Jackson Ammon Lautenschlager was born today, November 19, 2013, at 6:09pm. He weighed 8 pounds, 3.9 ounces and measured 21 and 1/4 inches long. He and I are doing very well with a very non-complicated delivery; we expect to be home after our 48 hours hospital stay (Scottsdale Shea). There are lots of little updates to give, and about 200 pictures to share (okay, I'll curtail that one!)....I will put his birth story below with the basic timeline picture reel and then add updates as they come in the next few days. We love Jackson already so much-he is such a part of our family and we feel blessed!
Birth Story:
I was scheduled to be induced on 11/19/13 to avoid rushing to the hospital while in labor, and potentially not making it in time. By 11/19, I was 4 cm dilated, and 80% effaced, at a -2 station. We spent the night before getting everything as clean as possible, making sure school items were ready for the next day, and verifying our on call babysitters. By the time midnight rolled around, we started anticipating that phone call from the hospital telling us we could come. We weren't climbing the walls though-we watched an episode of The Next Food Network Star and then headed to bed around 1:30. The phone rang right around 6:20am-it was our turn! They asked us to get there around 7:30am. I called my mom to come over, we took care of our last minute jobs, said bye to the kids, and took off by 7. At this point, I'll go into timeline mode...
7:40....We got to the hospital, which was probably in record time! Thankfully we were able to take the carpool lane and avoided most traffic. We flew through admitting and got into our LDR room by 7:50. From that point on things went slowly. Our nurse-who was very kind, LDS, and knowledgeable-just seemed to be taking her time with everything! I opted to donate cord blood this time around, and had to fill out a ton of paperwork for that, as well as give a lot of blood samples. I changed into my awesome gown, got an IV started with fluids, got hooked up to monitors, and just kind of waited. Resting was a good thing, as I had probably overworked myself the day before; I realized at this point I hadn't eaten breakfast and regretted only eating a pear and a string cheese as a light dinner the night before.
10:45....My nurse finally got the pitocin started. Contractions slowly came on but weren't super consistent. They did get progressively harder more quickly, and at that point, I was really just waiting for them to break my water. Baby was still very high up though, so they wanted me to let the contractions do their job for a while before breaking my water.
2:45....After having to breathe and moan through a few hours of contractions, I asked for my epidural. The anesthesiologist came within 15 minutes to administer it. He was quick and fast, and he gave me exactly what I asked for-yes to the pressure, no to the pain. He said I had good, clear back alignment, and it made it easy for him to place it. I was resting comfortably by 3:20. It was also around this point that we learned hospital policy had changed, and they required the patient's own OB to manually break the water. I realized that meant we would wait until Dr. Schlecht's office closed at 5. In the moment, I was only slightly frustrated by this; in retrospect, I wish they would have called us in later then, as I was already dilated enough and probably didn't need the pitocin at all.
5:00....Dr. Schlecht arrived to break my water. I had only dilated to a 5, still 80% effaced. Made me even more convinced that pitocin was never necessary. My bag of water broke with a huge splash; lots of little blood clots in it, but otherwise clear. Dr. Schlecht told me she'd probably see me in a few hours-she knows I progress quickly once my water is broken. Baby was still kind of high up, so they had me lay with a peanut ball in between my knees to help baby drop.
5:25....I began to feel a ton of pressure with contractions and was sure baby was pressing down. My nurse checked and found I was at 8 cm, 100% effaced. She went to call Dr. Schlecht back to the hospital. I began shaking and shivering really bad; I knew I was in transition. I focused on relaxing as much as I could through each contraction: I wasn't feeling pain, just a tremendous amount of pressure.
5:30....My nurse checked me again based on my descriptions of the pressure and I was a full 10 and baby was right there.
5:50....My doctor arrived and started getting dressed, breaking down the bed, etc. I again kept breathing through the contractions. I was very quiet at this point, just focusing on the moment and fully in tune with what my body was going through.
6:08....I started pushing. My OB asked when I felt the pressure, and when I told her, they had me push through a full 10 count, take a breath, push through a second full 10 count, take a breath, and immediately go into a third 10 count. I thought I was practice pushing, but I was still "in the zone", completely in my own head, focusing on directing as much energy as I could downwards, right along with the pressure.
6:09.....Before that third 10 count was halfway done, I felt the pressure release; Jackson was born! I was shocked at how quickly it went-I literally only pushed for about 30 seconds. He was ready though, so ready in fact that his whole body just came shooting out. Not just his head, but his whole body. This means the doctor didn't have a chance to suction Jackson's nose/mouth to get out the amniotic fluid-he just swallowed it. Regardless, he was here and I was a new mom once again!
The doctor suctioned Jackson out and immediately handed him to me. The nurses wiped him off very quickly while he was on my chest and then helped me get him into kangaroo care, right on my chest. He was crying his little heart out, still covered in a great deal of vernix, and squeezing his eyes shut as tightly as possible. I didn't even notice when my placenta delivered, nor when the doctor started stitching up my 2nd degree tear. I apparently had a great amount of cord blood to donate, and that process was easily handled. I was just focused on loving on my little guy, who seemed beautiful and healthy.
They took Jackson for about 5 minutes to weigh and measure him, as well as get a diaper on his little non-existent bum. They also did the vitamin K real quick, and honestly, I think I wiped a good chunk of that away as he began to try to open his eyes, but shut them again real quick as if the ointment was hurting him. His apgar scores were 9/9; even though he had amniotic fluid in his belly, there was nothing in his lungs, and he just needs to bring that liquid up and out-he kept blowing spit bubbles, which we giggled at! They handed him back to me to nurse very quickly thereafter. Jackson latched on quickly and nursed for a good 45 minutes. I was in love and just reveling in how beautiful he was.
Can you see the spit bubbles?
Overall, it was a beautiful experience. My epidural was perfect-I felt so connected to Jackson and the birthing process. I couldn't stop smiling or looking at his beautiful little face and the sweet cowlick in the center of his forehead. His body seemed so little to me, and the scent of his hair already had me captured. It is so apparent to me in moments like this that God is so aware of us, and he loves his children so much. I feel honored to be Jackson's mother, honored to be entrusted with his care. I'll share more of our hospital stay and the various tests/pictures in further posts-for now I'll update with this one and go back to snuggling with Jackson!
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