That evening I decided I wanted Chili’s ribs to be the last
meal I was allowed to consume for most likely the next 24 hours. They’re crazy
making a laboring woman go that long without food! I was so hungry! The manager
actually gave us a free dessert since we were heading off to the hospital
afterwards, so it was a pretty good last meal.

We checked into the hospital Sunday night and they started
me on some medicine to soften the cervix and hopefully help dilate me
overnight. I was hooked up to monitors to watch the baby’s heartbeat and my
contractions throughout the night. Between the nurse having to adjust the
monitors here and there and my many bathroom trips, I tried to get some sleep.

I was awaken around 4am as contractions started on their own
(which is rare with that medicine, but it happens) and were coming pretty
consistently. They started at about 5-7 minutes apart, but by 5am I was wide
awake as they were 3-4 minutes apart and harder to ignore. The nurse came in to
move around the monitors and she said it was looking good that they may only
have to give me the small dose of pitocin and thing would kick into gear. (Side
note: we had the most amazing night nurse we could have possibly asked for. I
absolutely loved her. It was a plus that she was a Christian too; we had some
great conversations with her that night. I was sad to see her go. But she came
and visited us once baby Jase was born!) They started me on pitocin at 6am and
then there was a nurse change between those times. They started the pitocin at
a two and every twenty minutes would come in and up it by two.

When the pitocin kicked in to gear the contractions were
coming pretty close together and pretty strong that it was a little hard to
catch a break between them. I just focused on relaxing and breathing as much as
possible. I didn’t watch the monitors the entire time because I knew they would
probably just cause me to stress out. At this time the nurses were noticing the
baby didn’t react well to the contractions. They would come in and have me
change positions, things would go well for fifteen minutes and then the baby’s
heart rate would do a slight drop after a contraction. So they would move me
again…this pretty much took place from six AM to noon. Around noon I had only
dilated to a two, but my Doctor told them to go ahead and get me an epidural so
that I could try and relax through it all. This helped a lot since the
contractions were so close together now, and still not much progress. The baby
still continued to have problems so they lowered the pitocin little by little
until they ended up shutting it off altogether. The doctor came in and broke my
water to see if that helped and things got a little scary at this point. Baby didn’t
respond well to the epidural and breaking my water that they wanted to put me
on oxygen to make sure baby was getting enough. This stressed me out a little
because I just wanted to be reassured my baby was okay. The doctor said that he
was pretty sure the placenta would block the baby from receiving oxygen during
a contraction which would cause his heart rate to drop, it always came right
back up so he was alright, but they just didn’t like seeing that on the screen.
When the doctor and nurses left I had a little breakdown just from the uncertainty
of how the baby was doing. I couldn’t help but burst into tears because I
wasn’t sure what was going to happen to the baby. It was a very hard moment for
my husband and I, it’s still hard every time I find myself talking about it. It’s
a scary thought not knowing if your baby is going to be alright – I just laid
there and kept claiming that God would give me peace to rest in Him knowing He
was going to keep our baby safe. After a couple hours off the pitocin and the
baby was doing really well they started the pitocin at a two again to see if it
would help me progress in dilation since I had not progressed at this point. Baby
didn’t respond well again to the pitocin, so my doctor decided that it was best
to just move forward with a C-Section than to have something go wrong later
that would push us into an emergency section.

Earlier when I was told that it could possibly progress to a
C-Section, I cried. That wasn’t what I had wanted, but right before the nurse
had came in with that news I looked at my husband and said “I just want to hold
him already.” So when she came in with the news I was totally okay with it,
anything to ensure that our baby was safe. They upped the epidural and prepped
everything and then wheeled me into the operation room. There were more than
ten doctors in there which was a little overwhelming to me. I didn’t know what
to expect so going into a room with that many doctors all I could think was,
“Whoa!” They got everything set up with the curtain and then my doctor came in
and just talked to me for a little. I was so thankful it was him who was able
to do the C-Section. He really was able to calm me down and we feel so
comfortable with him.

Then they let Chad in and started the procedure, within ten
minutes baby Jase was here! We looked over and watched them do all the things
that they needed to. Chad was so sweet and didn’t want to leave my side, but I
told him I was okay so that he could get some pictures. Then they gave him baby
boy and he came and sat next to me so I could see him. The hardest part of this
all was not being able to hold my son right away; it kind of breaks a mama’s
heart. Especially when they had my husband and the baby head off to the
recovery room as they finished what they needed to do. It took another twenty
minutes until they wheeled me off to the recovery room with them. As much as I
wanted to hold him right away I was extremely light headed and couldn’t sit up
straight, so I didn’t want to risk it.

A little bit later I felt like I could see straight enough
to hold him for the first time and my heart melted. I am so completely in love
with this little guy.

Our birth story isn’t exactly the way I would have wanted it
to go, but I know that God was in it every step of the way. Our baby is a
healthy little guy and he has stolen our hearts! The recovery has had a little
bit more hurdles being that it was a surgery especially that I wasn’t mentally
prepared for. But I am doing a lot better and hope to be doing better every
day! Every moment with my baby boy is a blessing. I have loved even more
watching my husband with him – it’s all been such a special time that I know I
will always remember.