Tanner Jaxon's Birth Story

We found out in July that we were expecting our third child. We were excited and yet felt a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of having three children.

Things were progressing fine until week nine of my pregnancy, when I started passing out while driving or walking through the store. My OB put me on bed rest and restricted activity for three weeks. The bed rest seemed to help, and I was back up and taking the kids to preschool and just being a pregnant mommy. At week 20 I had the ultrasound and found out we were having a boy. We have a girl and a boy so it was no big deal either way.

I went through the rest of my pregnancy with all the major aches and pains and being put on and off of bed rest for multiple problems. When I finally made it to week 37 I was taken off bed rest for good.

At my 38 week appointment, my doctor said that he would schedule me for an induction as soon as I started dilating or effacing, because of my husband's erratic job. Well, nothing was happening so I went home pretty upset. By my 39 week appointment I was still at status quo, Only 1 cm. dilated and 30 percent effaced.

I was due on April 10, and went to my next appointment on April 6. The doctor took one look at my belly and immediately began measuring. My little baby had crawled up instead of dropping down, and my doctor told me there was pretty much no chance of my son coming anytime soon. I was still at 1 cm. and 30 percent, and complained that I didn't want to go too far past my due date because of my other kids needing help and I really wanted to KNOW when this baby was going to come if at all possible - so the doctor scheduled me for an induction on April 13.

I went home pretty happy with myself for finally getting an induction scheduled and went about my night.

The next day was Wednesday, and I was so exhausted that when I got up to go to the bathroom I didn't really pay any attention to what was happening. I got back in bed and fell asleep for a few more hours. When I finally got up and used the bathroom again I noticed a tinge of pinkish mucus on the toilet paper. Having NEVER lost my plug with my other two pregnancies I wasn't exactly sure whether this was my plug or not. I took my daughter to preschool and came home, went to the bathroom again (you know us pregnant women!) and had more tinged mucus, this time a little redder. Throughout the day I continued to experience small contractions, though nothing major. After I'd picked up my daughter from preschool I had a few killer contractions, so my husband suggested I call my OB.

The doctor told me chances were it was just because of the internal but I could come in and get checked if it would make me feel better. I arranged for a babysitter and had my mom go with me to the doctor since I figured there was no use having my husband sit there if it was a false alarm. I got to the doctor's office at about 2:45 p.m. and on the way to an examing room, said, "Something better be happening because I am NOT going home."

To which he replied "Oh and where are you going? To the mall?" Smart Aleck! He checked me --wooohoo! I was at 3 cm. and 60 percent effaced. I guess he finally decided to take pity on me and called the hospital to tell them I was on my way over for an induction. I was so excited and scared!

I arrived at Labor and Delivery at about 3:45 p.m. and they took all my information and checked me in. They got everything ready for the induction and it took until about 4:45 p.m. to get the pitocin started. The contractions were a tad stronger, but nothing I couldn't handle, so I sat and talked to my mom who was going to be there to watch the birth.

I called my husband at work and was told he couldn't leave until after he'd fixed some problems with the computer network. I started to panic thinking I couldn't do it without him but figured he would be there soon. At about 5:30 p.m. the OB resident came in and popped my water. I thought it would hurt, but it didn't. I then expected the contractions to hurt, but they didn't either.

Around 6 p.m. my OB returned to see how I was doing. I was at 4 cm. and 95 percent effaced, and he was pretty happy with the progress so he upped the pitocin, asked me how I was handling the contractions (which were not bad at all), and said he would be back in awhile.

Well not ten minutes after he left, the contractions were literally killing me! They were coming every two minutes and lasting about 80 to 90 seconds. I thought I would die. I was screaming for my epidural but since it was a stormy night and the barometric pressure was falling, the Labor and Delivery floor was full. The anesthesiologist had a few emergency C-sections ahead of me, so I had to deal with the contractions for almost two hours. Finally the guy came to give me my epidural and I could have kissed him...it felt wonderful.

At 7 p.m. my husband showed up, and at 8 p.m. I was at 7 cm. Only three more to go! At about 9:30 that night I was starting to really feel the pressure of contractions, and I called for the epidural to be topped off a little. The nurse found I was at 9 cm. so I only got a quarter of a dose. They called my doctor (who lives about 15 minutes from the hospital) and he got there at 9:45 p.m., just as I hit a 10. He was getting dressed in his "protective gear" and the nurse told me to push a little bit...but I was so numb from the topped off epidural that I couldn't even feel my legs. The nurse and my husband had to hold my legs, while the doctor told me to go ahead and push. I could feel the pushing but not my legs; it was really cool. I pushed thrice with each contraction, for three consecutive contractions and out came Tanner Jaxon.

He was born at 10:12 p.m., weighing seven pounds, four point eight ounces, and was twenty inches long. His Apgar scores were nine and nine and he came out just perfect. NO conehead or anything. We stayed in the hospital until Friday morning and then came home. He is a great baby, and already his big brother and sister love him dearly!