Labor and Delivery

I am warning you now - this is going to be long.  My delivery was quick, but somewhat crazy and I want to remember it.

Jackson came much earlier than we were all expecting.  I was totally not prepared for him to come 2 1/2 weeks before my due date.  I feel like so many people have been going over their due dates lately (unless they were induced) that I probably would too (I didn't really want to be induced if I didn't have to be).

Jackson was born on Wednesday, October 5, 2011.  Labor started out a little like what you see in the movies.  I got up to pee around 3 and when I got back in bed I couldn't sleep.  For about a half hour I was reading blogs, Facebook, and my pregnancy apps on my phone to pass the time.  All of a sudden I felt like something had popped so I jumped up off the bed (thank goodness) and kind of yelled at Juston to get up because I thought my water had broken.  I ran to the bathroom as water is gushing out of me.  Juston follows closely behind asking if I'm sure.  I show him the lake I created and said, "um, if that isn't my water breaking then I don't know what is."  We both just kind of look at each other like, "is this really happening right now?"

Finally I decide I should go ask my mom what the heck to take to the hospital with us (I kept telling myself I should pack a hospital bag, but never had).  We had been canning apples all night so she was still up processing them.  She was laying on the couch and her alarm was going off to turn off the batch.  She was a little out of it when I asked, but when I told her my water had broken she was suddenly wide awake.  I think she is what really calmed me down though.  I was a little freaked out about going into labor so I'm glad she was there to help us.  After I got my head on a little straighter we got things together, showered, and got ready to go.  As Juston was showering I was sitting on the couch talking to my mom when it happened again - I had a giant gush of water.  Seriously, I was running down the hallway (well, more like waddling as fast as I could) and was leaving a huge trail.  Then in front of the toilet there was a giant puddle, plus some in the toilet (the amount of liquid is important to remember later in this story).  So I once again change my clothes.  My mom gave me a giant towel to stick between my legs so it wouldn't soak my clothes if it happened again.  It was really quite funny to see me.

We finally left for the hospital around 4 am.  I remembered Darci telling me to eat before I went because they wouldn't let me once I got to the hospital.  We stopped at Jack in the Box because it was the only thing open.  Unfortunately once I got my food I suddenly had zero desire to eat any of it.  I tried, but just couldn't do it.

We got to the hospital at 4:20 am.  They asked why I was there and when I responded, "my water broke" they asked how I knew.  I told them there had been to huge gushes of water that soaked my clothes and they seemed satisfied with the answer.  They sent me into one of the rooms, had me change, and hooked me up to the monitors.  At this point I was having contractions, but nothing to really be excited about.  I was still leaking quite a bit of fluid though.  After I was all hooked up another nurse came in and told me she'd be my nurse (I wish I remembered her name).  She told me that it sounded like my water did break, but she had to run a few tests to make sure it was in fact my water.  I told her that if it wasn't my water then we had some serious issues on our hands.  She looked at me all seriously and was said, "it could have just been pee. That happens all the time."  I asked her if people really peed THAT much and she answered yes and told me things like this happen all the time.  Juston and I thought she was crazy because we had never heard of something like this before.

Well, the nurse ran the tests - which included taking a swab of the fluid to see what color it changed and then taking a sample to look at under a microscope.  Both tests came back that it was just urine.  I was seriously dumbfounded.  I couldn't believe it was really just pee.  She also checked me at some point and I was still at a 1 (which I had been for 2 weeks).  She also said she could still feel the my sac.  Well, all of this took quite a while (she was very slow at doing everything when she was out of the room).  In this time I started to have more contractions and they started to get a little closer together.  They weren't super painful yet - I could still attempt to talk through them.  Also, I wasn't really timing them because I didn't think I needed to.  I was at the hospital already so what was the point?  Unfortunately, I should have been.  The nurse had called my doctor and told him the tests had come back as urine so he (of course in my opinion) told her to send me home.  Well, what I think she probably failed to tell him (because she didn't even look at them) was my contractions were coming more frequently and regularly at that point.

She came in and told me to go home and gave me a list of reasons I should come to the hospital.  One being having a gush of water.  Um, hello, I just did.  I asked her what I should do about my leaking fluid because there was no way I could function with that much coming out of me (I had soaked through 2 of their pad things they put on the beds).  Want to know what the crazy lady told me?  To put a pantyliner in.  Um, yup, that will surely absorb all that liquid.  I basically thought I'd be living on the toilet.  So I left the hospital at 7:20 am feeling like they thought I was one of the crazy first time moms that didn't know anything.

