Day One: A Birth Story

 One day overdue and I had literally tried everything reasonable to convince the boy to come...and I mean everything. That morning, I finally caved on the one thing I had promised myself never to do again--Castor Oil. It's like drinking a bottle of shower gel...not to mention the purpose of Castor Oil is really quite awful. But I relented and chugged that sucker before we headed out to walk me around for the day.

We went to breakfast and I began feeling pretty sick. I thought scarfing down some food would do the trick. It didn't do much, but we continued with our day. We headed to a car dealership to see what Jace's options were for a more "practical" car (a story for another day. Moral of it: My husband is just wonderful and always willing to adjust and let go). At this point I was so sick I had to sit in the car with Jadyn for about a half hour. Finally, Jadyn and I walked over and I handed her to the grandmas while we test drove some cars. I had been getting sporadic contractions for days now, but they were finally getting a stitch painful. As we were leaving, we joked with the salesman that we would be back that night unless I had a baby. The car ride home brought more intense, regularly spaced contractions. I laid on the couch when we got home and we counted the minutes. 4-5 minutes apart. So we put Jadyn down for a nap with the Grandmas and headed to the hospital.

I was still pretty calm when we got to the hospital. I just casually walked up to the desk and said "Hey, I'm having a baby." So they put me in a waiting bed and took their time asking me questions and filling out paperwork. I got a little nervous that they were just going to send me home. My contractions seemed to be slowing down. And then my water broke. The nurses were just as shocked as me. They rushed me to the delivery room...then calmed down again, assuming I still had hours. By this time, the contractions were painful. I was experiencing back labor. I'm not really sure why, but he was facing some position for me to feel it. REALLY feel it. I didn't go through this with Jadyn. I was so relaxed. They got my epidural in before any extreme pain came. But this time hurt. Jace said I still seemed pretty composed, but I felt like I was thrashing and screaming. He was my rock. Jadyn, my mom and mother-in-law arrived. When I heard my mom's voice out in the hall, I started to cry. I guess no matter how old you get, you still think your mom can take the pain away.  All three of them came in, but once I got another contraction I had my mother-in-law rush Jadyn out. I didn't want her to see me like this.

The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the whole schpeal. I didn't hear much. I didn't care. I just wanted to be relieved. There was barely a break between contractions and they just kept getting more intense and longer. Because of my scoliosis, it was a trick to get it in just right. The second I felt my feet tingle on my left side, I got a little loopy with euphoria.  That picture of me above gives a little taste of just how happy I was. My right side still felt most of it, but the edge was gone.  The doctor tried repositioning it a few times, but it still was lopsided. It was good enough for me. Maybe 5 minutes after I got my epidural, I told my mom that it felt like something was falling out of me. The nurses turned and an uproar of commotion happened. One ran out and grabbed a doctor in the hall to stand in until my doctor got there. They told me not to push, but I couldn't figure out how to do that! Because I could still feel on my right side, I felt that "urge to push". Two pushes later, he was out. I collapsed  and cried happy tears. They asked me what his name was and before I even looked at him (as we had planned on before officially settling on a name) I said Jaxon.

Altogether it was 4 hours of active labor. Half the time Jadyn took.

Jaxon Clyde was born at 5:35 pm, 8lbs 1 oz, 21.25 inches long.