Once arriving to the hospital my contractions were about 6 minutes apart. I don't remember them hurting too bad at this point.
The nurse set us up in the triage then took us to the room where Jackson would be born.
No matter how prepared you are for labor you never really know what to expect. Justin and I took the basics, birth and breathing class thinking this would prepare us for how labor will be. All of this information went out the window as I was walking from the triage room to the labor room, I don't know if I could have told you my own name as I was making this walk... I just knew in my head this was the real thing, we FINALLY made it past the triage room!
After I got all hooked up to the monitors and got situated in my bed, I told Justin it would be okay for everyone to come on in. My mom, my dad, Ashley and Don, Justin's parents, Melissa, and Papa all came into my room, as they stood there and looked at me my contractions were getting closer together and longer.
Of course as our luck it was getting close to 7pm which was shift change, I was told that if I wanted an epidural it would be a little while until the nurses for the new shift came on. I was given poticin to get my contractions more regular and closer together. I also had not dilated past 3cm so I still had a while (so the nurse told us!)
Once I was given the poticin my contractions did exactly what they were supposed to do, become more regular and more intense. It seemed like forever until I was able to get the epidural. After the epidural I honestly felt like a million bucks! The nurse warned me of this and said that even though I felt great and did not have any pain, I needed to take this time to relax, rest and possibly sleep as I will need all my energy when it comes time to push.
Soon after the epidural was given my right leg went completely numb, it felt as if I only had one leg! All my visitors came back in the room to give their support. I felt like I was on display, no one really knew what to say so I was just watched!
Everyone kept asking the nurse, "how much longer, how is she progressing, when will he be here..." the nurse assured everyone that it would be a few more hours. She assured everyone Jackson would not arrive until the early hours in the morning. This made me sad as I did not want Jackson to have his birthday on a holiday.
Justin had not eaten so Ashley and Don went to dinner and brought him back whataburger.
Soon after I had my epidural I told the nurse that I was feeling a lot of pressure. She said she would check me when they rolled me onto the other side to get the epidural to work efficiently.
Once again everyone had to leave the room, everyone accept for my momma and Justin. The nurse rolled me onto my back from my left side and checked me.
After checking me she looked up at me with shock in her eyes and said, you are fully dilated and his head is right there, she told me that we were going to try some practice pushes and then call the doctor. At this point the fear set in...I was going to have this baby and it was going to be soon. "What happened to my nap, to my long hours of labor, they didn't tell us in our class that it could go this fast." Everything seemed to be happening so fast. I now know why your legs go numb after an epidural....so you can't get up and run out of the room. Trust me the thought crossed my mind a few times.
Justin decided he would go and tell everyone about my progress and would try and eat his dinner before the "action" started. Most of you know that Justin is not the fastest eater in the world, in fact could very possibly be the slowest eater...
I felt more and more pressure and kept telling the nurse that I felt like Jackson was going to come out. It was then that she said she was going to remove the end of the bed and get me ready to push. She asked if took classes for breathing, I told her yes, but had no memory of what to do or how to do it! She assured me she would direct and guide me. The nurse started looking around the room and was like "where's dad?" My mom told her that he stepped out to eat his dinner, the nurse looked at us like, come on people if you sneeze your son will be here. So my mom went on the mission to get Justin and bring him back so we could start our practice pushes.
Mom found Justin in the waiting room with everyone eating his burger with my dad. Mom told him the news that we were going to start pushing and she said she had never seen him eat sooo fast, he litteraly swallowed the burger in one bite!
Once Justin arrived back in the room, it was time to start the "practices pushes".
My mom had my left leg and Justin had my right leg and the nurse was the "catcher" she explained to me how we were going to push on my next contraction (which I had no clue when I was having them since I was numb from my belly down!) The next contraction came and I did just as she said and started to push, only to be told instantly to STOP that he was right there and we needed to get the Dr there. If I remember correctly the nurse told me to "shut my legs" and she would go and call the Dr.
By this point I was having second thoughts about this whole thing, I looked at my mom and told her that I was not ready, I didn't know what I was doing and so on, she assured me that I was going to be fine and to relax...THEN she had the nerve to say, don't you want to see your little boy, he has dark hair just like you wanted" It was then that I freaked out..."YOU CAN SEE HIS HEAD" I panicked. If I could have felt my legs I would have jumped right up and walked out of there, not sure why because I would have been taking my problem with me!
