Baby Lawhorn {Birth Story}

I finished up work on Thursday, June 30th, and went to pick up Jason (we had been riding together all week just in case). We were almost to the "S curves" and decided to turn around and go to Julie Darling Donuts to use the Living Social deal I had purchased a while ago. :) Right when we turned around (about 6:00pm) I had a contraction, but didn't say anything to Jason yet. Once we got our donuts (which were fabulous, by the way), it was about 6:30pm and I had another contraction. I was like "Um.. honey? I had a contraction about 30 minutes ago." "Really?" "Yeah, and I just had another one."


We went home and just relaxed, watched TV, and waited. At 8:45 I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and take a shower just in case I really was in labor (I was still pretty unconvinced at this point). After my long luxurious shower, I decided to go to bed and try to rest. My contractions were about 15 minutes apart at this point.  We didn't really get any sleep since I was up and down a ton, but at 1:30am I woke Jason and said "It's time." (My contractions were 6-7 minutes apart at this point.) He hopped in the shower while I gathered all those last minute things. (Luckily I had already packed my bag and included a list of things that weren't packed yet, so it didn't take too long.)


We left the house at 2:15am and headed to Women's East to see if I was really in labor, since I still wasn't completely convinced. We got there at 2:30am and by 3:15 nurse Alicia checked me and found that I was 5cm dilated and 90% effaced - I WAS in labor and we were having that baby! :) She also told me that if I wanted an epidural, I could go ahead and sign up for one... which completely terrified me. For whatever reason, I had in my head that the epidural was going to be really bad (before it actually started helping), so I was not entirely sure I was ready to commit...


While we were talking through that, we called our moms and let them know we were at the hospital and by about 4:30 they were there to give support and basically just wait around. :) My contractions weren't really that terrible, but we decided to go ahead and get the epidural. (EDITED TO ADD: I have had stomach issues all my life; we discovered that I was lactose intolerant when I was like 18, so I have had some major stomach pains over the years, since I'm a big fan of ice cream, cheese, and chocolate milk. I'm a pretty big wuss overall, but we used to laugh and say that my stomach pains were God's way of preparing me for labor someday. And I totally believe that because I would say that the contractions I had were no worse than what I have experienced before.)


So I got the epidural at 5:30am, and when they checked me I was 6cm and still 90%. The epidural was NOTHING to be afraid of, thank goodness, and really helped me save my strength and energy for the actual pushing/birth. The pain of the epidural was no worse than the pain when they put my IV in! And boy oh boy - then I didn't feel a SINGLE contraction! Mom and Patricia would watch the monitors and say "That was a BIG one!" :) 


We actually decided to take a nap at this point, so I was out cold from about 6am until 7:45. At that point our nurse Julie (who was hyper and crazy and AMAZING for this point in the labor process) and Dr. McLelland broke my water (which I didn't feel at all) and checked me again. At this point I was all the way to 8cm. We continued to hang out and rest for the next little bit. 

hot stuff.

At 9:30 Julie came back in and looked at the monitor and said that my contractions weren't as strong as they had been and she didn't expect me to be much further along than the last time they checked. So she checked me and said "Well - I'm going to call Dr. McLelland!" Oh yeah? How far along am I now? "You are at 10 plus. Plus plus plus!" Whoo hoo!!


So she went out to go call the doctor and told our families to come say goodbye to the family of two before the family of three arrived, since I was about to start pushing! My mom said "So she will be pushing for 2-3 hours?" and Julie said "Umm... I'm thinking 30 minutes?" (Side note: When Julie called Dr. McLelland she was with Alex for an appointment! She had to leave their appointment to come deliver Jackson!)


At around 10:15 I started pushing. I pushed 3 times per contraction, through about 6 contractions. (By the way, it's really hard to push when you can't feel anything below your belly button...) After about the 4th or 5th contraction, the baby's heartrate dropped, and Dr. McLelland said that they would probably need to use the vacuum to get him out. It had just been her, Julie, Jason, & I at this point, but then 4-5 more staff came in to prepare for that. In the time it took for them to come in, LUCKILY his heartrate had gone back up and they didn't have to use the vacuum. 


On the last big push, his head came out and then WHAM - the rest of him shot out too! At 10:40am on Friday, July 1st, our precious son Jackson Dean was born. We couldn't have had a better labor and delivery if we tried!!

 WELCOME TO THE WORLD, BABY JACKSON!!!