A magnificent day saying "Hello" to Jackson

Contractions began at 2:17pm and by 6:44pm, our little buddy had arrived.

Honestly, it was only about 30 minutes of pain. It was extreme pain. It was teeth grinding, body writhing, too horrendous to cry, breaking my husband's hand from squeezing so hard pain, but it was only 30 minutes. As I lay (trying to be) still for my epidural, I reminded myself,  "This is the worst it is going to get. This is the absolute worst it will be." And as that blessed epidural kicked in, my world began to relax. The jokes began. I actually reminded myself to smile as I was pushing. And the worst thing about pushing? Feeling like my ears would pop off my head from the pressure. Fortunately, the doctor reminded me that after decades of delivering babies (including my sister's most recent!), he was yet to see that happen.

So here's how it all began.

At my 37 week checkup, I was surprised to hear I was 4cm dilated already. Wow, almost halfway there. 38 weeks - 5 cm. 39 weeks, 6cm! I could hardly believe it. What in the world was this kid doing? I was super blessed to be halfway there without any pain, but still, come out come out wherever you are!

At my last checkup, the doctor was incredulous. She couldn't believe he wasn't out already. We laughed it off, I was calm. But as I left the appointment, she took me aside and told me, "You can totally have this baby today. The doctor on call will happily break your water since you are in advanced dilation. Why don't I just call and see how busy the hospital is today." So she did. They said they'd call me around 4ish to see if I wanted to come on in. SO WEIRD!

So I went home and hooked up the breast pump as the doctor had recommended. And just as she said, it made for some serious contractions! 4 minutes apart, 1 minute or longer, and for about an hour or so. But they eventually died down. Ryan came home from work and we slowly but surely decided that tomorrow would be the day to go to the hospital. We would get Julia emotionally prepared, get a good night's sleep, have a healthy breakfast, and gitterdone!

And that's exactly what we did. We had our breakfast, grabbed our bag and went to the hospital after a leisurely late morning. When I got to the admitting desk, they asked how they could help me. I said, "I'd like to have a baby today." They sent me on up to the labor and delivery floor where we were expected.

We met with the doctor. We wanted to break my water and go from there but he suggested starting Pitocin first so we didn't have to wait and see if that would start everything. I disagreed on this, and wanted my water broken first, and suggested I use my breast pump to get the contractions going, but he was convincing and we trusted him, so did it his way. So at 12:30, they started me on a teeny tiny itsy bit of Pitocin. After about an hour of nothing, I called the nurse in and asked for a breast pump. She pushed back on me, and at this, I was annoyed, but it got the doctor right in the room and he broke my water at 1:30.

Now, just to clarify, my water did break naturally with Julia, but it was NOTHING like this! With Julia, it was a middle of the night trickle. This was gallons and gallons of gushing water!! The doctor literally jumped out of the way and he joked about how he's learned that if he doesn't, he'll be changing his scrubs :o) So there it went. Next I got onto the birth ball (with a towel on top to catch the soon coming leftovers) and bounced away. We played cards and turned on a movie. It was really chill.

At 2:17, I had a pretty big contraction. With Julia, I had one contraction that literally squirted tears from my eyes it hurt so bad. These came on gradually but they were serious. I figured I had 30 minutes before the anesthesiologist would be there, so was trying to budget my pain for when to get the epidural. Well, about half a second after that, I decided to order the epidural. And I should've done it sooner. The next 30 minutes were, well, you read the above. They were crazy. I didn't remember the pain with Julia being anything like that. But once that glorious epidural came, life brightened up again. And Jackson's heart rate was really chill and steady. Super happy. I had a little extra pain in my hip, but Ryan rubbed it out, and the charge nurse recommended I sit up a bit more to let the pain killer drop into my hip, and once I did, I felt great from head to toe! And Jackson liked that position even more.

It was actually incredibly relaxed. We just hung out. The nurse would pop her head in and check on us, and watched my contractions on the monitor. Eventually she decided to check me. It had been a while. I think this may have been about 4/5ish. She looked and, "Whoa, yeah, you're totally complete." She asked me if I had the urge to push. I said I didn't, but could feel some pressure and she asked me to just hang tight. The doctor was busily finishing up a C-section.

