Making His Way

I was originally supposed to report to the hospital last Wednesday morning at 5:00 am. And when they called Tuesday night to tell me to wait until they called me due to overcrowding in Labor and Delivery, I started getting nervous. But a nurse did call about 7:00 am and we made our way to the hospital, not even really expecting a room since they had so many babies coming. But to our surprise we were led to our room right after check-in and the action began.

The doctor started me on pitocin and broke my water soon after I arrived. All seemed to be going well and my contractions slowly started getting stronger. Around noon, the doctor showed up because of some small signs of distress the baby was showing during contractions. Nothing serious she said, just enough to make her curious. She ended up attaching a monitor directly to his head to keep a close eye on him. And from then on, it was downhill. Jackson wasn't a big fan of contractions, and he sure didn't like a probe on his head! They ended up trying to replace my water (yes, there is such a procedure) in order to give the baby some floating room if he was pressing down on his cord. And even with that and with the pitocin turned off, Jackson continued to show signs of stress during the weaker contractions that I was having on my own. All of this hub-bub happened really fast and I got REALLY emotional even faster. The doctor had already said she wasn't going to tolerate much from me and the baby before she suggested a c-section, and after just that little bit of a scare, Brian and I were all on board for a section delivery. I just couldn't bear anything going wrong, so off we went to the operating room.

And as it turns out, the decision was a great one--little Jackson had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice and as he moved down the birth canal, things would have just gotten worse. I'm so glad we didn't wait until it was a complete emergency!

Jackson cried almost immediately and after hearing that cry, I was an absolute wreck!! I was laying on the operating table sobbing--it was such a blessing to hear my baby cry since I hadn't had that pleasure when the twins were born. I cried so much the doctor had to get on to me since she was busy trying to collect cord blood--I was shaking the whole table!!! When I realized I might mess up the cord blood banking, I sucked it up and did my best to keep the crying in check, but this momma was just so overwhelmed it was a hard feat to say the least!!!

And as far as my fears of recovery after another c-section, I have to say that this one has been MUCH, MUCH easier on me than the first. I'm still not my old self of course, but I'm getting around much easier than I thought I would be--the only bad part is I can't have ANYTHING to do with lifting Clayton and I hate it. Hopefully he won't remember and hold it against me!!

Jackson is perfect in every way. I'm so thankful God let us experience "normal" childbirth and blessed us with all these typical experiences that some might take for granted. Life is already so different, I can't wait to enjoy all the happiness this little guy is going to bring us!