Jackson's Birth Story - July 5th, 2013

I just love Jackson's entire story, so here it is, I'm gonna tell it!

It all started with the Denver Marathon.  After giving birth to Charlie via c-section, I was determined to run a marathon.  I always wanted to run a marathon, but I guess never found the time to actually do it.  Having a baby by c-section was all the motivation I needed to get my butt in gear and do some running.  Tim and I agreed that we would try for baby #2 once I met my marathon goal.  To our surprise, we found out that baby number two would be coming after our first "try," one day after the Denver Marathon.  All I could think was "well, all that training, and now I'm just going to be FAT again!"  Boy was I right!!!  Fat I did become and fat did the baby become, 50lbs between the two of us!  Funny to look back on because I was probably in the best shape of my life.

Oh the pregnancy.  If it wasn't for pregnancy and delivery, I would probably have 10 kids, but God has his reasons for 9 months of misery.  The first two months of this pregnancy were pretty bad.  I never threw up, but I was a green tinge and had to lay down most of the time.  Poor Charlie was bored out of his mind.  Mid-pregnancy was pretty great, I do have to say.  I kept running until 5 or 6 months.  In addition I picked up weight lifting to take the edge off of boredom, and keep my back strong for carrying a baby around again.  It's a good thing I did because, little did I know, it would actually have a practical purpose! All was good until I got towards the end of the pregnancy.  See, I decided that aiming for a vbac (natural) was a good idea.  After all, as much as I was fearful of a vaginal delivery, I didn't want to go through the LONG process of recovering from a c-section.  So I made the decision that I would do everything in my power to make a vaginal delivery happen. Realistically, I never wanted to have kids until my mind changed at 28yrs. old, mostly due to the fact that I watched my own Mother's vaginal delivery at age 9.  It just didn't look that pleasant, haha. Nope, it was not for me.  Striving to make it happen, I resigned to not think about all the details until I was in the delivery room.

The end began around 40 weeks.  The doctor wanted to induce me, but I read that my chances for vbac were much higher if my body naturally went into labor.  The baby would in fact be bigger, but I was willing to risk that (little did I know).  When I finally was to go into labor, we wanted a family member here to watch Charlie.  Aunt Debbie came at 40 weeks and stayed for a week.  Charlie fell in love with Aunt Debbie (Tim's aunt), calling her "Grandma" and thoroughly enjoyed telling her exactly what she should be doing every moment of the day.  Aunt Debbie has a heart of gold and gave Charlie an amazing week of fun/love.

This is also about the time I started getting really sad about my relationship with Charlie changing.  I knew at any moment, I could go into labor, and thus never have time with just us ever again.  The last two years of my life have been so special because I've gotten the opportunity to raise Charlie and he is for sure my little buddy.  He is one of those people that we just get each other and it makes it so fun to be around him.  It's hard for me to miss even one day with him and the idea of being in the hospital made me sad.  So silly, but true.

Well, Aunt Debbie came and went with no baby, and Grandma Myers arrived.  Surely, we would see a baby any day and Grandma would get more than 24hrs. (like with Charlie's birth) to get to know the baby.  Nope!  Not gonna happen.  Week 41 came and still no baby.  I was having plenty of contractions, and real ones, but nothing promising as far as a labor pattern.  I kept going in to get Jackson's heart and size monitored, but no labor.  I tried it all, as far as inducing yourself goes...deep squats (and a lot of them) at the gym, bouncing on an exercise ball, walking, running, spicy food, lemon stuff, massage, red raspberry leaf tea, evening primrose oil, sex, more sex (haha, doctor order, what are you gonna say?!), being in the heat, hydrating, dehydrating, etc. etc. etc.  NOTHING WORKED.  For sure the baby couldn't handle staying in on the 4th of July?!  Yep, no baby on the 4th.  I was actually pretty excited because I didn't want to be in the hospital on the 4th, it's my favorite holiday.  So finally we scheduled an induction on the 5th, as our last ditch effort to get the baby out vaginally.

Try sleeping when you know...you absolutely WILL be having a baby the next day.  Not fun.  Especially, when having a baby is your worst fear on the face of the earth.  Well, I was blessed with sleep, but woke up at 4am with real/heavy contractions!!!  I thought I was going to be one of those people who were nervous about induction, so their body went into labor!  We were going to head into the hospital early, but the contractions once again fizzled...bummed.  As scheduled, we headed in at 7am and started pitocin at 8am.

