Welcome to the World, Jackson!

Jackson Edward Shaw

Friday, January 22, 2010

12:05 pm

7 pounds, 7 ounces

21 inches

Meet the newest member of the Shaw Family! Jackson is one day old, and he has already stolen our hearts. Nick and I are very much in love with him, and can't wait to show him off to everyone once we get home. We are all doing great. Jackson was checked out by the pediatrician today, who informed me that he is quite a healthy little boy. Jackson took immediately to nursing, which was one of my biggest concerns after having such a difficult time with Charlie. Nick and I are so grateful for his health and know how fortunate we are.

I am resting as much as I can and feel amazing compared to last time. My energy is still very low because it is hard to get a lot of sleep with nurses in and out of the room. I am sending Jackson to the nursery tonight so that I can get one final good night's sleep before we go home tomorrow.

As I mentioned in the last post, Jackson's birth was very different from Charlie's. This time around, we were able to schedule an induction so that we could arrange for Charlie's care and make the most of Nick's time off from work. The induction started on Thursday night. I was supposed to get a drug to help prepare my body for labor on Friday. Well, after being checked by my midwife, it was determined that I did not need the drug after all. This was a relief because it meant that I could just rest that night and we could get started first thing in the morning. Even with the help of Ambien, I only got about 3 hours of sleep. At 7:30 am Friday morning, my midwife broke my water and started me on Pitocin to begin contractions.

I started to really feel contractions around 8:30 am. I kept telling Nick that my goal was to start pushing by noon, but i really never believed that it would happen that fast. I wanted to wait on the epidural as long as i could because I did not want to slow my progress. My nurse told me that I just needed to give her about 5 minutes notice when I wanted to get it anyway. At 10:30 am I was starting to get pretty uncomfortable, but I felt like a wimp getting the epidural so early. Instead, i asked for a pain killer to be put in my IV. This was a mistake. Oh sure, I felt a little better for about 30 minutes, but the effects quickly wore off. At 11:00 am, my contractions started to really pick up and were about a minute apart. I sent Nick out to get the nurse because I was really in pain after about 20 minutes of back to back contractions. Turns out my nurse was on break. The nurse relieving her came in after i sent Nick out to the nurses' station a second time. I basically started begging her to make the pain stop. She turned down my Pitocin and started making the phone call to anesthesia. In a matter of minutes, I had the feeling that it was too late. There was no epidural waiting around the corner for me. Jackson was coming, and he was coming fast. The nurse called my midwife and my main nurse who rushed into the room just in time to help me start pushing.

I'd love to tell you that I was brave and took it all in stride. The fact is that I was terrified. I must have said, "I can't do this!" a hundred times. But, I did do it. Only a few pushes later I was holding Jackson. It was extremely intense, scary, and painful, but I am so grateful that it happened the way that it did. My recovery has been so much faster and easier because I did not get the epidural, and I am very thankful for that.

Nick was an amazing coach. I can only imagine what it must have been like for him in the last hour before I gave birth. Seeing someone you love in pain and wanting to help them is a terrible feeling. He was so encouraging and held me the entire time. I could not have done it without him.

Jackson's birth was definitely not what I had planned, but little in life ever is. Our son is here and he is healthy, precious, and ours forever. It does not get much better than that!