Our Fast Track Family: A Beautiful Blessing, Jayden Blaize is Born! Birth Story

We got into the room, and thankfully it was MUCH bigger than the previous room. Chris went down and got our bags that had our tablet, phone chargers, pillows and camera in. Also, some snacks for Chris. I had been starving since I had only had breakfast as I usually would have ate lunch after my appointment and was too scared and in a hurry to eat anything on the way to the hospital. We got my bed set up the way I wanted it, my pillow with my aromatherapy stress spray on it (BEST STUFF, EVER!), and all of the baby monitors set up on my belly. They decided to start my Pitocin about 10 minutes after getting into the room and that was around 4:15pm. We called our parents and told them what was going on and that we would keep them updated when we could. Since my allergies are so bad, the doctor didn't want me to have any visitors while at the hospital so we had to keep updating everyone via text message.

We made friends with our nurse and just hung out for a while, my water hadn't been broken yet and I wasn't having contractions just yet so it was easy as pie at that point. But, then my doctor showed up and checked me, I was at 5 1/2 cm and my water was on the verge of breaking so she decided to break it for me....GROSS! I felt like I wet myself! Ugh that was one of the worst parts. About 5 minutes after she broke my water, contractions started. That is one of the worst pains I have ever felt. It didn't help that Chris sat on the couch and just laughed at the faces I was making for each contraction, jerk. The nurse that checked me in had told me to get my epidural before my water breaks and man...I should have listened to her. So about 5 contractions in I requested the epidural.

Baby bump friends - if being induced, request the epi before you have your water broken. Also, don't feel bad for requesting it right away. It takes them at least 30 minutes to get the anesthesiologist team to come in and it takes them about 20 minutes to get things set up before you get the epi and about another 15 - 30 minutes before it starts working so you will get your fair share of contractions during that time.

The team came in to give me my epidural and I was in relief that they were there. It took them about 20 minutes to set up and get things ready and then they had me sit on the side of the bed as close to the edge as possible. Probably the worst part of my labor was having to sit still during the process of them putting my epidural in. They don't want you to tense up and they want you to sit as still as possible and at a certain angle. Having to sit that way during a contraction and not being able to move was the WORST part, hands down. I was really nervous about it because I am not a fan of needles but it wasn't that bad. They numb the area first, and then all you feel is a little bee sting. Then its kind of a gritty feeling because they are placing it in your spine.

After the epi was placed, they had me lay back and they gave me a little wand with a button on it. Anytime I felt like I needed more medicine, all I had to do was press this button. The thing about epidurals is, it only numbs you from mid-waist down. For some reason, my body felt the need to let me continue feeling the contractions, except the pain moved into my shoulder blade. I kept "getting my hormones on" with Chris because I asked him to come rub my shoulder and he complained that his hand was hurting too much, (the NERVE of that guy). I kept hitting that epi button in hopes that it would help a little bit...NOPE. But, I felt pretty great otherwise.

It was about 9:15pm and I kept telling Chris that I felt a lot of pressure. Almost as if I needed to use the restroom. He got the nurse and I told her that it felt like I needed to go to the bathroom and that there was a lot of pressure and she jumped into action. She checked me and sure enough I was at 9 1/2cm and the baby was coming. She placed her call and shortly after, a parade of women came in. It was well orchestrated, they all had a job setting something up. There were lights, and tools and they dropped the end of my bed down. Chris sprung up and was at my side waiting to see what was going to happen. I didn't really feel much at this point, just the pressure. Chris was watching the TV and made sure to change the channel to the movie Cars, because he wanted his son born during a racing movie. LOL!

My OB came in and took a look, said we were about ready to push. So, they all started gathering around my under carriage and I felt so awkward. Here I was, legs spread apart, light beaming and a bunch of people looking...weird. They raised my bed up, and placed a oxygen mask on my face because I was losing oxygen and hadn't even started pushing yet. They told me to pull my knees into my chest....ummm that's not going to happen, I can barely move my arms at this point because as soon as she told me it was about time to push, I pressed that little magical button about 15 times to make sure I wasn't going to feel a thing! My nurse held one leg and Chris held the other and I started pushing. I was determined to get the baby out quickly because I didn't want to be one of those that pushed for 2 hours. They had me hold onto a towel and another resident had the other end and we tugged back and forth to help me push.

I heard my OB say something about she could see his head and the first thing I asked was "what color is his hair?". They all laughed and told me that he had a full head of dark hair. So, that was my motivation to keep pushing because I wanted to see my baby with his full head of dark hair.

A few more pushes later and he was here!! As soon as he came out Chris left my side and went to the table where they had taken him and made sure everything was alright. I asked if he was perfect and Chris assured me that he was, and at that point I felt like I was going to go to sleep. They had to sew me up a bit because I had a second degree tear, so I just laid there and was watching Chris hovering over Jayden taking pictures and he walked over and gave me a kiss and told me "he is beautiful, thank you" and went on his way of protecting his baby boy. It was the sweetest thing, ever!

They handed Jayden over to me and had him lay skin-to-skin on my chest and I was shocked at how perfect he was. He looked just like Chris. I counted to make sure he had 10 fingers and 10 toes, and of course he did, but I wanted to check. Hehe! His eyes were dark blue. He was handsome and perfect and I was in shock at what had just happened. I looked at Chris and said "we're parents, you're a Daddy" and he smiled and I saw a little tear in his eye. At that moment, I realized that nothing else in this world mattered.