Maxwell's Birth

(I cut this version down a bit, editing a few personal things and other things so it wasn't so long, it is still super long so if you just look at the pictures that is ok, but here is Max's birth story, enjoy!)

On Wednesday February 25^th 2009 I was beginning to get settled into the idea of having a late baby. My due date was the day before on February 24^th and at my dr. appointment she told me I was 2.5 cm dialted and 70 percent effaced, baby was at minus 2 station. She said I should go into labor anytime on my own but we set a day to be induced, March 6^th at 7am. Jared and I had been walking A LOT over the past week or so, since my 39 week appointment b/c the dr. also said that would help start things. I even worked out at the gym on Monday the 23^rd. Back to Wednesday, at about 3:30 Jared's mom Patti came over to go walk with us. We drove over to the Balboa peninsula, crossed the bay on the ferry in our car, and then walked down the beach on Balboa Island looking at the beautiful beach houses. I was kind of feeling tired at this point for some reason and just a little like somber. Jared suggested we eat at Chili’s that night because Nikki Gaskin, a friend from our Wymount ward had said on my blog that she and her sister had gone into labor after eating the chicken crispers at Chili’s, within 24 hours after. So I thought, hey, I could at least try it, I ordered the ginger ones. We got home and were totally out of milk for breakfast the next day. So, Jared and I walked some more, down to Albertson’s for milk. The cashier said congrats on the pregnancy and asked when my due date is, “yesterday” I told him. I actually think that same cashier had congratulated me before when I’d been shopping there. Anyway. We got home, watched a little American Idol and puttered around before bedtime. I crawled into bed around midnight, but Jared not until 1:00am, so I didn’t really sleep until 1:00am either. Around 2am I woke up. I figured I just woke up to go to the bathroom, like always. So I did. When I got back to bed I realized I had cramps. They were pretty uncomfortable, I realized they were probably what woke me up. I thought to myself “I haven’t gotten enough sleep to be in labor, I will just close my eyes and sleep through this and see if I still feel them in the morning.” But they kept getting worse. Jared woke up, realizing I was in pain. He started timing the cramps. They were less than five minutes apart. “This could be it honey” he said to me. I didn’t want to call the doctor. But after about 45 minutes of them being less than 5 minutes apart I called. Dr. Mendolson who was on call, called me back and said take a shower, and if they’re still that close after an hour then go in to the hospital, they’ll be expecting you. So Jared and I got up, got our stuff together, I totally thought I’d have time to do my hair before going to the hospital even while I was in labor, haha, yeah right. I tried to put on make up but Jared wouldn’t let me. I was still having contractions and Jared was helping me through them. I really didn’t like doing the "hee hee who" breathing through them, it didn’t seem to help, so I just groaned through them. Jared gave me a blessing. About 4:05am we were on the road to the hospital, Saddleback Memorial Hospital in Laguna Hills. We had to go in through emergency because it was the middle of the night. The man from emergency who got me a wheel chair didn’t know where labor and delivery was, it was kind of funny but we got there. 4:40am was my check-in time. I put the hospital gown on. The contractions really hurt now. Nurse asked me if I felt safe at home, that was an interesting question, and a bunch of other routine questions. She checked me, a 2! 2? Seriously. She also was really insistent I did the breathing techniques. They did help, but it was just to focus I guess. They couldn’t admit me until I was a 3 so had Jared and I walk the halls for an hour. We just walked around and around in circles and drank water. I felt nauseous from the moment labor started and while walking I threw up the chicken crispers, then threw up water again. I felt better after that though. During this time I was having weird thoughts like how can people do this and honestly want to have more babies and how wonderful it would be to just have a scheduled C-section. (i don't still feel this way, but these were just the thoughts going through my head at the time) So after an hour the nurse pulls me in the room and checked me again, 3 almost 4! Yay! So in I went to room 288. It was about 7am. The nurse that had been checking me, her shift was up so I got two new nurses, Christine and Megan who was training from UCI. I liked them much better, Christine was awesome, very clear and positive and on the ball. They told me MY doctor, Dr. Norene Norris- Walsh was was on duty that day and would deliver the baby! Yay! I was so happy about that. They told me she’d be in to check me around 8am and the epidural would come around 8am as well. I started to get really shaky, they said that was the hormones in my body. While we were waiting they started