The Birth Story of Nixon Lance Mitchell

Nixon has been here for four weeks, and I am finally getting his birth story posted!

I was 39 weeks along and starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. I really hadn’t felt any contractions during the finals weeks, just some occasional uncomfortable menstrual cramps. I went to my weekly doctors check up appointment on Thursday Feb 7^th and the big question I was going to ask my doctor this time was, "what’s the procedure on being induced?" I had been measuring 3cm dilation and 80% effaced since I was 36 weeks, which my doctor said for a first pregnancy is far along, so I assumed our little guy would be coming early. But as every week went by I stayed at 3cm 80% and my hopes of him coming early didn’t look good.

 I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of being induced because a part of me wanted to go through the natural process of starting labor; having my water break, feeling the contractions and timing them as they came and went, and then rushing to the hospital feeling anxious and excited at the same time. As I got closer to my due date and there weren’t any signs of that natural labor coming soon, being induced didn’t sound so bad after all.
I asked my doctor what her policy was on inducing someone before their due date. She told me that it depends how good the woman’s cervix is in terms of her dilation and how effaced she is. And what do you know according to my doctor I have a great cervix for an induction, who knew? She said since I’ve been measuring at 3cm dilation and 80% effaced I “qualified” to get an induction before my due date. Hearing this was both exciting and a little nerve racking because we would actually be picking the day our little guy would come. It was no longer this guessing game on when he might come. It just made the fact that I was going to have a baby more real. (because apparently the physical sign of my big belly didn’t make it real enough). After my appointment I called up Lance to tell him the good news and discuss which day we wanted to have the induction. My original due date was Thursday Feb 14^th but my doctor said we could do the induction as early as Monday Feb 11^th or wait till Friday Feb 15^th and see if the baby decides to come on his own first.  After some discussion we decided to go with Monday Feb 11^th.

That weekend was probably one of the longest weekends of our lives and probably one of the few weekends we wanted to go by quickly. After we decided to get induced on Monday I realized I still had to buy a few things and get some stuff done before our little guy got here, and I didn’t have as much time as I originally thought I would. So that Saturday was filled with a lot of running around trying to get last minute things done. Luckily my mom came into town from Arizona to stay with us for a little bit after the baby came and was here to help me get stuff done.

Getting the babies room ready

After I told my doctor I wanted to be induced on Monday she told me the hospital would call me either Sunday night or early Monday morning and give me a time to be at the hospital. On Sunday night I received the call to be induced at 6am. That night felt like it went on forever, nerves and excitement both played a factor in that.

Side note: My sister-in-law Megan insisted that since I was getting induced on Monday to try some castor oil to see if I could jump start my labor before then (this was on Saturday). I was hesitant at first because I found out that castor oil is a laxative and I didn't like the thought of what else would be happening besides starting my labor. But I pushed those thoughts to the back of my head and decided to give it a try. I ended up taking the oil on Sunday afternoon and well ... nothing ever came of it. No increased contractions, no starting labor, not even what was supposed to happen when you take a laxative. Maybe I didn't take the right amount or maybe it just doesn't start labor for me. Maybe on kid number 2 if I'm past my due date I'll give it another shot.

Finally morning rolled around. We gathered all the bags and carseat and made our way to the hospital. We invited my mom to be a part of Nixon’s birth and I am so glad she was able to be there!

My wonderful supporters

They gave me the gown to put on and this is howI walked out with it on... 

Later to realize that my arms were supposed to go inside the pieces of fabric hanging from my armpits.

I’ve been lucky to have never needed to be in the hospital, so being in the hospital bed and being hooked up to all sorts of machines was a new (little intimidating) experience. They got me going with the IV and soon after the pitocin.

Getting the IV and Pitocin going

Once the pitocin was going we waited about an hour and a half and then my doctor came in and broke my water. That was interesting to have done; It wasn’t painful at all just a lot of pressure and then a big release of fluids. Just like I peed my pants. Up until my doctor broke my water I was feeling some menstrual cramp type pains, but within the next hour those pains started to get a lot more intense.

I’ve always heard that contractions are one of the worst pains but I didn’t fully understand until I started having them, and boy were they right. I knew (at least for my first kid) I wanted to experience some contractions, especially since I was being induced and wouldn’t feel them naturally. I also knew there was no question that I wanted an epidural. I tried to wait as long as I could to get the epidural because again I heard that getting an epidural can sometimes slow down your labor, especially for first pregnancies.

