Jackson is here! Water birth story inside :0)

sandy02 · May 2012

Jackson arrived 5/8! Here is his birth story is long, sorry!

Monday May 7th- I dropped Ethan off at preschool then headed off to the midwife for my 40 week appointment. While at the office I had my membranes stripped, this was around 10:30am, I was 3cm, 40% effaced. On the drive home I was noticed I was having contractions probably around 10 minutes apart, while they weren?t too intense I definitely noticed them. When we got home Lance had speech therapy and I was able to sit on the couch and watch the session and time a few contractions. They were still between 8-10 minutes apart, though since I had just had the membrane sweep I didn?t know if they were real contractions or just caused by the irritation.

This continued all through the day, though pretty quickly they become 4-5 minutes apart but the intensity wasn?t increasing much so I was still hesitant to call it early labor. Just in case though I texted Amy who would be watching Ethan and Lance for us and the birth photographer to let them know that this might be it. With the contractions still coming we decided we wanted to try to get dinner in the kids to lessen the amount of work Amy would have to do if we needed to leave before then. We made a pizza and had an early dinner. (~4:30pm) After this we just hung out, got the house ready and cleaned the kitchen. I wrote little notes with how the bedtime routines for the boys went and left them on each dresser, with their jammies and clothes for the next day.

The contractions continued to get closer, ~2-3 minutes apart and a little more intense, we thought it might be a good time to get going. (Especially since the classes said to go at 6 minutes apart!) We took the boys to Matt and Amy?s house around 7 pm where they were going to watch a movie then be brought back over here to go to bed and Amy would stay here with them through the night. My biggest anxiety wasn't labor and delivery, it was how the boys were going to handle us leaving and not being there for bedtime and potentially not being there when they woke up in the morning. We?ve never left them like that before and it just really wore down my mind. They did great when we left though, we didn?t make a big deal out it and just slipped out as they were playing. Off to the birth center!

7:30pm- We called the midwife from the Medlock?s and told them we were going to be on our way in and I found out one of my favorite midwives was the one on call that night, Molly. That made me excited, she is a lot of fun and has a nice sense of humor. We get there, take all our things into the room and get a little settled. Molly says she would like to check me for a baseline to see where I am at. Even though I have been contracting very close together for the better part of the entire day, I am still only 3 cm and 50% effaced and my cervix is very posterior and she said she?d like us to go home for a little while. We told her that the boys had just been dropped off and we can?t really go home. So she told us to go out and go walking until 9:30, then meet her back there and see if that jump starts anything.

So we went to Cherry Creek Mall and walked around, I was still contracting less than 2 minutes apart so we got some funny looks in the mall when I had to stop and breathe through contractions so often! We stopped in the food court and Jason got a gyro and I had a few bites, it was pretty tasty but I was nervous to eat to much. We continued to walk around until about 9 then headed back to the birth center to get checked, I really did not want to go home.

We get back, hoping to hear good news. That wasn't the story though, I was still 3 cm and 50% and extremely posterior. She said to go home for a while, that being in a familiar environment would help things progress faster, and if it wasn't real labor then maybe I?d get a break before things started back up again. That was the worst part, her telling us that it could possibly not be ?time? and even though Im contracting, I may not have a baby tonight. If I wasn't in real labor I would not be able to handle just doing what I was doing for an unknown period of time. That was terrifying.

We get our stuff together and drive back home. I was feeling defeated and like a failure. How could they not let us stay?! The worst part was that Amy was staying at our house in our bed so she could hear the boys if they woke up and had 9 month old Lyla with her and we had to wake her when we got there so we could use our bedroom. She was so great about it and stayed even though we were there and took Lyla (poor baby) and laid down on the bed in the basement. Jason and I laid down and he tried to get some sleep while I still contracted. They remained about 1.5-2 minutes apart and started to get more intense. I was needing to vocalize a little to get through them, just humming a little seemed to help. Even though I knew this couldn't possibly be false labor, I was still scared to want to go back in for fear of being turned away again. I just didn't want to have Amy do the shuffle again with Lyla in the middle of the night for nothing. Jason woke around 12:30am asking if it was time to go in and I told him no, though I guess by the sound of me he thought otherwise. He asked a few more times, to which I kept saying no but he could call if he wanted, he called the midwife and said we were coming in. We did the shuffle again and Amy and the baby came back upstairs and we were off again to the birth center.

