Mattox's Birth Story

After I had Evan post his due date weighing only 6 lb. 4 oz., I thought that this would be the normal for the rest of my babies.  All of my brother's children have been less than 7 lbs. full term, and we just seem to make smaller babies.  Then, Brody came along at a surprising and healthy 8 lbs. 9 oz.  Then, when Mattie weighed a healthy 8 lbs. we figured Brody and Mattie were our "normal" babies.  So when every ultrasound tech predicted our sweet Mattox would weigh in the 8 lb. range, we figured that was probably pretty accurate.  After all, I definitely gained plenty of weight with this pregnancy.  So when our little guy emerged screaming into the world (with a very healthy set of lungs) weighing 6 lbs. 13 oz., we were again surprised.  So I guess the lesson here is, you just never know what you are going to get.   Mattox's birth story really did have a perfect ending after so many months of anxiety waiting for his arrival.  Here's the story:

We had been scheduled for an induction on Sunday, March 1, 2015 at exactly 39 weeks since back in January because we just could not handle the anxiety of going past our due date and the possibility of repeating our situation with Mattie.  We kept very close watch over Mattox's progress in those last months.  We were supposed to go in on Sunday at 7:30 a.m., and I knew what was up when my phone rang at 6:30 a.m.  I had been through the induction drill before with both Evan and Brody.  With Brody, we were scheduled for induction after his due date and got a call just before leaving for the hospital that they were full, and we would have to wait.  We waited three days for them to get us rescheduled!  I was not going to have that happen again.  When I took the call Sunday morning and listened to the nurse making excuses for the hospital, I told her point blank I was still coming into labor and delivery triage to be checked out and to see my physician on call.  We arrived and were monitored for over an hour and did see my physician.  Although she did ultimately say we had to go home, she promised they would call me back later that day.  So we went home, spent time with the boys, went to eat lunch, and then got called back at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  We were ready to go!  We arrived and were monitored for a couple of hours to check my progress.  I was having some contractions on my own that when lying down did get more regular at about 10 minutes apart.  Those contractions just were not strong enough to make any cervix changes so I still needed pitocin.  We were given the option of taking an oral medication to help prepare my cervix, but  after talking to my physician, we opted to just go with pitocin mostly because with the oral medication, once you take it, you cannot stop it.  With pitocin being an IV drip, you can increase, decrease, or stop it if you need to take a break or get things moving faster.  As expected, we would need a lot of pitocin to get us to active labor.  We started at about 4:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon and proceeded to have a very uncomfortable night in those horrible birthing beds.  Ugh, my poor back!  I spent way too many nights in that bed.  The next morning we had not made much progress so they let me take a break, eat breakfast, and take a shower before we started the process again.  I was very thankful for that last meal and shower since it would be a long day and night before anything happened.  We were checked about every four hours for cervix changes while being monitored during the more intense pitocin induced contractions.  Thankfully, we didn't have any scares with Mattox's heart rate although he did start trying to move away from the monitors and made us have to find him again.  Finally, after 7:00 p.m., we met with the nurse midwife on call (we went through three of them) and the physician on call and decided I was dilated enough to break my water.  From past experience, I knew that if we could just get to this point, things would speed up rapidly.  It isn't a lovely experience having your water broken, but I was relieved.  The doctor and midwife were concerned that Mattox's head was still bobbing up away from the cervix a lot and that there may be more risks for the cord getting in the way if we broke my water too soon.  They were able to press and hold Mattox down low enough to break my water and prevent this risk.  Since Mattie passed from a similar cord issue, we were thankful they were being so cautious.  Once my water was broken, we watched and felt the contractions get more intense.  I finally got an epidural at about 9:00 or 9:30 p.m. and then we were able to get a little rest for a few hours.  I awoke at 12:00 a.m. knowing that I would now have a March 3rd baby.  When I awoke, my nurse came in to check on me and helped me turn to my other side.  From there, things sped up very fast and by 12:15 a.m., I was starting to feel a lot of pressure and need to push.  The nurse midwife came in quickly and checked me to confirm we were finally at 10 cm.  They began making all the preparations and I pushed through two contractions.  On the second contraction, the midwife told me to rest a minute and turned around to get a drape to put down on the floor for clean up, but I told her I could not stop, and she quickly turned around to "catch" Mattox.  That was the quickest active labor I have ever experienced.  Once he got started, he did not want to wait!  He came out, and we immediately heard his little cry and were so thankful.  I held him immediately until they took him to clean him up and check him out.

He was born at 12:43 a.m. and the rest is history!  Mattox seemed to look the most like his big brother Evan with more blond hair than red.  He is small and perfect, and we actually get to use a few of those newborn outfits we never got to use for Brody!

Getting all checked out. 

The official weight check.

Looking slightly more content during his first bath.

Even opened his eyes a little. 

Striking a pose.

And finally time for a little sleep after a very late night. 

We just love that little face!