My Mother's Day Present: Jackson Reed arrived!

HimandMeplus3 · May 2013

We welcomed our little man, Jackson Reed, on Mother's Day! He is beyond precious, and we couldn't be more happy. Short and long story below:

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Short story: Jackson Reed was born at 3:25 pm weighing in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces and 20.25 inches long. He has a head full of light blonde hair and blue eyes.

Long story (and I mean long): Went to my regular doctor's appointment on Thursday, 5/9, and baby was showing high heart rates on his NST plus I was showing more signs of pre-e. The midwife made the decision to send me over to L&D for labs and monitoring to check to send if I did have official pre-e. They got me checked in around 10 am and started checking things. Soon after, the on-call OB came in and said I was staying! I was showing proteins in my urine, my BPs were slightly elevated, and combined with the fact that my blood glucose levels were becoming uncontrollable, she made the decision to induce me at 37 weeks, 3 days. I was meeting my son!

We started the process with Cervadil around 4 pm because I was only 1 cm and 50% effaced. After the first round, they switched to Cytotec, and I did 3 rounds of that. I was started on Pitocin at about the 24-hour point to get my contractions on a more regular basis. By Saturday afternoon, I was up to 25 units of Pitocin with manageable pain but not making much progress. I was only 3 cm and 90% effaced, but I was starting to run a low-grade fever, so they decided to turn off the Pit and break my water to speed up the process. Within 30 minutes of breaking my water, I started progressing very quickly. I got the shakes so bad the nurse had to hold me down for the epidural. They checked me again, and I was at 5 cm. An hour and a half later, I was at 8 cm and fully effaced. Within another hour, I was complete and could start pushing. They had me start pushing around 4:30 am. I pushed for about 3 hours before they gave me a breather. I started again after a break where they topped off the epi to allow me to get the most rest. Unfortunately, my body didn't take well to the epi because it never fully went into effect. I had control over my legs/hips the entire time, and could feel at least 60% of everything, including uncontrollable back spasms that never let up. I started pushing again around 9:30am.

Unfortunately, baby wasn't coming under the pubic bone and my low grade fever had turned into a full-fledged fever just after they broke my water. After 72 hours of labor and 6 hours of pushing, the decision was made to head into a C-section to get the baby out. We knew going in that he'd have to go straight to the NICU because of my gestational diabetes, pre-e diagnosis, and the chorioamnionitis that I had developed. The C-section went very fast (or at least it did to me, but I was almost comatose for parts because they had to give me extra meds since the epi didn't fully work on me). Jackson was born screaming his little head off, and the NICU team did a quick assessment, gave mommy kisses, and headed off with my baby.

Both Jackson and I had to have 48 hours of antibiotics because of the chorio, but we both responded well and Jackson got to come to our room later that night. He had a little trouble breast feeding at first, but we are now pumping and doing well. He is the cutest little love bug ever! The nurses were in awe of his hair, and they all stopped by our room to see him. Even though the process was not what I imagined, I got the best prize out of it and my recovery has been very easy compared to my labor. (If you read this all, you deserve cookies and cupcakes!!!)

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BekW2009 · May 2013

Congrats!

annagrya · May 2013

Congrats, love his little blonde peach fuzz hair

flyliceandcoffee · May 2013

Congrats!

CNJ4EVA · May 2013

Congrats, what a cutie!

pnutg · May 2013

I'm sorry your labor was so long but he is beautiful. Congrats!

Lolalipsy · May 2013

He's so cute, congratulations.

HoolahZinger · May 2013

Yaaay, thank you so much for sharing your story. Goodness, what a whirlwind! I hope healing continues to go well. He is a doll...welcome little Jackson!!!