Jaxon's Birth

I'm finally back with our birth story! I was hoping to have it posted by the 10th, which was Jaxon's one month birthday but it didn't quite happen. As you can imagine, life with a newborn is busy! But I got the best birthday present a new mom could ask for yesterday, a nap, so I'm feeling (relatively) refreshed and JD is on Jaxon duty for a little while so I'm taking the opportunity to blog while I can. I'll warn y'all now, this is a long post- you might want to grab a drink and a snack for this one! I wanted to record as many details as I could for myself to look back on later; I also know I wanted to read detailed accounts of deliveries when I was pregnant so I could have an idea of what to expect, so maybe one day someone will benefit from my lengthy description.

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Due to the fact that Jaxon's weight was estimated to be 9 pounds, 12 ounces and because at 39 weeks he hadn't dropped at all (leading my doctor to believe that he might be too big to fit), we decided to go for a scheduled cesarean section. I knew beforehand that this might be a possibility for us but I knew it would be a difficult decision to make, so I prayed that we would have a clear direction one way or the other. When we went for my last pre-natal appointment, my doctor all but told us that we needed to have a section, so the decision was easy for us to make. He said if we wanted to try a vaginal birth, he would support our decision but we could tell he wasn't confident that it would be successful. JD asked which method he felt would be safest for me and the baby and he said in our case, he would feel better doing a scheduled section. The last thing I wanted was to be in labor for hours and hours and then end up having to have a section anyway.

I was actually a little nervous to admit to y'all that we chose this route because I know some people have such strong opinions about births being as natural as possible. I even had a dream that I told the story here and got hateful comments from annonymous commenters! In almost three years of blogging I haven't received one negative comment (knock on wood), so I'm really hoping this doesn't break my streak :-) JD and I made the decision that we felt was best for our family and we scheduled Jaxon's birth for Tuesday, May 10th. It was SUCH a relief when I finally knew there was a close end in sight because the last few days of pregnancy were very uncomfortable (mostly stabbing back pain).

We arrived at the hospital at 5:00 in the morning and since we live almost an hour away, it was a very early morning for us. We went to bed kind of late the night before, getting last minute things together but I surprised myself and slept very soundly. I was also surprised at how calm I was the morning of his birth. I wasn't nervous at all!

After we checked in, we were taken to a room that had several beds in it, with curtains dividing the beds. Apparently they normally have private rooms for this but we just happened to pick a very busy day for his birth so we had less privacy during this stage, which was a bit of a bummer. I changed into a gown and a nurse started my IV. She had to do it twice because she screwed up the first attempt. As many of you know, I HATE needles so this stressed me out and when they checked my blood pressure afterwards, it was elevated (surprise, surprise!).

I was asked a bunch of questions, including whether or not I had a safe place to go after the birth, which surprised me a bit and was a sad reminder that some women don't have a safe place to go. They checked my glucose (because of the gestational diabetes), did my surgery prep and got JD into his fun outfit cover and surgical mask. My parents were allowed to stop in and see me for a couple of minutes before we headed to surgery. We didn't think they would have the chance to see me before, so this was a nice little bonus.

Before we knew it, it was 6:30 and time to head to the OR and I was still feeling calm. My labor and delivery nurse warned me that the room would be cold and intimidating with a lot of machines and instruments, and she was right! JD wasn't allowed in there until after I had my epidural, so I was on my own for a while, which I did not like. I think the epidural would have been much easier on me if I could've had him with me. He said that was one of the worst parts for him too, because they had him sitting on a chair in the hall by himself and he had no clue what was happening to me for about half an hour.

My nurse explained what would happen during the epidural and then I had to wait as lots of people came in and out of the room doing who knows what. Every time the door would open, I'd tense a little bit thinking it was the anesthesiologist but it took him about 15 minutes to show up. When he did come in, he didn't even introduce himself. He walked straight behind me and started giving me instructions. At that point, I started to get nervous. I hadn't been even a little nervous up until then but something about him just rushing in there and starting did not sit right with me.

