God Has Shown Favor: Part 2

If you missed part one, click here.

Disclaimer: This post is Jackson's birth story. While I promise not to get graphic, I know reading birth stories isn't everyone's thing. I won't be offended if you choose to stop reading. You've been warned!

God Has Shown Favor: Part 2

My pregnancy was fairly uneventful - which is definitely a good thing! I only had mild morning sickness until about week 11, and then honestly it was smooth sailing from that point on. Of course, I was getting pretty uncomfortable toward the end, but that's to be expected.

We actually thought Jackson was going to come early for a little while because he was already in position and ready to go starting around week 36. I had even started dilating, but around week 38 all progress stopped - and seemingly didn't want to start again.

Once we reached my due date (June 24th), my doctor gave us the option to schedule an induction which we took. We scheduled for Friday, June 28th, but would go in on Thursday evening to be given a medication called Cervidil to help prepare my body for labor. This medication needed to be given 12 hours in advance. So the plan was to start that Thursday night, then be induced Friday morning.

Unfortunately I did not go into labor naturally before Thursday evening, so we moved forward with the scheduled induction.

We arrived at the hospital around 7pm and started the medication around 8pm. So, the plan was to start me on pitocin to induce labor at 8am Friday morning. But Jackson had other plans. ;)

Before giving me the Cervidil, the nurse told me it could do one of 3 things. Either 1) do what it's supposed to do, 2) nothing at all, or 3) kick me into labor. 

So they gave me the Cervidil and basically left me alone other than to check my vitals every few hours. We had a few visitors - my husband's mom, and then my parents came around 10. As the night progressed I started having contractions, which were getting worse and longer and closer together as the night went on, but not having been in labor before, assumed these were minor and that it would still get much, much worse.

Our last picture of being childless!

My parents left around 11 and we decided to try to get some sleep. My husband laid down on the hospital room's futon. I tried to get comfortable and sleep, but to no avail, as I was in a lot of pain from the contractions. Unfortunately, I also kept Aaron up, too, with my constant moaning and heavy breathing. Finally, after maybe about an hour and a half, he gave up trying to sleep.

It was around this time that I think I started saying I wanted the epidural now. My plan was always to get it, but to wait as long as I possibly could. I didn't think there was any way I was far enough along that I could receive an epidural yet - so I just kept saying "I WISH I COULD HAVE THE DRUGS RIGHT NOW." Or something along those lines.

I also started feeling nauseous from the pain. I told Aaron that I felt like throwing up. Bless him, he pulled a trashcan over to my bedside JUST in time for me to throw up all the Chickfila I'd eaten as my chosen last meal before baby. 

When I threw up, I also felt something that I was concerned might have been my water breaking so we called the nurse (whose name was Felipe) to come check, and to let him know I'd thrown up. My water had not broken, but this prompted him to go ahead and check to see if I had dilated at all. 

I want to say this was a little after 1 am. He did the exam to check and then said, "I need to get a second opinion." (We had no idea what he meant by that).

So another nurse (Shay) came in and checked and said, "Oh, yeah. I'd say she's at about a 6." Felipe told her when he'd put the Cervidil (5 hours prior) and she was in disbelief. Apparently, he was, too, since he needed to get a second opinion. 

So Shay looked at me and said, "Are you wanting to try for a natural birth?" To which I calmly responded "NOOOOO!" And then they laughed and called for the epidural.

While we were waiting for the epidural, which took about 30 minutes to get there, they started me on an IV. My contractions were continuing to grow more and more painful to the point where I started feeling my body want to push. When I told them that I felt like my body was pushing, they checked me again and I was at a NINE (this was 30 minutes after I was at a 6). 

Right then, the anesthesiologist showed up with the epidural. I half expected them to just say, nope, nevermind, it's too late! They didn't, but I now wish they had.

They immediately set me up on the bed for the epidural. While the anesthesiologist is doing her thing and trying to find the right place to put the needle, I'm certainly not making her job any easier due to my body trying really hard to push this baby out.

I kept yelling, "I FEEL LIKE MY BODY IS PUSHING THE BABY OUT!" To which every single person in the room yelled back, "DON'T PUSH!" To which I responded, "I'M NOT!!!" Because I really wasn't. It was my body, not me, and at that point I was out of control.

My water broke - no, exploded - while I was in the middle of getting my epidural. And my body was wanting to push so hard that I was convinced Jackson was going to slip right out and hit the floor since I was still in an upright position on the edge of the bed. (Felipe assured me the baby was not coming yet, but I was not convinced.)

After what felt like an hour, but was really only about 12 minutes, the epidural was in. They flipped me around and checked me. I'm at a 10. It's go time.

Oh yeah! While I was getting the epidural, the on call doctor came in and started to prep for labor. But before my epidural was done, he got called into an emergency C-section. So at this point, there's no doctor in the room. (Shout out to my more than competent nurses who were amazing through the whole process).

Anyway, the epidural kicked in at this point just enough for me to not feel any pain, but I still felt the pressure of my body's urge to push. FINALLY, they told me I could push. So I did.

Also, until this happened, I did NOT know that it was common for women to sometimes have to push for a few HOURS. TV makes it look like it's like 3 pushes then baby. That's not reality, apparently. Fortunately, I did NOT have to push for hours - but it was definitely more than 3 times.

Once he started crowning, they asked me if I wanted to feel the head...um, no thanks. I'm good. 

37 minutes later, at 2:50am on Friday, June 28th, 2019, they handed me my beautiful baby boy. 7 pounds 12 ounces, 21 inches long, and absolutely perfect.

Once all the after-birth stuff was taken care of (oh, and yes - another doctor did show up somewhere along the way!), they moved us out of labor and delivery and into a maternity room. We were there Friday (obviously) and Saturday morning. We got pretty lucky - normally you have to stay 2 days after delivery, but he was born so early in the morning, and we were both doing great, so they discharged us on Saturday afternoon. 

We have been so blessed to be Jackson's parents and he is literally the best baby. He has brought such joy to our lives and we are so grateful to God! He is now 6 months old and so much fun. I'm going to leave you with a few more pictures for your enjoyment.

One of Jackson's first real smiles, around 6 weeks old.

Jackson's first Halloween, 4 months old.

Fall 2019 family pictures, 5 months old.