I've been super slacking on keeping this blog updated, but I wanted to write down Jack's birth story somewhere so I wouldn't forget the details, and this seemed as good a place as any!
Let's start with the pregnancy since I haven't written anything about that either!
We found out I was pregnant while on vacation in Hawaii (July 2016)! I was a few days late and so we hunted down a test in our resort and lo and behold! We got the happy news, the day before we left. It was a fantastic way to end the vacation, and the resort even celebrated with fireworks for us. (I kid, but really they have some every friday night) I was tempted to tell random strangers cause I was so excited..haha! Of course we were hoping for a boy, but I was just glad for our baby!
My morning sickness started almost right away, from about 5 weeks to 16 weeks, which was way different than the girls pregnancies...my morning sickness with them was very mild and only at night (and from 6 to 11 weeks), my morning sickness with Jack was killer! throwing up, gagging when I brushed my teeth, smells...so much affected me! And I started showing around 13 weeks or so it was a good thing I was telling people by then! My second trimester was fairly uneventful-the morning sickness was better, although I would still throw up when brushing my teeth (darn gag reflex). I was growing right on schedule, but we had to wait until 20 weeks to find out the gender. (as opposed to 16 or 17 weeks like the girls) It went so slowly! I was fairly sure it was a boy because of how different the pregnancy had been, but of course I still had doubts. When we went in for the ultrasound I was sooo nervous. I really really wanted a boy! I wouldn't even look at the screen for the first few moments. Until the tech said "It's a BOY!" and I said "REALLY?!" then burst out into tears of happiness. I didn't believe it was true until we left and she still hadn't said "oh just kidding it's a girl". I mean I obviously LOVE having my girls but was dying for a mommas boy.
After that the pregnancy flew by! Until about 30 weeks it started to get old...lol. Then at 34 weeks, after a nasty cough/cold, I injured my side/rib/back by coughing too hard. I think it was a bruised or sprained rib but the docs never said. It wasn't broken at least, but it was super painful. After the first visit about the pain, where they said they could do nothing, I spent a night in agony as my back muscles spasmed out of control, and very very painfully. I was pretty much sobbing all night in the nursery chair trying to control the pain with tylenol. yah that did nothing. I finally called the advice line and told them about the amount of pain I was in and they counseled me to come to the ER for something stronger. Woke up Rory and went in about 5am, after my mom came to watch the girls. We got there and I got some stronger medication and ex-rays and was able to rest. Went home and rested some more. I couldn't move around without pain for about 2 weeks, including sleeping. That was rough! I was lucky to have amazing friends, family, and Rory around to pick up the slack for me. That first week I didn't have Ava or the girls all day, friends shuffled them around, took them to school and picked them up for me. It was so amazing and crucial for me to get better. It took about 3 full weeks before I was back to normal, and by then I was DONE being pregnant, lol!
Skip to about 39 weeks, I wanted to get this baby OUT! Was eating pineapple, going for walks, pumping, etc to try and jump start labor. I went in for my last appt on Friday April 1st and the doctor stripped my membranes and said I was at 2 centimeters. I was happy about that, but knew I could walk around like that for awhile. I had steady contractions all that afternoon but they never got painful, and eventually went away around dinner time. The same thing happened Saturday and Sunday, contractions during the day but never went anywhere. Monday I had some again, and also had Rory rub my feet (the ankles have a spot that can trigger labor) for awhile. I guess that finally worked! don't really know, haha, but I woke up at 2:30am thinking "hmm that hurt". So I figured I should time them. They were about 2 minutes apart and I knew it was time.Woke up Rory, called Kaiser to tell them we were coming, called my mom to come over. Me "Mom I think it's a good day to have a baby, don't you?" Her "vrooommm" in the car. haha!
While we were gathering the bags, I felt nauseous and went into the bathroom to throw up i thought, dry heaved and instead, my water broke! lol! I cleaned up, changed and we climbed in the truck. The whole way up I had more and more contractions that were getting more painful. When we got to the hospital, we parked in the ER lane and I sent Rory to get a wheelchair. Instead, the nurse and a few others HUSTLED and I mean hustled, over to the car asking me if I felt like I needed to push. hehe I guess they had had some births recently in the parking lot! I assured them I was not ready for that stage yet and we headed inside. I got checked in and changed and they checked me-I was at a 5! They also started monitoring me, and also asked if I wanted an epidural. I had had one with Ava that went perfectly so I was on board to get one again. Famous last words. They had to try FOUR times to get the catheter in the right spot, and it took TWO anesthesiologists to do it. It took over an hour of hunching over, trying to stay perfectly still, all while having contractions. EEESHK. After all that, it only worked on my right side, so I could feel all the contractions on my left side. It still made it half as painful, but I don't know if I would have gotten it had I known how it would work out. Eh! Still got a baby out of the deal! So about 6 am I started feeling what I could from the epidural, and that did help. I was also on oxygen during the whole thing, as Jack's heart rate was going up and down I guess. They checked me again and I was at a 7. yay! 6:40-8 centimeters, and this is when the epidural started not working on the left side. sad face. :(
At 8:00 I was feeling pressure and at a 10! 8:05 I started pushing and he was born 3 or 4 pushes later, at 8:10 am! He had the cord around his neck a little as he was coming out, but he was fine, albeit pretty blue. They rubbed him down and he pinked up really quickly and started howling!
I also cut the cord this time, which neither Rory or I had done before. I figured, this is my last, might as well do it! It was pretty cool! We spent an hour with him on me doing skin to skin and then they cleaned him up and moved us to recovery.
It was less than 6 hours from start to finish, (I wanted a quick labor for this one!) and also a middle of the night rush to the hospital (never had one of those before), so I got to check off two things from my birthing wish list this time! Very happy how it worked out and happy to have sweet baby Jack in our family!
p.s. He IS a momma's boy.
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