Jackson has arrived. He was born May 7th at 3:26pm. He weighed 7lbs 8 ounces and was 20 1/4 in long. Here is the story of his birth.
It was Tuesday night May 6th, I had been on bedrest for the last week for high blood pressure (180/100). I had seen my doctor the morning of May 6th and I had hoped to convince him to induce me on Thur May 8th. That would have made Jackson's birthday 5/8/08, Emma's birthday is 3/5/05, so that would have been neat. Anyways, because my BP was down he wanted me to remain on bedrest for another week until I was 38 weeks. I was so upset, being on bedrest was eating into my maternity leave, at this point I wanted to go ahead and have the baby. Plus my husband was in limbo with working, because I was on bedrest he had to stay home a lot and help take care of Emma. Luckily, I have a ton of great friend that helped out with Emma in the morning. Anyways, back to Tuesday. Even though the doctor didn't want to induce me my body said it was time to have the baby! That night before dinner I took Emma on a short walk outside, I was tired of being on bedrest and I needed some fresh air, well, that must have helped put me in labor because when I got home I started having contractions. The contractions started getting more consistent around 9pm and more intense around 11pm so I called the doctor. Luckily it was my own doctor on call and he told me to come in. I called my good friend Amy who just happened to be getting off the 3-11 shift at work (she's also a RN). She was so kind to come over and sleep on our futon while we went to the hospital. At the time we weren't sure if we were going to be sent home from the hospital or stay and deliver the baby so we hated to wake
Emma and disrupt her if we were just going to be back home in a few hours. (Amy took our picture before we left). We got to the hospital shortly after midnight. After getting all set up in a triage room and laying in bed, of course, my contractions slowed down. The nurse checked me and I was only dilated to 1cm. She called the doctor and he wanted me to be rechecked in two hours. Luckily the nurse let me get up and walk the halls because it felt better to be moving instead of just laying in bed. So after an hour or so of walking she rechecked me and I had changed to 2cm!
So my doctor said I could stay and have the baby and that he would be in around 6 am to check me, at this point it was about 3am. They moved me from the triage bed to a labor and delivery room. Yea!! I can stay and have the baby! Here's a picture of me happy about that.
They had a labor ball that I could sit on and use if I wanted. I did that some and Kevin and I were off to walk some more. I pretty much walked the halls from 1:00am-6am. I even walked the halls alone and let Kevin take a nap from about 4-6 am so that he would be some help to me during the delivery, aren't I such a good wife? My doctor came in at 6am and checked me and I was dilated to 3cm. He said I could have my epidural so that he could rupture my bag of water afterward. I was thrilled to be able to get my epidural. At this point I had been laboring naturally and that wasn't in my birth plan at all! Haha. I had planned on coming into the hospital getting hooked up to the epidural and having a baby pain free, not all this walking and feeling every contraction stuff! That's for the birds! Anyways, my epidural placement when smoothly and I was much happier for it. The doc came in and broke my water. We called my mom around 7am to let her know not to go to work. Around 10 or 11 am my contractions started to stall so they started me on a little pitocin.
That didn't last long though because the baby didn't tolerate it much at all. The nurses kept coming in and staring at the heartbeat strip and they started me on an oxygen mask. Now that is never a good sign. The
doctor came in and also watched the strip. Now why would they do that in the room when I know that can watch it out at the desk and not get me all worked up about it? Needless to say they turned if off and decided to see if my body would continue to labor on it's own. Luckily for me it did, otherwise I would have ended up with a C-Section. So I labored all afternoon. I tried to take it easy and nap. I remember we were watching the Animal Planet channel most of the afternoon. The nurses would come in every hour or so and turn me and prop me up with pillows. Kevin and my mom would feed me ice chips, apply chap stick, or put a cool wet cloth to my forehead. At 3pm the doctor came to check me and said I was almost fully dilated and he would be back in to check me in 30 min.
About 10 minutes after he left I started to really feel my contractions. I remember that the show Meerkat Manor was on and it was annoying me and I asked them to turn it off, hehehe. After several really good contractions I need to bear down and push, we called the nurses in and they called for the doctor. I unintentionally pushed on my side for two contractions while we waited for the doctor, I remember saying "the baby's coming, where's the Doctor". The doctor got there, they put me in stirrups and I pushed during two more contractions and Jackson was born!
This time around was so much better, I only pushed for 4 contractions instead of an hour and a half! I didn't have excruciating tailbone pain, and I didn't need an episiotomy! The doctor and nurses followed my birth plan very well. I got to use a mirror and see Jackson being born and they also put him on my tummy so that I could see him!
The nurses also did his admission in the room, which as a nursery nurse I know is a big deal, I really appreciated that. His first feeding he breastfed like a champ! I had a difficult time with Emma in the delivery room but Jackson latched right on and nursed for 20 minutes on both sides.
In doing so that gave him his first nickname of "Hungry Jack". My delivery of Jackson was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad he's here.
(I'll post more pictures of Jackson's in the hospital in another post)
First time Emma got to hold Jackson she wasn't so sure of things, now she wants to hold him all the time.
and I was eager to get home to see her, it was the longest we've gone with out seeing her, we hadn't seen her since Tue night . Emma ended up staying Wednesday with Amy's family and then my friend Laura drove in from Tyler and kept Emma at the house until we got 
home on Thur. I have such great friends! I don't know what I would do without them sometimes. Laura got up on Friday morning and cooked us the yummiest breakfast ever!!! I was so sad to see her leave on Sat. She even cleaned my toilets for me while I was in the hospital, I'm still not sure if I should be embarrassed or not! =) Oh, and Amy bought us some toilet paper, hehe, when she came over to watch Emma Tue night we had been low (one roll in the whole house) . I had intended to go out and get some the next day, but turned out I was at the hospital having a baby! Amy didn't want us to come home to no TP so she brought some over, what a friend.