At about 5:50, we decided it was time to push. So as the contractions would roll in on the monitor, she would tell me to push. Just one set of 3 later, and she got the doctor. He was coming! Seeing as how he was so incredibly low, and how quickly she got the doctor, I was thinking I'd probably push for about 10 minutes max, but it ended up being a little longer. (Even though his head was as low as could be, I still felt his legs kicking me up in my ribs. Now knowing how long he was, this makes sense!) At some point, I started to feel a little sick and "tossed my cookies" everywhere. It was really gross to be covered in it, but we were just going for it at this point. The nurse was able to wipe me down and get me a new gown, but I was definitely feeling gross.

The pushing started getting me really tired. In between pushes I felt like dropping into a nap. They gave me some oxygen and we kept going. After about 45 minutes of pushing, the doctor said that we might need to consider the vacuum. Seeing as how Julia got stuck behind my bone at her delivery, it seemed like he was too. I considered this, and we decided we were ok with that. (At some point, I remembered hearing a big pop, and this now makes sense as to why my tailbone feels like death.)

So this next push, we went for a set of 3, but I pushed twice more for a total of 5 pushes. And on #5, he came out. 6:44pm. They immediately placed him on me, vernix and all. So not only did I have puke leftovers on me, but now also gross baby. I know its magical, but I prefer a quick wipe down. The doctor practically dared Ryan to cut the cord at the last minute, and after he did, they gave the baby to the nurse for some quick vitals.

"Whoa, he's big!" they said. Whaaat?? No wonder he was stuck! I guess he was trying to bring his hand out with his head too. And then the doctor remarked at his huge placenta. What? No wonder I was as big as a truck. So he was out! And all I could do was cry and say, "Hi Buddy!" over and over. It was amazing. And seeing his cute little mole on his cheek - and his light hair?! It was just such a wonderful surprise to finally meet the totally unique little guy who had been pestering, I mean, growing inside of me.

So there it is. Our Jackson. He's here, and he's wonderful. He did some time in the Special Care Nursery for some elevated bilirubin levels, but we are getting that under control and are so happy to be home.  He is a very mellow little guy. His heart rate stayed low and steady the entire delivery.

There are so many amazing blessings about how this all happened. First of all, the fact that we decided to go in and get him out (on his actual awesome due date: 3/13/13) was such a blessing because I can't imagine if we had waited for him to get any bigger!!! The fact that we were well-rested was huge. That we didn't have to go in during the middle of the night without sleep was huge. That Ryan was so incredibly relaxed was amazing. That is was just us - a little dynamic duo teamworking for the most exciting day of our lives - it was so special. That my mom was in town to watch Julia - unbelievably perfect.

The nursing staff at Swedish Edmonds - I think they were the most wonderful group of people ever. The staff in the Special Care Nursery - they were amazing. There was a male nurse from the nursery that had been talking with us as we came in to feed and snuggle Jackson during his light therapy (one of the nurses called him a "Bahama Baby" - going to get some sun :o). As we were leaving, he thanked us for being such loving parents and said what a pleasure it was to see people like us being active parents. And then again, as we were being discharged, he came to our room, almost in tears, to wish us well, and to tell us how special it was to be a part of our baby adventure. We were stunned. We had an amazing night nurse named Mina. She was the same - kept telling us over and over how wonderful our family was, and what a pleasure it was to take care of us. Julia, of course, dazzled the entire staff and everyone giggled as she came to visit in her jammies and sparkly princess shoes :o)

Overall, it couldn't have been better. Even the fact that we had to stay longer while Jackson got his sunshine on was huge in that I was resting! I had nurses to take care of me. Ryan and I got some great one on one time. Julia was well taken care of. I honestly can't imagine a better first few days.

And now we're home, our little family of 4. Julia is delighted to have her brother home. I'm struggling a bit with recovery as my tailbone and stitches aren't the most pleasant of "injuries," but if that's all I have to get through, then hallelujah! He sleeps well, eats well, and is super mellow. Ryan will be home for a total of 3 weeks so I'm getting a chance to really take it slow. I'm napping once or twice a day, nursing my sweet boy, snuggling in bed with my Jules and am loving watching Ryan getting to play with his boy. What a special, magnificent, marvelous adventure.

Thank you Jesus!