Jaxon's birth story

My water broke @ 2am on Tuesday September 15th. We waited till about 2:30 to call AABC just to make sure. Joan told us to relax, time the contractions and to try to eat something. She told us we had a few hours to go before we needed to go anywhere since I hadn’t had bloody show and the contractions weren’t too close nor were they too painful. An hour later, I had bloody show and my contractions were steadily 3 minutes apart and getting stronger. I could no longer walk during the contractions and was having difficulty talking as well.
We decided to head to AABC at about 5am or so. I was only dilated to 4cm, but completely effaced and at +1 station. I labored in the halls, walking around, swaying, slightly squatting until my room was ready. By the look and feel of things, I was progressing pretty nicely once I moved into my birthing room. Contractions were very strong and were coming one right after the other. The Bradley method really helped me cope with the contractions---there is no way I could have done it without it. Annabelle was the midwife working with me and she was amazing. I was really looking forward to my water birth!
We were @ the Birthing Center till about 5 pm or so. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to matter what we did—visualization, different positions, stimulation, nothing was helping me to progress. The contractions were very strong, and one right after the other, but I was still only @ 5cm. and twice, my contractions had just stopped all together. This was very disappointing considering my water had broken over 12 hours before, and I still had ½ way to go, and time wasn’t on my side.
Annabelle and Lauren came in and told me they thought I needed pitocin to help my progression—which meant I was going to have to transfer away from the center, to a hospital. I was devastated, but I knew it was the right thing after the long day I’d already had. We transferred to St. David’s downtown into the care of Dr. Mankovsky.
I knew if I was going to get pitocin, I was going to get the epidural. I had heard too many horror stories about pitocin and had already labored for over 12 hours and just didn’t want to deal with pain from pitocin-induced contractions. I will say, the epidural allowed me to get some much needed rest, which was nice.
At 1:30am Wednesday, 9/16/09, I was finally dilated to 10 and ready to push. I pushed for almost 4 hours. And all we could see was the “cap” of Jaxon’s head. I was so sure I was going to be able to push him out, but it just wasn’t happening. His head was swelling at the cap and I was beginning to swell as well.
At 5:30 am, we made the decision to have a c-section. It was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made in my life. Far from the birth I wanted to have, I was having the exact birth I wanted to avoid at all costs. I have to applaud Dr. Mankovsky and the nurse on duty that night. They never pressured me in any way, and allowed me to go as far as I thought I could. My midwife, Annabelle was there the entire time, supporting me and truly involved throughout. Jaxon’s heartbeat was constantly going strong throughout the entire labor, thank goodness!
After 28 hours, at 6:41 am on Wednesday, 9/16/09, Jaxon Jedi Kane (8lbs 1 oz.) was delivered to a very happy (and exhausted) mom and dad. Although it wasn’t what I had planned, we have a beautiful baby boy. I feel like we did everything we could to avoid an unnecessary surgery and I have an amazing little boy to show for it.