This is the story of the birth of Jackson Joseph McBride.
The morning of November 2, 2010, we arose early at 4:00 am so that we could be at the hospital at 5 am. I was to be induced at ETMC. Martha had spent the night so that she could be there when Noah arose. It was a funny feeling, getting ready to leave. I was trying to make sure I had everything, double-checking the checklists. "Do we have the Cryo-Cell kit? Do you have the video camera? Is it charged? Where are the cords in case the battery fails?" Etc, etc. It was a quiet drive to the hospital. I mean, what do you say as you're about to face a certain enormous blessing and life change? It was certainly no time for small talk so it was quiet. I was thankful for the silence, as I prayed. When we arrived at the hospital, we admitted with no problems, but I just kept telling Michael that I had an awful feeling. I'm very "gut" oriented, and I didn't like what my gut was telling me. When we arrived, the night staff was still on duty. I'm generally not a fan of night staff. They are usually a different breed of folks. Not all of them, certainly. The nurse came to put in my IV. I gave her my left hand and she could clearly see that I have big, juicy, easy-to-poke veins. She was pleased. SO pleased that she literally pushed the needle THROUGH MY ENTIRE VEIN! My gut was correct. She ended up having to put the IV in the other arm, and I'm not lying when I tell you that my IV insertion was the most pain of the entire labor. That's pretty sad. But it was that bad. Anyway, when we arrived, I told the staff two things, and I said it just like this: "Dr. Willis wanted me to remind her and you all of two important things. #1). We are saving stem cells and have the Cryo-kit here, so we have to make sure that's collected the right way because it has to be Fed Exed to a special lab for processing. #2). With my first baby, I had a very fast labor. I went from 4 cm to 9 in a period of about 5 minutes." The nurse shook her head like she understood, but I didn't feel comforted, especially since she just completely messed up my IV. During this time, they are supposed to collect some initial bloodwork of mine for the Cryo-Cell process. The nurse said she knew how to complete the process, but she did not. She didn't even label the container or the contents of the container, and she told Michael it was, "all ready to go." The box clearly stated that if the contents weren't fully labeled correctly, the specimen would be labeled invalid. You don't spend that kind of money to preserve stem cells to have it INVALID! Luckily my husband is OCD, and HE read the instructions, and called in the right folks to make sure it was processed correctly. YIKES! All along this time, I kept telling him that I REALLY didn't have a good feeling about it all. Luckily, that was the worst of it. Nurse Jamie came in that morning and she was wonderful. Ahhhh, yes! Day staff! She listened carefully to my REPEATED important reminders, and that made all the difference. She had the CRYO kit set up for Dr. Willis. I was STILL only dilated to a 1, which I just couldn't believe! We started Pitossin. My dad and Susan came by and we all held hands and prayed. Rose Bailey was there and took some pictures of us for the birth documentary. I have the best doctor in the world, Sherilyn Willis. She said that if I was hurting, there was no "hard rule" that I had to be 4 cm dilated to get the epidural. I was contracting hard so we got the epidural with no problems. Loved the epidural man! He was the same anesthesiologist that we had with Noah, and he was still great! Shortly after our epidural, I told Nurse Jamie that I was feeling some pretty good pressure. She checked me right away, as she remembered I had previous fast progression in labor with Noah. "Oh yeah. You're ready," she said. Michael was sitting on the couch, surprised that it was already time. "What, is she a nine?" The nurse replied, "No she's a 10....plus 2....I can see his hair!" Basically, she just wanted me to "sit tight" if I could until Dr. Willis arrived! I told them....it may take me some time to get ready, but when I was ready, it would go quickly! I did some deep breathing and visualization to try to calm myself. Dr. Willis came in shortly after, all smiles as usual. "You ready to have this baby?" she said. I pushed just 3 or 4 times, and then Jackson Joseph McBride was born at 6 pounds, 1 ounce, 20 inches long! I couldn't believe how easy the labor was and how our lives had instantly changed! My lipstick didn't even wear off! Jackson was so alert, and his eyes were opened right away! The nurse placed him on my chest, and I was in love. Our family was complete.
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