I was supposed to give the hospital a call at 6am on January 24th to see if they were still able to take me (if they were too busy we'd have to reschedule). But I was up really early that morning so I called at 5:30 instead. I gave Deb a call at 6 (didn't want to call earlier because this was probably going to be her last good sleep for a couple of months!) and told her we were still on for that day. She asked how I was doing and I told her how nervous I was.
I got to the hospital at 7am. The Dr checked me and said I easily stretched to 4cm and at 7:30 she broke my water. No contractions started just from that so they put me on pitocin. I started having minor contractions at 8 but they kept bumping up the pitocin because they weren't strong and regular yet. Around 9am they picked up a little. Deb and Henry arrived around that time. We visited for a while and I could see they were pretty excited when they found out that this was actually going to be the day they got their baby since my water had been broken. They helped time my contractions for a while and then they went to the waiting room so I didn't feel like a watched pot. That was at about 9:45 and at that time Jason and I took the nurses advice and went for a walk trying to get the contractions to become more intense, more frequent and more regular. We made it once around the ward when I decided I needed to do something for the pain. I got Jason to ask the nurse to run me a bath because that helped a lot with my first 2 labors. While he was at the nurse's desk I got one major contraction and changed my mind about the type of pain relief I needed; I asked for an epidural. The nurse tried to explain to me that she didn't think I'd get one (I've never understood it but this hospital is very against epidurals for some reason) but she was really a very nice nurse and told me she'd try and see what Dr L said. Dr L agreed to it and ordered it for me (this was close to 10am).
All of a sudden I had another contraction that felt very different and I said "I think I have to push!". My nurse, Jenn, checked me and she said I was just about 10cm and rushed out to call Dr L. There was a paramedic who was working with the nurse observing and I sent him out to get Deb and Henry. They were quite shocked, they expected to be waiting around all day because when they had left 30 minutes before my contractions were only lasting about 30 seconds or so and they had read some posters in the hallway that indicated at that stage we had many hours to go.
Everyone came in the room and it was pretty chaotic from what I hear (I had my eyes closed and was concentrating on not pushing at the time so that's what I've been told!). All of a sudden I had a major contraction and I felt Jaxon start to crown. I said "He's coming!" and the nurse said "yes, I can see that!" The Dr still had not arrived so she was going to have to deliver. By the end of one contraction Jaxon's whole head was out. He was born with one hand covering his eye (like his head wasn't big enough already!!!). The shoulders were a little tougher to get out, but within 2 or 3 pushes he came out. I didn't think he looked very big at first, but he is definitely a big boy! He was 21 inches long and weighed 9lbs 10oz. At about this time we heard the epi guy arrive at the nurse's station, just a little bit too late!!! But I'm quite proud of myself as this was my first delivery with absolutely no pain medications at all and I handled it quite well. I had no tearing or bruising even!
Dr L arrived just after the birth. Everything was under control so she just let everyone continue on doing what they were doing.
After the birth we were all laughing and admiring the baby when all of a sudden I just didn't feel well anymore. I felt really nauseated and was having what I thought were after pains that felt just as bad as the contractions did. I was hemmoraging. The nurse asked Debbie and Henry to step out for a while with the baby while we tried to get everything under control. They took my blood pressure and it was down to 80/50. They cranked the pitocin, gave me a horrible shot in my leg that stung like crazy and then they started pressing down on my belly so hard. All the while I felt so weak I couldn't keep my eyes open. Eventually, after about an hour or so, we got the bleeding under control, but it was pretty scarey for a while. Thankfully I didn't need a blood transfusion or anything like that, but I have been put on iron for the next month to help me get back to normal.
D&H were immediately in love with their son. Debbie was able to give him his first bath and the hospital staff was so great to them. The nurse that delivered even made them up a special little card (the isolette ID cards) with their names on it and in beautiful writing. Deb has been breastfeeding him since right after he was born and she's doing really well with it. All the nurses and my Dr are so impressed that she is doing this and that she's having so much success. I was pumping trying to get some colostrum to give to the baby, but I'm afraid I didn't have much luck. The best of times I got about 4 drops! And Jaxon was not having anything to do with me breastfeeding him either! He wanted his mommy and his mommy only, not me!
It was a really fun day we all had on Jaxon's birthday. My husband was absolutely fabulous (as he is most of the time) and really went out of his way to help me out and make me feel special. I do not know what I'd do without him. And to watch D&H with their baby was just so terrific. And the fact that Jaxon knew immediately who his mommy was just makes it all seem so perfect. All the nurses would try and calm the baby down when he was crying, I'd try, Henry would try and no one could make him stop crying. They'd pass him to Debbie and immediately he'd stop It's the cutest thing. Deb and Henry also got me a gift which I will cherish forever. It's a necklace with a garnet heart which is both mine and Jaxon's birthstone. It is very beautiful.
The morning of the 25th Jaxon's temp was up a bit and he had been quite irritable. So they decided to keep him in for observation another day. I was going to stay with them all, but then Jaxon was moved to the special care nursery. So I would have just been in my room without the baby and I thought if I could go home and get some rest then Deb could have my room and get some rest herself. The hospital was nice enough to give her a room so she can stay close by and be there to nurse the baby (and he eats all the time!!! Has to maintain all that body weight!). The plan was just to observe him until the evening and if everything checked out ok (and the pediatrician thought he looked as healthy as could be, just wanted to make sure the temp didn't mean he had some sort of infection) then he'd be able to go home on the morning of the 26th. I was hoping he wouldn't be in too long because I'm sure Debbie would be able to get a much better sleep once she got home and can get comfy with the baby without having to worry about nurses waking you in the middle of the night and all that stuff! We thought it was amusing because we thought we'd be going home on the 25th but of course Jaxon always has his own plan of how things should happen, lol.
So I'm now the proud surrogate mommy to 3 beautiful babies and I feel like I'm such a lucky person to have been able to be a part of something so amazing.
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