Birth Story

Here it is....Jack's birth story....

We went to our 39 week apt and I was DONE!  I knew that they would not let me go past my due date due to a history of high blood pressure as well as my "advanced maternal age"!  So, at the appointment that day I begged for an induction SOON!  The midwife called the Birth Center and they put me on the books for the next day (Thurs 8/22). 

We were instructed to call the Birth Center around 6:30 in the morning and we did - they told us to call back at 10 AM and talk to the day shift.  So, we called back and they told us to arrive at 3PM - boy it was a long day and a long wait until 3!  My mom took Drew and we went out to lunch and made our way to the hospital.  When we checked in, the girl remembered us and the "Hatched by 2 Chicks" shirt that we took Drew home in!  We got to our room and waited and waited....finally around 5:30 the back up to the back up on call Doc came in and excused her water park attire as she was called in from there, and go me officially admitted! 

We did two rounds of "ripening" and monitoring on Thursday night and then decided to get some sleep.  At about 2:45 in the morning I was woken up by a contraction and they continued through the rest of the night.  Not too painful, but enough to wake me up each time.  At 6:30 in the morning I coughed and thought I pee'd myself a bit.  Went to the bathroom and then when I stood up from the toilet had more leaking - I realized then that it was most likely that my water broke.  Called the nurse and she confirmed that my water had indeed broken!

Contractions got steadily stronger throughout the morning and I definitely had to stop and breathe through them.  My parents arrived at the hospital, my brother and sister in law were on Drew duty and we were ready to have a baby!  After noon time, the contractions definitely got a LOT stronger and more painful.  My nurse asked if I would like a popsicle and I said sure - she gave it to me, I remember it tasting really good, looking at the clock and seeing that it was around 1:45 and handing the popsicle to my Dad to hold as I had another contraction coming on.  At that point my labor was fast and furious and I never finished that darn popsicle! :)

Here is where things get hairy...I am going on what I can remember (I was quite in the zone) and what has also been told to me.

We were having trouble keeping Jack on the monitor so they placed an internal monitor to watch his heartbeat - which had to be replaced twice as it fell off as I contracted.  His heartbeat was dropping dangerously as I was contracting.  My nurse called the midwife in as well as two other nurses.  At this point they decided they needed to start an IV to get some fluids into me and the baby.  That is super fun to keep your hand still while they insert an IV - which took three tries and 2 nurses. As soon as they got the IV in, one of the nurses told me I needed to get up on my knees and over the back of the bed to work on getting the baby down.  They also gave me oxygen at this time. 

At this point the contractions were completely unbearable - I didn't remember them being that painful with Drew and I was pleading for some relief.  They gave me a shot of something in my IV to take the edge off - which I promptly told them didn't help (it probably did, but I was in agony!  I found out later that they had started Pitocin because they needed my to deliver due to the stress on Jack and that is why the contractions were so crazy and painful.

The midwife also called a Doctor in at this point - 3 nurses and midwife and a doctor - I knew the baby was in distress and things were not good when there were this many people in the room.  The midwife's exact words to the Doc were, "I want you in the room so I have your hands available and not somewhere down the hall."  Yikes!  Just about when I thought I was going to go crazy, the midwife told me that I only had a lip of cervix left (which she stretched for me) and we were going to start pushing.  I was elated to hear that as I feel that even though pushing hurts - it is productive and doesn't seem as bad to me as just working through contractions.

After only a couple of pushes, the midwife told me that if I didn't get the baby out they were going to have to vacuum it out - I told her that I would get my baby out!  On the next contraction I delivered his head and then one more push and out he came.  Jack was born at 2:49 - only an hour after crazy labor had begun.  They placed him on my belly, I asked what it was  and then all of a sudden they cut his cord and took him across the room - Jack was not breathing.  They assured us that he had a heartbeat but was "stunned" and forgot to breathe.  MJ quickly went to be at his side while the nurses worked on him and I kept asking if he was OK - it was the scariest time of my life!  It seemed like an eternity to us, but we were told that it only took about a minute to get him breathing on his own.  Longest minute of our lives!  I was also told later that I pushed for less than 10 minutes to get him out!  Jack's APGAR scores were 3 and 9.  Scary at first, but no problems from then on - we were so thankful.

After he was breathing and pinked up - they brought him right to me for some wonderful skin to skin time - after about an hour and a half, they weighed and measured him and everything checked out perfectly.  I took a shower and Drew came to meet his little brother.  He was a bit hesitant at first, but was awesome by the next day!  Jack was a champion nurser and was nursing by late evening!  We've had a few hiccups with nursing, but for the most part, it has gone incredibly well.

We are so thankful to have our two boys and our family truly is complete-  we can't imagine life any other way!