Mom and Justin were cracking up, thank God for them because some how some way they calmed me down and talked me back into having Jackson.
It seemed like forever until my Dr arrived, every few minutes I would tell the nurse that the pressure was getting more and more intense. She just told me to hang tight and NOT TO PUSH. Finally the Dr arrived, by this point my mom , Justin and I have had a few good laughs, I think to keep me from crying, so we were in a good, relaxed mood.
The Dr now took the "catchers" seat, the nurse had my right leg and Justin had my left and my mom was behind my head filming the birth.
The Dr explained to me again just like on our practice pushed what I was to do. They would tell me when I was having a contraction and all I was to do is push. Now I must say here, that I have been known to be emotional, I have been known to cry on a dime, laugh when I am nervous and get really quiet when I am in pain. Never did I know how I was going to be in active labor!
Finally a contraction came and I took my deep breath and started to push, the nurse was counting (I think) and directing me on what to do. They told me to stop and take a breath and we would start again. Well I got tickled and started to laugh, everyone in the room was looking at each other like "are you serious, she is laughing right now?!?!?!" On my next contraction I started out pushing great (so I thought) then got a mental picture of how dumb I must look to the Dr and everyone who could see my face. I could feel it turning red as I held my breath and pushed...with this mental picture in my head I burst into laughter again, I didn't even push for my 10 count. Again everyone was looking at each other, this time laughing with me. The Dr was laughing and said "well you can laugh him out, that works". Here I am with people holding my legs for me (which I could not feel at all) in labor and I am laughing. What is wrong with this picture?!?! On my next push there he was...my little boy. The boy I had waited 9 long months to see and hold in my arms. Jackson Ryan Hayes born at 10:59pm (Justin swears 10:57pm) weighing 7lbs 13oz and was 21 inches long.
They laid him on my chest; poor little guy was just evicted from his warm, cozy home into this cold, bright room loud with laughter and people poking him and wiping him off. He was bright eyed and hardly crying and trying so hard to fit his little fist into his mouth. He was beautiful...absolutely beautiful. Time stood still, we finally had our baby boy, there in our arms nothing else in the world mattered.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
The induction...
I figure it is now time to start getting all of my memories down on "paper" so that I don't forget a thing (might already be too late for that!) And I figured what better of a way than to creat a blog so that everyone (especially those of you in PA and the other out-of-towners) to keep updated on the happenings here in the Hayes House!
I hope all of you are able to follow this blog and keep updated on our life, but most importantly on Jackson's Life... the time has already flown and my little sweet baby boy will be a month at the end of the week...(tears)
So lets start at the beginning... INDUCING MYSELF!
As most of you know I was very eager to get this little guy out and meet him, hold him in my arms and Justin to FINALLY after 9 months be able to hold him and of course to get to see what he looked like!
December 29th - I was in my 39th week... it was time for one of our weekly Dr appointments and it was getting closer and closer to January 2nd...his original due date! But I was done, I felt like I had waited long enough and had gotten BIG enough and I was done with being pregnant.
Up until this point I had been going to the Dr once a week...and every week would leave the Dr's office sad and let down, because I had not started to dialate. Our morning drives over to the Dr would be chipper and lively and I would tell Justin how I KNEW that I had started to dilate and carry on with how that day was going to be the day our son was going to be born...only to leave the office in complete silence, and sometimes tears due to no change. Justin would drive me home so that I could drive in to work and continue on with the waiting game. He was soooooo good to me and would remind me that Jackson would come when he was ready and I could not force my body into labor. I had other thoughts!
Each day for the last few months I would walk around the campus at work on all 3 of my breaks. I had been walking so much that I had even given myself shin splints. I was so determined to get Jackson out.
So come Decmeber 29th our Dr appointment was at 10:30 am, and so far I had not started to dilate therefore the Dr could not "help" me go into labor otherwise known as inducing me! But on this morning I knew that I had started to dilate I could feel it in my bones and could not wait to go in and get checked...Like usual the drive over to the Dr's office had me telling or should I say
convincing Justin that today was going to be the day!
