he's here!

note: I wrote this at various times but I think it's pretty easy to figure out.

Well, "no one told me it was going to be like this!" I've heard a lot of people say that about labor/delivery but I want to say it again--No one told me it would be like this. So far I would have to relate the experience to one of two things: one, waiting for cookies to come out of the oven or two, waiting for a flight at the airport. So here is the story:

Last night Brit said to me "I think he's coming tonight" this has become a very common statement as of late so I wasn't too sure, but as the night wore on things really seemed to be coming together. We didn't get home until 1:30 AM so we really hoped that he would wait until the morning so we could get a good nights sleep. We didn't sleep too well or rather Brit didn't, so I didn't sleep well either. Brit woke me up around 8:30 saying she thought we should get ready to head to the hospital so I got up to make sure that everything was in order. About this time her water broke which was a lot different than I thought. I imagined it would be a bit more dramatic than it was, kinda like a fountain bursting forth or something, but it was more like peeing your pants, I think Brit would echo that statement. We headed to the hospital about an hour later and there was no question that her water had broke.

Next came the pitocin, most people probably know this already but I just learned it in the last few months so I think it's pretty cool but pitocin is just a brand name for synthetic oxytocin which is the ultimate all-purpose hormone. Oxytocin is the hormone which is secreted to signal contractions etc. it is also a bonding hormone, it is secreted during breastfeeding as well as cuddling, kissing etc. So basically it's really important in human reproduction.

Anyway, Brit was only a two when we arrived so we didn't have much of a choice but to stay, so bring on the pitocin. Everyone always talks about how much harder pitocin contractions are and I'm not sure that Brit could say that, as she didn't have too many without. Either way they [the contractions] were pretty intense. We had done some la maze so we felt fairly well prepared, Brit was awesome! I was really impressed, I could tell she was in pain but she breathed through them, it was great! After a couple hours she was a four so we were feeling pretty good and a couple hours afterwards she was still at a four and the contractions were getting worse. This discouragement combined with some intense pain helped her to decide to opt for the epidural, which is by no means cowardly, at least that's what every woman I've ever talked to about labor has said.

Things were pretty crazy at this point, Brit was having a tough time reacting during contractions and we had to kind of move her into position for the anesthesiologist but we got her there and he did his job. Three contractions later...no pain! The baby's heart rate began to drop a bit with every contraction so they gave her some oxygen and shut off the pitocin which boosted him back up. Since then we have more or less sat around, Brit sucking on ice and me eating and drinking much to her chagrin. She's around an 8 now and it's about 8pm so she's dialating at a rate a little less than the average which is 1 cm per hour. The doctor isn't worried though and says that as long as progress is being made he won't give her anymore pitocin.

It's now 11pm we just sent out a text asking for predictions on the birthdate and weight. We got everything ranging from 10:23pm to 1:45am and 7 lbs 5 oz to 10 lbs 3 oz. I'm leaning more towards the 7 lbs range but we'll see. They decided to turn on the pitocin again, they turned it on and his heart rate started to change a bit so they put the head screw heart rate monitor on. This is way more accurate than the sonar one which is great but a little scary at the same time. We watched it for a bit and his BPM were dropping so the nurse put Brit back on the oxygen. After being on that for a while Brit began to feel the contractions on her one side (the epidural works with gravity and you have to lay on your side so her bottom side, right side, was totally num but the top, left side, wasn't) she didn't want to turn over because the baby seemed to be having a hard time on that side. When the nurse came in and saw Brit go through the contraction she said she needed to switch (the contractions were really strong). She switched her over and checked her again, she was a 9.5 on the left side, bottom side, and a 8.5 on the right, top side, the nurse said that switching should help her out. She struggled through a few more contractions but is now sleeping like a baby she's having an average of 4 contractions every 7 minutes they are about 90-120 seconds apart and pretty intense (her MVU was 225, whatever that means). So now I'll just sit here and hang out until we get some more exciting news.

Around 12am the doctor came in, she was almost a ten just another quarter centimeter, they decided to have her start pushing even though she wasn't quite there yet and so we began. Pushing was a lot of hard work and as she started pushing the pain started coming back so the anesthesiologist came back in and gave her a quick higher dose. It took about 5 minutes and she was feeling better. She pushed really well and made some great progress very quickly, I was able to see the head after about 45 minutes with the help of the nurse and not too long after he was crowning. The doctor was pretty "aggressive" (the nurse's words) and helped pull him out. At 1:21am he popped out as purple as a grape popsicle! I was waiting for the cry but there wasn't any so I started to get nervous, he had the cord around his neck so they pulled it off as he was coming out but he was pretty traumatized. Anyway, they took him over to the infant warmer and cleaned him up, once he had the fluid sucked out he gave some pretty good cries. It felt really good to hear him cry, I think I associated that with being alive and so I could've cared less if he never stopped, it was the most wonderful thing in the world to me.

After cleaning him up some more they gave him to Brittany. We hung out with him for about an hour and then I went down to see his first bath etc. He was a real champ! He was even real tough when they pricked his heel, this guy is no weenie! 8 lbs 2.2 ounces was the official weight and 21" long. After the bath and some more tests he was looking really good, he was pink instead of white and was pretty attentive. I left him with the nurses and went up to help Brit. She did an amazing job and the doctor was really impressed, she only had some minimal tearing so that is a great thing.

Everything after that is a big blur, I was extremely tired. The rest of the night was filled with nurses, feeding, attempted feedings, a little bit of crying. I managed a few hours of sleep but that will just have to be enough. "And how is Brittany?" she is doing very well, sleeping soundly at the moment along with the little guy. She wanted to talk about names but I think it just exhausted her so she fell asleep. She really did a fantastic job! I can't believe how incredible it was!

One last thought about epidurals:

So as I was contemplating the whole natural vs. medicated thing I it is interesting that some women try to go natural in a medicated culture. Doctors are more or less trained to bring babies into the world with the assumption that the woman is totally numb from the waist down. Therefore all of the tools used, such as: forceps, fingers, pitocin, intrauterine pressure monitors, head screw heart monitors, poking, proding, etc. hurt and it doesn't matter because the woman is numb. The problem then becomes that if you try to have the baby in a non-western way in a western hospital i.e. non-medicated, not only are you going to have to deal with all of the pains from contractions but all the additional painful methods of western medicinal practice. So, I guess I'm saying "wow!" if you did it natural but in my personal opinion just go for the epidural, unless you live in tribal Africa.

We're now about to leave the hospital, it's been a wild ride and I'm sure it will continue to be that way. After much tribulation we have decided to name him Jackson James Hendricks, we're going to keep James in the family as it is my middle name and my father's first name. Jackson was the only name that we felt really fit him. We'd been looking at him and saying random names for the past couple days and this one did the trick. I think he looks like a Jackson, whatever that means. Brit is doing really well, she's feeling much better and is walking around etc.

Well, that's it for this little journey! He's a real cute guy! I was a bit worried about him at first but I feel confident in saying that he is one good looking dude!

Welcome home Jackson! We love you!