Jack's Birth Story

  Friday, Dec 16^th I was already on leave from work. I had lots of days I had been saving for December. I slept in as much as I could with my giant belly and drug my self up and down the stairs all day to pee constantly.  My hand always resting on my belly to make sure I felt him move. I was so paranoid always checking his movements to make sure all ways going good. We were frustrated after my doctors appointment on Tuesday when my doctor wanted to induce me because my blood pressure was slightly elevated but there were not any spots until  Monday at midnight.  It was really irritating because my blood pressure was not that high, but my doctor wasn’t going to be back in town until Tuesday, but since that was my due date we were ready to wait.  I just didn’t feel very good. My back hurt and I felt sick to my stomach. This didn’t stop me from bouncing on my exercise ball. I got ready because as soon as Chase got off work he was going to pick me up to go to the movies. We figured when was the next time we were going to get to go to the movies and to pass the time I took a long time getting ready and had to sit on the floor to put on my makeup. I came down stairs and fed the dogs and felt a weird trickle in my pants. I thought for a second that I had peed in my  pants a bit, thinking this was just the next wonderful thing about being pregnant. Then a few minutes later it happened again. It was so weird it didn’t smell like anthing so I resolved if it happened again I would call my mom. I thought it could be my water breaking but it was just such a small amount I was unsure. As Chase pulled in to the driveway another trickle….I walked outside and said Hey I think my water may be breaking!  I loved the look on Chase’s face allright! he said. He looked so excited So the next trickle seemed like more and I called my mom. She was just about to go to a Christmas party. She was so excited and said it did sound like my water breaking and to head to the hospital! Thank God we had already packed because I was not in a good mindset to pack anything! I just kept thinking we are going to have a baby!!!!! Not on Tuesday but now…or kinda now.

Chase was a trooper as always and got everything together and in the car while I walked around in a daze. And off we went to the hospital. It was very anticlimactic. Just nice and calm driving. We parked and I waddled in with more water leaking here and there. We walked up to labor and delivery and I said I think my water broke. This nice nurse said they were swamped and took us to room 9. The last room available. I changed into a gown and was soon strapped to a monitor for contractions and one for his heartbeat. It took her a while to find Jack and freaked me out. But I loved having his heartbeat constantly monitored really eased my mind and hearing that little horse galloping is such music to the ears. The first nurse wasn’t even working just bringing food and another nurse came in and sure enough they tested the fluid and it was my water breaking! I was not going anywhere..it was baby time! My mom got there pretty soon after that, and Desiree our first nurse started my IV and got the Pitocin going to make my contractions stronger.

 I still wasn’t feeling much just my back hurting some and a bad headache.  The only thing that helped my head some was a makeshift heat pack my mom made me and Mom and Chase heated up for me over and over. I was starving. I had only eaten some ham and cheese at 1 pm, planning to eat popcorn at the movies. I had a million emotions. I was scared of the pain, wanted to have a healthy baby, and a little sad that this amazing journey of growing a baby was in the final stages. Feeling him move inside me was one of the most amazing feelings ever. I was still only a one when I was admitted and hours later I was still only a two. The reality of how long this was going to take started to sink in. I think about three or four am, my contractions were becoming more regular and more painful and they gave me dose of stadol. Wonderful stuff! It was the only time my head didn’t hurt and I felt so nice and sleepy and calm. One eye felt very heavy and the other one felt normal. Of course I couldn’t get any sleep mainly because of the horrible blood pressure cuff that took my bp every 15 minutes…very painful and really just irritating.

I decided to go ahead and get the epidural at sometime around 3 or 4 in the morning. The anesthesiologist came in and I perched on the edge of the bed…leaking water everywhere! I had to lean over a pillow and I tried to stay as still as possible. The numbing shot wasn’t bad but when they put the catheter in my back it felt so weird, painful and a whole lot of pressure. I felt like I couldn’t take a deep breath for a second but after that I was very numb. I could feel my feet and lower legs but that’s about it. A little bit after the epidural my blood pressure dropped and I started dry heaving. Jack’s heartbeat dropped too so they had to turn off the Pitocin and give me some oxygen. Of course this made me super nervous about Jack. They didn’t turn my Pitocin on till about 2 or 3 hours later so that wasted lots of time because I was not progressing. The epidural was such a strange feeling it was awesome to be numb especially when they checked me,  but it also made even turning in bed difficult. I was hoping to finally get some sleep after the epidural but no luck my head still ached.

My mom and Chase were more than awesome. Feeding me ice chips and helping me turn over etc. At 7 am they had a shift change and our new nurse Lee Ann came on. She was awesome very smart and on the ball. I was still only about a 4 when she checked me then and I was so disappointed. I had been in labor over 12 hours and still had such a long way to go! I started getting a little upset. I was so tired! She bumped my Pitocin up and we just waited and waited.