The nurse had me bend over, lean into her and grab onto the sides of her scrubs. As I was getting the epidural, I felt some strange, almost popping sensations in my back and then what felt like a bolt of electricity going down my left leg. I freaked out, thinking I was going to be paralyzed or something, because I hadn't been told that this might happen. At this point I was so scared I could barely talk even though I had been chatty and laughing before. When I was able to choke out what had happened and ask if it was normal, the nurse assured me that it was. My anxiety was the worst part of the epidural. It was uncomfortable but not what I would call painful, though I do have a pretty high tolerance for pain. Once the doctor was finished with the epidural, he scurried out without so much as a "Good luck" for me. But at least he did his job and the procedure worked!

I was still shaken up and didn't completely calm back down until after Jaxon was born. The nurses had me put my arms on a table out to the sides and told me to keep them under a sheet and not to touch anything because everything was sanitized and I might mess something up. Needless to say, this did not work for me. I kept forgetting and moved my arms out about every 8 seconds. I don't like feeling like I'm stuck somewhere and I started feeling claustrophobic and like I couldn't breathe. I also didn't like the feeling of knowing I wasn't in control of my legs. JD was allowed back into the room at this point, and my doctor came in at the same time (this was around 7:05).

Seeing JD triggered something and I just started crying. Right about this time, my doctor made the incision and JD thought I was crying because I could feel the cut! I felt so bad later when I realized what was going through his head. I stayed in a slightly panicked state until Jaxon was born about seven minutes later at 7:12, but once I saw him I felt so much better.

I couldn't wait to see how much he weighed since they thought he would be so big. He wasn't quite as large as they estimated but he was still definitely a big baby: 9 pounds, 1 ounce and 22 inches long. I made sure JD got a picture of the scale so I would have proof of his size :-)

As my doctor finished my surgery, the nursery nurse cleaned Jaxon up and did his Apgar scores, which were good. I was shocked to find out later that during a c-section, some of your insides are actually outside of your body and put back in after. Craziness! And since there wasn't much of a screen hiding what was going on, JD actually saw some of my inside bits while they were hanging out. I'm surprised he managed to not pass out! I'm pretty sure I would have if I had seen that. Needless to say, I did not accept the mirror they offered to put down there so I could watch the surgery!

Proud Daddy:

These are some of our first pictures as a family of three :-)

At about 7:45, we were wheeled into a viewing room where our family and my friend Erin were waiting to meet the star of the show.

By about 8:00 we were in a recovery room, where I was able to rest and breastfeed Jaxon for the first time. My temperature was lower than the nurse wanted it to be, so I had to stay under a heating blanket until it came back up and then around 9:45 we were sent to our mother/baby room, where our visitors were able to join us.

I'm not going to lie, the first day was pretty rough for me. I had some reactions to some of the anesthesia and pain medications and I was nauseated, kind of loopy feeling, and worst of all, ITCHY like you wouldn't believe. I know itchiness might not sound all that horrible but this was the kind that makes you want to rip your skin off. My face was actually red and raw the next day from me rubbing it so hard. It was torture.

BUT I have to say that I think what I went through was probably easier than laboring for hours so I'm still glad we decided to have the section. Not that I wasn't in pain from the incision for days after and still have twinges of pain even now (it is major surgery, after all) but in some ways, I feel like I got off easier than most with my delivery.

We had visitors ALL day the first day and often during the next three days. I had packed some magazines in my hospital bag, thinking I'd have some down time to catch up on my stack. HA! Not even close. Between medical staff coming and going, visitors, breastfeeding, changing, and loving on my new angel, I barely had a minute to close my eyes, much less leisurely read a magazine!

The hospital staff were amazing (except for that anesthesiologist!) and everyone did their best to make sure we were as comfortable as possible. Before we knew it, it was Friday and time to head home with our little bundle. Overall I would say my delivery experience was really positive and I'm very happy with the way it happened.

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For those who are interested, I posted one last pregnancy update covering the final two weeks.

Hopefully it won't be long before I can blog again and share a little about life as a new mom (I don't find it to be as difficult as some say!) and show y'all some of Jaxon's professional newborn pictures (they're precious).

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thank you for reading my novel of a story! :-)