October 1, 2006

This will be a birth story, so if you don't want to know the details, don't read on!

Jackson was due on September 24, 2006. I had hoped he would come early, but most important, I wanted him to be born in September. After all, September has the best birthstone. I'm not biased or anything as a September baby myself. Jackson, however, had different plans.

When I went to my last appointment before my due date, I was not progressing at all, so my doctor explained at my next appointment, we would be talking induction if I didn't go into labor on my own. At this point, I was very sad, because I was ready for this baby to be born. But, like I said, he had different plans. I went to my appointment on September 29, and again, I was going nowhere, so we scheduled my induction. The plan was for me to go into the hospital on October 1 (Sunday), and then be induced early Monday morning. At first, I was pretty upset, because I didn't want an induction, but I got used to the idea.

Since I got used to the idea, Jackson decided that he didn't want to wait for me to be induced. I figure this is a sign of things to come. I went into labor early Saturday morning, and like all first time moms, I made the obligatory trip to L&D only to be sent home. When I got there in the afternoon, my contractions had really slowed down, so I opted to go home with a prescription for Ambien to help me sleep. As the day went on, my contractions were stronger, and closer together. Around 10pm, they were 3 minutes apart, but because they would slow down when I laid down, I decided to go ahead and take the Ambien. BAD IDEA. Around midnight, I woke up in some serious pain, and my contractions were much closer together. Because of the Ambien, I was falling back asleep in between contractions, and I felt really drunk. Lots of fun, let me tell you. We decided it was time to head to the hospital, and off we went.

We got to the hospital, and again, I was still not dilating, but my contractions were very close together and strong. The hospital went ahead and admitted me. I then got some narcotic to help with the pain (didn't really help, just made me less upset about the pain), and a pitocin drip. I asked about my epidural (yay pain meds!) an hour or so later, and that helped a ton. My water broke on its own sometime through out the night, and when the nurse checked me at 7am, I had gone to 5cm. Yay for progress. She told me that I should go about a cm an hour, and that we might have Jackson around noon.

Around 11am, my doctor came in to check me, and... I was barely at 6.5cm. Not the progression we had hoped for, and to add to the good news, Jackson was face up. Because face up is not ideal, my doctor tried to turn him, but my stubborn little boy was not interested. My doctor then told me that we might be discussing other options (c-section) if things hadn't changed in an hour. At noon, I had moved to 7cm, so we decided to wait one more hour. Around 1:15, I was checked again, and I hadn't gone anywhere, so we decided to go with the c-section. I was prepped for surgery, and Jeff was outfitted in some sweet scrubs.

Once I was prepped and ready, Jackson was born! Seriously, that part was so quick. Around 2pm, he was born at 9lbs, 11oz. It was a good thing we went with the c-section, because my doctor said that I wouldn't have been able to deliver him naturally because of his size. What a CHUNK!