Happy Birthday Jackson!

He's here!

Jackson Simon was born at 8:21am, 08 May 2008. 3.41kg (7lb 8oz for those of you who don't understand metric), a wonderful, healthy baby boy. We're back home from the hospital, and doing well. Photos to follow soon, once we've taken some more.

Xavier seems a little unsure, but Josiah is very proud of his new brother. Nat is just picking Kiya up from school, so she'll meet Jackson shortly - but she was very excited when we left for the hospital!

Here's the birth story (consider that adequate warning if you are squeamish):

I saw my midwife yesterday afternoon, and she did an internal examination to check if everything was ready. The cervix was 4cm dilated and 90% effaced (thinned), and Jackson's head was as low as it could get, so everything was looking good for a birth to occur soon. The midwife did a stretch and sweep (separating out the layers of the cervix to encourage dilation), and said "See you tonight!"

Contractions started about an hour later, and continued semi-regularly until 10:30 last night. They stopped, allowing Nat and myself to get a pretty good night's sleep, then started stronger and harder at 3:20am. Until 5am, the contractions were every 10 minutes... then they started getting stronger but not necessarily quite regular. By 6:30am we were pretty sure Jackson was well and truly on his way. A friend had come around to stay the night and be with the other children, so we got ready to go. At 7:30am I rung my midwife to tell her contractions were 4-5 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute each. She arranged to meet us at the hospital, and we got in the car!

We got to the hospital at 8am. I got out of the car and was hit by such a strong contraction I could barely walk. I felt like the baby was literally going to fall out right then! Once the contraction eased a little, we went into the hospital with me having another contraction on the way. Once we were inside, an orderly got a wheelchair and took us up to the delivery suite. My waters broke on the way there.

They took me into a delivery room and I got up on the bed for an examination. The midwife basically took one look and told me the baby was on the way! Luckily my midwife had rung to say I was coming, and they had already started the bath. I couldn't wait to get into it, but if Jackson had been a little further along I wouldn't have been able to, as he probably would have dropped out on the way!

I got into the bath, and realised my body wanted to push straight away but I wasn't quite ready. Once the midwife helped me settle and focus and stop fighting myself, Jackson's head came out really quickly. My midwife arrived as I was delivering the head, and then Jackson's body came out with just one push at 8:21am. He was put on me for a cuddle, then Nat cut the cord and the midwives took Jackson away to check/weigh/measure him, and my midwife helped me deliver the placenta. Total offical labour: 1 1/2 hours.

I had a quick bath to clean up while they sorted Jackson out, then went and had lots of cuddles with my new son! He took to breastfeeding like a pro, and we left the hospital at 10:30am. We're home now, and doing well.

Becca