Anyways, back to Thursday, when we came home Emma and Maddie were napping so that gave us some time to settle in. When Emma woke up Kevin and I went in to see her, we thought she would be so happy to see us since it had been a few days. Boy were we wrong. She crawled out of bed, barely said a word to us and went into the "park" to play. She didn't really speak to us until we told her we brought baby Jackson home, then she perked up a bit. She only shunned us for about 20 min then everything was back to normal. She just loves her baby brother, she calls him "my baby".
Emma and disrupt her if we were just going to be back home in a few hours. (Amy took our picture before we left). We got to the hospital shortly after midnight. After getting all set up in a triage room and laying in bed, of course, my contractions slowed down. The nurse checked me and I was only dilated to 1cm. She called the doctor and he wanted me to be rechecked in two hours. Luckily the nurse let me get up and walk the halls because it felt better to be moving instead of just laying in bed. So after an hour or so of walking she rechecked me and I had changed to 2cm! 
So my doctor said I could stay and have the baby and that he would be in around 6 am to check me, at this point it was about 3am. They moved me from the triage bed to a labor and delivery room. Yea!! I can stay and have the baby! Here's a picture of me happy about that. 
They had a labor ball that I could sit on and use if I wanted. I did that some and Kevin and I were off to walk some more. I pretty much walked the halls from 1:00am-6am. I even walked the halls alone and let Kevin take a nap from about 4-6 am so that he would be some help to me during the delivery, aren't I such a good wife? My doctor came in at 6am and checked me and I was dilated to 3cm. He said I could have my epidural so that he could rupture my bag of water afterward. I was thrilled to be able to get my epidural. At this point I had been laboring naturally and that wasn't in my birth plan at all! Haha. I had planned on coming into the hospital getting hooked up to the epidural and having a baby pain free, not all this walking and feeling every contraction stuff! That's for the birds! Anyways, my epidural placement when smoothly and I was much happier for it. The doc came in and broke my water. We called my mom around 7am to let her know not to go to work. Around 10 or 11 am my contractions started to stall so they started me on a little pitocin. 
That didn't last long though because the baby didn't tolerate it much at all. The nurses kept coming in and staring at the heartbeat strip and they started me on an oxygen mask. Now that is never a good sign. The 
doctor came in and also watched the strip. Now why would they do that in the room when I know that can watch it out at the desk and not get me all worked up about it? Needless to say they turned if off and decided to see if my body would continue to labor on it's own. Luckily for me it did, otherwise I would have ended up with a C-Section. So I labored all afternoon. I tried to take it easy and nap. I remember we were watching the Animal Planet channel most of the afternoon. The nurses would come in every hour or so and turn me and prop me up with pillows. Kevin and my mom would feed me ice chips, apply chap stick, or put a cool wet cloth to my forehead. At 3pm the doctor came to check me and said I was almost fully dilated and he would be back in to check me in 30 min. 
About 10 minutes after he left I started to really feel my contractions. I remember that the show Meerkat Manor was on and it was annoying me and I asked them to turn it off, hehehe. After several really good contractions I need to bear down and push, we called the nurses in and they called for the doctor. I unintentionally pushed on my side for two contractions while we waited for the doctor, I remember saying "the baby's coming, where's the Doctor". The doctor got there, they put me in stirrups and I pushed during two more contractions and Jackson was born! 
This time around was so much better, I only pushed for 4 contractions instead of an hour and a half! I didn't have excruciating tailbone pain, and I didn't need an episiotomy! The doctor and nurses followed my birth plan very well. I got to use a mirror and see Jackson being born and they also put him on my tummy so that I could see him! 
The nurses also did his admission in the room, which as a nursery nurse I know is a big deal, I really appreciated that. His first feeding he breastfed like a champ! I had a difficult time with Emma in the delivery room but Jackson latched right on and nursed for 20 minutes on both sides. 
In doing so that gave him his first nickname of "Hungry Jack". My delivery of Jackson was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad he's here.
to a sibling class this afternoon. It was only an hour and it was free since I work at the hospital. The kids saw a video about babies. Then they got to play with baby dolls and talk about what babies can and cannot do. Then we toured the hospital. I won't be delivering at my hospital but at least Emma can see a hospital room and get an idea about where I will be. I have actually been talking with
Emma the last few nights about me spending the night in the hospital and how I won't be able to snuggle at night with her but that Mema or Mrs. Laura will. I then tell her when I come home from the hospital I will get to snuggle 
with her again. (Hopefully I won't end up with a C/S and not be able to crawl into bed with her). The last few night she has asked me to tell her the story about me staying in the hospital. I can tell she doesn't like the idea but at least tonight she didn't tell me that she only wanted me to snuggle with her. 
Hopefully this will help when she needs to stay with my mom or Laura. Anyways, back to the class. Emma loved it. She said several times that she was having "so much fun". I am actually surprised at how much she seemed to enjoy the class. She is really going to be a fantastic big sister!
Here is the final result of Emma's dance out fit with her hair and makeup done. Personally I think it looks a little weird with her all dolled up, but she liked it.
