Max's Birth Story

Well. It's been a minute. It's official ... Max has arrived! I've never been big on birth stories with a lot of the gory details, but I DO want to remember the day and events that led up to my son being born. So here is the non-super-detailed birth story of Maxwell Ash!

Max's "due date" was August 21, 2020. I had an appointment that very day to check and see what he was up to. I went, was examined, and then told that I was not dilated at ALL. They scheduled for me to be induced a week from that day - August 28th. Because of this, we threw together an early birthday celebration for Justin. For some reason, I kept thinking that because of all the last-minute running around, I would probably go into labor. Haha* That didn't happen. The weekend went smoothly, and my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and I even went to an antique and artisan festival!

Then came Wednesday, the 26th of August - two days away from our induction date. I had finally, at that point, started having to get up multiple times in the night to use the restroom. At 1:27 in the morning, I was in the bathroom and boom! I was pretty sure my water broke. Up to this point, I had not felt a single contraction, but the minute my water broke - let the contractions begin! I had downloaded a contraction timer app (the nurse at my OBGYN had recommended I download one so that I could time each contraction easily). It actually was super nice to be able to tell the doctor, when I called, how many I was having, how long they were, time in between, etc., and the timer made that VERY easy. At 6:01 AM, I called the emergency line of my OBGYN. The on-call doctor told me to keep timing the contractions and call back at 8:00. I did, and they immediately scheduled me to come in to confirm that my water had indeed broke.

Justin called his guys to let them know he would not be coming in to work. Hospital bags and diaper bag loaded, we hopped in the car. Sure enough, the doctor checked me: my water did break, and I was dilated to one. They called our hospital and let them know that we were on our way. This all seemed to happen SO fast. We got there, parked, unloaded, got to our floor, and started to fill out the paperwork. After a little while, a room was ready ... let the process begin. All day, we sat through contractions ... waiting for something to happen. They got more and more painful very quickly because of the pitocin, but I was only dilated to 3 when it got close to late evening. So that I could sleep and rest up for the pushing, I asked for the epidural. The rest of the night, our second nurse worked hard to get me to dilate. I finally reached 10 around midnight and pushed from midnight to around 4:00. After those four hours of pushing, our doctor told us that nothing was changing, he wasn't budging, and we would have to have a c-section. I was okay with this and, quite frankly, had expected it the entire time I was pregnant.

Everything had been pretty calm up to that point, but then they lost Max's heart rate/heartbeat. It got VERY busy very quickly. They helped me flip to my hands and knees and put me on oxygen while trying to get his heartbeat back up on the screen. Once they succeeded, I was given another "heavier" dose of the epidural to numb me for a c-section. Then I was wheeled to the operating room. I remember all of it and knew what was going on, but it seemed like it was kind of a dream. They strapped me down, got me comfortable, and then let Justin into the room. I kept my eyes shut 1. because I didn't want to see all the chaos and many, many people around me (hearing it was enough) and 2. I was exhausted. All I felt was pressure, pressure, pushing, and pressure until ... a baby started screaming his lungs out, and then all I felt was relief. Everyone kept saying how big he was, and he apparently peed on four of the nurses. Haha*

After they wrote down all the stats for Max and cleaned him up, they wrapped him and handed him to Justin. It was a good while before they had me ready to go back to our room. But when they finally did finish up, Max was handed to me for the first time. He didn't seem very big to me! Just a little tiny bundle. He was born at 4:58 AM on August 27, 2020 at 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 inches long. (It was originally 20, but at his first appointment three days later he had "grown an inch." Haha* Which meant he had just been measured wrong at the hospital.)

The rest of our stay was pretty calm. It took a lot of getting used to moving without 100% using my stomach muscles! A lot of pushing myself up and around with my arms and legs. Because of COVID, we couldn't have any visitors. However, we had SO many family and friends who brought food to the doors of the hospital (where Justin could go down and meet them). We are still so so thankful for that! It was a weird time, but also intimate because it was just the three of us for a couple days. Then we got to go home on Saturday evening ... what a car ride! I was scared of everything and any driver. Haha* Once we got home, our mailbox and house had been sweetly decorated in blue by my mom and sister-in-law! On this evening, Max met his two sets of grandparents for the first time.

Well ... there you have it! A not-very-detailed story, but it's his story nonetheless. We have officially been hanging with Max for almost 3 weeks now, and this story seems like AGES ago. How is that possible? Also, how is it possible that he doesn't fit his newborn clothes anymore!?! What people say is true - it goes by fast ... even the first few weeks apparently! *crying*

Here are some pictures of our journey from August 26th-August 29th: