Jaxen's Birth Story - Part 2

This is Part 2 of Jaxen's Birth Story - see previous post for Part 1...

Tuesday, June 12: At 5:40 am they examined me and I was dilated to a 9! After they saw that, the OB on call asked me to push. This was a trial push, to see how things were going to go and see how well I was at pushing. After that trial push - the OB on call said she was going to call my doctor and we would begin pushing shortly.

Dr. G came in to my room around 7am and told me that we were going to start pushing out this baby! I was excited and nervous. My main thought was that I was so tired, I didn't know if I would have the energy to do this. But I knew I had to. I do remember asking Nik to pray for me and ask others to pray as we began the pushing process. Nik sent a couple of texts out updating people, and asking for some prayer.

The pushing started. I apparently had to learn how to push. I was not pushing correctly. I eventually learned and pushed with all I had. After I had been pushing awhile, they told me to stop, that they wanted to check on the direction of the baby's head. After an exam by 2 doctors, they decided that Jaxen's head was sideways. It needed to be face down. So they decided to 'go in' and turn his head. They worked for awhile at turning it, and thought they had it. I began to push again. But as I started, his head turned back sideways. So they had 2 other doctors come in (now, a total of 4 people) and had them try to turn his head. Basically, they kept turning it correctly, but every time I pushed it went back sideways. This continued for awhile. I was getting tired. I stared to feel the pain. The epidural had worn off. They called in for more medicine and kept giving it to me - but for some reason (probably my body had gotten used to it) I was still feeling everything.

I had not progressed much with pushing. Because Jaxen's head was sideways, it was harder to push out. My contractions were coming, and coming hard...but they were not consistent. For awhile, the contractions came every couple of minutes. And I would do really well with pushing, but then they would stop and only come about every 6 minutes. That was the hard part - I would make progress then I would 'back track'.

At about 9am, my doctor decided something else needed to happen. I was not in very good shape to keep going. I was so tired and I was feeling so much pain. She told us what our options were: 1) use forceps. 2) do a c-section. She called in a consult on the forceps, and the consult agreed that the forceps would be a good option. Dr. G decided that she felt comfortable using forceps and thought I just needed a little help to get Jaxen out. If the forceps did not work the first time, then she would do a c-section.

Once the call was made to use the forceps, Dr. G brought in two other doctors, a third nurse and called in NICU (protocol). I don't remember much about the decision being made, but I do remember a lot of hustle and bustle. At one point no one was around me anymore, they were all busy prepping. At that moment, Nik leaned over me and started praying. It was the sweetest prayer and my heart was filled with joy and even more love for my husband. He prayed for a safe and quick delivery and that I would have the strength to push one more time and bring Jaxen into this world.

I later found out that around 9:30am, one of my friends who works at the hospital came by to check on me. When she heard I was still pushing, she immediately texted some friends and asked them to pray. She knew it was probably not a good situation if I had not delivered yet.

Dr. G was ready to go with the forceps and told me to push one more time. She inserted the forceps and  helped open the path. Right as she did, Jaxen came out! It was pretty quick and she never even needed to use the forceps on him - just to open me up. He was delivered at 9:41am.

All I have to say is that because of the all the prayers going up on my behalf at that point and only by the grace of God, did Jaxen come out. I had nothing left in me to give. I remember thinking that I wanted to push when they told me to, and I was trying to push, but I knew that it was not a good push. I was so surprised when they told me he was here because I knew I barely pushed at all. God gave me the strength I needed, when I needed it! I am grateful for those who prayed for me through this labor and delivery. I could not have done it without those prayers!

As soon as Jaxen was delivered, he was given to NICU to have him checked out and get him cleaned up. After a few minutes they called Nik over. He did not get the chance to cut the umbilical cord when he was born because it all happened so fast - but he did get the chance then, to trim it. He stayed over with Jaxen as they finished working on him. At that time, they rolled Jaxen over by me so I could see him. I don't really know what my first thoughts were when I saw him. All I know is that I felt relief that he was here. I was still in a lot of pain and not thinking clearly.

The minute Nik saw Jaxen, he thought he was awesome. Nik later told me that he was scared of what he would think, because he thought most newborns were ugly! He was pretty nervous about holding him, but jumped right in and hasn't stopped yet. Nik is so gentle with him and it is so fun to see him love on Jaxen.

The doctors began immediately after Jaxen was born, working on me to deliver the placenta, massage my stomach and start stitching me up. I did tear - but it was not bad, just second degree. It took them awhile to work on me and when they were finished I was still unable to hold Jaxen. One of the side effects of the one of the medicines I was on, was the shakes. I was shaking uncontrollably for over an hour after delivery.

Eventually, I started to feel better and I finally got to hold Jaxen. That was when I got to see how perfect he was! Nik was pointing out how long his feet and fingers were. I fell in love with that little boy immediately when they put him in my arms... and that love has grown even more every day!

I eventually got moved to the Post Partum Wing, Room #305. Jaxen and I were still being checked on pretty often. The first time they checked on me, after I had moved - I had a fever. It was low-grade, but still a fever. So they paid even closer attention to me for awhile. The fever passed and neither Jaxen or I had any other problems.

One of the things that so impressed me about Scott and White Hospital was the nursing staff. They were incredible! They were so sweet and loving. They took care of me so well. I will never forget how kind they were. They were so helpful. Anytime they mentioned something to do with Jaxen and Nik and I had no clue... we simply said "Can you please teach us / tell us more / we are new at this, and have no clue" and they were so nice. They were patient with us and helped us learn anything we needed!

One of the funny things that Nik told me after it was all said and done - was that he was sore! Nik had the impression before I went into labor that during the labor process, he would just stand at my head and tell me to breathe and feed me ice chips. That was not the case! The minute I started pushing, they told Nik to hold onto my left leg and he did not get a break after that. There were two nurses on my right side who took turns holding my leg...but no one ever took over for Nik. So, his arm and shoulder were sore from all the pressure he had while I pushed.

Another thing that Nik thought I would do was cuss at him while in labor. Can you believe he actually thought that?! He always heard it was the 'nice, sweet church girls' that cussed out their husbands during labor - so he thought I might be one of them. But he was wrong. I never said a negative thing about anyone during my labor. I guess I did yell and scream through it, but I yelled and screamed that "It hurt", and that "I could not do this anymore". At one point, after I had delivered, while they were working on me still - I was still feeling a lot of pain and I guess I yelled out "What are you doing to me?" Nik kindly told me what was going on. He was pretty sweet through the whole labor and delivery process and I'm so glad he was able to be there. I could not imagine doing this with out him by my side, encouraging me.

I thank God for the wonderful pregnancy, the safe delivery and for Jaxen. He is amazing and perfect and custom-made just for Nik and I!