We got to our appointment and our Dr had been called to the hospital and was not able to see us, so we saw Dr Scott. I had seen her before and was familar with her.
She checked me and gave us the same news that we had been given before, NOT DILATED. She thought she could try to dilate me a little during the exam and would strip my membranes to possibly get my body to go into labor. I gave her the okay to do this. OH LORDY... this hurt, she got me from 0cm to 1 and had stripped the membranes. I looked over at Justin once she was done and it was as if he had seen a ghost, I was like "Honey whats wrong?"
He said "I just don't like seeing you in pain, let alone like seeing someone put you in pain" (I thought to myself, well buddy...labor should be interesting then!!!!)
After this was done the Dr explained that this SHOULD start something and hopefully trigger me into labor. This was no guarantee though. Our original Dr had explained that as long as I was 1 cm she would "help assist me into labor", so I asked Dr Scott what else we could do. After reviewing our options we or I should say I opted for additional help and had a balloon like catheter inserted into my cervix that would help keep me dilating and would fall out when I was 3cm. This USUALLY would take 12 to 24 hours... if it had not fallen out in 24 hours I was to call the Dr and we would discuss what we would do from there.
I will not even talk about what it was like having this inserted...but I will say, I will not do this again!
SO Justin and I left the dr office with the balloon like thing inserted and taped to my leg. I waddled (litterly) to the car to once again have Justin drive me home. On the drive home we decided that I would not go into work, with the hopes that I would later that day be in labor.
Justin called my mom and explained to her what we were doing...and that I was not going to go into work. Being the WONDERFUL mother that she is, she offered to come and get me and "babysit" me while Justin went to work. So I spent the WHOLE day on their couch watching my favorite show Jon and Kate plus 8 and walking around the neighborhood!
Well that day came and went and NO JACKSON... as you all can imagine I was not a happy camper. 39 weeks pregnant (in my eyes OVERDUE) and a catheter taped to my leg! But I didn't complain, I wanted this and was determined to go into labor!
That night Justin and I slept downstairs on the couch, as it was the most comfortable place for me at this point. I didn't sleep well that night, I litterly watched the clock and waited for the sun to come up. Around 7:30 we were both awake and looking at eachother like NOW WHAT?!?!? It was then that I noticed there was blood coming out of the catheter, the Dr never told us what to do if this happened. So Justin called the Dr office, of course no answer because they didn't open until 8. So he called the on call Dr...again Dr Scott answered and advised us to go to the hospital where our Dr was and she would check me there.
I was thrilled, I just knew that today was the day and I was going to go into labor and then get to hold my baby boy in my arms! So we showered and was off to the hospital.
Arriving at the hospital only to find that our Dr had to leave to go back to the office and the nurses were going to check me...giving us the news that the catheter was still in place and NO CHANGE. So they called my Dr to see what they should do, she directed them to tape the catheter with more tension and if it had not fallen out by 4pm to come into the office.
So we left the hospital...can't you imagine how happy I was by this point?!?!?! i just knew that the hospital would not send us home being this close to 40 weeks...but the hospital explained to us that they were so busy they couldn't let us stay there. As the end of the year comes to a close, everyone had the same idea as us... and wanted to have their baby!
Justin's family had arrived the night before from West Chester and would be coming over later that day and help assist us in ... the waiting game!
We stopped at the grocery store on the way home from the hosptial and it was then that I decided there was absoultly nothing that we could do to get this child out, he was already proving to us that he will do things on his time and that I should enjoy the last few days of being pregnant. So when I got home I vacummed the whole house and mopped the floor (nesting
instinct can we say!) Later that afternoon Justin's family arrived...we sat and visited with them despite the cramping I was having I didn't feel like I was going into labor anytime soon.
3:30 rolled around so I decided to call the Dr office to get further direction what we should do. I was going on 36 hours with this ANNOYING catheter, THAT I ASKED FOR taped to my leg. They told us to come in at 4:30.
I must say we must have had some hope left in us because we left the car packed with everything we needed for the hospital and drove over to the Dr's office making one pit stop on the way at Whole Foods....for some wine!
