Jackson's Birth Story

I make no apologies for anything TMI in this post....

So I definitely thought that Jackson would not be making an appearance until his repeat c sect date on Thursday 1/29/15 but he had other plans.

I went to bed Friday 1/23 with some mild cramping but nothing new or that I hadn't had before. I had no change in much else either....maybe a bit more discharge but otherwise a completely normal day.

I woke up around midnight, as I usually do anyway, and moved out to the couch. This as something I had been doing since October because I was having insomnia issues and general uncomfiness. It was easier just to go to the couch and be able to move around then toss and turn all night and disturb Mike.

At 12:19 I had my first contraction. I jotted down the time and continued on with looking around on the internet. I had had time-able contractions a few times in the past few weeks so I wasn't really too concerned about them being the real thing. I timed for the next 2 hours and they were consistently 10 mins apart. I figured I would try and get some sleep and if they were the real deal I would wake back up with them.

Before I could even get comfy on the couch the contractions began coming every 5 minutes. This began at 2:34am. I figured instead of sleeping to do some time on the yoga ball and just started walking the length of the house. I timed these contractions, which stayed around 5 mins apart until around 4am when I decided it was time to wake up Mike. I went in and told him we were going to have a baby today but that it wasn't time to rush to the hospital. I told him to rest and I would let him know when I needed him.

I only lasted about 20-30 mins and I needed to get Mike up. I told him that he needed to finish getting things together and I was going to call the doc soon.

I called the doc at 4:48 and they told me the doc would call me back. When she called me back and asked me what was going on she told me I sounded like I was in early labor and to head in to get checked.

I called my mom at 4:58 to ask her to come sit here with Nate who was, obviously, still sleeping so we could head in. I was a little perturbed when she didn't pick up my phone call but after talking to her, and later laughing about it, she said it just didn't register to her why I may have been calling at such an ungodly hour...lol.

We got to the hospital some time after 6am and was taken to triage to be monitored and checked. After being on the monitors for a while and having the nurse do an internal I was 2cm dilated and contracting at least every 5 minutes but more along the lines of 2-3 minutes. The nurse talked to the doc on call and was told to tell me to go walking the hospital for 2 hours and come back to be checked.

So, at 7am, Mike and I began walking the length of the hospital. Well, first we stopped at the cafeteria and had a little snack despite my lack of appetite then we walked the length of the hospital back and forth. Thank goodness it was super early and a Saturday morning because walking a few steps and then stopping for a contraction while people are looking at you kind of sucks. Luckily the majority of the people we saw were hospital workers and not just random people.

Finally at 9am we went back to L&D and were taken back to triage to be monitored and checked again. The contractions did not pick up any and I had not dilated any further. The nurse talked to the doc and the doc told her to release me at 9:32.

I was defeated. I seriously cried. I was having painful contractions every 5 minutes at least and I had to go home?! After composing myself I got dressed and Mike and I headed back home. We were told to come back if my contractions were steadily 2-3 minutes apart or my water broke.

When we got back Mike decided to take Nate to his parents house since ultimately that's where Nate was going to end up anyway. My mom said she would stay with me while he was gone which I thought was silly. I decided to take a bath since that's what was suggested to me by the triage nurse. After a few minutes in the bath and being extremely uncomfortable I got back out. I was sitting and talking with my mom who suggested laying down in bed under the heating blanket to try and get some rest.

I thought for a bit then decided that was a good idea. I turned on the heating blanket and climbed on in. My contractions were getting extremely painful and I wasn't really able to do much besides breathe through them. There was no way I was getting much rest in between them but laying in bed was nice. I had just gotten comfy and started to doze when one of my more intense contractions hit (more intense up until that point) and as I was trying to breathe through it.....POP went my water....all over my bed. Ladies, if you are pregnant, please invest in a mattress pad. I am immensely grateful we had one on our bed.

I called out for my mom to help me because I couldn't move and def could not deal with the mess. She told me to get in the shower and she started cleaning up the bed. At that moment Mike texted me that he was on his way back home (and thank goodness for that).

Mike walked in the house joking about something....in true Mike fashion and was told my water broke. He came into the bathroom and I told him to go eat something because Jackson was definitely on his way. I got out of the shower soon after that and Mike was in the kitchen making a 4 course meal. Ok, not really but he was definitely taking his time on making and eating food. Here I am gushing water and having painful contractions and he is la-te-da'ing through lunch. I 'kindly' told him to hurry up we needed to go back to the hospital soon.

When we got back to the hospital I had to do the whole check in thing again. Hello, was I not just here 3 hours ago?! I was finally let back into triage and thankfully the nurse there didn't make me to through the whole monitoring/checking shenanigans. I couldn't even sit on the bed let alone lay there for an undetermined amount of time to be monitored. She led us to the elevators and up to L&D (and let me tell you, that was a long walk for someone whose water broke with nasty contractions).

