Jax David Thomas- Birth Story

SO. Let me start off by giving the pretext for this birth story. My mom was taking my sister out to school at BYU-Idaho. They came got in Thursday night, the 14th, and planned to take her to Rexburg on the 16th (Saturday), then my mom would come back through Salt Lake, stay the night, and leave Sunday the 17th to go back home, unless I'd had the baby by then. At 38 weeks (April 10th) I was DONE, and I had soooo many contractions on and off. I wanted so badly to have this baby so my mom could just stay instead of leaving and having to come back. So Thursday, Friday, and Saturday came and went, and I didn't have anything more than Braxton Hicks. Mom got back in from taking Nicole late Saturday night, but there was a huge snow storm scheduled to hit Denver that night, so she wasn't sure she was going to leave in the morning or not. I had been absolutely PLEADING with the Lord to have this baby when my mom could be at our house to watch Colton. We had plans with friends to watch Colton while we were having the baby, but to be able to have him at home, with my mom, would have been such a relief. I was literally crying to Heavenly Father that Friday, the 15th, to please please let me go into labor so mom could watch Colton, when I heard a voice, clear as day, say to me "Trust me". I wish I could say that I calmed down and knew everything would be fine after that, but my pleading continued....

last preggo picture of me! 38 weeks 6 days 

So by Sunday morning, the snowstorm had dumped 2.5 feet of snow on Denver, and I-80 was closed. There was no way my mom was getting home that day. We went to sacrament meeting, and I started having light contractions about 10 minutes apart, but this had been happening for days, so I wasn't too excited. They tapered off, and in a last ditch effort, that afternoon we went to the park. I alternated walking the curb around the playground, and swinging, and by golly when we left the park at 3:30, contractions had started back up again. Mom, Colton and I went down to Herriman to visit my aunt, where my contractions got to be 6 minutes apart. By the time we left there at 5:45, they were 4 minutes apart, and getting stronger, I could barely talk through them. We got home, put Colton down, and at 7:45 I had a contraction I couldn't talk or breathe through, and it HURT and I said "Alright, let's go". I couldn't believe how perfectly Heavenly Father had timed everything. The peace of mind I had leaving Colton with my mom was so great, I just was so so grateful. 

SO we got to the hospital, and they finally checked me at about 9, and they said I was a 3, and 80% effaced, which was exactly what I had been the past Tuesday at my dr. appt. So we labored for an hour and got checked again. No progression. My labor at this point was UNBEARABLE. keep in mind, I labored with Colton, all natural, for TWENTY hours, and pushed, at a 10, for 3 of those. I know what labor is, I've done it, drug free, and survived, and at a 3 dilation I was BARELY making it through my contractions, which were 2 minutes apart at this point. I couldn't believe the pain I was having vs. the no progression. So I labored there another hour, and with every contraction was getting close to blacking out. Still, NO PROGRESSION. and at that point I tapped out. They wanted to give me morphine for the pain and to keep me overnight, especially because my incision scar was hurting me with each contraction and they were concerned. But I said no way jose, not doing that again, call my doctor we are doing the freaking c-section, this kid is STUCK just like his brother was, I can tell. So they dragged my doc in at 12 am April 18th, I walked into the OR, they gave me the spinal block (ahhhh immediate relief. I wonder how many women want to kiss their anesthesiologists?!) and got me all set up. The "c-section shakes" started immediately, which I remembered well. They are almost like mini seizures! and it's not even because I was cold, I dunno, it is so weird. But they got started, and Jared stood and watched the whole thing! In about 15 minutes they had our little man out and he was crying and I immediately cried. It was so wonderful not being SO out of it (though I was still out of it...me + morphine=not fun). He was born at 1:06 am, weighed 7.36 lbs and was 21 inches long. 

They took the boy back and Jared went with him, and in another 20 minutes they were wheeling me to the recovery room where Jared had been doing skin to skin with him. Jared passed him to me and I got to feed him right away. 

After that everything was kind of a blur. I was so darn tired and the morphine made it so much worse. at some point during the night I started throwing up. Couldn't keep even 2 ice chips down. My body temp got super low, down to about 95 degrees, and my oxygen levels and heart rate fell really low along with it, I remember my heart rate got down to 51 bpm and thinking man that's really low. But my body was trying to get rid of hormones so I was actually feeling SUPER hot, and I was sweating like crazy, but they kept these heavy blankets on me, which made me so nauseous and I kept throwing up. I just did not understand what was going on I was so out of it. Let me tell you throwing up right after a c-section is as much fun as you can imagine. This went on all Monday night, and finally started to subside Monday afternoon around 3 when the morphine started to wear off, that when I kind of start remembering things better. We kind of discussed names at that point, but I was so groggy I wanted to get a good night's sleep before deciding on a name. 

That night I did get the catheter out and was able to walk down on my own (veerrry slowly) to the nursery to watch them give our boy his first bath. It was the absolute cutest thing when Jared was washing his hair. He was the most relaxed I've ever seen a newborn, he LOVED that warm water on his head!

Tuesday I woke up and felt great. Jared left to go spend time with Colton, but before he went, we had to pick a name, so we settled on Jax David, David after my dad, of course! After Jared left I was able to shower and get mostly ready, and even tidied up the little hospital room a bit. The baby was doing so awesome, eating great and sleeping so well. I had barely even heard him cry! Tuesday afternoon mom and Jared brought Colton in, and Colton adjusting to the new baby is a whole post on it's own, but it did not go great. That night my mom stayed with me so Jared could spend time at home with Colton, then Wednesday morning mom and Jared swapped again, and we were discharged by noon! A total of 2.5 days in the hospital was so great, and it was awesome to get home. 

Going home!

Even though I will always have the yearning to have a baby vaginally, I am so grateful for the modern medicine that allows me to have beautiful babies, even though my pelvis makes it physically impossible for me to get them out. All my future births will have to be c-sections, and I have to say, planning a date, that we KNOW my mom will be out to watch the kids will be so much better than the labor waiting game! I am so madly in love with our Jax. He is such a wonderful baby, I almost believed there wasn't such a thing as wonderful babies. He is so content and SO snuggly, and I am soaking it all up. I think with this one I will be so sad to see the baby stage go, but I will take advantage of every minute!!