Now by this point every time we went to the Dr's office they would weigh me, I got to the point where I would try and look away but would catch myself looking and wanting to just throw up. How could I possibly be gaining weight when all I do is walk?!?!?!? I was weighed just the day before and had lost 3 pounds from the visit from the week prior, so I was feeling pretty good about the weight thing! I told Justin while we waited to be seen that if they asked me to get on the scale I would tell the nurse where she could shove it and would do so with a few choice words. Justin just laughed and assured me they would not weigh me as they just weighed me yesterday!
We were escorted to the exam room, I hopped up on the exam table. The nurse started to ask how I was feeling, before she even finished she took a better look at me and was like, I am sorry...you are miserable aren't you? I just smiled and gave a half nod. She then asked me to step on the scale so they could get my weight. I looked over at Justin and I knew he was thinking, "oh boy here she blows, she is going to tell this poor nurse what she can do and where she can shove it..." but instead I took a deep breath and hoped on the scale only to find that I had gained back those 3 pounds that I had lost.
So we sat and waited for the Dr to come in...Finally she opened the door, took one look at Justin and then me and was like oh honey I am soooo sorry. I guess I must have had this look on my face because whenever anyone looked at me their next words were something along the lines of "I am sorry"!!!!
She examined me and gave me well US the best news, well next to the best news...the catheter had fallen out of place and I was 3cm! She then asked if she could strip my membranes again to really get things going! Justin jumped up from his chair to hold my hand as she proceeded with the stripping! This time to much amazement it didn't hurt nearly half as bad. While she was doing this she was explaining that now all we had to do is go into labor...LIKE IF IT WAS THIS EASY WOULDN'T I HAVE DONE IT BY NOW???????? She explained that we were to go home and walk like crazy. All I had to do was get some good contractions going and get them in some sort or pattern, then call her and head over to the hospital. Once she was done with the stripping of the membranes I felt this trickle of fluid, like water...she stepped out of the room for some reason (alread have forgotten why) so I looked over to Justin, he had this excited grin on his face like HONEY you did it! I then told him that there was fluid and it was running up towards my back and was going to hit my shirt. He just laughed and was like no there isn't anything. I then rolled on to my side (moving these days was getting much harder!) and showed him that there was something and it was all over the table. At this point the Dr had stepped back into the room and saw that I was rolling (well attempting to roll) on to my side to show Justin what it was that I was talking about. She was like ummm humm...what's that. She decided to check me once again only to find that my water had broke. She was so excited and kept saying you broke your bag of water, you broke your bag of water. But the 3rd time of her telling me this I looked up and said, "No Karrie, I think YOU broke my bag of water!" She gave us this grin and was like " I guess you could say that, yay you can go to the hospital now..." She warned us that I had only "sprung a leak" in my bag of water and there would be another gush of water and asked if we were okay and had towels in the car. At this point all I was hearing was blah blah blah, and that Justin would do all of the listening from here on out. He had this deer in the headlights look and was thinking "there is a beach towel in the back of Lindsay's car...that the DOGS use"!!!!!!! Someone at the Dr's office found us a towel and told us to start heading over to the hospital! I went to go to the bathroom before we left and its a good thing I did because after going to the bathroom the rest of my water went...and it went and it went! Thank GOD it didn't go in the car!
So off to the hospial we were...I asked the Dr before we left, where my contractions where, she just smiled and patted me on the shoulder and was like they will come, just head to the hospital. I will never forget, the first contraction hit as Justin was talking to my mom, we were on the 101 at the Pima/Princess exit...and they didn't stop they were exactly 6 minutes apart when we arrived at the hospital.
I hope all of you are able to follow this blog and keep updated on our life, but most importantly on Jackson's Life... the time has already flown and my little sweet baby boy will be a month at the end of the week...(tears)
So lets start at the beginning... INDUCING MYSELF!
As most of you know I was very eager to get this little guy out and meet him, hold him in my arms and Justin to FINALLY after 9 months be able to hold him and of course to get to see what he looked like!
December 29th - I was in my 39th week... it was time for one of our weekly Dr appointments and it was getting closer and closer to January 2nd...his original due date! But I was done, I felt like I had waited long enough and had gotten BIG enough and I was done with being pregnant.
