Jack's Birth Story

Today is Jack's due date.

I can't believe that our little man is already over a week old! 

It sure has gone quickly so far.

I'm writing out Jack's birth story mostly for myself, but thought I would share it for anyone who enjoys this kind of stuff (probably mainly those who have gone through labor themself).

Wednesday, Sept. 5th: Jack's birth story starts a few weeks out. At 36 weeks 5 days (Sept. 5th), I went to my weekly appointment. I was shocked to hear that I was already 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. I was told that he could come any day...or I could stay this way for 3 more weeks. I left the appointment anxious and excited that our baby could come any day. The next few days were spent making sure everything was ready...car seat in, hospital bag packed, fridge stocked. Then we waited...the emotional anticipation was rough. 

Wednesday, Sept. 12th: A week passed, and I went to my next doctor's appointment. I was pretty nervous because I didn't want to hear that I hadn't progressed. My doctor walks in and looks at my chart and says, "So, is there a day you want to have this baby?" My reaction was, 'Huh? What?" 

He goes on to tell me that he was going to be out of town at the end of the following week and based on the previous weeks progression, was afraid that if I didn't go into labor naturally by the end if next week, he might be gone when I do actually go into labor. He asked if I wanted to be induced next Wednesday (Sept. 19th). I was all about it. I would rather be induced and ensure that my doctor could deliver my baby (love my doctor) than go into labor naturally and risk my doctor being out of town. He said he wanted to scrap my membranes on Monday though to see if that would trigger labor for me...that way we didn't have to go through the induction process. (I squealed when he recommended the membrane scrapping because my sister had it done 6 weeks prior to try and induce labor with my nephew...and said it was super painful and I would never want to go through it. We both have the same doctor...and he was going to be out of town the weekend before her due date, too. Haha). I left that appointment dilated to 3 cm and an induction scheduled for the following week.  

Monday, Sept. 17th: I went in at 8:45am to have my membranes scrapped. Not comfortable at all, but not as painful as I had thought. I was told to then go walk 3 miles to hopefully get 

contractions started. I was then to come back to the doctor's office by noon, and if I had dilated further to a 5 or 6, they would just send me to the hospital. I walked my 3 miles with my mom, came back to be checked, but had only dilated to a 4. So, home I went.

Wednesday, Sept. 19th: My doctor said I might not make it to Wednesday...but I did. We called the hospital at 5:30 that morning, and they told us to come in between 7:15 and 7:30. It was go time!

8:30am - I was all checked in and hooked up to pitocin to start inducing labor. I was still only dilated to 4cm, but my cervix was almost fully effaced and the baby was pretty low. My doctor broke my water and said he thought I would have this baby around 1:30 that afternoon. I was fine with that!

 9:30am - My contractions were already coming about a minute and a half apart and I was ready for the epidural! The anesthesiologist came around 10 to do his thing and the relief was immediate. They checked my dilation and I was still at a 4. All that pain and no progression!

11:15am- They checked me again and I was a 5.5. However, we started having some complications. My body had naturally gone into labor and started contracting, so my contractions were less than a minute apart due to the pitocin also building my contractions. The baby wasn't able to recover from the previous contraction before the next one started, so his heart rate was dropping too much. They stopped the pitocin and kept putting me in a bunch of different positions to try and stabilize the baby. I was definitely nervous. To make sure the babies heart rate was droppong due to contractions and not the umbilical around his neck, they tickled his scalp. Because his heart rate went up when they did this, it was an indication that the lower heart rate was due to the close contractions.  They also wanted to give me a shot of a terbutaline to slow down my labor, but my pulse was too high and the medication raises your heart rate. The babies heart rate began to regulate with the stopped pitocin and me laying on my back. This in turn calmed me down so they could give me the terbutaline.

12pm- Everything was stabilized and I was dilated to a 6. The baby had pretty much completely dropped. I figured my labor was going to slow down because I was no longer on pitocin and my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart.

1pm: My doctor came to check me and to my surprise I was fully dilated! 

1:30pm - I started pushing.My doctor said I had a good 20-30 plus minutes of pushing.

2:47pm - Our little man, Jack William was born weighing 7 lb 10 oz and 20 in. long.

 

Jack's birth date of September 19th already had special meaning to us as it was the two year anniversary of our engagement! (Plus, the 19th is National Talk like a Pirate Day, so Captain Jack came on a fitting day for his name).

 We had tons of family in the waiting room who came flooding in after Jack was born.

 

 Around 5pm they moved us over to postpartum. I loved being at the hospital. The nurses and staff were amazing, and I loved having them there to look after us and answer our questions.We enjoyed getting to know our little man and showing him off to our visitors.

We came home Friday afternoon as a family of three. We are beyond blessed by him and amazed at the love you can develop for someone so quickly!