to get me on an IV. It took three different nurses and 4 different pokes to finally get it in! I still have the bruises. They just kept bubbling up. Honestly they were probably just as painful as the contractions! Nurses said if I could handle those pokes I’d handle labor just fine. But the contractions though painful really weren’t as bad as I’d imagined. They were just the worst menstrual cramps ever, and I’d had some pretty bad ones. Doctor had told me earlier that if you’d had bad cramps in your life it wouldn’t be as bad. And hey, at least with contractions you get a little break in between the cramps. My contractions slowed down to about 7 minutes apart after the IV went in. She said it was because I was hydrated. Well the epidural guy arrived before the doctor so they went ahead and got me started on that, I had one contraction right before, I just remember standing up on the side of the bed and holding on to Jared and totally shaking all over the place. Anyway, epidural didn’t hurt so bad going in. I honestly thought I’d be in a lot more pain before receiving the epidural! I couldn’t believe the worst was over, not that it was easy but I’d just imagined it getting completely unbearable before finally getting the epidural. I was at about 5 by this point I think. The epidural kicked on my right side, then my left, pretty quickly. It was so great. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to move or feel my legs at all and that would drive me crazy, but no I could still feel my body, it was just tingly. The best part is a few minutes later when the nurse said “you’re having a contraction” and I could just sit there peacefully. The epidural did make my skin really itchy though. Note: next time pack moisturinzing lotion. Dr. Norris-Walsh came in and shortly after and checked me, 6! This was about 8:30am. She also broke my water, which was clear. Finally we could just relax a little bit. This was the best part of the epidural, I could relax and talk to Jared and focus on what was coming and enjoy the experience instead of constantly being in pain and not wanting anyone to talk to me or touch me. Oh I love Jared so much, he was so great through the whole thing. Well, so we thought we’d sleep a little. Jared dozed off, I was just kind of in and out and started having weird thoughts go through my mind like I was walking down the street in front of my house in Provo and it was cobblestone. . .anyway. I really wanted Jared to eat something, even though I could only eat ice chips. So he went over to the mall across the street to grab something. Meanwhile the nurse thought she’d put me on pitocin to just speed things up a little bit. She just put it on 3. the baby did NOT like the pitocin and his heart rate dropped. I could hear it drop since it was hooked up to the machine and everything. It is the worst feeling to hear that drop. So the nurse immediately took the pitocin off and I had to be on oxygen for the rest of labor and during pushing. She also had to do the other kind of monitor for the baby’s heart rate where they screw the little probe in the top of his head. (poor baby!) in stead of the wrap around my belly. But with the probe they can know exactly what his heart rate is at all times. She said when she put it in that she could tell the baby had hair. So after that little scare Jared came back and I told him what happened and why I was on oxygen. So after that we were supposed to get some more rest and they’d check me at 10:30ish. Rest? After hearing your babies heart rate drop? I closed my eyes but my ears were glued to the little beeping noise that was the baby’s heart rate. Anyway next time they checked me I was 7 I think. The nurse said my contractions were like off the charts, really huge, like what you have when you’re pushing. Around 11am I started to feel a little tingle and a slight urge to bear down with each contraction. Nurse said the doctor would be by at 12 to check me again. At noon the doctor still wasn’t there so the nurse checked me and I was an 8 she said. So I figured I still had a little while. Definitely feeling the urge to push now. Just after 12:30 the doctor came in, I didn’t think I’d be very far past an 8 but she checked and said “oh boy, yeah baby's crowning, ok, start pushing girl” what the? So I did. The doctor helped me through a few pushes, the nurses came back in and were like “whoa what’s going on?” “we’re having a baby!” the doctor said. The nurses set up a few things then the doctor left and Christine took over coaching me through the pushes. I’d started pushing at 12:40pm Jared was on my left and the nurse in training Megan was on my right. They’d hold up my legs. Jared would also hold up my head so my chin was to my chest and I didn’t have to put strain on it b/c he was supporting it. Pushing was interesting, not quite what I thought it would be. It was painful but not in the same way as contractions because you can actually do something about the pain by pushing. Pushing would ease the pain, it’s more the part in between when you’re not having a contraction that is more uncomfortable because you can’t push and you really want to. I kept asking her “can I push?”