Jaxon's Nursery

Jaxon Cole *Birth Story*

INTRODUCING JAXON COLE ARFSTROM!

I have to say, once again we were blessed with such a smooth labor and delivery, not to mention a great doctor and team of nurses that made the experience that much more amazing!

Here's how it all went down:

My due date was December 8th.

From the very beginning, I said my guess for when Jax would be born was "either December 2nd or 3rd". My guess with Gavin was way off, so I really figured I'd be just as wrong this time around too... 

On December 2nd, around 5:00pm I made myself a nice strong, double dose of Raspberry Leaf Tea (which is said to help induce labor...). I drank this stuff all the time in the last week or so of my pregnancy with Gavin, trying to induce labor... and it didn't do a thing. So I really figured nothing was going to happen.

 That evening I also had my niece and nephew over at our house, watching them while my sister Leah and her husband were out. The plan was that at 8:00pm, I would take them home and Aaron would stay back with Gavin and get him to bed. 

Well, baby Jax had other plans!

Right as I was about to leave with my niece and nephew... 

MY WATER BROKE!!!

I was in total shock! 

I wasn't having any contractions (besides my normal braxton hicks).
(IT WAS THE TEA!!!)
;)

Right away we called my doctor to fill him in, and I made a quick call to Leah to let her know they probably needed to end their night out early ;)

At about 9:30pm my Mom came over to our house because she was on Gavin duty while we were gone at the hospital. We actually didn't end up leaving for the hospital until about 10:30 pm. I was just starting to have some good contractions. My sister Leah met us there and was going to be our little photographer :)

At 11:30pm the nurse checked me, I was dilated to 3...which I had been for a couple weeks. Contractions at this point still weren't any stronger, so we walked the halls for about 5 minutes, before I decided that was enough of that! (since my water had broke, I just felt like a nasty, leaking mess walking around......and it didn't take long before I realized I'd had enough of that!) 

We went back to my labor room and I bounced on a labor ball, which I actually really liked! We put in my all time favorite Christmas movie, Christmas Vacation :)
Contractions were still not really picking up much.

At 2:30 am after a lot of bouncing and rocking on the labor ball, the nurse checked me again. I was dilated to 5! My contractions were finally just starting to pick up a little bit. I was finally not able to talk through them, and they were every 3 - 3 1/2 minutes apart.
By this point, Aaron is already napping (which I'm SO glad Leah caught on camera!).
I'm a ridiculously independent laborer... Leah kept offering to rub my back, my legs, my shoulders, and I kept turning her down because all I could do during contractions was close my eyes and focus on my breathing... which she also caught on camera :) For whatever reason that was my go to position for every single contraction... cover my eyes and breathe!

Somewhere around 3:30-4am I decided to get the epidural. I was starting to progress fast, and was in the transition phase- I was getting shaky and nauseous. I was dilated to 7.

At 4:00am the epidural was in... at 5am the epidural still hadn't taken effect!!
My doctor checked me and I was dilated to 8.

I was pretty much mentally preparing myself for the fact that I just wouldn't be getting any relief from the epidural... they had me flipping from side to side, and all I know is I had an anesthesiologist coming in numerous times checking me, and giving me some sort of extra something or another (at that point in labor I was mentally checked out) until FINALLY the epidural took effect!!
I honestly don't even know exactly what time it was, all I know is I finally wasn't in pain or nauseous!

HAPPY DANCE!!!!

(....Oh, and if you were wondering, Aaron is still sleeping at this point...)

I want to say it was around 6:30am that they checked me and I was fully dilated, but I wasn't having pressure yet so they were going to let me "labor low" (which I did the same thing with Gavin)... basically just keep having contractions until I have pressure or I need to start pushing. This usually shortens the pushing phase.

Shortly after I could feel some slight pressure with each contraction, so they checked me and he was right there! It was time to start pushing!

At 8:05am I started pushing, and 1 contraction later (a grand total of 3 pushes, 10 seconds each) and
at 8:05am,
Jaxon Cole was born!!!!

I was in total shock! None of us could believe I delivered him that fast! It was SO surreal!
With Gavin I pushed for an hour, so I was expecting that to be the case this time around- WRONG!
30 seconds and I had this sweet baby in my arms!
(my other sister Sarah who was also with us, videoed the delivery on my phone, and I'm SO glad she did! It's so fun and crazy to go back and watch how fast it all happened! ...I also love being able to relive that moment over and over)

He was wide awake and alert for about the first 2 hours after he was born, it was so precious.
There's just nothing like FINALLY meeting your baby.
It's hard to even put into words the emotions you experience.
We're so thankful everything went as smooth, and as amazing as it did.

God once again answered all of our prayers, and helped us welcome our newest little miracle into the world.

Now enjoy some extra iPhone pics :)
...because I literally have a million...

Not only did this man sleep through 90% of my labor... but he also took more naps in the hospital than I would have even thought possible!! ... I, on the other hand, in this photo, have had ZERO sleep in like 2 days.
But I sure do love him :)