Welcome baby Jackson, his birth story.

On Wednesday January 16th 2013, at 6:04pm we welcomed the best gift in the world into our lives. Jackson Clayton Kelley was born, a long awaited little miracle.

My labor started like any other. It was right around 10pm Tuesday January 15th, 4 days past his due date, when the contractions started. Joe and I hung out at home, we tried to get some sleep and make sure this was really it. Needless to say no one got much rest due to the excitement that was going on. An hour went by and the contractions kept up, now about 5 to 7 minutes apart and getting stronger. Around midnight I decide to take a warm bath to ease the pain.

The bath was nice but as time went by all I could think about was letting our parents and doula know I was in in fact in labor to take my mind off of the contractions I finished getting the bags ready for the hospital and cleaned the house for a bit. I didn’t want to leave the house messy while we where gone. I have to say cleaning was a good distraction. By 3:30am I was ready to go to the hospital. I planned to hang out at home a little longer but because this was my first time experiencing labor I also didn’t want to take any chances.So at 4am off to the hospital we went.

The 30 minute drive to St. Anthony’s hospital In Crown Point went surprisingly fast. We got there and got checked in. So up to the 7th floor we went, the nurse wheeled me to room 708 and in came more nurses. They got my vitals, took blood, and got me and the baby all hooked up to the monitors. Everything was looking great, the contractions even seemed to hurt a little less being at the hospital. But the nurses assured me that I was defiantly have good contractions. They checked me and let me know I was dilated to 2cm almost 3cm and 90% effaced.

So a few hours go by… Many walks down the hall while stopping to hold the handrail and lots of bouncing on the birthing ball still without any medication of any kind.

10:00am rolls around and my doctor was in the building.He came in to check my progress and even though I felt like I worked so hard and had many good contractions he told me I was only dilated to 3 cm. At this time doc wanted to break my water. He said I could wait but chances where I wouldn’t progress very fasts without it being broken.

So broken it was. And oh man did the contractions really pick up. I think I was having one every 1 to 2 minutes and they seemed to last for a few minutes each, or that’s how it felt. Each contraction got stronger and stronger and seemed to be closer and closer. By noon I got checked again. Without any progress i was ready for a epidural.

After getting the epidural things seemed to move fast. I immediately dilated to 5. However, the first contraction after receiving the epidural was very strong and very long. This caused the babies heart rate to drop. A bunch of nurses came in a tossed me back and forth and gave me some medication to stop the contraction and get baby’s heart rate back to normal. After the scare everything looked to be back to normal so I was finally able to rest for an hour or so.

Next time I was checked I hadn’t made any more progress. This is when doctor wanted to put me on a medication called patosin ( medication to induce labor and help strength in contractions ). So we approved the patosin and they started a very low dose. But, the first strong contraction after starting the patosin caused the babies heart rate to drop again!

After getting everyone vitals back to normal the doctor came back in. He discussed with us that the  baby was not tolerating strong contractions and without strong contractions he would not be able to come out normally. The doctor suggested the best option now would be to just get the baby out by c section. We knew this was the best choice and approved the c-section.

They quickly got me ready for surgery and had Joe put his scrubs on. They took me down to surgery, got me ready, and brought Joe in. Within a few minute the surgery was underway and baby Jackson was born. I remember laying there Joe held my shaky hand, waiting to hear Jackson’s first cry. Just a few more seconds later at 6:04 pm Jackson was born. Then we heard his first cry. What an amazing sound! Joe went over to see him for the first time and take a few pictures. Then they brought him over to me. Oh my cute chubby little 8lb 0oz, 19.5in baby boy. We waited so long to meet him and I have to say he was totally worth the wait.