Jackson's Birth Story.

9:00 am on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008, I was sitting in the nursery, folding clothes and checking emails, when I started having terrible back pain. I thought it was how I was sitting, so I went to lay down, and noticed within an hour that the pain was getting more intense, and coming quicker. I called my mom and she told me I should call my doctor. I already had an appointment for that day at 2:00pm. The nurse on the phone told me to just come in for my appointment at its scheduled time. I text Jeremy telling him "I'm not trying to freak you out, but you might want to start heading home." Then I called my mom and she said she'd come over. I text Jeremy again, telling him "It's time." He was sitting in on the golden gate murder trial. Every book I read said that walking would ease me in to labor quicker, so once those two got here, I started walking… and walking… and walking…. I went to my appointment with my mom, while Jeremy grabbed a nap. At the appointment, my contractions were so strong I could hardly walk. The nurse looked at me and was like, "Oh my, are you in labor?" and I was like, "yeah, I called earlier and they told me to just come in at 2:00" to which she replies, "Oh, they should've had you come in sooner!" After my usual check-in procedures of blood pressure check, urine sample, and pulse, they put me in an examination room. My midwife, Denise Staeker, came in and so did her assistant Candy. They hooked me up to the non-stress test and began monitoring my contractions. For those of you have seen the movie Master of Disguise, there's a part where Dana Carvey is charming a snake and he's playing that Kenny G song… Well, in the middle of a huge contraction, that song comes on the intercom and I cracked up laughing. The midwives were amazed that I was laughing through all of this. They gave me a shot in my hip to relax my back muscles. I was having a lot of back labor, and my muscles were so sore! I went back to my mom's house to lay down, and after about an hour, I couldn't take the pain anymore. My mom and I were dropped off at the hospital by my sister and she went to get Jeremy. He came up and they admitted me to the ob triage. They checked me and I was only 2cm dialted, so they told me I could walk more or go home. I chose to walk, only because I wanted the pain relief so bad. An hour later, I was still only 2cm, so they sent me home. Its almost midnight at this point. I was in an out of the tub, I had a heating pad, and Jeremy was applying counter pressure. I was trying to get dressed and had a bad contraction, so (lol) naked, on all fours, Jeremy pushed on my tail bone and I felt liquid gush all over my leg, Jeremy's leg and our bed. Jeremy's freaking out, and telling my mom that my water broke. So we go to the hospital. They put me in Suite 11 and check my cervix again. I'm 6cm dilated and its 4 something in the morning. They came back in a bit later and gave me an Iv of sedatives to help me sleep. At 8:00 am I woke up and they broke my water, haha, it turns out I had peed on Jeremy earlier in the night! I was 8 cm at 10:00am and they gave me pitocin, and said that before noon I'd have my baby. Well, then a woman pregnant with twins had to have an emergency c-section, so they pushed me back further. The attending nurse said, "you'll feel like you have to push but don't!" too late, I was bearing down so hard I thought Jack was going to shoot out. The doctor came in, checked me again, and said I was a 10! My midwife came in, along with my mom, my sister, Jeremy, a nursing student, and a handful of others. I pushed for almost an hour, and had to have an episiotomy. At 12:45pm, October 8th, 2008, Jackson Taylor Marino was born, weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces. He was 20 and half inches long. No epidural, a completely natural birth. They put him on my chest and he fell right asleep. It was such an amazing feeling to have him out of me and in my arms.