I relied heavily on these stories while I was pregnant, so here is

Jaxson’s Birth Story

I started having prodromal labor at 35 weeks exactly. I went in to L&D only to be told it was nothing and send home. At this point I was very thankful it was only “practice” because it was still too early. Fast forward a few weeks, and two more trips to L&D and still no baby. At my 38 week appointment on Friday February 8th my doctor said we would schedule an induction for 39 weeks because she didn’t think my cervix would cooperate with all of the contractions I had been having and the lack of progress being made (1cm and 50%). Induction was scheduled for Tuesday February 12th at 8pm. Fast forward to Monday the 11th and I’m woken up at 5am with severe contractions. They were very Painful all day but never became consistent, ranging from 2 to 40 minutes apart. But at least this time I knew by the end of the next day I would be on my way to have my son. By 8pm the pain became unvaried so I went to my moms house to take a warm bath. I don’t know what but something set my body off because all of a sudden contractions ramped up to 4 minutes apart! After an hour of this consistent pattern I called and was told to head to the hospital. After contracting all day and then the progression in the evening I expected to have dilated more... wrong! 1cm still and only 60% effaced. They had me hang around for 2 hours to check for any more progress! Well I changed to 2cm but it still wasn’t enough to call it active labor, but it was midnight on Tuesday morning at this point so they had me stay and said as soon as a bed opened up they would start my induction earlier. They gave me morphine and phenergen to help me sleep through the contractions. That lasted a whole hour before they got so painful I was woken up again. Still no bed available I waited until 5pm, contracting every 3-5 minutes all day before my induction started. They placed a Foley catheter in my cervix at 7pm. They said it will come out in its own when I hit 4cm and then they will start pitocin but that it could take up to 12 hours to reach that point. At 9pm they came in and gave me a dose of Cytotec to help ripen my cervix and said it would last 4 hours. She said she’d recheck me at 1 am and that they’d probably break my water around 5am. Around 10:30 I called for the epidural because the pain from the contractions was so intense. 1:00 came around and the nurse came in to check my catheter and possible give me another round of the Cytotec. She does the exam and calls for another nurse. They chat back and forth and end up calling the doctor in. The nurse said “well, the catheter came out ahead of schedule, and your water is bulging through your cervix!” The doctor came in soon after and said I was already at 7cm and she broke my water. The plan now was to start pitocin at 5 if my contractions didn’t pick up on their own. I had a sigh of relief that things were moving quicker than expected, and finally fell asleep. At about 4am I am woken up by about 5 nurses rushing in and literally flipping me over in bed and shoving the oxygen on my face. I ask what was Happening and they said I needed to change positions because the baby’s heart rate was too low. Switching positions helped for a while, but he was still having late decels with most of the contractions. After being flipped on to each side, and my back about 10 times the doctor comes in to check me again and I have not made any more progress. They gave me a medicine to stop my contractions and give the baby a break. They said it would last about 15-20 minutes and if he did alright through the break they would start me on pitocin and ramp the contractions back up. Baby did great and they started the medicine. This was about 9am. Not even 20 minutes later he was bottoming out again and nurses were all around me. They checked my cervix and said there was meconium visible. That’s also when the baby’s heartbeat yanked and they couldn’t get it back up. The next few minutes were a rush of emotions as I was scared for my baby, and processing the fact I was about to have an unplanned c section. I wasn’t opposed to the surgery at all through my pregnancy, but I wish the circumstances would have been less hectic. At 10:05 the first incision was made and at 10:10 my first son was born! It took him 43 seconds to breathe but as soon as he did he was a strong and healthy boy. It was a whirlwind of a few days but it brought me the most precious gift in the world.

Jaxson Duke, 7lb 1oz 20in. 2/13/19 10:10am

Here he is at almost 1 month old.