Jackson's Birth Day

When I hit 38 weeks pregnant I was so done being pregnant. I felt huge and was exhausted. The dr told me I wasn't progressing much and it would be another week or so. Well on my 39th week check (the 25th), she said I was 2 centimeters dilated and from the pain I was having she thought I was in early labor. She went ahead and stripped my membranes again (also done at 38 weeks). I figured it would still be at least another week and was pretty upset. I spent the next 24 hours trying everything to get him out, lots of walking. The night of the 25th I was having lots of painful contractions but they wouldn't last more than 2 hours or so. The next day my mother in law was kind enough to get the girls since I was still having contractions. I decided to go for a long walk. After about an hour I started to have regular contractions so I went home and sat down for a bit and they got worse. I called my mother in law and she came to pick me up with the girls and take me to St. Vincent's. I called Adam and he was going to meet me there. I figured I would be sent home and didn't bring our bags or anything. I was induced with both girls and had no idea what it felt like to be in labor. Never really even felt more than a real contraction or two. We got there and got all hooked up to monitor contractions and I was having a few but nothing major. The dr came in and checked me and I was 3.5 centimeters (from 2 centimeters the day before) and 75% effaced. So she said she was going to strip my membranes again and to go walk for an hour. I barely made it an hour when we headed back and got hooked back up to monitor me. The dr came back in and I was already at a 4.5 and his head was moving down. The contractions were every two minutes when they took me to a room. By the time I got into the room about 30 min later, the contractions were about every 1.5 minutes and very strong. They checked me and I was a 5-6. So I was able to sit and rest for a little while in between contractions while the iv dripped. When they felt I had enough I was able to go sit in the rocking chair. I only lasted a few minutes there before the contractions were every minute and the nurse asked if I wanted to go into the Jacuzzi tub. I hesitated because I had always had an epidural and had never really labored before but I wanted to try so we went ahead and headed to the room and got into the jacuzzi. That felt wonderful but the contractions were every 30 seconds at that point and after about 15-20 min I got back out and into the room. I was checked again and was already at a 6-7 and zero station and full effaced. This was only 3 hours into labor. I was hoping to make it without an epidural but at that point I was in so much pain. They finally got the epidural in just in time to basically push because after about 10 min I was fully dilated and he was at a plus two station. So after about 4 hours total and 5 min of pushing he was here. He had a large head and weighed in at 8 pounds 11 ounces so it was rough 5 minutes of pushing but it was so worth it. He was gorgeous and I couldn't believe he was ours.
This labor was wonderful for me. Again with being induced I never really labored before and to have such a fast labor and a labor where I was able to try different coping techniques was amazing. We had amazing nurses and dr's and I feel so very blessed. Adam was a wonderful coach and very supportive. He told me for about 4 days after the birth how proud he was of me and that I did a great job. I think it amazed him that I was able to actually labor and not just give in and get the epidural since I had done that twice before.
The few days in the hospital were nice but Jackson was throwing up a lot. It was mostly old blood and mucus. He also slept for 15 hours straight other than a few min here and there to try to nurse and to be poked and prodded by nurses. I realized pretty quickly that he wasn't able to suck and was mostly biting. I looked in his mouth and realized he was tongue tied. So Friday morning the lactation consultants and pediatrician came in to see us and they confirmed what I saw, a very tongue tied baby. He had very little movement of his tongue. So that morning he had a circumcision and then he had his frenulum clipped. Poor boy had a rough morning. However he is doing great now and already weighs an ounce more than he did at birth which is great since he lost quite a bit during the hospital stay.
I will get more pictures up soon on facebook but wanted to jot down the birth before I forgot too much!