With Charlie, I had an epidural put in within the first hour, so never experienced true labor pains at all.  I had no idea what to expect with pitocin contractions.  Wow, were they awful.  Of all the pain I had imagined and from what people described, I never pictured it as intensely painful as it was.  The first hour was great.  I walked around laboring, using the ball, being natural, getting mentally pumped up to work through the pain of each contraction.  Then it hit.  The unnatural feeling of forced contractions that only pitocin can give you.  I was having 1-2 minute contractions with 1 minute in between.  I tried to work through them standing up, but my whole body was shaking, hunched over, I couldn't breathe, and then it would stop but I couldn't stop my muscles from being tense/shaking.  As much as I wanted my mind to will my muscles to stop, they wouldn't.  I thought being in the bed might help if I hung onto the sides and Tim.  If I could only find a way to work through the pain, there was always going to be that time in between to catch up.  No, catching up was not happening.  I starting whimpering (like a wimp, hehe), and hanging onto Tim for dear life.  I couldn't cope with it and I was only dilated to 4cm.  My body was trying to push, but I still had hours of waiting for my cervix to open, so I knew this plan was not working.  I thought this was happening for a max of 15mins., but Tim said we went for 2hrs.  One contraction, it took all my will to not bite Tim's arm that was right next to my mouth.  So strange.  They offered an epidural, in which I was very opposed to, only because I heard that I could slow labor down if taken too early.  The nurse agreed that I wasn't able to "manage the pain" and needed an epidural NOW.  Bob, the estetician, came in like a cowboy, no words or change in face, and administered the full epidural.  THANK.  GOD.  He couldn't have come fast enough!  I loved every second of that epidural.  I don't care what anyone says, they are awesome!

As the day progressed, my water broke on it's own, and we were able to establish a good labor pattern naturally and I was taken off the pitocin.  My body continued to progress down the path of "natural labor" and I dilated to a 7/8 by 4pm.  We were getting excited and I started asking the doctor what I was going to have to do during pushing time.  I was gearing my mind up to push and work through a whole other set of pain.  Around 8pm, we were still waiting on those last few cm, but my body hadn't changed at all and the edge of my cervix was hugely swollen to the doctors concern.  The doctor came in a gave me two choices, a c-section now or continue to wait it out for a few more hours, but she was skeptical of change.  Tim and I, having been through almost the exact same scenario with Charlie, opted for an early c-section, knowing my body most likely wouldn't change.

Off we were to the OR, Tim in real scrubs this time.  As I waited for them to prep the OR, cowboy Bob gave me more medication.  Unknowing to me, I literally almost slept through the c-section.  Thank goodness because I was nervous about the baby being healthy and being sliced open again.  As I doc pulled him out, all she could say was "WOW, he is HUGE!  You really know how to grow them Kim!"  Jackson Donald Myers was brought into the world at 8:55pm!  To EVERYONE'S surprise, Jackson was 10lbs. 13ounces and 22inches long!!!  We knew he was a big baby, even from mid-pregnancy, but no one knew he was THAT big!  Everyone in the hospital, the most of those being I, was very thankful we never got to the pushing stage.  There was a common agreement that my body would have been jacked up for a long time after that.  Praise the Lord, he knows what he is doing!  Another answer to prayer, he was healthy and the nurses were able to suction his mouth before he swallowed a load of meconium that was in the amnionic fluid.

My prayers were answered in a round about way.  I got two very handsome healthy boys and never experienced labor!  I was curious what it all felt like, but didn't really want the experience I saw when I was 9yrs. old.  Feeling the pains of contractions was good enough for me!  The hospital informed me that I would never be able to try for a vbac again, in which I can't say I'm upset about.  If we do have more kids, they are coming out c-section!

Seeing how Jackson was so overdue, he came out looking like a toddler.  The staff at the hospital loving called him the "toddler-baby."  He is a champion at breast feeding from day one.  I was shocked at how natural it is with a second baby and how great he is at eating.  We even got to leave the hospital a day early because I was walking around pretty well and he didn't loose the usual birth weight.   He is also a champion sleeper.  The last two days, Charlie and him have napped at the same time in the afternoon and he has only gotten up once in the night to eat. I can't even believe how easy he is.  First impressions really are lasting ones.  Charlie was definitely Charlie from day one, and still has the same mannerisms.  Jackson will be the same.  Jackson seems pretty straight forward to me.  I have this picture of him in my head as a 40yr old.  Living up in the mountains somewhere, wearing an old flannel jacket, chopping wood, not saying much, but when he does people listen.  That kind of guy.  I know I'm probably totally off, but he gives me the impression he will be the "I don't take crap" kind of guy.  Haha, I know...I know.

While we were busy in the hospital, Charlie got to spend two nights with his good friend Zoe and our friends the Beamers.  It was truly amazing being able to leave him that long, for the first time with others than family, and not have to think "how is he doing?"  Katie would send me videos and pictures of the toddlers having fun;).  I guess they even got a date night on the couch watching "Up," so cute.  Charlie cried and cried when he had to leave Zoe's house to rejoin his real family, haha.

Charlie did great meeting Jackson for the first time.  He wanted to hold him and point out all of his facial features.  Surprisingly, he has been extremely gentle and accepting of Jackson.  The hardest part of the whole thing is the c-section.  I can't pick up Charlie to hold him or let him sit on my lap, and I'm hoping he doesn't think it's because of the baby.  Last night we got a really special time of cuddling (all three of us) on the couch, while Tim was out.  Charlie was kissing Jackson and showing me all his body parts.  So sweet.