After this I started to time my contractions.  I didn't remember how close they were supposed to be together to go to the hospital.  My doctor gave me a sheet with everything like that on it so I wanted to check when we got home.  I thought they must need to be really close if I got sent home from the hospital with them coming that often (they were about every 3-4 minutes at the time of leaving the hospital).  When we got home the pain kicked into high gear.  My mom and Juston helped me breathe through each one as it came (who knew that actually helps haha).  I was pretty hungry so I had Juston go get me a smoothie down the street.  When he got home my mom suggested we go walk around outside for a little while to see if it would help.  She said if it was false labor it would help the contractions to go away.  She thought the hospital would probably have me do this anyway so we might as well do it at home.  So that is what we did, we walked.  I was determined to make this pain stop so we walked as fast as I could and pretty dang far.  We walked from my house all the way down the street and back.

Walking definitely did not make the contractions get less painful or go away, it made them worse.  They got stronger and closer together - about every minute and a half to two minutes apart.  When we got home we decided we should probably head back to the hospital.  I felt like they were just going to look at me like I was one of those crazy first time moms that didn't know what labor was.  But I felt like we had put it off long enough and done everything we could to make sure it wasn't false labor.  So, back to the hospital we went.

We got back to the hospital around 10 am.  We signed in and they put us into a different room.  We got a new nurse - Bobbi.  I LOVED her.  Juston wasn't too impressed with her at first, but we both ended up loving her as our nurse.  She came in right away and got me hooked up to the monitors and said, "well, you aren't going home this time that's for sure."  I was a little confused but happy with that news.  She then asked if I wanted anything for the pain and I said, "YES! When can I have it?!" haha. She kind of laughed and said she needed to get my IV and everything in first.  It's a little funny - because I always think I was impressed with her getting the IV in through my contractions and Juston said he was mad because she was so rough with me.  I don't remember her being rough because I was in the middle of a giant contraction.  After she got it in she checked me and asked if I was planning on getting an epidural.  I said yes and she replied, "well that's good because I can't give you anything through your IV."  She just kept going about her business getting everything ready for me and calling the anesthesiologist.  I was confused and asked her why not.  She just casually says, "well you are already to an 8."  WHAT!? Juston and I looked at each other with total disbelief in our eyes and said, "are you sure?"  She checked again and replied that yes I was that far and I really could start pushing if I wanted to.

She had to wait for my blood work to come back for me to be able to have the epidural.  But she had him there and waiting so I could have it as soon as I could.  When he was giving me the epidural they made Juston go sit clear across the room.  She held me in a weird bear hug position to help me stay still.  I don't think I could have stayed that still without her doing that.  Both her and the anesthesiologist did a great job. It was in quickly and with very little discomfort.

Once the epidural had kicked in she checked me again and asked if I wanted to start pushing.  I told her I wanted to rest a little bit and then we could.  I was EXHAUSTED.  On the way to the hospital I had been falling asleep between contractions.  She thought that was a good idea, we could let the contractions do a little bit of the work on their own and we could start pushing when I was ready.  Juston and I talked and just hung out for a little while and slept for a little bit.  After about an hour I turned to Juston and asked, "do you want to sleep a little longer or have a baby?" He woke up and said, "lets have a baby!"

Juston got the nurse and we got right to pushing.  Juston got to help a lot through this process.  I pushed for about 45 minutes before the doctor came in.  Once he got there he tried to maneuver the baby, but it didn't work.  So they got the vacuum all ready to use.  One funny moment though - pushing is something that takes a bit of concentration.  Right after the doctor got there and was having me push for him his phone started ringing.  Everyone started laughing and I was trying so hard to push instead of laugh.  Anyway, they hooked up the vacuum and Jackson was out in just a few pushes.

Jackson was born at 12:51 pm on October 5, 2011 weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces and 19 inches long.  Dr. Paul clamped the umbilical cord and Juston was able to cut it.  Jackson was put on my chest for a few minutes while they cleaned him off a little.  It was pretty much the best moment of my life.  It was so surreal - this baby was mine.  He was finally out of me and was ours.  It's amazing to me the amount of love you can feel for someone in such an instant.

After a few minutes they took him away to get him all taken care of while they finished taking care of me.  He was doing great at first but then started to grunt instead of cry.  They called the NICU nurses up to check on him.  They determined he was fine but that his blood sugar was low.  The NICU nurse tried to take him right then but thankfully our nurse Bobbi said she'd take him down.  She let me hold him again, let Juston hold him, and let my parents in to meet and hold him for a few minutes before she took him away.

Finally, Jackson Wayne Pace was here!!