McMullen's Making Memories: March 2013

Jaxon Garrett McMullen was born on March 25th, 2013 at 9:17pm. He weighed 7lbs, 4oz and was 20 1/2in long. Here is his story......

I woke up that morning feeling a little different. I had some lower back pain that felt a little different than what I had been feeling. I tried to push it to the back of my head. I didn't want to get my hopes up. The previous two weeks I had been having a lot more braxton hicks contractions and they had been getting stronger. Each day I would get up thinking "this is the day". Then nothing. I was getting pretty down, feeling very anxious and disappointed. I was sooooooo ready to meet my lil man. The Friday before I went with Kristin and Brooke to the gym and we did a lot of walking, lunges, and squats. Then we ate went to Mr. Yens and ate spicy food, and went to Target. (Target is where I started going into labor with Reese). We thought it was worth a shot. All that night and next day I was having really strong braxton hicks contractions but they were all over the place. I just knew he was coming.....then again, nothing. I was feeling pretty sad, and I just kept praying to God to help me not be anxious and just be patient. I knew God had a very special day planned for this sweet baby to be born. But I was ready NOW!! I knew it was going to be in God's timing and not mine but it was still hard. Anyways, I was feeling lower back pain and was pretty tired that day. Reese and I went over to Dallas' house and made him breakfast and spent a couple hours with him. The whole time I was feeling a little weird but tried not to think much of it. We got home and ate lunch and I kept going back and fourth on whether I should take a nap or a bath to ease the back pain. I decided to take a bath and I sure glad I did. As I was in there, I was praying for stuff and telling God that I'm done being anxious and I'm going to be patient. That I trust his timing and Jaxon will be born when God wants him to be. I had noticed that I hadn't felt him move all day. I started rubbing and poking around my belly to try and get him to move. He never did. This worried me a little because he has always been pretty active and I could get him to move easily by poking around my belly. I then started having some contractions. They were not painful at all. This was all at about 1:00. I then had a contraction that didn't go away. My stomach stayed rock hard but it didn't hurt at all. I then took a shower and the whole time my uterus was still contracted. I knew this wasn't normal. When I got out I messaged my friend Kristin who is in nursing school and asked if it were normal. She said to call my Dr. So I called and of course had to leave a message and wait for the nurse to call back. My stomach would soften just a tiny bit for a minute or so then it would go back to being rock hard. It stayed contracted for an hour. Finally the nurse called back and she asked me if the baby had been moving at all. I told her I hadn't felt him move much. She told me that I should go in to triage and be put on a monitor. My eyes immediately filled with tears but I knew I had to stay calm. I called Garrett and he came home, then shortly left for the hospital. On the way there it had stopped, I was thinking "Oh great, this is nothing and they will send me home". It contracted a few more times staying contracted for a little bit. We got there, checked in and went into the room and put me on a monitor. They baby was fine. My contractions were still irregular. They checked me and I was dilated to a 4-5. They had me walk around for an hour to see it I would progress. As we were walking I started having real contractions. They were getting pretty strong and hurting but were still irregular. When the hour was up I got checked again and I was dilated to a 6. The nurse said we will be having a baby soon!!! I was sooooo excited. They took us to the room I would deliver in and the Dr came in and said she would break my water soon and it would be shortly after that, that I would have this baby. We had to wait in the epidural and of course it took a while. Thank goodness I wasn't in a lot of pain. But the contractions were in my back making it pretty uncomfortable. I dreaded the epidural. I had a bad experience with Reese and I was scared. The Dr came in to give me the epidural and I was shaking. I was trying so hard to stop because I knew I couldn't move while he was putting it in. It was a lot better experience than the first time. It still hurt though. But it relieved the contractions. My contractions were getting to be about 2-3 minutes apart so the Dr came in and broke my water. They nurses got everything ready thinking it would be anytime. This was about 7:30. The Dr thought he would be born by at least 8:30. Well after she broke my water, its like things went backwards. My contractions were slowing down to about 7 min apart. I was dilated to a 9 for a long time. I had an awesome nurse though and she got me stretched to a 10. I only pushed for maybe 10 minutes and my sweet boy was born!!!

I wanted to take Reese and do something special before baby Jaxon arrives. Her little world if fixing to be turned upside down. I want to be sure to keep having these special days periodically.
We went to build a bear , where she got to pick out her animal and clothes. She had a pretty good time. I really wanted to get our nails painted but when we walked in the salon it was so strong, I didn't think I should be breathing in all that stuff. We ate lunch at McDonald's, had BIG cupcakes and did some shopping. We had a fun day together. I am really looking forward to meeting Jaxon but at the same time, more time with just Reese. She is getting so big. I cannot believe she will be two years old in a couple weeks!! She is my sweet, loving, compassionate, gentle sensitive, caring little girl. I have enjoyed so much these past two years with her and look forward to the years to follow with our two children. Oh how all our lives are fixing to change....for the better :)