Jack's birth story

Seventeen hours after my induction began, John Edgar IV, also known as Jack, made his entrance into the world.

We got to the hospital a little before 7:30 a.m. for my induction. After signing several forms, I went up to labor & delivery to put on the hospital gown and get hooked up to all sorts of monitors. My doctor came in to check me and to try to break my water around 8:30, but she couldn't really get it. I was hoping that I had progressed some on my own since the last time I saw her, but I was out of luck. So, I just had to wait it out on a Pitocin drip. 

I had heard horror stories about Pitocin and how much it hurt, but I didn't think it was that bad – at least to start off with. Yeah, it caused contractions, but those just felt like a tightening in my stomach, which I had been experiencing all weekend. Compared to the back labor I had with Mara, it was nothing in the beginning.

Speaking of Mara, she came with us to the hospital, and then my dad and Diane came to pick her up and take her to breakfast. After breakfast, they stopped back by because Mara was really concerned about me. They then took her to the American Girl Store so she could look around, but her mind was really on me. 

My doctor came in a little after 12:30 to break my water. The contractions started coming stronger, but they were still manageable. Both my doctor and my nurses could tell I wasn't progressing very fast because I never really needed to stop what I was doing when I had a contraction, and I wasn't dilating any further. I tried to walk around as much as possible, but they didn't want me off of the monitors for too long in case something happened. The nurses would periodically check on me and prepared the things that would be needed when Jack came since there was no going back after my water was broken.

After stopping by to see us again real quickly, Mara, Diane, and my dad went to pick up Lori, Mikey, and Lani from school. All of them came by to see how I was doing (still waiting for something to happen), and then they left for dinner. It got so late that everyone gave up on seeing baby Jack that day, and Mara eventually fell asleep at Mike and Myra's house. She wasn't too happy about it because she was worried about me, but we reassured her that she would come see us first thing the next morning and that Jack would be there one way or another.

As the day wore on, the contractions slowly got worse as my labor progressed and the nurses adjusted the amount of Pitocin I was getting, both up and down trying to kick start something, and I finally starting having a hard time getting through them around 7 p.m. I had a glider that I could rock in while waiting as well as a birthing ball. The night nurse also had me try a couple of different positions with a birthing ball to help alleviate some of the pain, but it was becoming more unbearable.

My goal going into this was to go without an epidural mainly because local anesthesia doesn't work very well on me. I finally gave in around 10:30 p.m. when I could no longer stay awake because of exhaustion, yet I couldn't sleep because of the pain. Plus, at that time, I was beginning to wonder if I would have to settle for a c-section, which I really didn't want, but I would much rather have an epidural just in case and not have to have general anesthesia. Both my doctor and nurse thought getting the epidural would help me relax and allow labor to progress. (I was still only a 5-6 after laboring all day and needed to be at a 10.) I don't remember too much about getting the epidural because I was in and out of consciousness from being so tired, but that was probably a good thing considering I felt the doctor stick it in my back last time. I do remember finally getting a more restful nap after getting the epidural.

Around 1 a.m., I started feeling really hard pressure that woke me up, and I knew it was time to push. I didn't know how long I could wait because the pressure was intense and constant (even though I had an epidural), but we had to wait until my doctor got in. She was at home asleep, and it took her a few extra minutes to come in since this was the first middle-of-the-night delivery she'd attended since moving into a new house across the street from the hospital. When she got there, they finished prepping everything, but it didn't take long until we were ready to go. After only a few minutes of pushing, Jack was here at 1:40 a.m.

Based on what I could feel after I had the baby, my doctor determined that the epidural did not work yet again. Luckily, the anesthesiologist also gave me a spinal, which is what helped relieve the pain and allow me to sleep.

The actual delivery part was fairly easy, but I can't say the same about the labor. I had hoped that being induced would mean that I wouldn't be in labor for 20 hours like I was with Mara. I guess that was still the case, but I still never dreamed of being in labor with Jack for 17 hours. However, it was definitely worth it. :)

I'm a little foggy on what happened after Jack got here, and I think most everyone else is too considering he came in the middle of the night. I know I didn't get all of the pictures I was hoping to get since everyone was still trying to wake up by the time he made his grand entrance, but at least he's here and he's healthy.

And now for more pictures from Jack's first few hours, starting with the last one of him in my belly with all of my wires draped around my neck.

We've already had a lot of visitors, and I'll be back tomorrow to post more pictures.

ETA 8/26: I wrote most of this while I was actually in labor. (Guess that shows how manageable it was for the longest time.) However, reading back through this several months later, I realized that I left out several details, including what Mara was doing during this time. So, I updated it to include a few more details.

ETA 9/14: There was something I completely forgot to mention here that I was reminded of with John's grandpa's passing. The funeral for John's grandma was scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday (the day I was induced). Because of that, John predicted that Jack would be born around 2 p.m. He ended up being off by about 12 hours since Jack was born at 1:40 a.m.