Jackson is definitely a perfect little angel! My sister asked me if being a mother was better or worse than I imagined, and honestly its both! Nights are definitely much harder than I ever imagined, people always told me to get my sleep during the pregnancy because I wouldn't get any after but I never imagined it like this. His first few days he slept really good but lately he's been waking up every 2 1/2 hours. That wouldn't be so bad but each feeding turns into an hour affair because of the feeding, burping and diapering.
On the other hand I couldn't have imagined a more perfect and sweet baby boy! I love everything about him, from the cute, funny faces he makes to his raspy little cries. I love his dark hair and dark skin and the fact that everyone thinks he looks like Brian. I love how when I'm feeding him he'll raise his eyebrows once he's falling asleep. He's the most beautiful little boy!
Monday, June 14th
Brian and I went to the hospital at 8:00 am to be induced. The doctor didn't want Jackson getting too big so he didn't want me going too far pass my due date so he had me go in 2 days before. I guess that there were 2 emergency c-sections that morning too, I couldn't get the Cervadil to dilate me further (I went in not even dilated to a 1) until 11:30 am. So we spent all day Monday not really doing much so we ended up watching the first few episodes on Lost (thank goodness for Netflix!) and reading and playing cards. At midnight they checked me again and I was dilated to a 2.
Tuesday, June 17th
On Tuesday they started me on Pitocin at 11:00 am to give me contractions. The cervadil had worked in dilating me some but my contractions weren't that painful so I wasn't sure if they were actually doing anything. I had heard from a few people that as soon as they received the pitocin they had incredibly painful contractions and wanted an epidural right away. But I didn't feel any difference in my contractions once I got the pitocin so at 2:00 pm they broke my water. After that I really didn't feel much of a difference until 3:00 pm but once they started hurting they really hurt and I ended up asking for the epidural at 3:25, the anesthesiologist came in at 3:45, and by 4:00 I was completely numb.
I guess I should point out that I have always said that I wanted an epidural. I just knew I wanted to hold off getting the epidural as long as possible. So after I got the epidural I just kept saying, "Brian, I feel so relaxed" and "I'm so glad I got this when I did". I even got to take a nap and watched the NBA finals in total relaxation. (This made Brian really happy!)
At 11:00 pm the epidural started wearing off on my left side. The anesthesiologist was called in and said that the epidural had drifted a little and thats why it was only numbing my right side, so he adjusted it, gave me a hit of the epidural, and laid me down flat. Once they laid me down it started numbing my entire body so it started constricting my airway so I couldn't barely breathe and it started numbing my head and neck so I couldn't lift up my head at all as they were trying to move me. Then my eyes started rolling into the back of my head and I felt like I was going to pass out, and they put an oxygen mask on me to help me breathe. I guess that the epidural pierced the membrane in my spine and drifted into my spinal column so they said I had to go the rest of the delivery without an epidural and I was only dilated to a 6 at the time. Brian told me later that he was so scared because they pulled out the tools to open up my throat and push tubing into my lungs to force air in for me.
My nurse Lindy was so sweet, she had just had a baby boy 4 months ago and she had always planned on having an epidural. When the anesthesiologist came in he automatically said, "We will probably have to take it out" before he even checked me or anything, and Lindy seemed to stay positive because I know she was really pulling for me. Later that night I was crying to Brian because I was really scared at being so unprepared for having the baby with no drugs and she walked in and when I told her that she almost started crying because she was so sympathetic for me. She actually made me feel a lot better because she seemed so concerned and really wanted to help me. She even stayed in my room for a long time after they took out the epidural to make sure I was okay.
Wednesday, June 16th
So once they took the needle out of the epidural space my body was slowing regaining feeling. Both my legs were numb from when the anesthesiologist adjusted the epidural but my back and stomach were the first to regain feeling so I was tied down to the bed all night but still able to feel every contraction. Brian was amazing during the night, helping me get through each contraction, which were happening every 1-3 minutes. Sometimes between contractions I didn't feel any relief at all it seemed like. They did give me fentanyl every hour, but it didn't do anything for the pain it just made me drowsy to help me sort of sleep through the contractions. I don't know why it came to my head but I asked Brian to talk about the Monterey Bay Aquarium to distract me during them. Something about the dim lighting and the fish slowing swimming by and the swaying of the water seemed so relaxing.
