Jackson's Birth Story

So, Jackson turned 3 weeks old yesterday, and I am finally able to sit down for a few minutes to give a quick run down of the events on the day he was born. I am maining writing this here so that I don't forget the details and will hopefully document it later in his baby book. :) So... here it goes:

October 20, 2009:

The day started very early. The night before we took Gracie to her Grandma Peg's and Pappaw John's so that we wouldn't have to wake her early in the morning to take here there. We had to be at the hospital at 5:15 that morning, so we wanted to be able to just get up and go. So, before we took Grace, we took a few pictures, of course, to document our last night as a family of 3. Of course... I cried, but it was sweet.
As Grace left, I remembered what everyone told me about how big she was going to look compared to the baby. Even here in this picture, I still saw my baby girl... I still do. She looked so little to me, and still does. This was my baby girl....

Waving and saying good-bye to her momma... without hesitation.
I honestly couldn't grasp it... until we brought him home. More about that later! :)

As I said, the next morning started early... I think we ended up getting up around 4... maybe 4:15, it was a little foggy in my brain, I just know that it was early.

So, here I am... belly and all. I am not sure of the amount that I gained, but I think that it was around 25 lbs. I actually had gained quite a bit, but I ended up losing weight(I needed to... I was not told that, but I really needed to...). I had gained 5 lbs in one week, and then I started back on Weight Watcher's and after that... I lost 5 lbs about 3 weeks in a row. It was a good thing, and the Dr's were happy. My blood pressure, which was always an issue with Grace and even when I am not pregnant, stayed perfect my entire pregnancy.

Anyway... here we are... me and baby Jack.

An hour later... here I was. In bed, IV in(after 4 tries!). Don't I look lovely...
Before they got there, the nurse was trying to put my iv in, and as she was doing that, because I had not had anything to drink since midnight the night before, it was very hard for her to find my veins. I have never had such problems with an iv... however this time, I was bruised, an nearly passed out twice! And, I am not squeamish, but it almost happened! Terrible! So, once they finally got my iv in, and Doug came back in the room(he had to leave the room after the 2nd try and I almost passed out).

Not long after that, mom and dad got there to wait for the big event.

Finally, at 7:15 they took be back to to operating room to get things started, and get my spinal in. As I was back there getting ready, my hubby was given this really cute outfit to put on in preparation for the joyous occasion! LOL! I love it! LOL!

Once they got me back there they had a little trouble with the spinal. I thought that it was bad getting my IV, and honestly, the IV hurt worse, but the spinal took 5 times to get it right. Something that usually only takes about 15 minutes, took an hour to do on me. Poor Doug was sitting in the recovery room, waiting, and waiting. Finally, at 8:15 they went to get him and things got started.

Once the surgery started(I had a C-section, by the way... in case you hadn't gotten that yet! LOL!), it was only a short time before this beautiful boy made his debut! Turns out... he was breech! Thank God I was having a planned C-section, but it still threw my Docs for a loop. It is really funny, I asked that Doug video some of the c-section because I wanted to see it, and when the Dr's realized that he was breech, you can hear them saying something like... "wow, that was unexpected!". It was really amazing.... I could see the entire surgery in the mirrored lights above me, and when they were pulling Jackson out, the first thing that I noticed... he was pooping. Ok, I know that is gross, but... for anyone that knows the drama that we went through when Grace was born, this was very exciting for me. Grace was sent to Children's Hospital less than 24 hours after her birth because she has a bowel blockage and did not pass her first bowel movement. I was separated from her for 3 days and it was the worst 3 days of my life. So... I was very happy that my boy was a pooper... and still it!

And from there... it is pretty self explanitory... he weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and is a perfect little boy. Here are some more pictures to enjoy... I will write more later telling about his first 3 weeks being the baby brother!