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.
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| 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.
*
To be continued...
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