Jackson Avery Adams
Born 11/27/04 5:16 p.m.
7 pounds, 10 ounces
20 inches long
Very little fuzzy hair and bright blue eyes!



What an ordeal that last few days have been. We arrived at the hospital Friday afternoon expecting everything would be fine and they would send us home. Of course Jack was in perfect shape, but the problem was with my blood pressure. It was surprisingly high, and dangerous to both me and the baby. So they decided to admit me and induce that evening.

The drug started working around midnight and I began to have contractions. Since I had refused all pain medication, the night doctor and the night nurse were putting pressure on me to just go ahead and get the epidural and make it easier on myself. I am so grateful to Danielle for showing up at the hospital at 2 a.m. to help me through my labor. It was a wonderful experience overall and if it wasn't for her I would have probably listened to those horrible women.

By morning I was starting to dilate and things were progressing fine. It looked as though I was going to have a normal delivery despite the Pitocin (which I'm sure is a great drug, but I hated it with a passion by the end of the day.) But my blood pressure was not cooperating, and they had to blast me with Magnesium to try and bring it down. Labor continued into the afternoon, but I got stuck at 8 centimeters for about 5 hours.

I have to pause in the play by play to make a comment about time during labor and delivery of a baby. It is not the same as normal time. When I look back and realize I was in labor for 23 hours I can honestly say it did not seem like that. And it never felt like I was stuck at 8 centimeters for 5 hours – it just passed, I just went from one thing to the next, I never felt like I was sitting around waiting.

So there we were, four in the afternoon, my water broke and the doctor made the decision to increase the pitocin. This caused the contractions to come more frequently, and the water being broken meant they were harder. I could not take the waves of pain, one contraction right on top of the other with no break in between. I had the anesthesiologist give me an epidural.

Of course the doctor further upped the pitocin, hoping to force the delivery of the baby. It had the opposite effect, I was still stalled in labor and once you apply that much pressure to an unborn child it either needs to be born or it will go into distress.

Unfortunately, as with his mother, the Pitocin was too much for little Jack. His heart rate dropped and then became erratic. The doctor ordered a cesarean section.

I think from the time he told me to the time it was all over and Jack was born may have been 30 minutes. It was incredible.

So after everything, I ended up with the exact opposite type of delivery than I wanted. But surprisingly the recovery is not that bad. I do have to be careful about what I lift, which means I cannot carry Jack in his car seat by myself for the next couple of weeks, but I have no other real restrictions.

So after all that, I finally met back up with Jack Sunday morning. They sent me to recovery Saturday night and Jack to the nursery. They brought him to me around five a.m. to feed him, and I was blown away by how perfect he looked. The worst thing for me though was that I was still on Magnesium Sulfate for my blood pressure and it makes your vision blurry. So I fed him, but imagine trying to learn to breast feed while you can hardly see to focus on the baby. It was amusing to say the least.

The rest of our hospital stay was in a much better room – lots of space for visitors and Jack stayed with me in the room. Of course I wasn't overly comfortable in the bed, and it was daunting trying to take care of a newborn and figure out what to do with all these nurses coming in every five minutes to annoy me. I have never in my life been so happy to be home as I was last night.

As of now, we are all exhausted. We went to the pediatrician today and he suspects that Jack is not getting enough to eat from me, so we are supplementing with formula for the next 2 days. Already he is quieter and less angry. I think I will at least get some sleep tonight.