Up in L&D the nurse there took one look at me and asked me if I wanted anesthesia called. I nearly cried at the thought of relief and she told me that she would put in my IV and call the pain doc.

Things from this point on get a little fuzzy for me. Whether its my brain blocking out the pain or the traumaticness of it all, either way I can remember certain parts but not others.

While waiting for anesthesia I was having awful pain and Mike being the doll that he is was letting me hold his hand. Only, when I wasn't getting enough relief from squeezing I changed to digging my nails into him. I knew it was wrong and even apologized but I just couldn't help it. If I was in pain, I needed to give him pain too. Oops.

Anesthesia arrived (fairly quickly thank goodness) and put in my epidural. Sweet sweet relief finally. I was checked by my doc and was 3cm and was told they would be starting the lowest dose possible of pitocin soon which I was fine with.

After a little while (and by this I mean, probably 30ish minutes) I realized that the left side of my body was still feeling the contractions. I mentioned this to the nurses and they pushed a bolus of meds into my back and also called the anesthesiologist back. At this point I also started to feel nauseous from the extreme reflux I was having. One nurse brought me puke pans (gee thanks) but luckily another nurse saw the puke pans and asked me if I would like something put in my IV for the nausea. She ordered up some zofran for me...bless her...lol.

While waiting for the anesthesiologist to come back the doc decided to check me again and it was determined that at this point I was 5cm, 90% effaced and a -1 station. I decided to text my mom to ask her when she planned on coming up. She told me she was putting dinner in and then heading up. This was about 3:48.

It was then that the anesthesiologist came back in and adjusted the epidural for me. I wish I could say at this point I started to feel relief but this is kind of when shit started hitting the fan.

At about 4:00 or around there (maybe a little earlier) the pain I had been feeling on my left side got extremely worse. I mentioned this pain to anyone around. It was nothing I felt before. It almost felt as if the baby was stretching out....but only on that side....and add in a butt-load of pain. They were concerned that the pain I was feeling had to do with my previous c-section but since the pain was nowhere near the c-section line that theory was quickly thrown out. The next thing they thought was that my bladder was full. So they placed a catheter to empty my bladder. But that didn't ease the pain either. The doctor checked me again and I was now 7cm dilated and 100% effaced. It was about 4:28 at this point. The called the anesthesiologist back one more time for me to try and ease the pain for me. I was praying he would make it back soon.

About this time the heart monitor attached to my stomach started picking up the decels in Jackson's heart. It was probably one of the scariest sounds I've ever heard. At first the nurses were pretty calm. Had me switch sides while they moved the monitor around. His heart recovered the first couple times it happened but the more frequently the decels occurred the more frantic everyone became. The doctor did one last check of me at this point and I was 10cm and ready to have a baby.

At this point hell pretty much broke loose. I was that person they placed the call out to the hospital over the loud speaker. At that point an insane amount of nurses and doctors infiltrated the room in preparation for my delivery. I was told that it was important I get this baby out as soon as possible. I could hear his heart on the monitor and I knew that they weren't lying to me. Getting my baby out of my body needed to happen immediately.

I was told to start pushing. I had no practice pushes. No coaching on what to do. A simple 'pull your legs back, hold and push until the count of 10'. Then after I did that I was told to 'take a breath and do it again'. Over and over again.

A few minutes into pushing my mother walked in. She walked into complete and utter chaos. Coincidentally, the anesthesiologist walked in around this time too and mentioned that we obviously did not need him anymore and quickly backed back out. I was still in the constant pushing and at this point the doctor decided to use the vacuum to aid in the delivery. Just about every push I did she also used the vacuum to help get him out.

At one point the doctor looked at me and told me I needed to get Jackson out in the next set of pushes or they were taking me for a c-section. I knew that they would knock me out if that happened and I did not want to miss the birth of my baby so I mustered up any and all energy I had and pushed. I pushed so hard that he descended a fairly good amount. The doctor told me that I got him down so far that I couldn't have a c section now so I needed to push him out now.

With the last bit of energy I had, and help from an episiotomy I delivered Jackson James Cinderella at 5:18 on January 24, 2015. I went from 7cm to having an outside baby in less than 1 hour.

Jackson was born not breathing, blue and pretty lifeless. He did not cry when he came out. Mike did not get to cut the cord and I did not get to hold my baby and do skin to skin for the hour they suggest. Instead, the doctor told me that the NICU team was resuscitating him by intubating him to get him breathing again. He was brought over to me and I was able to briefly touch him and then he was taken down to the NICU.

If you've made it this far please get yourself a brownie....you deserve it. Next I'll write about what happened with Jackson and the 'cold head' therapy that he went through during his time in the NICU (and I promise it should be a much shorter blog).

Also, adding mainly for my benefit...but I may edit this post as I remember certain things that happened. Its amazing what the mind involuntarily blocks out some times.