First and foremost, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for praying for me, Jon and little Nathan for the last many months!! I so believe that God used all of those prayers this last week!
Prepare yourself for the HUGEST onslaught of pictures ever in this blog! And I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to sit down and write this – I’ve been a little distracted staring at my son. 🙂 And when he looks like this, who can blame me? 🙂
Also, we’ve been trying to take everyone’s advice and sleep when he does (not hard advice to take when I could fall asleep anytime I stop moving – sitting or standing).
Last week did not go how we’d planned, but it went exactly how God planned and that was enough for me! I’m going to write TONS of details here because I just don’t want to forget them!
At my last prenatal appointment, my doctor decided to go ahead and schedule an induction for Tuesday, July 13. He was a little worried about me going too late since big babies run in Jon’s family. So, we showed up at the hospital on Monday night planning on being given a medicine that was supposed to ripen my cervix to ready it for the induction at 6AM the next day.
I’d been having cramping off and on for the last few days, but at my Friday doctor’s appointment, I still wasn’t dilated more than a fingertip.
So, imagine both mine and Jon’s surprise when we show up on Monday and find out that I was in labor! When we got there, I was having mild to painless contractions about every two to four minutes.
They hooked me up to an IV, a monitor for the contractions and a monitor on Nathan’s heartbeat. My doctor wasn’t on call on Monday night, but one of the doctors from his office was and she said I was still only one centimeter dilated. She stripped my membranes and they left to see if that caused me to dilate farther.
I got a little bit farther along. The contractions started becoming more painful. Around midnight, my mom and dad came and my mom ended up staying the night with me and Jon, which was so nice. About an hour or so later, the doctors decided to use a foley catheter to try and dilate me more, since I still wasn’t progressing. I made it to almost five centimeters with that and by six in the morning, the contractions were coming hard, lasting about a minute and were every two to three minutes apart.
I got an epidural (which left SUCH a weird, tingly feeling in my legs. I hated it!) and they broke my water, again hoping that I’d continue to dilate.
Which was when things started getting scary. Nathan’s heartbeat started dropping with every contraction. I got put on oxygen, they started pumping me full of liquids and they also did an amnio infusion, which is where they try to flush fluid back into the uterus in case he was laying on his cord and that was causing the issues with his heartbeat.
At ten-thirty, my doctor came in and first said that we might need to get a c-section, but he was willing to try a few more things before we did that. They started the tiniest little bit of pitocin to see if that would cause me to dilate quickly.
It didn’t. If anything, it made Nathan’s heartbeat drop even farther. I had been laying on my side because the doctors were hoping that would help him roll off his cord, if that was the problem. Around noon, I looked over as four nurses come running into my room because Nathan’s heartbeat had dropped ridiculously low during the last contraction.
By this point, I was no longer scared of a c-section as much as I was scared for Nathan. My doctor came in a little after noon and decided to do a c-section, which Jon and my mom were in complete agreement with as well.
From there it was a blur – At noon, we decided to do the c-section. Ten minutes later, I was on the operating table. It was so painful – I don’t know if my epidural wasn’t working as good as it should have or what happened, but it was incredibly painful. Jon held my hand and he got to watch as our son, Nathan James, was born at 12:34PM.
Nathan didn’t cry at first, which just scared me more. I kept asking if he was okay or not. Finally, we both heard him cry and both Jon and I burst into tears. Jon got to go trim his umbilical cord and watch him get dried off and cleaned and he brought him over to see me a few minutes later.
I cried and cried and cried. God is SO good! So very, very good! I was so afraid of labor, of delivery, of what it would be like to be a mom, and in that instant, I was so completely overcome by love for this little baby that I couldn’t hardly focus on anything else – including how much pain there was. I read Isaiah 41 right before we left for the hospital and in there, God says, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
After they finished stitching me up, I was able to go meet Jon and Nathan in the recovery room and hold him for the first time. Our first time as a family!!
God is SO great!!! Here’s my two favorite boys on the whole face of the earth. I just love Nathan’s expression in this picture!
After we got to our room, my family got to come meet him. My parents – now known as Gammy and Poppy – were instantly in love, I think.
And the new aunt and uncles!
Here’s everyone at the hospital. Pardon how I look – I had gotten tons of IV fluids by this point and they were still pumping it into me.
Jon was SO sweet – on our first night with Nathan, he gave me a card that succeeded in making me cry and he also had these flowers delivered.
Our little swaddled peanut. 🙂 I think we’ll probably keep him. 🙂
I LOVE this picture of my two boys!! This was our second morning in the hospital. We ended up having to stay until Friday afternoon.
My parents have been SO helpful with Nathan! Jon and I have been just exhausted and they’ve brought us lunches, dinners, breakfasts, coffee… they even stayed and watched Nathan all day today while Jon and I got some much needed sleep. I am so thankful for them!!! I just love seeing them as grandparents – they are going to be amazing ones. Nathan is so blessed!
Here’s me – can we tell I was feeling SO much better by the third day? Just goes to show the healing powers of a good shower and some makeup! (And a little snuggle bug to hold!)
Such an alert baby boy!
One of the mornings at the hospital. Poor Jon – he got almost ZERO sleep the whole time we were there. And I know the delivery scared him to death – he is such an amazing husband. I have fallen so completely head over heels in love with him all over again – especially when I watch him hold our son. He’s so gentle and so involved. I love these two so much that I sat there and cried thinking about it one day. 🙂
On our way home from the hospital…finally! We bought a 0-3 month outfit just in case he ended up being huge, but he was SO small in his outfit!
First time at home! We had to give him the grand tour. Jon showed him the living room.
And I showed him his bedroom. Here’s the one wall I didn’t show you guys on the post I did on the baby’s room.
Chillin’ on the sofa, waiting for Daddy. 🙂
One of my biggest worries was how Kody would react to Nathan. I think he’s pretty depressed (poor puppy gets absolutely no attention now), but he’ll be fine. He just follows us around all sad faced. Here’s when he first met Nathan. Completely unaware of what was going on, huh? 🙂
On our way to Nathan’s first doctor’s appointment! He had it on Saturday morning and oh. my. gosh. I had no idea how long it took to get ready when you have a baby!!
My in-laws are coming out in a few weeks and we are so excited for them to get to meet Nathan! They sent this beautiful bouquet for him and I think Nathan just loves it. 🙂 And if he doesn’t, I do! We’ve been Skyping with Greg and Connie every day since he was born so they can see their adorable little grandson. SO thankful that we live in this age of Skype and picture text messaging! Again, Nathan is blessed!
Thank you all again SO very much for your prayers!! Please keep praying for us – the recovery from the C-section is a lot harder than I thought it would be. And nursing has been a bumpy road, but I’m praying that we’re coming into a smoother part!
I am so thankful for each and every one of you! Love to you all!
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