Jackson (Jack) Mills Kennington: Birth Story

Hello! It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged. Almost 2 years to be exact! I’m not going to give my excuses for why I haven’t been writing. I just want to jump right back into things! Now that Chad and I have a baby in our lives, I want to blog to document our journey. I also want to write about my attempt at getting back into running and strength training after almost a year off.

I’m starting off my return to the blog world with Jack’s birth story!  It’s been almost a month since Jack was born, so I may not remember every single detail, but I will do my best.

My Pregnancy:

Thankfully, I had a very easy pregnancy. I only had about 2 weeks of morning sickness in the beginning. Other than that, the worst of my symptoms was the heartburn, swelling, and some sciatic nerve pain.

Labor and Delivery

Because I wasn’t dilating and had reached my due date (August 7th), my doctor and I decided to schedule an induction for the following Monday. At midnight on August 10th, Chad and I went to the hospital to be checked in and start an iv and take cytotec which was supposed to help my cervix thin. I started taking the cytotec at 12:30 a.m. and took it every 2 hours until 6:30 when they started an iv drip of pitocin. I tried to get as much sleep as possible during that time, but I was way too excited and anxious!

Chad managed to get some shut eye though.

Before starting the pitocin, the nurse checked to see if I had dilated, and I was 1 cm! After weeks of disappointing OB appointments and being told there was no progress, this was exciting news for us! Not long after the pitocin was started, I began having mild contractions. They weren’t very consistent, so my nurse kept having to increase the meds.

Sometime mid-morning my doctor came in to try and break my water. He was unsuccessful and told me he would come back in an hour to try again. If he couldn’t do it, then we were going to have to talk about the possibility of a c-section. When he left, I told my nurse that I needed to go to the bathroom. Because of my iv and monitor, I had to have the nurse help me any time I needed to use the bathroom. Well, I REALLY had to go to the bathroom. Even though I couldn’t drink anything, I was being pumped with a lot of fluids! Apparently, it was enough that my nurse went and got my doctor to come back and try to break my water again. He said that sometimes a full bladder put pressure on the cervix, so maybe this time it would be easier for him to break my water… and he was right! A few minutes later my water had broken, and the intensity of my contractions increased dramatically. They were pretty uncomfortable, but still bearable. I wanted to wait until I dilated more before getting an epidural. I had read that labor usually slows down once you get the epidural, and i didn’t want to slow anything down! So I waited…

Well, it didn’t take long before the contractions were coming on FULL FORCE. Chad tried to distract me by talking, but I wasn’t having it. He tried once to massage my back, but the look I gave him told him to back off. haha All I could do was grip the bed rail and breath through each one. Every part of me wanted to tense up and hold my breath, but I knew that would just make them worse, so I tried to relax. It took over an hour to get the epidural once I asked, during which I was given pain meds to help me while i waited. It took the edge off, but only for about 20 minutes. Finally, the anesthesiologist came in to give the epidural. At the point, I am in so much pain i can barely sit up. My contractions seem to be coming one right after the other with very little time between. The nurse helped me sit up on the edge of the bed. If you’ve ever had an epidural, you know that you have to sit up and lean forward kind of slumped over so that the needle can go in your back easily. I was having to do this all while having contractions, so it was not easy. The anesthesiologist kept asking me where I felt the needle and even asked if I had scoliosis. He was having a hard time with me for some reason. He ended up having to try three different times, and thankfully the third time worked. Now, remember when I said the my doctor broke my water? FALSE. He may have cause a leak, but my water didn’t truly break until I was sitting up on the edge of the bed getting that epidural. And it broke all over my poor nurse’s shoes! haha I was so embarrassed, but I didn’t care. I needed that epidural stat! After about 20 minutes, I couldn’t feel a thing and was finally able to relax. The nurse checked me before leaving, and I was 3 cm dilated.

I slept on and off after that, but everything seemed to be moving so fast. My nurse came in to check me, and I was 7 cm! Then maybe an hour or so later, I was 9 cm! Before I knew it, it was time to push!! We seriously couldn’t believe that we were about to meet our little boy! Around 3:15 I started pushing. By this time, the epidural was starting to wear off. I could feel my feet and pressure from the contractions but no pain. I had no idea how long it could take to push a baby out? I thought it would be quick, but I ended up pushing for almost 2 hours. It was so exhausting. I actually kept falling asleep in between contractions. After what seemed like forever, my doctor came in to deliver our baby! He had me push normally a few times, and then I had one slow, easy push. The nurse told me to look down, and there was Jack!! I couldn’t believe it! The doctor got Chad to cut the chord, and then they put Jack on my chest. I wanted to have that skin to skin time as soon as possible. I held him for a while before letting them clean and check him.

Jack was born at 5:03 p.m., weighed 8lbs 3oz, and was 20 and 1/2 inches long. They put him back on my chest for more skin time. Chad and I just stared at our little boy for the longest time! During this time, I tried nursing Jack. My plan was to exclusively breastfeed for as long as possible. More on the topic later! Then sadly, it was time for Jack to go to the nursery. I was taken to another room where I would stay for the rest of our time at the hospital. They had to keep Jack in the nursery a little longer than normal because his blood sugar was low, but Chad got to go back to the nursery to see him while we waited.

He was perfect!!

The nurse finally brought him back to us with a clean bill of health!

I don’t know what we ever did without him! I’m so in love with my perfect little family.

I’ll have more posts on our new lives with baby Jack, but this one is already long enough.

Thanks for reading!