Jack's Story

I have so much to catch up on on this blog, but I wanted to type this up before I forget too much.

You guys. I cannot believe I have another baby. But really, it feels so natural. With Sadie it felt like this huge life change. This feels much more simple. Like we were just waiting for him.

I also can't believe how smoothly things went. (You know, before his week long hospital visit.) I actually have a birth story that isn't depressing or terrifying! Horrah!

To start my birth story with Jack, I will go back to week 37 when I was praying I would be even slightly dilated and I found out I was sealed shut. I wanted so badly to be induced at 38 weeks, and to hear there was nothing going on down there pretty much dashed my hopes. I will be honest and say that I was really negative and grumpy about it. 38 weeks had been the plan all along, and I felt like my pregnancy was being extended. Went in at 38 weeks and was dilated barely a 1 and I became more grumpy and obsessed with trying to get this baby out. When I look back now, I am so glad he came when he did. But in that moment I was hormonal and anxious and I wanted him OUT!!!! Sadie stopped moving at 38 weeks, so I was just waiting for something to go wrong.

At the 38 week appointment my doctor told me she would be fine letting me go until 41 weeks (HEEEELLLLLLLNNNOOOOO), or inducing me at 39 weeks if I was progressed enough. 39 weeks had kinda been in my head for a few days, and I told her I felt good about that. The week went on and I stayed busy with my awesome sister and her kids coming out! (Best trip eveeeer. I'll blog about it one day.) They kept me busy and active and I started having contractions on Tuesday night. They came and went over the next few days. Not too intense, and not regular. But something was happening! 

At my 39 week appointment I was dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced. Enough to be induced!! She had a crazy schedule that day (Friday) and over the weekend, so we set the induction date to Monday. We felt reaaaallllyyy good about it. Light at the end of the tunnel!!

I continued to have contractions on and off over the weekend. Some got pretty painful. I lost my mucus plug Sunday night and I was up half the night with really painful cramping and contractions. We called the hospital at 6am and they asked me to be there at 7:30. IT WAS HAPPENING!!! We got up and got ready and grabbed some McDonalds (duh) and then we were there! 

Leaving the house! I was SOOOO excited! And so friggin tired from hardly sleeping due to contractions. 

McDonald's drive thru selfie

My contractions had gotten really painful, and the nurse told me I was already in labor! I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. I was stoked. They started a low dose of pitocin just to kick things into gear a little and we waited.

Nathan and I turned on some 30 Rock and settled in just to hang out. My contractions quickly became really painful and close together. I was looking at the monitor though, and they looked really small. Measuring 10 and sometimes 20. I felt like a wuss and didn't want to ask for any pain stuff just yet. But soon it was too much and they gave me some pain killer which I can't remember the name of right now and really it just made me feel warm and weird and didn't take any pain away. I went another hour or so and couldn't do it anymore and asked for the epidural. I sat up in preparation for the epidural and my contraction monitor moved across my stomach and suddenly the monitor was picking up GIANT contractions. The nurse said it must have not been reading them in the position it was before, because I was actually having contractions measuring 60 and 80, instead of 10 and 20. That made me feel like less of a wuss, haha. I got the epidural and then my doctor came and broke my water. 

I know from experience that epidurals don't work instantly, but after about 20 minutes, I knew something was wrong. My legs were numb, especially my left leg. Nothing else was numb. I was feeling every contraction. And they were getting bigger and closer together. They upped my dose a couple times. My legs got more numb and I continued to feel all my contractions. They were now measuring 100 and I was dyyyying. But I couldn't move around to try and get in comfortable positions because my legs were completely numb! It was horrible. My friend told me natural childbirth is manageable, as long as you can move around to ease the pain. But I couldn't move. I was frozen in place on that bed with giant, heavy, completely numb legs. I was gripping the bed and panting and crying and poor Nathan just had to watch. He tried to help me move into positions that could ease the pain, but it was too hard. They turned off the pitocin and my contractions went back down to 60 and 80 and I was able to manage the pain. They decided to replace my epidural, but the nurse checked me first. She looked a little shocked and said, "Well, we can replace your epidural, or you can just have the baby right now." I chose baby.

My doctor rushed back over, just about an hour after breaking my water, and before I knew it, everything was set up! It was about 2pm, and the induction had started around 8:30am. I pushed for 12 minutes, and then.. HE WAS HERE! He was on my chest and crying and beautiful and perfect and had Sadie's exact nose. I had done it. The longest pregnancy ever was over, he was safe and alive, and I had had a VBAC! NO C-SECTION!!!!!

I know it looks like I am doing an awkward thumbs up, but it's really just that I didn't know where to put my hand while the nurse was cleaning him off 

6lbs9oz. 19.5 inches. 2:20PM

He was having a little trouble coughing out some fluids so they took him for a couple minutes and brought him right back. We did skin to skin and it was just the 3 of us alone in the delivery room for over an hour. It was heaven.

The pictures we used to announce Sadie's (left) and Jack's births. They were friggin newborn twins! 

NAME STORY: We named him just a few minutes after birth. We had such an interesting experience choosing his name. With Sadie and Madelyn, we knew several weeks before they were born. We could not choose a name for Jack for the life of us. We started out sure it was Lucas. Then changing our minds. Then making a list and having friends and family vote on it, haha. Then throwing out the list and starting from scratch with a giant list. Then throwing that list out and going back to the three that had stuck around the longest: Lucas, Noah, and Jack. I was so sure my first son would be named Lucas. I have loved that name since I was a sophomore in high school and saw my first episode of One Tree Hill. I just knew he'd be Lucas. Nathan's favorite name was Noah, and I loved it too but hated the popularity. At the beginning of the pregnancy, I called the baby Lucas. Then about halfway through I felt really strongly that the name didn't fit him. I felt he needed a strong name, and Lucas wasn't strong enough. I LOVED the name Jack, but Nathan was iffy. By the end we decided to decide between the three names, but in all honestly, I thought his name would be Noah. I had gotten over the popularity aspect and just adored the name. I thought it was so cute. The days before delivery, I decided I would wait until birth, but I wanted to name him Noah. While in labor, the nurse asked our name choices. When I listed them, I suddenly felt like his name would be Jack. And how fitting, because she said, "Oh I love the name Jack!" Haha. But I kinda brushed it aside because I seriously wanted to name him Noah. Then out he popped and he was laid on my chest and I kid you not, he looked like a Jack. And I knew it. I'd always heard of people having experiences like that, but I thought it was weird, until it happened to me. I looked at him and knew he was not a Noah. Or a Lucas. He was a Jack. After a couple minutes I looked at Nathan and I was nervous because I knew he didn't like Jack anywhere near as much as he liked Noah, but I told him I thought his name was Jack, and he immediately agreed! He told me he felt the exact same way. He had been sure his name was Noah, but when he saw him, he changed his mind. Jack is the perfect name for our strong little man.

ANYWAY. My nurse came back and I was able to walk myself over to the bathroom to clean up and pee, which was awesome. We got to the recovery room and met the nurse and got settled and then we just sat there for a second and couldn't believe what had just happened. It was so fast!! I was fully planning on him coming late that night, maybe even the next day! And he was there at lunch time. I was overwhelmed, but feeling SO GOOD. My c-section recovery was HELL. Having Sadie late at night was hard too. We got to the recovery room at 2am and we got no sleep. This time we had the rest of the day to relax and settle in. We were so happy! I have so much anxiety about delivery from how hard the last 2 have been. This delivery was so easy and so wonderful. I am so just so thankful he is here and how well it all went.