Up until this point I had been going to the Dr once a week...and every week would leave the Dr's office sad and let down, because I had not started to dialate. Our morning drives over to the Dr would be chipper and lively and I would tell Justin how I KNEW that I had started to dilate and carry on with how that day was going to be the day our son was going to be born...only to leave the office in complete silence, and sometimes tears due to no change. Justin would drive me home so that I could drive in to work and continue on with the waiting game. He was soooooo good to me and would remind me that Jackson would come when he was ready and I could not force my body into labor. I had other thoughts!
Each day for the last few months I would walk around the campus at work on all 3 of my breaks. I had been walking so much that I had even given myself shin splints. I was so determined to get Jackson out.
So come Decmeber 29th our Dr appointment was at 10:30 am, and so far I had not started to dilate therefore the Dr could not "help" me go into labor otherwise known as inducing me! But on this morning I knew that I had started to dilate I could feel it in my bones and could not wait to go in and get checked...Like usual the drive over to the Dr's office had me telling or should I say
convincing Justin that today was going to be the day!
We got to our appointment and our Dr had been called to the hospital and was not able to see us, so we saw Dr Scott. I had seen her before and was familar with her.
She checked me and gave us the same news that we had been given before, NOT DILATED. She thought she could try to dilate me a little during the exam and would strip my membranes to possibly get my body to go into labor. I gave her the okay to do this. OH LORDY... this hurt, she got me from 0cm to 1 and had stripped the membranes. I looked over at Justin once she was done and it was as if he had seen a ghost, I was like "Honey whats wrong?"
He said "I just don't like seeing you in pain, let alone like seeing someone put you in pain" (I thought to myself, well buddy...labor should be interesting then!!!!)
After this was done the Dr explained that this SHOULD start something and hopefully trigger me into labor. This was no guarantee though. Our original Dr had explained that as long as I was 1 cm she would "help assist me into labor", so I asked Dr Scott what else we could do. After reviewing our options we or I should say I opted for additional help and had a balloon like catheter inserted into my cervix that would help keep me dilating and would fall out when I was 3cm. This USUALLY would take 12 to 24 hours... if it had not fallen out in 24 hours I was to call the Dr and we would discuss what we would do from there.
I will not even talk about what it was like having this inserted...but I will say, I will not do this again!
SO Justin and I left the dr office with the balloon like thing inserted and taped to my leg. I waddled (litterly) to the car to once again have Justin drive me home. On the drive home we decided that I would not go into work, with the hopes that I would later that day be in labor.
Justin called my mom and explained to her what we were doing...and that I was not going to go into work. Being the WONDERFUL mother that she is, she offered to come and get me and "babysit" me while Justin went to work. So I spent the WHOLE day on their couch watching my favorite show Jon and Kate plus 8 and walking around the neighborhood!
Well that day came and went and NO JACKSON... as you all can imagine I was not a happy camper. 39 weeks pregnant (in my eyes OVERDUE) and a catheter taped to my leg! But I didn't complain, I wanted this and was determined to go into labor!
That night Justin and I slept downstairs on the couch, as it was the most comfortable place for me at this point. I didn't sleep well that night, I litterly watched the clock and waited for the sun to come up. Around 7:30 we were both awake and looking at eachother like NOW WHAT?!?!? It was then that I noticed there was blood coming out of the catheter, the Dr never told us what to do if this happened. So Justin called the Dr office, of course no answer because they didn't open until 8. So he called the on call Dr...again Dr Scott answered and advised us to go to the hospital where our Dr was and she would check me there.
I was thrilled, I just knew that today was the day and I was going to go into labor and then get to hold my baby boy in my arms! So we showered and was off to the hospital.
Arriving at the hospital only to find that our Dr had to leave to go back to the office and the nurses were going to check me...giving us the news that the catheter was still in place and NO CHANGE. So they called my Dr to see what they should do, she directed them to tape the catheter with more tension and if it had not fallen out by 4pm to come into the office.
So we left the hospital...can't you imagine how happy I was by this point?!?!?! i just knew that the hospital would not send us home being this close to 40 weeks...but the hospital explained to us that they were so busy they couldn't let us stay there. As the end of the year comes to a close, everyone had the same idea as us... and wanted to have their baby!
Justin's family had arrived the night before from West Chester and would be coming over later that day and help assist us in ... the waiting game!
