Jackson's Birth Story Part 2

This is the longer part, and there are pictures! Yahoo!

Enjoy...

It really was so crazy! So I make it to the bathroom and sit there while my water just keeps breaking and breaking. I was kind of crying/ freaking out cause once your water breaks you are for sure having a baby! Em said, “Ali, it’s ok! What should I do?” And I said, “I need you to go get me some new undies cause these are all wet!” We both kinda laughed, but I was dead serious! Later I would find out that this was a dumb idea because your water breaks and breaks and breaks. Emily ran out to my car cause my hospital bag was out there with everything I needed. While she was doing that she called Andrew and told him to get ready! So, Angie- our studio owner finished my class and was so excited for me! My little girls were a little freaked out I think, but it was way exciting to them too. As me and Emily are going out to the car my water is breaking, breaking, breaking! She obviously drove my car home- not like a grandma- and our front seat was getting soaked. Luckily I had a blanket in my car so we grabbed that for me to sit on. As we were driving home I called my mom, dad, Andrew’s mom , my aunt Julee, both my grand parents and Meggie. I was SO freaking excited! We got to our house, Andrew ran out and we were off to the hospital.

I had called the hospital on our way home from ballet too so they were all ready for me to come! And, because of our prenatal classes they told us to request a corner room if we could cause they were bigger and I am so happy we did cause we got one! At this point I really was feeling fine still- I was having contractions, but again was too distracted to time them and they weren’t hurting or anything. When we got checked in, around 6:45pm, they checked me and I was still only dialated to a 1.5 and 70% effaced.


I was shocked cause I thought for sure I would be more, but o well. My mom was on her way, Emily met us at the hospital and Andrew’s mom was going to come when my mom got there. Emily was my personal stylist for this blessed event!


Emily and Andrew were hungry so Emily left and got them Taco Bell and me and Andrew just kinda hung out. We didn’t have a name picked out yet, and I really wasn’t that concerned about it, but Andrew really was so we talked about that while everyone was gone. A nurse came in then and gave me an IV. This was the first IV I’ve ever had in my life and it was the worst part of the whole delivery. The nurse did not do a very good job and I was not very happy cause it really did hurt. Then my mom got there and we called Andrew’s mom and she came over. My dad, Meggie, Chloe and Cole were on there way and were going to go and stay at our house. When Andrew’s mom Gay got there, Emily left and went to go let my family into my house and get Andrew’s backpack and homework and stuff.


When Emily came back she brought Chloe with her so she could see me and wish me luck.


At this point I was starting to feel the contractions getting stronger and stronger and was shaking again. Whenever I was shaking it looked more like I was freezing and was having the shivers.The nurses called them the Mommy Shakes. I didn’t want to get my epideral yet so they gave me some fentanyl so that it would take the edge off. The nurse said I would start to feel a little loopy and tired and I was like, “OK, that’s fine.” Within about 30 seconds I felt it kick in and got really dizzy and tired- I couldn’t believe how fast it worked! It made it so that I could not feel the contractions at all. I even fell asleep for a little bit of it which I didn’t think was possible to do while you were in labor, but I guess it is.


After about an hour the fentanyl wore off and I started feeling the contractions more and more. The nurse said I could get the epideral if I wanted, but I still wanted to wait. Call me crazy, but I really did want to feel labor pains for a little bit. Instead of the epideral I did a second round of fentanyl, but the nurse warned me that my contractions were stronger than before and that usually the second round of fentanyl doesn’t work so well. Well, she was right, it was not working hardly at all so I decided that it was time for the epideral. I was really nervous because I really hate needles, but o my goodness it was SOOO worth it! The anesthesiologist, Dr. Skablin came in and he was really nice. When he walked in I said, “I want to make this as easy as I can on you and I have a really flexible back so I will get in any position you want me to get in.” He kinda laughed and just told me to sit on the side of the bed and let my knees hang off. He had Andrew get in front of my like we were going to hug and hold me still. I was holding onto Andrew’s sides and was preparing for the worst. The Dr really did do so good and I promise you that getting the IV was way way way worse. I got the epideral at 00:52 (that’s what I had to write on the papers they had me sign) so now it is Tuesday, September 21. The epideral was great. I really did love it because I didn’t feel loopy or anything, I just felt the pain go away. I really feel like it made the whole experience enjoyable. The next few hours were pretty boring. We watched Enchanted, Andrew did some homework, me, my mom and Gay all just kinda sat there and tried to get some rest.





