Jackson's birth story

Back story of Jack's birth story::

On November 19th around 6 pm I started having contractions. At first I didn't think anything of it and thought they were braxton hicks because I was only 29 weeks. After about 45 minutes I realized they were consistent and started timing them. At that point they were exactly every 10 minutes. I tried all of the normal things to stop them- taking a bath, laying on my left side, relaxing but they wouldn't ease up. Around 8-8:30 I called the on-call doctor to see what she thought. She was very concerned since I had early contractions with Evie so she sent us in to be monitored just incase. By the time we got to the hospital my contractions were every 2-3 minutes and getting stronger every time. The doctor there tried to give me a shot to stop labor and started running tests to see if there was an infection or something causing the contractions. They told us that we should see the contractions slow down within 10 minutes so we tried to relax and wait for things to calm down. Unfortunately they did not calm down. After a little while they came back and decided to give me a second dose. Luckily after the second dose, things slowly calmed down and they eventually stopped. The doctor went ahead and checked me and I was not dilated very much so he thought it was false labor and sent us home with no restrictions, he said to just call my regular OB the next day to touch base. We thought maybe I just overdid it at work that day. I went ahead and took the next day off to rest. The next morning(Friday), I woke up and they immediately came back. I put a call into my OB and started timing them. They weren't as consistent in timing but they would not stop. Once I talked to her, she decided that I needed to start taking medicine to stop contractions around the clock since things were trying to get started even with me resting and not doing much. We decided I would go in Monday to get a steroid shot for Jack's lungs and talk about next steps. We spent the weekend having contractions on and off and relaxing as much as possible to hopefully keep baby boy in until at least we go 2 doses of the steroids to help mature his lungs. We were able to get the steroids shots and after that my doctor put me on bed rest and weekly visits to keep monitoring how things were going. We had a few bumps in the road like multiple labor scares, one week where his movement wasn't great so we had to have an ultrasound to check on him, and other things that kept us very anxious that he might arrive early. 

On January 13th, I went in for my 37 week appointment, even after so many contractions for almost 9 weeks, I was only dilated about 1-1.5 centimeters and about 50-60% effaced. My doctor said to stop taking the medicine and lets see what happens. Thursday morning I woke up and decided to make a Costco trip to stock up before the baby came. As the day went on I had minimal contractions but started to show signs that my water bag was leaking. I put a call into my doctor that afternoon and continued with my regular after school pick up. When I got home the contractions started as the nurse was calling back and she advised we go in to see if my water bag was leaking. I knew James was on his way home from a job so I decided to wait to tell him and called my mom to drop the kids off. Once he got home we dropped the kids off and headed to the hospital. We got there around 4:45-5 and headed to triage. They did a test to check my water and we were told to wait for results. Not 5 minutes after the nurse walked out, I felt a huge gush and knew my water had just broken. We laughed about it and realized we were going to finally be having our sweet boy at exactly 37 weeks (full term- hallelujah)!! 

We were then moved to our labor and delivery room and expected things to pick up quickly. Once our nurse got the iv set up and everything situated she checked me again and to everyones surprise I had not dilated anymore since the day before at the doctor. We were all shocked and bummed but James and I decided to get me out of bed and start laboring standing up and bouncing on the ball to progress things. Just like my previous two deliveries, I was hoping to have an epidural free delivery. We labored for a few hours and made little to no progress at all. They finally came in and said they thought we should try pitocin to get it going and I would probably progress very rapidly once it started based on my history of very fast deliveries. We agreed and started pitocin. I continued to labor up and about as much as possible to ease the pain, let me just say, this was my first labor with pitocin and those contractions are so much stronger than labor without. We knew once my body kicked into gear it would be very very quick but for some reason it was not getting started like it should, even with pitocin. We continued to labor until about 3:00-3:30am and my doctor came in and said she thought I had another water bag that was not broken and was preventing me from dilating. Sure enough, she was right and she was able to break the second water bag. I had no clue that was even possible!!! After about another hour the nurse came back to check but I was still only 5 cm. The pitocin was so strong at this point and I was getting more tired by the minute. At about 7-7:15 am things shifted very quickly and I knew it was about to be time. I had labored standing and bouncing all night but at that point, I had to get in the bed because the urges to push were coming!! It is so crazy how fast things can change. Just a few minutes before the nurse said I was "barely a 6" and then I knew it was about to be time 5 minutes later. She checked me again and I was 9 cm. My poor doctor had just left the hospital to go home and shower since I was only 6cm. She had to rush back and barely made it in the door before I couldn't "not push" any longer. Three pushes later and Jackson was born at 7:38 am. 14 hours after my first water bag broke our sweet baby boy was in my arms! His labor was my longest and hardest, by far, but we are so grateful. We have a feeling that the second water bag was the reason my cervix never dilated at 29 weeks and we were able to keep him growing in my belly until 37 weeks! What a blessing, I never thought I would be so thankful for an extra water bag! After he was born we were able to do skin to skin for probably over two hours! He latched well from the beginning and has been nursing wonderfully ever since! He weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 3/4 inches long. Since he was born during a pandemic, it was only James and I there when he was born. It was a different experience from our other three babies, but special in its own way. It was so relaxed and calm while we just got to soak up every minute with our new baby. I am so grateful for a safe delivery and healthy baby to complete our family. He is our little caboose and we are all smitten with him.  

 

Jackson Levi Gautreaux
1/15/2021 @ 7:38am
7 lb 4 oz- 20 3/4 in