After the date the contractions were hard enough that I wouldn't be able to sleep through them. We went to bed around 12:30 and while Scott slept, I continued laboring throughout the night. I was unfortunately only able to get about half an hour of broken up sleep through the night between contractions. I was able to stay very relaxed though the contractions up until 3 am. Right before that contraction I had dozed off and was awoken by a very painful contraction. At first I wasn't sure if the contraction itself was harder or if it just seemed harder because I wasn't able to get myself prepared for it before hand because I was sleeping. I soon discovered with the next couple contractions that the contractions themselves had become harder. I was having back labor again and it was after this that I could no longer relax through them and I had to apply counter pressure on my back for any kind of relief. And although the contractions themselves were harder, they were still very irregular and I wasn't sure how far along I actually was. I felt like it was still too early to wake up Scott because I felt like one of us should at least be a little rested so I decided at 6 I would wake him up and with each contraction I would push my hips in as hard as I could to try to provide myself with some relief.
I continued doing this until about 4:30 am when I started having some contractions right on top of each other. Every 2-3 minutes apart. It was at this point that I decided I would wait until 5 to wake Scott up. When I did wake Scott up, which wasn't easy by the way, I told him the contractions were starting to get pretty hard and I needed his help during them. I would have 3-4 contractions right on top of each other then they would be anywhere from 5-10 minutes apart again before I'd have another 3-4 on top of each other. I didn't know what to do because the contractions were still so irregular I didn't want to go to the hospital and only be dilated to a 4.... But I didn't want to have the baby in the car either. So as we were sitting contemplating on whether or not we should head to the hospital or get a bath started for me I had another stretch of contractions right on top of each other and during this stretch I felt like I needed to push. The decision was made. We were headed to the hospital.
We woke my parents up at 5:30, who were staying with us because of the softball tournament, and told them we were headed to the hospital right now. I had long since been having silent contractions and had to moan through each contraction. When my mom came into the room she was like... Um, ya. Time to go. So while Scott got everything packing into the car and got the car seats out I had slowly made it to the top of the stairs and my mom was helping me through contractions. My other two sister's, Clarissa and Shelyn, were also staying at my house and I had a pretty good audience while laboring. I was personally having a little freak out because every time I had a contraction I would feel the desire to push and I was pretty sure we had waiting too long and I would be having a baby in the car. Every time I would feel the desire to push I would just say over and over "oh crap, oh crap."
We finally got all loaded and ready to leave for the hospital at 5:50 am. Thankfully because it was so early we hit every green light and were both a little disappointed when there were no cops to try and pull us over while we raced to the hospital. I just really didn't want my water to break in the car. After arriving, there was a reception desk worker who arrived the same time and ran for a wheel chair. But because of back labor I really didn't want to sit anywhere. So I just waddle/speed walked between each contraction. We arrived in our room at 6:05 and the nurse casually directed us and told me to put on a robe. I'm pretty sure they were thinking I'm just a naive mom who thinks she's a lot further along then she really is. A couple minutes after arriving to the room my water broke so we hurried and got the robe on and beeped for the nurse. Again she casually comes in and asks me to get on the bed so she can check how far along I was. (Apparently she HAD to check before she called the midwife.) I just kept telling her that I felt like I needed to push and after a few more promptings from the nurse I finally got on the bed to be checked. It was kind of funny to see the nurses tradition from "This is a mom who thinks she's farther than she is" to "Oh wait... She is having the baby right now!" Before even getting checked another nurse ran to call the midwife and as I had suspected, I was fully dilated and effaced.
I told the nurse I didn't want to have the baby laying down so she helped transition me to hands and knees. Everything was happening so fast and all the while I just kept feeling like a needed to push. So after I was finally on my hands and knees I didn't hold back anymore and I just started pushing. Well let me tell you. Crowning was just as bad and painful as it was the first time around. I just kept telling myself, the faster you push the head out the faster the pain will be over. So I was giving it everything I had and Scott was encouraging me from the side of the bed. After a couple very loud screams I finally got the head out and afterwards had this overwhelming feeling to see the head. So I stopped pushing and I was trying to see around my stomach so I could see the head and apparently the nurses really didn't like that because they started sounding frantic and kept telling me to push. I tried telling them what I was trying to do but I don't think they heard me. The main nurse ended up turning to the nurse that was helping her and said, "She's not pushing" and the nurse yells at me, "Jacquelyn, you have to push!" So I gave up trying to see the head and started pushing again. After another big push, the shoulders came out and the rest of the body slid out after it. As soon as I saw the baby on the bed I looked to see that we had a boy. I was not surprised it was a boy. I had known it all along.
Austin Scott was born at 6:13 am. Weighing 7 lbs 15 oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. The first thing I remember noticing was the big scowl on his face. The midwife showed up about 10 minutes later and was able to deliver the placenta and stitch me up. I ended up taring worse than I did with Ida. I think because of how quickly everything happened (and maybe because of how determined I was to get the head out so the pain would be over.) :) The plus side of having the baby so quickly was that because I am high risk I have all these things I have to do like being monitored the whole time and getting an IV and sign a million consent forms and I didn't have time to do any of that! We are so excited to have Austin join our family! We already love him so much and are so excited to start this new adventure!
| First family pic |