We stopped at the grocery store on the way home from the hosptial and it was then that I decided there was absoultly nothing that we could do to get this child out, he was already proving to us that he will do things on his time and that I should enjoy the last few days of being pregnant. So when I got home I vacummed the whole house and mopped the floor (nesting
instinct can we say!) Later that afternoon Justin's family arrived...we sat and visited with them despite the cramping I was having I didn't feel like I was going into labor anytime soon.
3:30 rolled around so I decided to call the Dr office to get further direction what we should do. I was going on 36 hours with this ANNOYING catheter, THAT I ASKED FOR taped to my leg. They told us to come in at 4:30.
I must say we must have had some hope left in us because we left the car packed with everything we needed for the hospital and drove over to the Dr's office making one pit stop on the way at Whole Foods....for some wine!
Now by this point every time we went to the Dr's office they would weigh me, I got to the point where I would try and look away but would catch myself looking and wanting to just throw up. How could I possibly be gaining weight when all I do is walk?!?!?!? I was weighed just the day before and had lost 3 pounds from the visit from the week prior, so I was feeling pretty good about the weight thing! I told Justin while we waited to be seen that if they asked me to get on the scale I would tell the nurse where she could shove it and would do so with a few choice words. Justin just laughed and assured me they would not weigh me as they just weighed me yesterday!
We were escorted to the exam room, I hopped up on the exam table. The nurse started to ask how I was feeling, before she even finished she took a better look at me and was like, I am sorry...you are miserable aren't you? I just smiled and gave a half nod. She then asked me to step on the scale so they could get my weight. I looked over at Justin and I knew he was thinking, "oh boy here she blows, she is going to tell this poor nurse what she can do and where she can shove it..." but instead I took a deep breath and hoped on the scale only to find that I had gained back those 3 pounds that I had lost.
So we sat and waited for the Dr to come in...Finally she opened the door, took one look at Justin and then me and was like oh honey I am soooo sorry. I guess I must have had this look on my face because whenever anyone looked at me their next words were something along the lines of "I am sorry"!!!!
She examined me and gave me well US the best news, well next to the best news...the catheter had fallen out of place and I was 3cm! She then asked if she could strip my membranes again to really get things going! Justin jumped up from his chair to hold my hand as she proceeded with the stripping! This time to much amazement it didn't hurt nearly half as bad. While she was doing this she was explaining that now all we had to do is go into labor...LIKE IF IT WAS THIS EASY WOULDN'T I HAVE DONE IT BY NOW???????? She explained that we were to go home and walk like crazy. All I had to do was get some good contractions going and get them in some sort or pattern, then call her and head over to the hospital. Once she was done with the stripping of the membranes I felt this trickle of fluid, like water...she stepped out of the room for some reason (alread have forgotten why) so I looked over to Justin, he had this excited grin on his face like HONEY you did it! I then told him that there was fluid and it was running up towards my back and was going to hit my shirt. He just laughed and was like no there isn't anything. I then rolled on to my side (moving these days was getting much harder!) and showed him that there was something and it was all over the table. At this point the Dr had stepped back into the room and saw that I was rolling (well attempting to roll) on to my side to show Justin what it was that I was talking about. She was like ummm humm...what's that. She decided to check me once again only to find that my water had broke. She was so excited and kept saying you broke your bag of water, you broke your bag of water. But the 3rd time of her telling me this I looked up and said, "No Karrie, I think YOU broke my bag of water!" She gave us this grin and was like " I guess you could say that, yay you can go to the hospital now..." She warned us that I had only "sprung a leak" in my bag of water and there would be another gush of water and asked if we were okay and had towels in the car. At this point all I was hearing was blah blah blah, and that Justin would do all of the listening from here on out. He had this deer in the headlights look and was thinking "there is a beach towel in the back of Lindsay's car...that the DOGS use"!!!!!!! Someone at the Dr's office found us a towel and told us to start heading over to the hospital! I went to go to the bathroom before we left and its a good thing I did because after going to the bathroom the rest of my water went...and it went and it went! Thank GOD it didn't go in the car!
So off to the hospial we were...I asked the Dr before we left, where my contractions where, she just smiled and patted me on the shoulder and was like they will come, just head to the hospital. I will never forget, the first contraction hit as Justin was talking to my mom, we were on the 101 at the Pima/Princess exit...and they didn't stop they were exactly 6 minutes apart when we arrived at the hospital.
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