[USArmySPC_2010]

Well my little man decided he wanted to be born on April Fools day.....

At 415am I was crawling back into bed from going to the bathroom for the millionth time, I was 38w6d along. I was getting ready to snuggle up with DH when all of a sudden I felt like I was peeing my pants again!!! I jumped up as much as a preggo women could and started to walk to the bathroom again. Then the gush came and I told DH as I left our room that "I think my water broke." He jumped out of bed and was more worried then I was. While he was getting stuff ready to go to the hospital I was cursing him out in a good way. He had predicted when we found out the EDD of 4/9 that Jackson would come 4/1 instead!!!! So I was mad at him in a good way. We are first time parents so we opted to go to the hospital just in case.

We got to the hospital at around 5am, the hospital is only 10 blocks way so the drive wasnt bad. After getting there DH dropped me off at the ER and I told them I think my water broke. Well they got the wheelchair, but I ask if we could wait til my husband got there to bring me up. They did wait and a few minutes later we were on our way to L&D. Once we were there I was brought to the checkin room to change over. I was still "leaking" the whole time and was embarassed the whole time, but the nurses reassuared me that everything was ok and not to be embarassed. At around 7 a nursing instructor came in to ask if we didnt mind having a nursing student shadow the nurses helping me. I didnt care, they have to learn somehow. So at 8 we had a nursing student shadowing and she was nice. She probably felt more awkward about what to do then we were. Well at around 9 they put me on pitocin to help with the contractions because I had such light unnoticable contractions.

At around 1030 we finally got a room and then at around 12 the nurse came in and told me I would be getting the epi. Well I thought oh hell no, I wasnt in any pain or anything. Well the dr who does the epi's doesnt like to come back more then once so I was getting it early!!!! One of the biggest mistakes of my whole labor process was that I should have declined!!!!! Well 1230 came and went and I had my epi in. I was checked and still at only 5cm and the came some scary moments. Jacksons heart rate dropped because of the increase of the pitocin so they had to drop it back and put me on O2. That happened twice, which really scared me the second time. I really did not want a C-section so that all I could think about was the next step. During this time DH and I were playing games on his itouch to kill the time. We were just relaxing since we had been up since 4am and then at around 4pm I started to feel pain in the right side. I waited a couple more time that I felt it before I told the nurse just in case it was nothing. Well it kept coming and got worse. They thought it was the epi starting to wear off and upped my doseage and well it worked for all of 30 minutes. After that I felt the pain in my whole lower half. I looked at the moniter and noticed that everytime I felt the pain it was a contraction. I came to my own theory that the epi wasnt wroing for me all to well. To help ease the pain the nurse had me roll from one side to the other to help and it did alot. When the pain came I would squeeze the bed rail and DH trying to ease the tension he would tell me a joke and if I laughed it hurt more. Once again I hated him!!!! I know he was only trying to help. Well at around 7 she checked me and I was at 9.5!!!! So the epi wearing off was a good thing, I was stuck at 5 and when it started to wear off I progressed faster. The nurse told me that she would check me 30 minutes and if I was still progressing she would get the dr to redo the epi.

Almost right after she said that I started to feel a slight urge to push and well when she rechecked me I was at 10cm and ready to puch. We did test pushes and then after a few minutes we started the real ones. After a few every so often I would feel this fluid leak out which made me hopefully LO wasnt far behind, but that wasnt happening. Time felt like it slowed way down. After a while the on call dr came in and check everything and had to leave. There were 2 others "pushing" and since I was a 1st timer and would probably take longer he tried to focus on the other 2. So because of that the nurse had me push every other contraction. Which was sooo hard because I had the urge and could feel the contraction, but had to breath through it. Then she had me start to puch from my side and talk about the most uncomfortable position ever!!!!! After pushing she would want me to put my legs together and it hurt to even think about it!!! I remember trying to bribe her to let me go back to my back, but she told me why we had to push for a certain time on one side the roll over to the other. Jackson was facing up instead of down so they were trying to help him flip around. I was in pain, but not as bad as I thought I was going to be.

During this whole time of pushing I remember DH leaving once because a nurse asked to see him. Well he called his mom per her request, I love my MIL, when I started to push so they could be here to see Jackson after he is born. Its both of our parents 1st grandchild. Well she was annoying the crap out of the nurses with wanting to get updates and they got DH so he could let her know that we didnt know when it would be over and to just stand by until he came to get them. Funny on easter at her house she denied the whole thing . She tried to get SFIL to back her up, but he just took a sip of his wine .

Back to the pushing, the on call dr came back in, who is my best friends dr and was delievering my goddaughter and Jacksons wife tomorrow, he checked me and gave me some options. I had been pushing for about 2 1/2 hours and he told me that since he was still heads up I could either continue to push for another 30 minutes after that if Jackson isnt here we would have to do a C-section or I could use the vacuum and have him before the 30 minutes. I really didnt want a C-section so I opted for the second. Well before he put it in they had to do an episotomy because I was tearing the wrong way. He numbed down there and then did the deed. After that he inserted the cup and boy did that hurt worst then Jackson coming out. After about 5 pushs totel out comes Jackson. Once again DH being DH he wanted to yell its a girl, but before he could dr said its a boy, which we already knew. They cut the cord, which I felt bad for DH, but they took him right to the warming table to check him to make sure that coming face up he was ok. Well he was and the whole time I was getting stitched up I kept asking what was his weight. He was offically born at 1017pm and weighted 7lbs 3oz and was 20 inches long.

After an 1 1/2 MIL and SFIL were allowed to come in and saw their grandson. They took a few pictures of Jackson and even of DH, but none of me per request. I did not feel very photo friendly After this whole experiance I am just going to say no to the epi!!!!

On a lighter note his "wife" was born 8 hours later at 817am!!!!!

Jackson 3 days old: