Jack's Birth Story

When I was pregnant, I loved hearing birth stories from friends and family members (and even found myself reading birth stories online from complete strangers). However hard or easy childbirth was for other people, I found comfort in hearing other women's stories and experiences. Everyone's story is completely different. I would like to share my experience. Childbirth was, probably like most women, one of my biggest fears. I was blessed and lucky to have had everything go the way it did. When you see your baby for the first time, everything you went through is completely worth any pain or hardships you went through to get them here.

It was a sunny Thursday in October. I went to work like usual. My co-workers and I ate at Zupa's for lunch and I had the delicious Wisconsin Cauliflower soup. In the early afternoon, I went to my appointment with Dr. Young at the IHC Health Center in Orem. He did his usual measuring of the belly, listening to the baby's heartbeat and the checking of my cervix. He told me to dress while he went out of the room. It was a little unusual that he didn't chat with me before he left like he's normally done before. I heard him on the phone talking with someone just outside my room so I started to get a little nervous. He came back into the room and told me that the baby's head was in position (like it had been earlier in the week) and that I was dilated to a 2 and 80% effaced. Then he told me the predicament-he was going out of town on Saturday (my due date). We had two options-to wait and deliver with one of his partners whenever I go into labor, or to be induced tomorrow with him. Oh, what? Deliver my first baby with someone I've never met or have my baby tomorrow? I knew that I was not comfortable with another doctor but didn't want to be induced unless necessary. I called Tyson and we talked it over and decided to get induced. Dr. Young explained that there is a number hospitals use to rate your chances of a c-section, if being induced. IHC liked the number to be a 10, while other hospitals like an 8. I was a 9. That phone call I heard was Dr. Young calling next door to the Orem Community Hospital and asking if they would accept me to be induced or not. And....it looked like I was going to have my baby tomorrow! He called the hospital again to set it all up and told me that they were all booked with inductions for Friday, so how about right now? I said "okay...", called Tyson and my parents, sent a text to my boss telling her that I wasn't coming back to work, drove 30 seconds to the parking lot over and checked in to labor and delivery.

That's the most I was nervous. I remember waiting for Tyson at the front where I checked in, just thinking "I'm having my baby right now!". Once Tyson got there, we were taken to our room (right across from the "nourishment" room stocked with snacks. Lucky husband!) and was told to dress down. Tyson gave me a special blessing when we were alone in the room and it helped me feel very peaceful. I used the restroom, just in case that was the last time to do it, and then took a bunch of pictures of our room to document everything (you know me).



We loved the staff at Orem Community Hospital and all of the nurses there. Our first nurse gave me an IV to start me with saline and the pitocin around 4:30pm. She put a monitor on my belly to measure the baby's heartbeat and my contractions. At 6pm, our nurse Maria came (she would be the one to help us all through the delivery). We talked with her about when do to the epidural and she said she'd just like to wait until I have two bags of saline in me to help with my blood pressure (which can go up while you have the epidural). At that point I hadn't had any major contractions and wondered if I should wait a while. Dr. Young still had to come in and break my water and I was thinking maybe I would do it before then (in case it hurt-what did I know?). Just then he walked in to do it. Ha. It felt similar to a cervix exam, just a little more uncomfortable and he used something that looked like a crotchet hook to do it. It wasn't too painful, but it sure did feel strange when all that fluid came wooshing out! (By the way, Tyson said that that part was probably the grossest thing he saw that night...or ever.) I immediately started feeling more contractions then before so we asked for the epidural.

Dr. Young left the room and the anesthesiologist came in with a cart of stuff sometime around 6-6:30pm. I had to sign something first and then had me sit on the side of the bed, holding a pillow and curling my back like a cat. He had Tyson sit in front of me, told me to be very still, and talked me through what he was doing. First, he cleaned the area and rubbed on some local numbing stuff, then the needle went in my spine. He kept that needle in for a bit so he could put the epidural catheter through it. He took the needle out and the catheter stayed. I remember it not being too painful and that it felt similar to getting a shot. He stayed in the room until it was in effect, about 20-30 minutes, and showed me the button to press if I felt like I needed a little more of the medication (it was capped to a certain point). My legs got really warm, heavy and tingly. I could tell when someone was touching me, but I didn't know if they were pinching or rubbing. Tyson told me that he pinched me a few times but I didn't react or even know.

Maria decided she wanted a better reading of the baby's heartbeat so she put the monitors inside, along with a catheter for my bathroom business. Tyson was pretty cute and pretty nervous during the whole event. There was one point when he went across the hall to the "nourishment" room to make himself a pizza. He came back into the room after a while with a burrito and I asked why it took him so long. Apparently, he made the pizza and dropped it on the floor on his way back to our room because he was so nervous. He said a nurse came by right after and he was so embarrassed that he told her someone just threw up, because it looked like it with all of the toppings on the floor. He he.



The contractions were getting more intense and I was dilated to a 4 around 7pm. I started to feel some contractions on my right side. They hurt and were uncomfortable but I could talk through them. I remember thinking at that point how bad they would be if I didn't have the epidural! We asked for the anesthesiologist to come back in to check things and up the dosage a bit. That seemed to do the trick. Around 9pm, Maria checked me again and thought I was dilated to a 10 already! (Guess my body was really getting ready during those intense contractions!) She said that was unusually fast to dilate that quickly for a first labor and called the head nurse to come in and double check. She confirmed it. I started to feel this pressure near my bum and Maria told me that it was my body getting ready to push. They called Dr. Young in and he confirmed it as well. I was having my baby! Tyson called both of our parents and they were all on their way. Dr. Young, Maria, the head nurse, and a tech all came in and got everything ready in the room.

I was propped up slightly on the bed and Tyson and Maria each held one of my legs. Maria had me push three times to get things going, three pushes each contraction. I remember asking everyone, "Am I pushing?" and they all said "Oh yeah!". Dr. Young actually asked me to stop pushing (yeah, right) during that second push with him because the baby was coming out fast. He ended up doing an episidomy. I pushed twice with Dr. Young and Jack was born! (I was lucky-only 15 minutes of pushing!) I could kind of feel the baby come out and all of a sudden he was here! All purple and crying and beautiful. Dr. Young held him up for me and Tyson cut the cord. The nurses took Jack for a quick cleaning and measuring in the room with us while the doctor delivered the placenta and stitched me up.

Jackson Russell Eyre was born at 10:45pm on Thursday, October 4, 2012. He was 6 pounds, 8 ounces and 20 inches long.

The nurses handed Jack to me and I held him again my chest, skin to skin. I remember thinking "Wow! I'm a mom and this is my baby!?" It was a little surreal and a lot amazing. Shortly after, our parents came beaming in to see their newest grandson. They all had huge smiles on their faces. My sister Michelle, Tyson's sister Susan and our good friend Desi all came to visit Jack the next day. We stayed at the hospital until we started to get a little bored on Saturday afternoon (we were trying to watch General Conference there but really wanted to just watch it at home). We were home with our new little bundle of joy on Saturday, his due date.



I had such a wonderful experience giving birth to our first baby, I was truly blessed. We've had so much joy in our lives since Jack joined our family on that special day.