It was Tuesday night May 6th, I had been on bedrest for the last week for high blood pressure (180/100). I had seen my doctor the morning of May 6th and I had hoped to convince him to induce me on Thur May 8th. That would have made Jackson's birthday 5/8/08, Emma's birthday is 3/5/05, so that would have been neat. Anyways, because my BP was down he wanted me to remain on bedrest for another week until I was 38 weeks. I was so upset, being on bedrest was eating into my maternity leave, at this point I wanted to go ahead and have the baby. Plus my husband was in limbo with working, because I was on bedrest he had to stay home a lot and help take care of Emma. Luckily, I have a ton of great friend that helped out with Emma in the morning. Anyways, back to Tuesday. Even though the doctor didn't want to induce me my body said it was time to have the baby! That night before dinner I took Emma on a short walk outside, I was tired of being on bedrest and I needed some fresh air, well, that must have helped put me in labor because when I got home I started having contractions. The contractions started getting more consistent around 9pm and more intense around 11pm so I called the doctor. Luckily it was my own doctor on call and he told me to come in. I called my good friend Amy who just happened to be getting off the 3-11 shift at work (she's also a RN). She was so kind to come over and sleep on our futon while we went to the hospital. At the time we weren't sure if we were going to be sent home from the hospital or stay and deliver the baby so we hated to wake
Emma and disrupt her if we were just going to be back home in a few hours. (Amy took our picture before we left). We got to the hospital shortly after midnight. After getting all set up in a triage room and laying in bed, of course, my contractions slowed down. The nurse checked me and I was only dilated to 1cm. She called the doctor and he wanted me to be rechecked in two hours. Luckily the nurse let me get up and walk the halls because it felt better to be moving instead of just laying in bed. So after an hour or so of walking she rechecked me and I had changed to 2cm! 
So my doctor said I could stay and have the baby and that he would be in around 6 am to check me, at this point it was about 3am. They moved me from the triage bed to a labor and delivery room. Yea!! I can stay and have the baby! Here's a picture of me happy about that. 
They had a labor ball that I could sit on and use if I wanted. I did that some and Kevin and I were off to walk some more. I pretty much walked the halls from 1:00am-6am. I even walked the halls alone and let Kevin take a nap from about 4-6 am so that he would be some help to me during the delivery, aren't I such a good wife? My doctor came in at 6am and checked me and I was dilated to 3cm. He said I could have my epidural so that he could rupture my bag of water afterward. I was thrilled to be able to get my epidural. At this point I had been laboring naturally and that wasn't in my birth plan at all! Haha. I had planned on coming into the hospital getting hooked up to the epidural and having a baby pain free, not all this walking and feeling every contraction stuff! That's for the birds! Anyways, my epidural placement when smoothly and I was much happier for it. The doc came in and broke my water. We called my mom around 7am to let her know not to go to work. Around 10 or 11 am my contractions started to stall so they started me on a little pitocin. 
That didn't last long though because the baby didn't tolerate it much at all. The nurses kept coming in and staring at the heartbeat strip and they started me on an oxygen mask. Now that is never a good sign. The 
doctor came in and also watched the strip. Now why would they do that in the room when I know that can watch it out at the desk and not get me all worked up about it? Needless to say they turned if off and decided to see if my body would continue to labor on it's own. Luckily for me it did, otherwise I would have ended up with a C-Section. So I labored all afternoon. I tried to take it easy and nap. I remember we were watching the Animal Planet channel most of the afternoon. The nurses would come in every hour or so and turn me and prop me up with pillows. Kevin and my mom would feed me ice chips, apply chap stick, or put a cool wet cloth to my forehead. At 3pm the doctor came to check me and said I was almost fully dilated and he would be back in to check me in 30 min. 
About 10 minutes after he left I started to really feel my contractions. I remember that the show Meerkat Manor was on and it was annoying me and I asked them to turn it off, hehehe. After several really good contractions I need to bear down and push, we called the nurses in and they called for the doctor. I unintentionally pushed on my side for two contractions while we waited for the doctor, I remember saying "the baby's coming, where's the Doctor". The doctor got there, they put me in stirrups and I pushed during two more contractions and Jackson was born! 
This time around was so much better, I only pushed for 4 contractions instead of an hour and a half! I didn't have excruciating tailbone pain, and I didn't need an episiotomy! The doctor and nurses followed my birth plan very well. I got to use a mirror and see Jackson being born and they also put him on my tummy so that I could see him! 
The nurses also did his admission in the room, which as a nursery nurse I know is a big deal, I really appreciated that. His first feeding he breastfed like a champ! I had a difficult time with Emma in the delivery room but Jackson latched right on and nursed for 20 minutes on both sides. 
In doing so that gave him his first nickname of "Hungry Jack". My delivery of Jackson was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad he's here.(I'll post more pictures of Jackson's in the hospital in another post)
