Jack: A Birth Story

Yes, it HAS taken me three + months to tell you the story of Jack's birth. Its been interesting getting used to having a baby around. Then we were out of town a lot and I feel like I am just getting settled into life with a baby and a husband that works a lot.

A lot of you have been curious about Jack's birth and why I went a month early and what happened to him in the hospital that caused him to be in the nursery for the first 4 days of his life.

April 11

6:15 am

I woke up and the bed was super wet. My underwear were wet and it was weird. I asked Neil if there was any hanky panky I didnt remember about (yes probably tmi) and he said no. This was at 6am. I didnt think my water had broken because it didnt hurt anywhere. So I figured Id call my OB when their office opened.

9:00 am

I called my ob and the nurse said to put on a pad( which I had already done) and call back in the afternoon and tell her how many Ive changed. Which is a really strange thought and they probably should have just had me come in anyway to check

Day goes by and I run my errands and get things done. Showered. Oh and sleep. I slept a lot.

3:00 pm

I called back to tell the nurse I had changed at least 6 pads in the course of the day! And of course she told me to come in. I get there and sit on the table and water is just dripping from me. It was a little embarassing because when you pee. You can at least keep it in for a while but this was just a steady drip ALL DAY! Anyway, the doctor comes in and looks at me. Before he even does anything down there he says "well I can tell you now just by looking at you, your waters broken" Again, duh. So off to the hospital I go.

5:00 pm

I got all checked in and a few of my pregnant friends joined me since Neil was flying still. It was super nice to have them join me and hang out. Nice to not be alone. Thank you ladies. I really do appreciate it. We heard a lady giving birth and boy did it not sound pleasant. Poor mom. Nothing was happening except an IV (which I REALLLLLLLY didnt want that early.)

7:00pm

Neil is off of work, the ladies go back home. Still nothing.

8:30pm

The doctors put a tic tac sized pill in my vagina in order to make my uterus thinner. At that point I was only 1 cm and 25% effaced. Tiny contractions have started and I have to pee. A lot. I think I got up about 5 times. I'm sure my nurse at that point hated me. The contractions made my fetal monitors move so she kept on having to come back in to check on me and tell me not to move. Not moving was really hard. I know labor was supposed to be hard and all but I just didnt like the fact that I wasnt supposed to move. I really like the idea of a home birth and at that point I was thinking how nice it would have been,

9:00pm 

Neil gets back into the room and the fun really starts.

Neil took that one when I was sleeping a bit..

12:ish am

Im along enough they dont have to give me anymore cytotec but they give me a cocktail of pain meds that for the most part knock me out. 

2:30 am

Another dose of the pain meds but im still not advancing like I should be so they give me pitocin. Which I really didnt want. I didnt want to have a "false labor" I knew pitocin made things 100% worse. But whatevs, its over now. Then the contractions R E A L L Y started to hurt. Like bad. So bad it really made me want the epidural and I was REALLY going to try and not have it. But I couldnt stand the pain. Luckily the pain meds helped me sleep a bit and in between the contractions I could get some rest.

4:00am

They stopped the pitocin because I was around 3/4 cm along.. I forget.

7:55am

They hooked up another bag of fluid and I had to go another 30 minutes without the epidural. I only mention that because it seriously broke my heart. I couldnt imagine A N O T H E R thirty minutes going by with the pain. Poor Neil. 

Somewhere in that time there was an emergency C section keeping the doctor away.

9am

FINALLY they gave me the epidural. My goodness it seemed to take forever to get it too. I was 6cm by the time they gave it to me. Almost too late because of that Csection. Thats when the butt pain started. I had heard that labor feels like a huge poop but you dont know what a huge poop feels like until you do it. The epidural definitely helped with the pain but it was still there. Very uncomfortable indeed.

10:00 am

I started pushing. Ten or so minutes into pushing my friend and awesome photographer Autumn walks in and I introduce her to my vagina. "HI AUTUMN! This is my vagina!" A few minutes later the doctor comes in to check on me and tells me I am ready to have this baby but he has to deliver another baby first and I had to hold it 30 minutes. THIRTY MINUTES. He's joking... I wish. So I continue pushing. And pushing. My butt it really starting to hurt at this point. At one time I was wondering which hole the kid was coming out of! Neil was a trooper and decided to take a gander at the below parts and he said he was glad he did. At some point the doctor AND the nurse left the room and it was just Neil, Autumn and I in the room. So Neil got down there and was cheering me on, something I definitely did NOT expect. It was weird. I knew exactly when I needed to push and when I didnt. I think the epidural guy did a great job. Not too much, not too little. Though, I still think if I hadnt been given pitocin I would have been able to do it all natural. Oh well, maybe next time.The doctor comes back in and tells me I am REALLY ready to have the baby but I needed to wait a few more minutes. At this point, the baby is crowning and already there. So the nurse tells me to "blow out candles" to keep him from coming out. The doctor comes back in and is gloving himself up and I am pushing like there is no tomorrow. I am trying so hard to get that baby out and no jokes. The doctor finishes putting on his second glove and Jack falls out of my vagina. Into the doctors arms of course but still... lucky timing on his part.

10:55 am

Jack Romeo

April 12

5.7lbs

21 inches

The nurses take the kiddo to the side and weigh him and get him cleaned up. During that time the doctor actually does some work and takes out the placenta. Ugh. That was hard too. He had some real issues with it and at one point mentioned forceps. It looked like a roast. Gross. I didnt tear that much but just a little and he sewed me back up. I could feel it and he gave me another shot of numbing ness in my nether regions and then I couldnt feel my feet again. Its an odd feeling not being able to feel your legs.

Jacks body temperature had dropped a lot because of all of the white stuff all over him.. I forget what its called. Well, its wet and slimey and doesnt keep babies warm. So the nursery took him and bathed him. Then, 2 ish hours later ( way too long if you ask me) he was brought to us and left. He was starting to cry a little so we decided to try and feed him again. Oh yeah, we fed him right after he was popped out and he did an awesome job on the boob. Go him! Well, during that time I noticed that he was a little blue. The nurses said that was normal and not to worry about it because he's just getting used to being out of a belly. Anyway, we feed him this second time and I notice that he's turning purple. I had already buzzed the nurses though. Neil said, "oh he's fine, they said it was normal" and then he looked at him and started freaking out! Because Jack WAS purple. He was still sucking (which was weird) but purple all the same. The nurse came in and patted him very hard on the back and took him to the nursery. There he stayed for the next 3 days. Gosh. How annoying. So, I started pumping since they were giving him fluid in the IV and wasnt that hungry because of it. He turned purple because sometimes babies dont know how to breath and eat at the same time especially when they are preemies. And my boobs were huge. So, my boobs tried to suffocate him in the end.

Overall I couldnt have asked for a better labor. There werent really any complications. I only pushed for 55 minutes. And I ended up with a cute little bundle of awesomeness.. 

I'd do it again.

All but that one photo that Neil took were taken by my good friend Autumn of Reminiscing Moments! You can see her post about it here. CLICK!