When I had a contraction the baby’s heart rate would go down a little bit, so they were a little nervous, but said that it was pretty common, I just needed to be on a little bit of oxygen. Because we were there for so long we went through 3 nurses, but my second nurse said that when she checked me she was a little curious what position the baby was in. Holy Cow did that make me nervous- then, I got mad because I told Andrew that the first nurse that we had acted a little funny about where the baby was and I could tell, but no one else said anything. So, they did an ultrasound and found out that he was face up! I freaked out just a tiny bit, but the nurse said that she’s 99% positive that he will flip by the time I am ready to deliver. As soon as the nurses left the room I made Andrew say a prayer that the baby would turn- if anyone could get the baby to turn it would be the Lord so I thought it was a good idea.

The epideral was still pretty good, I couldn’t feel hardly anything, but it was a lot stronger on my left side. I could still feel my right leg, wiggle my toes and move my knee. It made me nervous that by the time I was ready to push I would regret not having the anesthesiologist come fix it so he did. He just put a little something extra in there, I felt a cold rush go down my back through the tubes and then I was fine. I got checked again and this time the nurse said that she felt another little bag of water that never broke and that they’d get Dr. Horsley in here to check it. When he came in I couldn’t have been happier to see his face. He was going to be out of town from Set. 24- 29 and I was freaking out that I wouldn’t be able to have him delivery the baby. He broke that extra little bag and said he’d see my hopefully soon. Around 8:00 my third nurse said that I was ready to push and that she’d get the Dr as soon as she could see the baby’s head about the size of a silver dollar. She said that I would probably push for a few hours so that I didn’t need to worry that Dr. Horsley was in assisting Dr. Olson in a C-section. Well, that nurse was wrong and pushed for less than an hour.


Honestly, the hardest part of pushing was when I had to hold my breath for 10 seconds. When I told the nurse that I think that she thought that I was crazy but really I am not good at holding my breath and I never have been. So when it was time Dr. Horsley came in, got his new gear on and the baby’s heart rate dramatically dropped down to around 30. A baby’s heart rate needs to be around 120-170, so 30 is SCARY! I don’t think I realized how bad it was, but it was because my placenta tore away from my uterus the last minute of my delivery. It was seriously a blessing that Dr. Horsley was there just in time. After the Dr was all ready the nurse had me push one more time and then said, “Stop, now watch your baby come out!” I had a mirror there and it was beyond cool to watch the baby come out. Dr. Horsley then suctioned a bunch of fluid out of the baby’s mouth and then put him on my tummy. While he was laying on me I just wanted to pick him up and kiss him, but he was pretty messy. Andrew and a nurse wiped him off and then they took him over to get some shots and check everything else. Because my placenta tore away from my uterus the baby swallowed a little bit of blood, but they were so good and got it out as fast as they could. I didn’t get to see most of what happened next because I was being stitched up and was crying cause I was so excited.




The baby was 19 ½ inches long and 6 lbs. 12 oz. They whole time I was pushing they told me that he’d come out with a cone head, but that it would go pretty much go away after about 48 hours, so he might really only be 19 inches, but whatever. The baby was crying quiet a bit, but they said that that was a good thing. Then I fed him and he didn’t make a peep for about the next two hours! Meggie, Emily and Chloe’ then came walking through the door and it made me so happy to see them. Meggie was crying the most so I said, “Meggie’s crying the hardest- she loves baby the most so she gets to hold him first!” We had to then move to the 3rd floor, the Mother Baby Unit, and when we did we had lots of visitors. It really was such an awesome experience and I honestly can’t wait to do it again. I feel so blessed with how everything worked out and how everything was such a great experience. I hope that everyone gets to experience childbirth!




My AWESOME cousin just took newborn pictures of Jacks, but I will post those another day- they turned out SO SO SO cute!

LOVE YA!