hit so many milestones and grown so much. Here are your stats for the month:

Weight: 17 lbs. 4 ounces

Height: 26 in +

Diapers: Size 3 during the day and size 4 overnight

Clothes: 3-6 jammies and onesies, 6 month jammies and onesies, and some 6-9 month pants.

You got your first tastes of baby purees this month. Your first food was sweet potatoes, and you really didn’t seem like you enjoyed it too much. You kept making funny faces and looking at us like you were disgusted. It was so cute! You have also tried carrots, bananas, apples, and pears. So far though you have only really seemed to enjoy the fresh avocado that your Aunt Rachel mashed up for you at Christmas. You loved that so much you kept pulling the spoon back to your mouth! Mommy also had to start weaning you from breastfeeding this month, and you took to formula like a champ! I started out putting only one ounce of formula in a mostly breastmilk bottle, and you drank it with no problems. Now you are almost fully on formula and I only nurse you at night before bed. It makes me sad to give it up, but it’s so fun for Daddy and other people to feed you now too! You get so excited when you see your bottle and pull it towards you!

You are a super baby when it comes to hitting milestones, Jax! You have really mastered lots of social interactions this month like peek-a-boo, belly laughing, and talking up a storm. You have even started squealing when you are playing. As far as physical milestones, you are still a rolling machine, but about a week before Christmas you started doing something new: getting up on your knees and hands and rocking back and forth! Sweet boy, I wasn’t ready for you to want to crawl yet, but you are taking off! You started by pulling yourself around a blanket, but last night you pulled with your arms and pushed with your legs for about 20 feet! As soon as you get your arms and legs coordinated, you’ll be gone! Everyone is so surprised when I tell them that you are only 5 months and are starting to crawl already. We are so proud of you!

This month you got to celebrate your first Christmas. It was so special to have you with us and to see you open your gifts (with our help!).  We spent the few days before Christmas with the Renes family at Aunt Rachel and Uncle Dave’s house in Topeka. We all built gingerbread houses, ate lots of food, and opened so many presents! You have such a wonderful, big, fun family! Then on Christmas Eve we drove 8 hours down to Jackson to see Mommy’s family. You spent your first Christmas Day at Pop and GiGi’s house, and you opened your presents from Mommy and Daddy there too. Unfortunately you only slept for about 30 minutes the whole afternoon, so we fought the grouchiness at your Great-Grandma’s house before finally going home. That night it snowed, and snowed, and snowed! Since you woke up sick we didn’t go out in it, but it was your first time seeing that beautiful white stuff outside.

Christmas 2012

The day after Christmas was a big day for you. You cut your first tooth (the bottom right one), and you came down with your first real cold. Your nose started running and a few days later you developed a very nasty cough. You were still happy and played a lot, but sleeping was hard, so you slept in your Rock-n-Play in our room again for a few nights. You didn’t run a fever, so we waited to take you to the doctor. Finally, after a week or so, I took you in just to have the doctor look at your ears and listen to your coughs. Turns out that you had some congestion in your chest, so the doctor wrote us a prescription for a nebulizer and now we are giving you breathing treatments at home. You don’t mind them too bad, and they have been helping your cough go away.

Your favorite toy this month is your Jumperoo. You have learned that you can bounce, bounce, bounce, and you don’t want to stop! You also love to chew on a wet washcloth, Sophie, and other teethers. You always want one of your blankies and if we start to hand you one, you reach for it and get really excited. Then you rub it all over your face. It is the cutest thing!

Aww, love the puppy!

Our lives are so much fuller and happier with you in them, sweet baby. We love you forever.