. Also I thought I would have to “push the baby out” at the beginning of pushing it did feel like that and I would hollow out and think of the Martha Graham technique (a certain modern dance technique involving hollowing out your center), when I did that with the doctor at the beginning she would say “good good!”. But for the most part for me it isn’t really like “push the baby out” it’s more like “push and the baby will come out”. I hope that makes sense. I don’t know, not quite what I expected. I pushed on my side for awhile which they said really helped the baby get down. I liked pushing on the side. Then they put me back on my back and got the mirror out so I could see his head coming down with each contraction. That was crazy! His head was so white and I could see his hair. Each push was supposed to last for 10 seconds but it was hard because I would start pushing and counting in my head and when I was at about 3 the nurse would start on 1. blah. Then the nurse said I’d have him out in the next couple pushes but I had to do "hee hee whos" until the doctor got there. Did that. Doctor came. She said I could have him out in the next push but it still took me a couple contractions worth of pushing after that. Jared was so great and kept telling me I was doing a good job. I couldn’t really focus on the mirror by this point, I think they’d pulled it out of the way anyway. Another lady was in the room by the incubator to check the baby when he came out. It was so beautiful and sunny in the room because of the large window (which I’d been looking out and seeing the big black birds in the palm trees earlier). It was so wonderful and peaceful. I’d pictured the whole thing to be a lot more chaotic but it wasn’t at all. There was my husband, our nurses, the doctor, and the babies doctor. Everyone was just so happy and calm and just doing their job and in control. So I kept pushing and Jared said “I can see his eyes honey!” his eyes?! I just kept pushing and finally I felt the baby come out. It was the best feeling ever to be relieved of the pressure, after I recovered from that in about 2 seconds I opened my eyes and saw the doctor holding the most beautiful baby boy ever. She kind of had him cradled but to the side in her left arm and he had one eye open and was looking back at me. He had such big eyes, like in my dreams about him. His body definitely looked like a boy body, big shoulders and buff looking. He was kind of a whitish gray and his hair was wet and stuck to his head, it looked curly. I couldn’t believe my baby was so beautiful and had hair! He also had long curly eyelashes, beautiful. They brought him up to me and put him on my tummy. It took me a second to realize I could touch him. I put my hands on him, he was so warm and soft and wet, it was the best feeling to touch. Jared was so awesome and took pictures and movie during this whole thing. Jared cut the cord (which I don’t remember the moment but he did). Later I was told the cord was around the baby’s neck a little bit when he came out but Jared said the doctor just slipped it right off and it was no big deal. They took the baby to the incubator thing and Jared followed him and took more pictures. Then came back to me and gave me a big kiss and we told each other we loved each other. APGAR 9/10. At first I thought they said his WEIGHT 9lbs 10 ounces but no, then they got out the scale and weighed him. 7 pounds 10 ounces. Perfect! Then they wrapped him up and gave him to Jared and I think I snapped a picture while on the bed. Jared brought him over to me. We took more pictures. I started crying and told Jared I was so happy because Heavenly Father had answered our prayers and this baby was a special little spirit sent to our family. I knew I’d felt his spirit in my heart before. I just loved him so much. Then it was time to name the baby. Oh boy, he was so perfect and sweet it was like there was no name in the whole world good enough for him, at least in my mind. So I tried calling him Maxwell, Max, which was our top choice. Then I went through the other names we were thinking of and Max just seemed to work the best. I haven’t regretted it since, it is a good fit. The next two days were a blur but wonderful. All my nurses commented on how long and curly his eyelashes were. He was also very hairy, fuzzy light hair on his back and arms. The Dr. had told me to get some sleep and to not hesitate to send him to the nursery at night but it was SO hard. I did have him go there for about a couple hours but I didn’t really sleep, I was so worried I’d forget what he looked like and they’d bring me back the wrong baby! I memorized things about his face and while I was trying to sleep his cute face just kept popping in my head. Overall, the hospital was such a wonderful experience. I was so impressed with all the nurses and my dr. I even broke down and cried later b/c I was just overwhelmed with how wonderful everyone was and how they did their important job so well. I love my baby Max and being a family of 3!

going home!