Jackson Francis

I am starting this blog to help myself remember all of the little moments, and of course to share them with our loved ones and friends! At 6 weeks out I feel like I am already getting fuzzy about the beginning so I had better get started!!!! A good place to start....with the story of Jack's birth.


Jackson's Birth Story

My pregnancy started out probably like most first time mommies.... I really had no idea what to expect. I figured that I would just go through it with an open mind not discrediting anything. I figured that I would be told as I went along what was right and wrong, good and bad, by my doctors. Not so much. After a brutal first trimester of being sick constantly for 3 1/2 months, I read a book about natural birthing by chance in the beginning of my second trimester and of course it raised a lot of questions, but also scared me to death. Still I vowed to keep an open mind. How interesting that I would visit my practice and take the book with me to ask questions...I ended up leaving the appointment feeling so horrible. I was told "you will never be able to have a natural birth" and "you will begging us to do a C-section after 12 hours of pain" and "no one does that anymore, why would you want to?" I felt so defeated and saddened. Inside of me my little baby was already helping to guide me in the right direction. I decided that now that was my only option. I would have a natural birth. I talked to friends and family members who delivered naturally and all said it was one of the best experiences of their lives! I read many different books on natural birth and took prenatal yoga (ha ha...I really thought it would help with the pain). I took my vitamins and tried to eat as healthy as possible and stay active. Through all of my self convincing, I still had a big decision to make. Should I stay with my practice or not? I decided after meeting with the midwife and the other doctor (whom I both respect and love) that I would stay with them (not see the other guy at all) and hire a doula.

I feel very blessed to be able to say that Frank was very supportive of the entire process. He only questioned me briefly, asking why I wouldn't want drugs, and why do we need a doula when we have a doctor. After talking and doing some of his own research, he was on board and so supportive.

Fast forward to March 10th 2009....after a wonderful rest of my pregnancy, I was in labor! I wasn't sure at first....but after timing contractions (mild ones) for a couple of hours, I called my doula and she was on her way. The plan...to labor at home until I was ready to just about push the baby out! Best laid plans though right? After an entire day of these mildly uncomfortable contractions (which by the way I was able to breathe through very easily and I thought this will be a piece of cake...ha ha) we decided to speed up the process a bit by taking some kind of herbal supplement and then some castor oil (ew). By 9:30 at night my teeth started chattering and my doula said I was probably in transition. Oh, and, the contractions started to get stronger. Off to the hospital we went, after of course Frank ran back in the house at least 3 times to check things! After a crazy ride to the hospital I was admitted to find out I was only 5 cm dialated. WTF! was my initial thought. The rest of the night was pretty much a lot of walking the halls, sleeping in between contractions, and the waking everyone up every 4 mins with my screaming! I did manage to get out to visit my awesome friends and family ~my mom, Frank's mom & dad, my brother & Maggie, and Gail~ that spent ALL NIGHT at the hopital. Finally by 10:30 in the morning when my doctor came in again, I was about 9 cm with no broken water. The suggested I break my water to speed up the process. I have no idea what I thought was going to happen, but I was so scared to do anything, but after a little coaxing (alright a lot of coaxing) from Frank and Ananga-manjari, the broke my water and soon after, with only a few pushes, out came Jackson Francis Drachowski at 11:36 am. (Yes for anybody that has been counting that is almost 26 hours of Labor!) I do have to say when he came into the world he was perfect, and it was a truely special moment. We were very blessed to get to keep him with us for the first hour or so to bond and then Frank got to give him his first bath! Jack weighed in at 7lbs 15 oz and was 20 1/4in on March 11th 2009. Even though it was a very long and difficult labor, and I swore for the first week that let alone having another natural labor I would never have another child, I would now do it again in a heartbeat. It was such an amazing experience - the hardest one of my life - but so worth it to be so aware of life and have our baby be so alert and aware of life as well.

As for now, 6 weeks later, I am completely back to normal (well almost) and the scars of childbirth have healed into a love that is unexplainable!