1 Week Old and the Birth Story

I can't believe my baby is already 1 week old. He is so much fun! Naomi loves him to death! And it is so nice being able to trust her with him when I leave the room to get a diaper or something like that. When he left the hospital he was down 5 oz and Friday at his check up he had gained 2 oz back. Friday is his next check up and I'm pretty sure he'll be back to birth weight if not more by then.

Thought I'd start with a picture of my handsome Sleeping Jaxon.

Today Naomi helped me give Jaxon a bath. She loved it, if I let her she would have bathed him all by herself. He didn't mind the bath at all.

Before we got him dressed he made the funniest face.

I love this outfit! Guitar camo, can't get any better than that. Perfect for 1 week old pictures! If you look closely I got a partial smile. It looked like he was going to start giggling.

The Birth Story

(sorry if this is TMI but I wanted to write it down so I wouldn't forget anything)

At my last doctor's appointment, which was the day before my due date, I decided that I did not want to go a week over due so we scheduled the induction. My doctor was out of town for the weekend so we scheduled it for 3am on Monday July 25th (only 5 days over due).

Side note: before I get too far into this story I should tell you that my goal was to have a natural birth. And continue.

Sunday July 24th we dropped off Naomi at my sister-in-law's house so that we wouldn't have to get her up in the middle of the night to leave. Cory and I were too excited to sleep, but we did take short naps. At 2:15am I called the hospital and they said be here at 3am because they weren't busy. We get to the hospital at 3, get all the paperwork in order and get set up in a room.

My first nurse of the day, Stefanie, got the pitocin started by 4. I was still only dilated to a 3, kind of frustrating, but I decided that I would be happy as long as when the doctor checked me I was at least a 4. Nurse change came and Cherie was my nurse for the day. She was awesome, she got me an exercise ball that I sat on for most of the day. I hardly felt my contractions when I sat on the ball, so I was pretty happy. Doctor came and checked on me at 9am and yes I was dilated to a 4. He asked me if I wanted him to break my water and I stupidly decided to wait and see if it'd break on its own (next time I won't wait). So he said he'd come back around noon. Well at 2pm he came and broke my water, that was probably the most pain I had felt so far that day. The contractions really started going and moaning through them really helped. Cory was so awesome, he helped me to focus and was so encouraging. He was ready to help me get through all the contractions and he was my rock. Around 4pm I asked my nurse for an IV drug to help with the pain. And that helped, so much that I got a nap. I woke up from my nap probably around 5pm and the contractions were even stronger. My doctor and the med student, Jenni, came in to see how I was doing. I was okay, Cory was so encouraging and was awesome but I was staring to get exhausted. He kept me going. But by 6:30pm I was dying and had no energy left; I was dilated to a 9 but it didn't seem like Jaxon was in a hurry to come out and I didn't think I had the energy to push him out so I asked for the epidural. My doctor hustled out of the room to get the anesthesiologist. While I was waiting for the epidural I threw up (luckily I had only eaten popsicles all day so it wasn't too bad). The anesthesiologist came in and wasted no time. She gave me a dose and came back to see if I needed more which I did because the epidural wasn't quite having an effect on the left side of my abdomen because I could still feel the painful contractions. It was shift change for her, so she introduced me to the new anesthesiologist but she stayed till I delivered anyway. Nurse shift change came so Mary Kay came in getting ready to deliver baby. My nurse Cherie was so awesome that she didn't leave until after Jaxon was born. So my epidural had kicked in by 7pm and it was time to start pushing. My doctor did an episiotomy to help get Jaxon's head out. But once his head was out his shoulders were stuck, so nurse Mary Kay pushed on my belly to help him pop out. After 33 minutes of pushing (7:33pm) Jaxon was here, all 9lbs 4oz of him. My doctor was really glad that I had decided to get the epidural when I did. They showed me my boy and then took him over to nurse Merrie Kay (yes a different nurse who had been in the room during delivery too) to have him checked. They said that Jaxon grabbed on to his umbilical cord for dear life and that he had a good grip on it. They called him my gerber baby because of his big cheeks. That's what they said about Naomi too, must be brother and sister. We called Naomi and told her Jaxon was born and she was so excited. It was her bedtime so we told her we'd see her in the morning.

It was a long day. Good day, but long. And I was so happy Jaxon was finally here. I went about 14 hours without an epidural and had an epidural for the last half hour or so. I may not have gone completely natural but I definitely don't feel like a failure.

So does Jaxon look like Naomi? I think so, what do you think. (Naomi on left and Jaxon on right)