Jack David: The Birth Story

My baby boy is 7 1/2 months old.  I can't even believe it!

He has grown and changed so much and he is such a joy!

He loves to scream and giggle.  He thinks it's funny when I walk into another room to scream bloody murder, and then when I walk back to check on him, he is just a laughing!

He is so fun, he bring so much joy into my life everyday.

I haven't ever written his birth story down and I would really like to so I can save it for him to read when he's older and ready to start his own family.

So I'll write it here and print out the page, and all the comments for his scrapbook.

May 1, 2014

3:00 PM: Dr's appointment.  I was still only dilated to 1 cm, and about 50% effaced.  Discussed options and decided to schedule an induction the next day, May 2 at 7 AM.

6:00 PM: Keith took me to dinner at Chinese.  Contractions became VERY painful during dinner, but were still too far apart to go to the hospital.   I did NOT want to get sent home again.

10:00 PM: Bed time, contractions so painful I could no longer breathe, walk, or talk.  Tried to lay in bed for a few hours but I was in so much pain I couldn't lay flat.  Tried a warm bath, and a lot of pacing the floor. I was really trying to tolerate the pain until 6:30 when we planned to go to the hospital, I figured we were scheduled to start anyway, we would just have to use less Pitocin to get the process going.

May 2, 2014

2:30 AM: Contractions became so painful I woke Keith with my grunting and moaning and he convinced me to call the hospital. They told me to come in.

3:00 AM: Made it to the hospital, got hooked up to monitors and the nurse checked my progress.  I was dilated to a 5, and 75% effaced.  I had made a LOT of progress. The nurse called my Dr. to update him and ask about an epidural.  He gave me the go ahead to get the epidural, but Keith and I talked and decided I would wait "just a little longer." 

5:00 AM: I was DYING.  We called the Nurse Anesthetist and I got my epidural.  For me, the epidural was the scariest part. A friend of mine had a baby a few months before and the epidural had broken off in her back and she had to have back surgery immediately after she had her baby. So I was way scared! Keith held me while they put it in, and I FINALLY got some relief.  We watched nick at nite and slept for about an hour.
6:00 AM: The doctor came in to check me and HOLY cow! I was at 7 already.  He told me it wouldn't be much longer.  I called my mom and she left work and came down to Gunnison to be with me.

7:00 AM: My mom was there just in time for the Dr. to break my water.  (That was a weird feeling)

9:30 AM: Set up the room and got ready to start pushing.

9:50 AM Pushed once

10:00 AM Jack's heart rate was dropping too quickly to continue a normal delivery.  My doctor told me I needed a c-section.  (for those of you that don't know, this was my worst nightmare, from the time I got pregnant I had had nightmares about having an emergency c-section)  I bawled.  I was so scared. They took Keith away to get him scrubbed up for the OR and my mom had to say goodbye to me.  At this point, I was all alone.  Okay, not really cause I had some awesome nurses and the Nurse Anesthetist stayed with me the whole time.  But I was SO scared.

10:15AM: I was in the OR waiting for keith, scared to death, crying shaking and freezing.  Finally after what seemed like hours, Keith walked in all scrubbed up. The doctor told me they were going to start.  Then I felt a little pressure.

It seemed like the worked on me forever, and I just kept asking. Is everything okay? Is Jack okay? Where is Jack, is he out? Why isn't he crying.

10:21 AM: Then I heard it. Jack's first scream! He was far away with the respiratory therapist, but Keith got to go to him and see him, and he got to bring him over to me so I could see him.  Our awesome N.A. took a bunch of pictures of us together.

Little Family

Jack's First Picture

First time I saw him!

Then Keith took him away down to the nursery to get weighed.  He was 5 lb 10 oz and 21 inches long.  He was having a hard time getting his temperature up, so he had to be in the incubator for about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I was in the OR, all alone with all of this medical stuff and nurses and doctors around me.  I was scared.  They kept telling me to try to go to sleep.. But yeah, right.  I was scared to death and all I wanted was to see my baby boy!!!!

FINALLY about an hour later, they wheeled me out of the OR down the hall to my room where all of my family was waiting for me.  Keith, my mom and dad, Kayden, Jill, Nadean, Shelly and David, Maria and Will were all waiting for me.  Keith had Jack.  When we were going into the OR they asked me who could hold him before me, and I said no one.  But I guess Keith was the exception ;)

Then, after what seemed like YEARS of waiting, they handed me my beautiful baby boy.  My Jack. he was here, he was safe, and he was healthy.  I was so happy.

I got to nurse him for the first time, and he was a champ at eating (still is, he doesn't miss many meals ;) )

Then we let everyone in to hold him.
(these were the only pictures on my phone when I was writing this)

Aunt Nadean with Baby Jack

Proud Grandma with Jack

Best day of my life.

May 5, 2014 at about 2 PM we got to take our little bundle home :)

Look how tiny he was in his car seat.  The straps were as tight as they could possibly go.

In this picture he weighed 5 lbs.  SO LITTLE!

I am going to be better at blogging from now on so I can document Jack's baby hood a little better than I have been.

See you soon!