The drive there was pretty intense at times, there were a few contractions in the last five minutes that I said ?oh holy crap? as I was vocalizing through them because there was a lot of pressure associated, that made me nervous! We walk in at 1:35am and Im just terrified she?s going to send us home again. We get in the room this time, but didnt bring anything in just in case. She immediately checks me and it seemed like she was having to reach back a bit to get to my cervix and I started to freak out a little inside that my cervix was still too posterior and she was going to send us packing. I asked, is it still back there? And she said yes and I deflated, then she said but I would say you are a good 7cm and 100% effaced. Thank goodness!!   At this time we call the birth photographer to come in (again) that this was it and we were staying. Jason went to the car and got our things so I could change and we could settle in for the birth of our son.

I get up and change into the tank top I planned to wear into the birth tub. A friend who had 2 home births had told me dont get into the tub until you cant handle it anymore outside the water. When I got out of the bathroom from changing I just had this feeling I needed in the water, though I thought I was getting in too early. I step in and the first 2 or 3 contractions in the water felt better, like it somehow spread the pain out more across my body so it wasnt so intense. After those few though, they were more painful than ever before and I was having a hard time getting through them. The entire time I was in the water I was in the squatting position leaning my arms and head on the side of the tub. When I?d have a contraction my natural reaction was to ?run away? from it and I felt like I was trying to crawl out of the tub over the side. I couldnt really control those actions even though I knew they werent helpful. I didnt know at this point I was in transition. Everything was getting even closer together and more and more intense and painful, I would get 20-30 seconds to pant and catch my breath a bit before the next one overtook me. I really was getting to the point I wasnt sure how much more I could take though knowing I had no choice either. I kept telling myself, you can do this, you can do this, you are one contraction closer to the end, to meeting your baby. That helped me in my moments of panic. That as well as Jason being right there with me, telling me I was doing great and that we?d be there soon. Now at the end of contractions I was getting urges to push, I would push a little bit at the end of each contraction and I felt good. Like I was pushing it away and out rather than it controlling me. The urges got stronger and I started pushing for harder and longer periods though I kept thinking Im wasting energy because my water hadn't even broke yet. The pain was on the verge of completely unbearable and I was worried that I would lose strength before the final pushes. During a particularly strong contraction and some hard pushing my water burst and even though I was in the water it still felt like a fire hose went off. The next contraction was the worst yet, it forced me into immediate intense pushing, an urge to push that freaked me out. As I was pushing and between contractions I would reach down and see if I could feel him coming, at this point I could feel him right there but not quite crowning yet. The midwife reached into the water and said she wanted to feel and see where I was at. Just her touching me put me over the edge, and I just panted in panic saying, Please don't touch me, don?t touch me! She backed off a little and asked me what I was feeling, I told her nothing much yet. Then the next contraction I couldn't control it and I just bared down so hard and could feel the ring of fire and his head coming out, that if I could just get over the hump and finish getting the head out I would feel better soon. I could tell that if I quit pushing now he would not come out in that contraction, so I gave everything and pushed through the intense, insane pain and felt his head pop out and and I shrieked, Ohh there?s a head, there?s a head! Molly bent into the water and prepared to catch him with the next contraction or two. I pushed harder than ever knowing I didn't want to have to have to use more than two contractions to get him out. At the end of the second contraction (I think) I gave one last huge burst of energy and felt him come out, though the midwife wasn't bringing him up. I look down and she?s holding him underwater but still not bringing him up to my chest. After a few seconds of manipulating she brought him up to my chest and the pain was gone. I was holding my gorgeous, beautiful, perfect son.

