Jackson's Birth Story

Wow, it's hard to believe that it his been more than a month since he was born. I have been wanting to write down his birth story so I don't forget it. So here it goes...

On Tuesday night I was confident that I wasn't going to have the baby for a while because I had been feeling good, not feeling any early signs of labor, and my due date wasn't until the next Monday. We stayed up until about midnight that night and then went to bed. At about 2:30am I woke up to go to the bathroom like I usually did every night when I was pregnant. When I was up I felt a small contraction, so I laid back down and turned the tv on for a little while. Well, after about 10 minutes I felt another contraction. Over the next hour I kept having contractions every 10 mins and they started getting stronger so I woke Matt up at about 3:30. He was excited and helped me time the contractions. Matt knew that I was supposed to relax through the contractions so he did the most wonderful thing and started cleaning up the house... doing the dishes, folding the towels that were in the dryer, ect. By about 5am the contractions were 3-5mins apart and getting stronger. This was the point that the doctor told us to go to the hospital so I emailed the school and told them that I wasn't coming in to work that day and we headed to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital at 6am, the nurse asked us why were there. I told her that I as in labor and the contractions are about 3 min apart. Well, she put us in an observation room and checked me and I was at 3cm. I had been at 3cm for the past 3 weeks, so that meant I had made no progress so far. She told me to walk around the hospital for a couple of hours and they would check me again about 10am. She said at that point they might send me home because I am a first time mom and first babies usually take longer. So I walked around the hospital with matt, stopping every couple of minutes to lean on the wall and have a contraction. People would stop us and ask if I was ok or needed a wheel chair. Well, I wasn't able to walk too long. Probably around 8:45 I got back in bed and stayed there. Matt was watching my contractions on the screen and would talk me through them. He was an amazing support. The nurse was late, so Matt called her to come check me. She didn't get there until about 10:20. When she got there she said, "You're at 8cm! We better admit you!" After this everything happened to fast... they put me in a wheel chair and took me to a delivery room. I'm sure it looked pretty funny because while I was going down the hall I was having an intense contraction and I couldn't really sit in the chair. So they got me in the room and started the admitance process... starting an iv, drawing blood, having me sign admittance papers (They didn't really get any signatures... I was scribbling with my left hand through the most intense contractions.) There were lots of nurses in there working to get everything set up. Once we got sort of settled, the nurse checked me again and said that I was at 9 1/2 cm and that I would probably feel like I wanted to push soon. Sure enough 2 or 3 contractions later I told her that I was going to push and she said, "No, wait... the doctor isn't here yet." Matt said that the other nurse said, "Go get Judy! Judy can catch!" Well, one more contraction came and I tried not to push (which is really not an easy thing in the moment). Then Dr. Walsh arrived and said that I could start pushing. Matt was holding one of my legs and kept repeating, "He has so much hair." About three pushes later Jackson arrived at 10:53am! The doctor and nurses were all amazed at how quickly he came because they did not expect him to come until dinner time.

We feel so blessed that he is here. There have been a lot a of difficult sleepless nights, but he is definitely worth it. A big thanks to everyone who has come to visit and to everyone who has brought us dinner! We feel very loved and supported.