Trying to breath through a contraction. This was probably the start of my contractions
because as they got more intense I was on my side gripping the side rail for dear life!

The contractions were coming pretty close together and lasting for quite some time. Lance was sweet and stood by my bed and rubbed my lower back as each contraction came and all I could do was grip onto the bedside rail when they came. (at least he seems to be enjoying it)

After what seemed like forever I finally told my mom to go get the nurse and let her know I wanted the epidural. Within minutes the anesthesiologist came in and got to work. I was a little worried about this part just because it’s a needle going into my spine and I have to keep still while he’s putting it in. This was hard to do when those darn contractions were in full swing.

Once the epidural was in it wasn’t an immediate relief like I thought it would be, but the doctor said it should fully kick in in about 15 minutes. Well 15 minutes went by and I was still having quite a lot of contraction pain on the right side of my body. I let it go for another 20 minutes thinking the epidural would kick in on that right side, but it didn’t. I called in the nurse and she told me I had a drip button I could push every 15 minutes to receive more of the epidural. What wonderful news! She said I probably want to push the button a few times so the epidural could catch up to how quickly my contractions were coming. I clicked that button 4-5 times and the pain in my right side went away and I was in heaven. I could’ve stayed in that hospital bed all day I was so relaxed, pain free and comfortable (but I doubt my mom and Lance wanted to be there all day). There were a couple times I drifted off to sleep, I was that comfortable!

Happy to have that epidural going!

I was so relaxed and in heaven with that epidural that I kept falling asleep

Patiently waiting. I was so grateful to have my mom there she was
such a great support for me!

Soon after I received the epidural the nurse checked me and told me I was at 7cm. My mom told me it was probably a good thing I asked for the epidural when I did because if I waited much longer with how far along I was I might not have been able to get the epidural. That was one thing I was worried about, being too far along to be able to receive the epidural. That’s what happened with my mom when she had me, so I’ve always worried about that happening.

About an hour and a half later the nurse came back in and checked me and said I was ready to go. I said “I’m fully dilated at a 10?” She said, "yep I’ll call your doctor and ask if she wants you to start pushing." This took me by surprise, I thought I would gradually go up a cm at a time with every check but apparently my body was ready to go. I don’t know how much of it came from the pitocin running through my body that sped things up, but I like to think some of what sped up the labor was my own body ready to have this baby.
When the nurse checked me and I was 10cm she also noticed how low Nixon had descended on his own. She told me since he had descended on his own so much my doctor might want to do what they call “rest and descend”. This is where you let your body naturally descend the baby before you start pushing. Sure enough that is what my doctor wanted for me. All I had to do was relax and let my body do the rest. During this time of rest and descend the nurse came in and had me do a couple of pushes just to get me familiar with how to push. Then came the moment when my doctor came in and said it was time to push for good and get this baby out.

After a couple of pushes they decided to put oxygen on me because every time I would push the babies heart rate would drop.

I was very grateful to have the epidural in me but I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t feel myself push. I’m glad I didn’t get to feel the pain associated with pushing but every time I would push I couldn’t tell how hard I was pushing or if I was making any progress. All I had to go off of was everyone in the room saying I was doing great, that he was almost here.

I only had to give about 10 good hard pushes and our little guy came right out. Lance said one minute he saw the head starting to show and once the head was out his whole body just slid right out. I’ll say this, even though I was numb, feeling him inside me one minute and then feeling him slide out and feeling my stomach deflate the next was a cool experience.

Going into the birth Lance already knew he didn’t want to cut the umbilical cord. Even before the delivery the nurses asked Lance if he would want to cut the cord and he said “no, not really”. When it came time to cut the cord the nurses weren’t taking no for an answer from Lance. He finally took the scissors and made a cut, but he didn’t cut all the way through so he had to cut it again. Needless to say, there was no bonding, spiritual moment felt by Lance in cutting that cord.

Soon after the cord was cut the nurses wiped Nixon off and immediately put him on my chest for some skin to skin. Tears were flowing at this moment as I held my son for the first time. It was so surreal to have this infant laying on my chest and to know that he is MINE! This tiny little baby who I carried for those 9 months was finally here and perfectly healthy.

