Celebrating Life: Jackson's Birth Story

Jackson Thomas Akers

Born March 12, 2011 @ 4:31pm

6lbs 9oz - 20.5 in

Jackson's birth begins by saying that we started the laboring process after his due date, on March 10th, 2011. His doctor did not want him to go past 41 weeks and if we did the induction a little early, that meant both my mom and Mike's mom could attend.

We went into the hospital on Thursday night to start the process with Cervidil. On Friday morning I was very excited and anxious to begin the Pitocin - thinking that this would cause strong enough contractions to get me dilated. Unfortunately, after the entire first day, there was no change. We decided to try the Cervidil overnight again in hopes of a change.

I woke up on Saturday - exhausted and still no change. Jackson is stubborn! After working through the feelings of defeat, we decided to try another method. As we made that decision, I ended up dilating to 3cm and my doctor was able to brake my water.

Now it goes fast. I started strong contractions right away and decided to wait a while before getting an epidural. By the time I realized how bad things were, it took a while for the anesthesiologist to get out of a C-Section. All three of my 'labor partners' helped me get through the next hour. I finally got the epidural and went from 3cm to 10cm in about 2 hrs. At that point, the doctor had to be called and she had to rush back in to the hospital (no one expected me to dilate this fast). At one point, the nurse said "why don't you keep your legs together until the doctor arrives."

Finally, the doctor arrived and I could stop fighting the strong urge to push. I pushed for 30 minutes and our baby was born. He was wiped down and placed right onto my chest. It was perfect. Everything happened really fast from there, but I know he received a 9 on both Apgar tests, was given a bath and nursed right away.

The process was so long and frustrating, but the end went so quickly!!

Pictures to document the day: