Jack's Birth Story

On Tuesday night I went to bed after watching The Deadliest Catch. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom like I usually did and I could not breath. I remember dreaming about waves crashing over me and remembered that on The Deadliest Catch they were having some pretty strong weather so I chalked it up to the dream and tried to go back to sleep. It took me over an hour to get my breathing under control again though. All day on Wednesday I was fine and had no breathing problems. Then at 11:30 when I laid down to go to sleep I could not catch my breath. It felt like I was literally suffocating. I tried and tried to slow my breathing and take deep breaths, but it never felt like I was getting enough. I eventually did fall asleep, but when Michael got home at 1:30 in the morning I got up to go to the bathroom and it started all over again. I didn't get to sleep until after 3 that morning and then when I got up in the morning it started all over yet again. I decided to call my doctor and talk to one of the nurses even though I had my normal doctor's appointment scheduled for the following day. I called the doctor and they had one of the nurses call me back. She thought I should come in and be seen just to make sure everything was okay. My appointment was for 1pm and since Michael was working in West Seattle he was going to meet me at my doctor's office on First Hill.



After taking a shower and getting ready I started thinking they might just decided to take Jack since I'm so close to my due date anyway so I called some friends of ours to see if they could come and watch Owen. I couldn't get a hold of them so I called my mother-in-law and she came over to watch Owen for me. I made sure I had all the luggage in the car just in case we would be staying at the hospital.



I got to my appointment and the first they did was make sure I was getting enough oxygen and I was. They also listened to my breathing and it sounded good. So they decided to monitor me and Jack and then I was going to have a chest x-ray to see if my lungs were okay and have ultrasounds done on my legs to make sure I didn't have any blood clots. This is where things got interesting. First off I knew that if they did want to take Jack by C-Section I would need to have not eaten anything for at least 6 hours so I didn't eat before going to my doctors appointment just in case. By this time in the afternoon I was SO hungry and shaky from not eating. The way the nurses and doctors were talking it didn't sound like Jack was going to be born that day so I asked if I could eat something and Michael went and got us Subway. While I was being monitored and eating my sub sandwich I had a 6 minute contraction. Seriously...the contraction did not stop for 6 minutes and Jack's heartbeat dropped to 86 beats a minute. For a baby that's not great. They like to see it at 120 - 160 beats a minute. We knew something was up when all of a sudden we weren't alone in the room anymore. There were about 4 nurses and 2 doctors. My normal doctor said, "Let's get her to triage." As I was on the way out she asked me when I ate last!! ARGH! They told me I could eat!! So now if we ended up needing a C-Section they weren't going to be able to do the procedure until 10 that night since I had just eaten a sandwich. Dang it!!!



So after that I got wheeled over to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitor again. Luckily Jack's heart never when that low again, but let me tell you the contractions we no piece of cake. I was also wheeled out of triage and taken to get a chest x-ray which was fine and then back in triage they did an ultrasound of my legs and there were no blood clots. After that the doctor came in and explained that they didn't know why I was short of breath, but since we didn't have anything to gain with keeping me pregnant they just decided it was good to get the baby out now. YAHOO!!!! That was at 5pm so the C-Section was scheduled for 10pm. Since I wasn't actually in labor they let me leave triage for a little while so I didn't have to sit there for 5 hours. By this time my parents were at the hospital and we went down to the cafeteria to tell them the news and so Michael could eat something. Lucky Guy!



At 7pm we went back up to triage and found out that they were going to let me have the C-Section an hour earlier since it's really okay if you haven't eaten for 6 hours and not 8 hours. We got into the OR around 9:15 and they started the procedure. It was pretty much just like I remembered it being with Owen. I was given anti-nausea drugs so I didn't puke and I didn't feel a thing. The funny thing was with Owen my water had broke at home so they didn't have to cut into a uterus that was filled with amniotic fluid, but with Jack my water hadn't broken yet so when they cut into the uterus it water went everywhere!! Michael said I must have been having a contraction when they cut into it because it even surprised them by how far the water shot. It went about 5 feet from the operating table.



Jack was born at 9:42pm and he is so chunky in comparison to Owen when he was born. He cried, but only for a moment. He's a very mellow and laid back guy.

Here's Jack's first picture! I know I know it's a yucky one, but I think he looks so cute and plump!