Around 6:30 a.m. I started getting the urge to push, but every time they checked me I was pretty much dilated to a 10 but there was still a little bit of cervix and I guess if you start pushing while there is still cervix it could cause swelling so they told me to not push which was one of the most painful things. I really think that I called the nurse in every 5 minutes to have her check me to see if I could start pushing because my body would start to push and I had to hold it back which was really painful. At 6:50 a.m. she eventually just told me to push even though I think there was still a little cervix but she could see how much pain I was in and let me anyways. The nurses change shifts at 7 so 10 minutes after I started pushing my favorite nurse Lindy had to leave which made me sad because I felt like I really bonded with her.
After the first few pushes we could already see his head and all his dark hair which made me think that things were going to progress really quickly so they got me a mirror to watch everything. I didn't really use it though because every time they told me to look I was pushing and usually had my eyes closed because I was in so much pain. I swear I asked every 10 minutes how much longer it would take and the nurse kept telling me "I can't say when the baby's going to be born!" When she said Dr. Monroy would be there in about 20 minutes I asked if he would get there in time, because the nurse kept telling me how good I was pushing and how much progress I was making so I thought it was going to be a quick delivery. Looking back that seems so comical because now I realize I ended up pushing for 2 hours and Dr. Monroy definitely had time to get there. For some reason I thought that once the head was out everything else would be smooth sailing so I was really surprised when they told me to keep pushing and I think my body was ready to be done.
He was born at 8:50 a.m. on June 16th! He weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 3/4 inches long.
Thursday-Monday, June 17th-21st
I had had a headache and neck pain ever since the delivery, but figured that it was just from the delivery and them telling me to put my chin on my chest while pushing. By the next day it had only gotten worse and my OBGYN told me that it might have been a spinal headache, so we called in an anesthesiologist and he said it probably was and decided to give me a blood patch. Probably what happened is that the epidural had pierced the membrane and I was leaking spinal fluid. A blood patch is where they take 20 ml of blood and inject it into your spinal column and the idea is that the blood would patch up the leak. Its injected through the same place with the same needles as the epidural, so by the time I got rid of the headache I had pretty much had 4 epidurals(and 8 shots or IV's). Unfortunately it stopped working 2 days later so on Sunday I went into the ER and they gave me an IV with extremely caffeinated fluids and peppermint oil to rub on my neck. That worked immediately but by the end of the night it stopped working and I had to go back into the ER on Monday to get a second blood patch. It was so hard trying to take care of a newborn baby and really enjoy him when I had such a terrible migraine. I had to lay down constantly and on the rare occasion I had to get up to go to the bathroom I felt nautious and had to lay back down immediately. Luckily Jackson is such a perfect baby and I have such a wonderful husband they made it really easy on me.
My wonderful sister Michelle came on Saturday to help out with the baby. Its been so fun taking pictures and I can't wait to put them on here! She's also being nice enough to make the birth announcement, she really has sacrificed so much for us! She was away from her husband on Father's Day and drove all the way from Arizona alone with her 3 boys to help out and its been great having someone to hold Jackson and help with the cooking and cleaning and everything.
Brian's mom was so nice to come have a "slumber party" with Jackson as she called it. She stayed at our house 2 nights to take care of Jackson when he woke up, to change hime, burp him, and even give him a bottle once so that we ended up getting more than 8 hours sleep those nights, which was AMAZING. We are so lucky to have family around supporting us. We had daily visits from my dad, Brian's parents and my grandpa.
These pictures are from his first bath, something he doesn't particularly love but he stills takes it very well. While we were washing him he was screaming his head off but as soon as we put him back in his towell he was a perfect little angel!
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