I looked down and saw a head full of dark hair, he wasnt crying, he didnt need too. He was just laying with me as I caught my breath from the hardest work I?d ever done in my life. He was warm and comfy and happy and content to just be held. I just soaked him in, I couldnt see all of him but I knew everything was okay. I fell in love. Jason leaned in and just took it all in, his beautiful new son. He gave me a kiss reassuring me that everything was okay. Molly said it was time to get out of the tub so I could deliver the placenta. She and Jason helped me up and out of the tub, it was a very strange sensation to still be connected to the baby I was holding, it made walking so weird. We went to the bed and I laid down and they began checking to see if the placenta was ready to come out. They asked me to push a little, my energy and will for pushing was gone. Now I operated on the fear of pain since I already had my baby. I was scared to push, that the pain would start again. I did it anyway and instead of the placenta there was a huge blood clot. She immediately told me that she wanted to give me some medicine for the bleeding and that it would be most effective if administered before the placenta detached. I asked if we could was to see if there actually was a bleeding issue and while she was a little hesitant, she agreed. I pushed again and the placenta came out along with 2 more huge clots. After that though we didnt end up needing the pitocin, thank goodness.

After this they made us comfortable in the bed and asked if we wanted to see the placenta. Both Jason and I actually did, so they gave us a ?tour? of it, it really is a cool organ! We didnt bring it home or anything but still, it was neat to see what was helping keeping my little boy happy and healthy for all those months. They put it in a plastic zip lock and didnt cut the cord for about an hour.   Molly also took this time to tell us what the holdup was getting Jackson out of the water. Apparently he was born with his hand up by his face/ear with the umbilical cord wrapped around his arm and holding onto it with his hand. She had to get the cord out from his arm and hand before there was enough slack to bring him up to by chest. Little stinker. At this point they brought me some sliced apples, cheddar cheese slices and crackers along with some vitamin water, then they gave us a few minutes to be with each other. Jason and I looked Jackson over, noticed what long fingers he has and how much hair he was born with, more than any of the other boys. He was so happy, so content. I tried to nurse and he was a natural, that was such a relief after having so many problems with nursing Ethan in the beginning. The nurse and midwife would pop in periodically seeing if we needed anything and noted that Jackson was nursing very well. It was then that they decided I needed my first fundal massage. OH MY GOODNESS, that was so painful!! I instinctually pushed the nurse away from me, it was so painful and they had to do it every 15 minutes for an hour then a few times more in the 3 hours after that. It was awful.

About 25 minutes after Jackson was born the birth photographer walked in. She obviously didnt make it in time, it all went to fast. I am still so sad that we didnt get those photos, that was something I was really looking forward too. Since she was there she took some pictures of us in bed together, of Jackson nursing for the first time and of the midwife weighing and taking his measurements. Even though I will forever miss the photos we werent able to get, Ill always be thankful for the ones she was able to capture of our first few moments together.

After the first ?massage? they ran me an herbal bath that I could clean up a bit and that the herbs would be soothing and help with healing. When I stood up out of the bed I lost so much blood onto the floor, it just gushed down my legs and puddled onto the floor. That was awesome since the nurse was the one trying to catch it all. Sweet. Childbirth is not for the squeamish!   The bath was nice, afterward I got dressed and got back into bed with Jason and Jackson, Jackson was sleeping and Jason was ready to do the same. We decided to try to get some sleep since we were going to be leaving the birth center at 6am and knew the boys would be up shortly after we got home. The nurse lowered the lights and we tried to sleep for the last hour of our stay at Mountain Midwifery. I of course couldnt sleep, but Jason and Jackson were able to get a little rest. The quiet time with my boys seemed to go so fast, and it was time to load up and go home. We got our discharge directions, got Jackson dressed and loaded into the car seat and we were headed home at 6am, almost exactly 4 hours after he entered the world.