Finally around 1 pm she checked me and I was about a 6. Finally making a little progress but not much. She promised we would have a baby before she left at seven pm. She also gave me some demrol that helped my head some. It seemed that time just stood still, I was so ready to finally have our baby be here.  My mom put me in the “magic pretzel” position to help dialate me faster and it seemed to work, but Jack did not like it when I was on my right side and I had to be on oxygen again. Finally a little after four she checked me again and I was finally at a 9! Of course my doctor was skiing so I had to have Dr. Harris who was on call. My mom had worked with him before so he was happy to see her but he was a little bit on the crazy side. He checked me and said I was close enough to start pushing! That’s when everything went from calm to crazy! Two more nurses came into the room and Lee Ann brought in a table. They turned on the warmer on the baby bed, and that’s when you really realize this little person is about to be here. Lee Ann pushed a few times with me and then Dr. Harris came in. I was sooo over being in labor at this point and was determined to get my baby out as quick as possible. Chase and mom each held a leg and I pushed probably about ten times. Dr. Harris was crazy and on the bed as well pretty much yelling and encouraging me. My mom and Chase were calm and encouraging me that I could do it. I was very focused and in this weird zone of just concentrating as hard as I could. The pressure was very intense and I wasn’t very numb from the epidural as I would have liked. They had a mirror and I could see the top of Jack’s head with lots of black hair. He said I think you can do it this time. I pushed again and his head was out. He had me wait a second while he turn his shoulders and then I pushed again and out he came, finally at 4:47 pm!!!

 It was the weirdest feeling to see this perfect baby come out of me. As soon as he was out he started crying and I was so relieved that he was breathing!!! Chase cut the cord and they whisked him away to the warmer. It was all a little bit of a blur. It was for Chase too. We found the scissors he used to cut the cord in my hair by my pillow! I didn’t get to see him very good while they were stitching me up and he was having a little bit of a breathing problem so I only got to hold him a few minutes before they took him to the nursery.

 Chase and my mom went down to the nursery and for a bit I was just all by myself in my room. It was so weird, to know that I was now a mom. I also could see my toes. My deflated belly seemed so weird and so empty of the little life it held the past nine months. Jack had to be on antibiotics since it was almost 24 hours since my water broke and he was making a little grunting sound because he inhaled some of the fluid into his lungs.

Chase came back and helped me get out of bed on my very wobbly legs and get cleaned up a little. We then packed up everything from the labor room and they moved me to a Post partum room. It was an agonizing wait we so wanted to be able to see Jack because we didn’t get to see him very well at all and I did just for a second. Finally after we kept calling and calling they said we could come down and see him. We walked slowly down the hallway, I was pretty weak and sore and finally got to see our little baby a bit better! He had so much dark brown hair and was smaller than even Marcy. 6 lbs 13 oz. and 19 inches long. Of course he was the cutest baby ever known to man. Chase’s hand pretty much swallowed him. He was now off the oxygen but they wanted that grunting noise to clear up before we took him to our room. It was still so hard to believe he was ours. We went back to our room to wait for him. We were so beyond tired but couldn’t wait for him to come to our room. Finally we heard the wheels of the cart and a knock at our door around midnight and he was all ours!! They helped me breastfeed and Jack latched on like a champ. It was so awesome being able to finally hold and cuddle our baby and feed him. He seemed very hungry and nursed for a bit and then went right to sleep. The sweet nursery nurses said they would bring him back when he was hungry and Chase and I got a few very nice hours of sleep while we waited for his return. I didn’t sleep much..it was hard to get comfortable I was sore all over and so so tired. Jack ate every two hours but did a great job. That morning we got some much needed caffeine. Mom came back over she stayed at our house and took care of our dogs and we spent the day learning how to feed him and change him and trying to get a little rest. They were waiting on blood cultures to come back so Jack had to go to the nursery and get more blood drawn and antibiotics. I cant imagine having a baby in the NICU it was hard enough to have him on an IV. The next day my mom, dad and sister came over and got to meet Jack. It was so sweet to see them with him. He looked a lot like my dad and even has the same ears. The whole hospital stay was very much a blur. Ryan also came to visit us. They decided that afternoon that they could discharge me but Jack had to stay another day. We had to move to the third floor so I could keep feeding Jack. Chase would run back and forth checking on our poor dogs that didn’t know what happened to us. The sweet nurses would bring Jack back and forth but we kept him in our room as much as possible. There wasn’t a lot of sleeping  with them checking on him, changing out his IV, and then just feeding him. It wasn’t much fun because Chase had to sleep on a little cot and me in the not comfortable hospital bed. We so wanted to go home. Jack was looking a little jaundice so they were worried they might have to put him under the lights. The next morning his blood work was good and no signs of infection so they took him off his IV yay and said we could go home that afternoon after his circumcision. The nurses gave us a few instructions, Chase warmed up the car and I carried our new baby out. Driving home, I don’t think I have ever seen Chase drive so slow but I was very glad. It was very nerve wrecking having him in the car and I rode in the back with him. The dogs were so excited to see us and they knew that Jack was a baby right away! They were so interested but very sweet with him and not at all jealous. The cats were also very sweet but not that interested. We were finally home. Let the adventure begin!