My Birth Story with Jacob

Yesterday was Jacob's actual due date, he is 12 days old today :) I have already posted about our decision to have a repeat c-section, and that was scheduled for last Monday, April 9. Jacob decided to join us on Thursday, April 5 instead. Here's the story of how he made his big entrance:

On Wednesday (4/4) I woke up feeling off, got in the shower and had to stop the shower early because I was feeling nauseous. I planned to rest on the couch, and then go into work a little late, thinking it was just being tired from pregnancy. Then Kaleb woke up and was clearly sick. So, my plan changed to just working from home with Kaleb. We got through the day but it was rough, all I wanted to do was rest.

As far as the pregnancy was going, I'd been having Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks, and I was experiencing a lot of aches in my lower abdomen, just tired and tender and really done with carrying Jacob around!

I went to bed Wednesday night and then at 2:00 AM I woke up in the middle of a contraction. I turned over and figured it was just a particularly strong Braxton Hicks, but about 10 minutes later I got hit by another one. I stayed in bed until 2:30 and then got up. The contractions got closer together rather quickly. By 3 I was pretty sure these were real contractions so I downloaded an app on my phone to track them and by 4 had determined a pattern of about a minute long and averaging 6 minutes apart.

At this point I was pretty well convinced I was in labor, so I took a shower, folded some laundry, and paced around the house. The contractions weren't slowing down at all, instead they were getting more intense and closer together. At 5 I decided I should probably wake Kyle up, so he wouldn't feel rushed if we decided to go in to the hospital. I woke him up, told him I'd been awake since 2 with contractions and that they were getting closer together and more intense. I called my doctor's office and left a message for the on call OB that I was contracting about 5 minutes apart at this point. She called back pretty quickly and confirmed that we should be heading to the hospital.

We called the Remsburgs at 6, I packed a bag for Kaleb, and Kyle took Kaleb over there at 6:30 then came back to get me and we went up to St. Mary's. They put me in a triage room and hooked me up to all the monitors. The first step was to give me a bunch of fluids, since dehydration can sometimes bring on false labor pain. The nurse checked me and I had dilated to 1 cm before we arrived. After two hours, two bags of fluids through the IV, and many more contractions, the nurse checked me again and I was dilated to 3. This was as of 9:30 AM and they made the decision at this point to keep me there and put me in the line up for a c-section that day. WOW! We weren't expecting this and it was really really exciting!

During those couple hours of taking in fluids and not knowing if they were going to keep us or send us home it was tough. I would have felt really embarrassed if it wasn't real labor and was just dehydration and we got sent home. I really wanted to stay..but I was also really hungry! I had eaten a light dinner the night before because I wasn't feeling well. When I woke up suspecting I was in labor, I didn't eat anything because I'd been told I had to fast for 8 hours before the c-section. So, our joke during those hours of waiting was that I would either get a baby or get breakfast and at that point, I wasn't sure which sounded better! However, I was quite relieved and very excited, and forgot all about breakfast, when the nurse confirmed that we got to have our baby that day!

Then we had to wait. and wait. and wait some more. That same day there was already one scheduled c-section and I was then 1 of 3 more women who had shown up that morning in labor and with c-sections scheduled for later in the week. It was a busy day for the hospital staff that day! There was a full moon the night before, and we talked with the nurse about how full moons did tend to result in busier hospitals. A nurse brought Kyle his scrubs at 10:00 and said the OB was starting another c-section right then and that I was next. And then we waited some more.

The contractions got worse and worse, and by about noon I was starting to lose patience and was really just wanting to get this show on the road. As it turns out, the OB was ready to go but the anesthesiologist had been called to another part of the hospital to handle something else, so we were waiting on him to come back before it was my turn. Finally, at 2:00 they came to get us and I walked to the operating room, got my spinal block, got prepped for the surgery, and then they let Kyle come into the room. The spinal block worked beautifully, I couldn't feel anything at all. (a significant improvement over my first c-section, where I could feel everything since the epidural wasn't working on my right side) Kyle did an excellent job keeping me distracted and holding my hand and just being that rock solid presence he always is.

At 2:36 PM on April 5 I got to hear Jacob cry for the very first time, and wow what a cry it was! I said many times during my pregnancy that I had a feeling Jacob was going to be much more demanding than Kaleb was as a baby, that he wouldn't hesitate to make his needs known and to share his displeasure at anything he didn't like...that cry was my first confirmation. So persistent! And for the first couple days he had this squeak sound he would make while crying, it was quite cute :)

After the docs had me all put back together, I was wheeled into the recovery room and they gave me Jacob to try and nurse. He latched on like a little champ and fed like he was a 3 month old, not a newborn. It was such a great moment!

One thing I struggled with in deciding to have a repeat c-section was that I wouldn't have that "honey, it's time" moment of going into labor on my own. I didn't really get that with Kaleb either, since we had the induction scheduled and I didn't start having contractions until a couple hours before that appointment. Jacob came 4 days before the scheduled c-section, and so I got to have that experience of contractions in the middle of the night, and then waking my husband up to tell him our baby was coming. I am really thankful to have had that experience in my life, one of those moments you dream about and that has now come true for me. And, I managed to "get to" labor for 12 hours even with the scheduled c-section, thanks Jacob! ;)

And now we are a family of four, and I'll post more in the coming days on how that transition has been going :)