Proud parents (didn't get Nixon in the picture very well)

The hospital had recently started to really encourage mothers to do skin to skin with their babies soon after they are delivered. I knew before hand that that was something I wanted to do because I heard there were so many benefits to doing it. The hospital encouraged 4 hours of skin to skin time. I didn’t mind holding my baby for that long but I knew Lance wanted to hold his son and my mom wanted to hold her grandson. There were moments within those 4 hours where they needed to check me and then move me and Lance and my mom were able to get some holding time in.

He was 7lbs 5oz and 20in long, born at 1:05pm

I love how his arms and legs jump out like that, though it's sad because
it usually happens when he's cold.

A little side note, during my pregnancy people kept telling me I was really tiny and that I probably wouldn’t have a big baby. My mom was the same way with her pregnancies, she was tiny during pregnancy and then she had 8 plus pound babies. So I was a little nervous our little guy would come out an 8 plus pound baby, but lucky for me he was a small 7lbs 5oz.

The cute hat Lance made for him

One of my wonderful nurses

The time came when they had to move me to the recovery room. They had brought in another hospital bed that would take me to my room. I thought they would just wheel me down to my recovering room in the bed I was lying in already because I didn’t know how I was going to move onto this new bed when I couldn’t feel my legs still. It was quite the feeling trying to move my body that felt like it weighed a thousand pounds onto this other bed. They lined up the beds next to each other and the nurse told me to start rolling my upper body towards the other bed and she would roll my legs over. So I started to roll my upper body, not really making any progress until the nurse grabbed my legs and hurled them over to which my upper body then followed the rest of the way.
These nurses are pretty strong having to move pregnant women’s legs after they get the epidural and can’t move their legs themselves.

Now it was time to relax, in a way. My new nurse would come in every so often and check mine and Nixon’s vitals, but other then that Lance and I just hung out with our little guy.

Precious!

Grandma Taylor

Dad's first diaper change

That night we had some family and friends stop by to see Nixon.

Our wonderful friends the Baytons

Nixon and cousin Ben

Brothers and their babies

Nixon and cousin Clara (who is almost a year older)

It was really sweet of everyone to stop by, I was one proud mama.

First family photo

That night we had the choice of whether to have Nixon stay in our room or have him go to the nursery. I was told by pretty much all my friends to have him stay in the nursery so we could get some sleep that night; we didn’t get as much sleep that night as I thought we would. The hospital provided a cot for Lance to sleep on which he said was to small and not very comfortable, making it hard for him to get a good nights rest. I for some reason didn’t realize that they would be bringing in the baby to me throughout the night to feed him. So every time the nurse brought Nixon in she would turn on the brightest light, waking Lance up, and hand me Nixon to feed him. Once he was done feeding she would take him back to the nursery. This went on 2-3 times during the night, so again we didn’t get as much sleep as we had thought/hoped.

The next day we decided we would go home. The doctor I think would've liked us to stay for 48 hours but since Nixon and I were both doing great we felt we didn't need to stay any longer. I realize when I have my second kid I'll probably beg to stay the 48 hours.

Dressed in his "going home" outfit that his Uncle Zac got for him

I saw this little bear cover up and couldn't resist getting it. It was a little big for him but
that's what made it so adorable!

Another one of my wonderful nurses

Excited to get this little guy home!

I was so grateful to have my mom stay with us after Nixon was born! She catered to our every need and then some! Having her stay with us really helped me out, I was able to focus on Nixon and not stress about cleaning, errands or meals! What I loved most though was seeing how excited and in love she was with her grandson. My dad was able to fly up a couple days after Nixon was born and stay for a couple of days. We loved having them both here! I hate that they live in another state, especially now that I have a kid.

Meeting Nixon for the first time

Proud Grandparents
 this is the first grandkid for my parents, he is going to be spoiled!

Grandma Kathy
This is the 14th grandchild for her

When we left the hospital we were told that Nixon's bilirubin count was high and we needed to come back that next day to have it checked again. We did notice he had a yellow tint to his face especially in his eyes and I was nervous he had jaundice.

When we got the results back a few days later they said his numbers were still a little high and to come back again and have him checked. This poor little guy had his blood drawn from his heel a total of 3 times in less then a week, but he took it like a champ.

The results from that test showed his levels were still a little high but we didn't need to test him again we just needed to keep an eye on his color to make sure it didn't get any worse. Luckily his color improved over the next week.

I'm really grateful that my labor and delivery went so well. The nurses kept telling me they hated me because of how easy my labor and delivery went, which was flattering to hear. 

Words can't express how much I love my little boy! He has brought so much happiness to our lives! Motherhood really is the best!