We got home and tried to get into bed to get as much rest as possible before the boys woke up. The boys woke up around 7:30am and Jason got up with them and took them down and fed them breakfast. Jason also made a nice breakfast for Amy, Lyla and Emma before they left for the morning. Jason brought me up a plate of eggs, hash browns and bacon, it was a nice breakfast and worked well to help wake me up. After breakfast Jason brought the boys up to meet Jackson, I wish so much I had known and was able to video it. Ethan?s reaction to seeing Jackson was like Christmas morning x100, the pure joy and excitement in his eyes and on his face brought tears to my eyes. It really warmed my heart to see. Lance was very excited too, he tried jumping out of Jason?s arms squealing, Hi baby! When he was put on the bed he just wanted to touch Jackson and tell him hi over and over. The boys reactions were absolutely priceless.

Life up till now- I started writing your birth story when you were 3 days old, you are now 10 days old. It took awhile to have the time to sit and write and remember and reminisce about the day you were born, it was one of the best days of my life and I wanted to try to remember everything and write it down so someday if you wanted you could read about the day you entered the world, the day our lives were changed forever.

On your birthday I made an appointment to have your first pediatrician appointment, we were to see him at 3:30 that afternoon. When we got there they did the standard newborn exam on you, but realized they forget to get your temp. So the Dr asked the nurse to get a temp on you and your blood sugar then we would be on our way. She took your blood sugar and it was very low (43) and then your temp and it was 95 degrees. We were told if your temp reached 97 that was reason to call in, so this was very low too. Dr. Goldburg came in and was very concerned. He said this was a new situation for his as normally at this age the baby is still in the hospital and if this had happened there he would have gone straight to special care unit, been under warmers, etc. He said the reason he?s not immediately sending us to the hospital to be admitted was because even though your numbers were low, you were still alert and your appearance was good. He wanted to see if we could get your temp up in the office and get some food in you and get your sugars up. You were too cold/weak to eat, so we syringe fed you some formula which you promptly vomited everywhere, so we did it again, wrapped you in blankets and put a heater on you, then we waited. After 15 minutes they re-did everything and your temp was up to 97 and sugars in the 50?s. This was good news! We were told to make sure to keep you extra warm and make sure you eat every 3 hours minimum for a while.

I have to say, I love your pediatrician, during all this Jason was in the car with Ethan and Lance, this appointment ended up taking over 2 hours so they were out there a long time. After the issues arose, Dr. Goldburg asked what we drove, I told him but said I dont know where they are parked because I was dropped off at the door. He said that was fine, but he was going to walk around the parking lot and find Jason so he could update him on what was going on. I thought that was awesome. He also called at 9pm that night just to check on you and made sure to update the Dr on call to our situation so if we needed help in the middle of the night we wouldnt have to explain everything that was going on. He gave us his cell phone and came in the next day on his day off just so he could see you. He is great!

Since you were having sugar issues I was super paranoid about just nursing you since I didnt know how much you were getting and my milk wasnt in yet. I decided to pump and syringe feed you anything I got, then top you off with formula. Luckily my milk came in a day and a half later so I didnt have to keep that up for long.

For the first 6 days you were on a trend of sleeping one good night, then a bad night, good night, bad night, etc. Your ?bad nights? you just had a hard time falling asleep and it would take 1-1.5 hours to get you to sleep then you were up 30 min-1 hr later to eat again, on the good nights you would sleep 3 hour stretches and go right back to sleep after feedings. Now you are having mostly ?good? nights and have stretches of 4 hours in the morning. You are nursing extremely well and are a fast eater like your brothers, you are done in less than 5 minutes, I appreciate that! :0)

Your brothers are so in love with you and are always wanting to hug and kiss and be with you. Ethan wants to know where you are at all times and Lance love to tell you hi and rub your head. Both boys for some reason want to touch your eye though, so we do have to watch you very closely! Ethan finds such joy in being about to hold you, even though he?ll only do it for about 30 seconds, haha.

We are all so in love with you and you have completely our family like the missing puzzle piece. I cant wait to see the dynamic change and watch where we all go from here!