The Hospital

On October 20th, 2011, two days over my due date my mom and I went into my doctor for a check up. At this point, I had been dilated to a 2 for three weeks so when my doctor said I was still a 2 I about screamed! I told him that for the past few days leading up to my appointment little dude had gotten very lethargic and would only move when prompted. He then ordered a non-stress decreased fetal movement test at the hospital and had me go directly there. He also might have mentioned that holding my breath for a couple of seconds could cause a dip in the baby's pressure which would allow him to induce labor earlier than my week over inducement date. The only part of the scenario that sucked was I hadn't eaten because I was running late for my appointment. So my mom and I headed directly over to the hospital and they hooked me up to the fetal monitor. After about an hour and a few breath holds, the nurse came in and said she and my doctor reviewed the monitoring session and decided to induce my labor because there had been a slight momentary dip in little man's pressure. So I called Jon and let him know to head over because we were having a baby!!!





After what seemed like forever they moved me into the delivery room to start my inducement. Our awesome first nurse, Kelsey, came in to put in my IV. Little did we know I have small "rolly" veins. She made two attempts to get my IV in and no go and let me tell you vein fishing is very painful. She then had the charge nurse come in to try. Unfortunately her first try hurt the most because it ruptured. After that she was able to finally get the IV in with a very very small needle. Shortly after the IV was in, my doc came in and broke my water and let me tell you that was quite the experience, biggest gush ever. Jon started laughing because it was like a flood. I also had no idea that every time you contract for quite a while, you will continue to gush amniotic fluid.....so gross! Once my water was broke, Kelsey hooked me up to the pictocin. I was just sure an epidural at this point would slow my labor because I had heard so many stories to that effect so I told my nurse I would wait on the epidural. After she turned up the pictocin three times and I was shaking each contraction this lady was DONE! My nurse called, Dan, the best anesthesiologist ever! I was actually pretty petrified to get it, again the horror stories, but it didn't hurt and was AMAZING when it kicked it. After that my labor rocked! The only glitch to this point was little man's pressure. He was not a huge fan of contractions and had a few pressure dips. They decided to put me on oxygen to help him out. When I got to a 10 I was shocked because it seemed so quick but I was definitely feeling a lot of pressure with every contraction. I had previously spoken with my doctor about doing rest and descend, where you get to a 10 and then just rest and let your body move your baby down the birth canal. So I did rest and descend for about 2 hours and my second nurse, Laura, would have me do practice pushes to see if my body was ready.




Before I started pushing we all (Jon, my mom, my sister, Shauna (one of my other sisters, Jen, was in the cafeteria with her little boy, Cole, so I didn't traumatize him) and my doctor) guessed how many pushes. I think everyone was trying to be really positive because it was a lot more pushes than stated. It ended up being about 15 to 20 minutes of pushing which was nice. Unfortunately during the pushes little man's pressure started to dip and he was having a hard time recovering. They decided to put a monitor on his head to keep a closer eye on him and my doctor also said that if he didn't make his way out pretty quick they would use the vacuum. When I heard that I pushed like I have never pushed before. He came out a few pushes later at 8:10pm (10/20/2011). As soon as he came out, I said "Oh my gosh, I birthed a toddler!". My little baby looked huge to me. After he gave a quick little cry, he stopped and was super quiet, alert and content. In all labor was about 7 and half hours.



Right away they laid him on my chest and asked Jon if he wanted to cut the cord. He decided he wanted to stay conscious and opted out (my hubby doesn't do gore).



After that, they took him to weigh and measure. He was 8 pounds 3 ounces and 19 inches long....a short chubby dude!





Then everything went pretty usual, we passed him around so Jon, my mom and two of my sisters (Jen & Shauna, who isn't pictured because she was our amazing photographer!)could give him a cuddle.








After that little man and I did a little kangaroo time. He loved the skin on skin and was such a content little guy. They also had me feed him and he was a little barracuda. I was quite surprised that he just went to town for a good period of time.






After that Jon and Laura, our nurse, took him down to the nursery. Jon said little man was so content they were having a hard time getting him to cry. They finally scrubbed his feet and got him to cry. He also said little man loved having his hair washed.

Now this is the part that sucked a lot for me. Because you can't eat once you are admitted to the hospital it had been a over 24 hours since I had eaten. When the nurse came back to take me to the bathroom so they could move me to my recovery room, I about passed out on the floor. Every time I tried to stand up, it felt like my head would fill with fire and would go completely weak. I think it took me a good 15 minutes to get from the bed to the bathroom and then sat with my head between my legs on the toliet for another 15 to 20 minutes....super miserable! After I got to the recovery room, Jon and little man came back and then Jon headed out to get us food. That night and the next night, little man spent his time in the nursery and only came in to eat at night and spent his days with us which was a nice deal.



The next day we kept getting text messages asking us for his name. We went back and forth between Jaxson (Jax) and William (Will)until the day we were released. On our last day in the hospital, Jon said he really felt like he was a Jaxson. I had still been wavering but in the end I had to admit he looked like a Jaxson not a William. So little dude was finally named, Jaxson Clark Conley.






Saturday afternoon we headed home and man was that intimidating! Thank goodness my mom came home with us for the next week and Jon stayed home from work which was awesome. More to come on those adventures!!!