Phillips: Baby Jaxon has arrived!

My due date was October 6, 2011. I am usually overdue so I was mentally prepared to go over my due date and farther into October. At my 37 week appointment however I was already dilated to 2cm. For me that was unusual, I am usually nothing until the day of and then I have a baby. So already dilating got me excited that this pregnancy may be a bit different. A week later at my 38 week appointment I was told that I was 3-4cm. 4cm is considered active labor if you are contracting I just wasn’t contracting regularly.
So this was Monday, we knew that as soon as contractions did start we would have a baby fairly quickly. Victor works Tues through Friday and at his job once he’s there its extremely difficult to leave until the days work has been completed. My main concern was that he could be there for the birth. I had others in place should I go into labor while he was at work but I really was hoping that I wouldn’t have to go through with that plan. I would take it easy everyday while he was at work then about an hour before he got home me and the kids would have a dance party to try to get things moving.
Tuesday came and went Wednesday came and went Thursday came and all the while i was contracting here and there. We would go walking at night and as long as I was walking I was having contractions every 2 or 3 minutes but as soon as i sat down they would go away. So Thursday night I called Grandma Spears to see if she’d watch the kids while we walked. We were waiting for her to get home from somewhere so we cleaned up after dinner and tidied the house a bit. Well while I was cleaning up I was contracting just like always when I was up and walking. I started timing them and they were 2-3 minutes apart but only lasting 20 seconds or so. Not quite the whole minute that they usually say to be on the lookout for. This time though there was more pressure involved but I still wasn’t convinced that it was real labor. we continued to clean up this time changing sheets so grandmas could come stay, bathing the kids getting them ready for bed (it was 6:30 at night, we just didn’t want to leave so much for grandma to do)
By this point it was 7 something and I decided to call labor and delivery. They said since it was my fourth and I was usually fast to come in and get checked. We had Grandma come over and we headed in. I sat in the car and on the 15-20 minute ride over I only had one contraction. I was thinking “they are going to send us home and I will have to keep waiting”. well at 8:30

I was checked and I was 5cm. 5cm that’s it? I was almost 4 on Monday had been contracting all week and I never got to the hospital at a 5! I was always 7 or 8 by the time I got in. They hooked me up to monitors and after a little while decided that I was contracting enough for them to keep me and decided to officially admit me. I asked when I would be checked again she said oh about 2 hours. In triage I was given my IV and monitored for a little bit until they got my room ready. I’m guessing around 9:20 or so we were moved into a labor room and it took her a little while to get me all hooked up to the monitors and iv ready and all that. By the time I was checked again it was 9:45 and I was 7cm… Now we are talking! When I’m 7cm I’m pretty much done. So I told them to call the Dr and get him there ASAP. (the hospital is farther away this time and last time all he had to do was walk across the parking lot and he barely made it then) I didn’t have a good feeling about this. Well it’s not like I hadn’t delivered without a doctor before but still I kind of thought he wouldn’t make it in time. So as the nurse left to call the Doc just me and Vic were in the room… that was weird, I told him someone needs to be in here. You need to get someone in here. Well within a minute or so several nurses came in to get things set up. They got the baby warmer all ready, the doctors table with all his supplies ready, there was a buzz of people around the room. The bed wasn’t set up for delivery yet everyone was just waiting for the doctor to get there. All the while my contractions are getting stronger and stronger and much closer together. I kept telling them that I was feeling a lot of pressure and they kept saying okay okay, finally my nurse checked me again and as soon as she tried my water breaks all over her. I wasn’t paying attention cause I was pretty out of it at the time but Vic said he heard a scream and it scared him a bit but it was the nurse. So she ran out of the room to change and there were a few others in there still. I was trying and trying to not push and just breathe through the contractions until the doctor got there all the while the nurses would just walk by and look. It finally go to a point where my body took over and decided it was going to have this baby and I told them and still tried not to. Finally (victor said) the Baby nurse that was over at the warmer came over looked and saw the head crowning and finally said ok push, I sort of pushed and there he was… They put him on my belly and washed him and I just remember being out of it and crying that yay it was finally over. When I finally calmed my nerves and started to relax and actually pay attention to what was going on the baby was in the warmer across the room and Vic and I were by the bed waiting for the doc (still). I hear the nurse say “dad do you want to cut the cord?” I remember thinking…I’m over here, He’s over there…and you are now asking if he wants to cut the cord? apparently in the craziness of the moment she had cut the cord and got Jax on the warmer and later realized oh wait maybe dad wants to cut the cord and she was going to have him cut the 2 in or so that needed to be cut. I just found it kind of humorous.
Jaxon Jordan Phillips was born September 29th at 10:06pm weighing 7lbs 15 oz. He was so handsome and tiny and I was in Love.

About ten minutes after he was born the doc made it and I told him “I told ya so” No one seemed to understand what i meant when i said I go fast. He finished things up and said congratulations and was on his way. Usually a little while after everything has settled they move you to a postpartum room. This particular night they had every labor room and every postpartum room filled. they had something like 19 delivery rooms and a whole floor of postpartum rooms. So we stayed the night in the delivery room. Victor had planned on going home to relieve Grandma around 1am but then Jordan decided to stop by and bring snacks :) So they were there till about 2:30 I think. I tried to get a little rest then the nurse came to give him a bath and check him out. This was my first baby that had a bath right in the room. All the others went to the nursery for their bath. This hospital had a level III NICU but no regular nursery. I liked that everything was done in the room. I was able to take his pictures and be there for everything.