J's Birth Story

This birth story isn't near as exciting and eventful as Owen's. That's a good thing! Except for story telling purposes, it's a little boring. 

The doctor who delivered Owen via emergency c-section told me I'd have to have c-sections for any future births. J's original due date was June 28th, but I knew I'd need to schedule a c-section for an earlier date. I was silently hoping June 21st would be the day, because that's the summer solstice and I thought it would be fun to have a little sun-baby. Luckily, that's the date my doctor suggested, so I was excited about that!

I started having contractions on the 17th. I never felt more than 3 or 4 an hour...nothing too serious, but enough to scare me into having my hospital bag packed a few days early.
My mom flew in on the 19th.
Gavin gave me a blessing on the 20th.
I was told not to eat or drink anything after 10 pm on the 20th, but my doctor told me I could drink a little bit of water if I needed to, then lie about it, so that's exactly what I did!
Luckily, nothing came of the contractions, so we headed to the hospital bright and early on the 21st. 

I was so so anxious about the delivery. My first experience was pretty intense, and I knew it would probably be much more routine this time around, but I still didn't really know what to expect.

We got to the hospital around 5:30 am. I put on my hospital gown and the heart rate monitors and was relieved when everything looked normal. Over the next hour I signed a bunch of papers, met some nurses and doctrs, and got my IV in. It's crazy that everything we did in an hour this time, we did in 5 minutes last time. It was nice to actually be able to process what was happening!
I did feel very nauseas throughout all of this, to the point of asking for a barf bag. The anxiety + the hospital smell + the empty stomach + pregnancy hormones =not a good combination. 

At 7:30 my doctor arrived, Gavin put on his hospital clothes, and we went to the surgery room. It was freeeeezing in there! The anesthesiologist walked me through the spinal block. He said the first shot would probably hurt a little more than a normal shot (he was right!), then I shouldn't be able to feel the second shot (he was right again!). This was the part I was most anxious for, because this was the craziest part of Owen's birth. I'm very grateful that experience wasn't repeated! 

Then I laid down, the sheet went up, and Gavin sat next to my shoulders. My anesthesiologist said that the nurses were there to take care of the baby, but he was there to take care of me and to let him know if I needed anything. Well... it was at this point that I finally needed to throw up. I was already numb, so that poor doctor had to catch my puke and wipe my face and not act horrified! Thank goodness I hadn't eaten anything, but I think my puke gave away that I broke the "no water" rule. Woops!

At 8:06 they asked me if I was ready to see my baby! Gavin stood up to take a peek. I was so happy and relieved when I heard my baby cry. I had to wait a minute before I could actually see him because of the delayed cord clamping or whatever it is that I know nothing about. They finally held him up over the sheet and my first thought was "Oh good, he's cute. and he looks like Owen!" then the nurses took him to get cleaned up and Gavin followed them.

 Gavin's first look at J

My first look at J

Only a mother would look at a messy, crying, fresh-from-the-womb baby and think "cute!" haha 

Right after getting cleaned by the nurses

Stamping Gavin's hospital shirt with J's footprints

Apparently J swallowed a bunch of liquid or something else I know nothing about, so it took the nurses a while to get him all suctioned out. I kept hearing phrases from the nurses like "he looks good, but he's got this toe...". Once he was swaddled, Gavin brought him close to my face to help me hold him. Ahhh it was so exciting. Gavin informed me that our baby looked healthy and had a funky toe. We also noticed a bruise on his shoulder. At first we weren't sure if it was a delivery battle wound, or a birthmark. Turns out it's a birthmark- lots of special features on this little guy of ours!

It took another twenty minutes or so to get me all put back together. I started shaking but was quickly covered in hot blankets and told to let my body shake instead of trying to fight it. The shaking wasn't near as severe as it was last time (there seems to be a theme here) and only lasted 15 minutes. 

We got to the recovery room and the nurse helped me get in a skin-to-skin position with J. It took J all of 5 seconds to start searching for something to eat, so I got to breastfeed him as soon as I could hold him safely. 

We texted our families to let them know everything went well, and that we would Face Time after Owen met his new brother. We thought Owen should do the honors of being the first family member to see that babe!

We finally made it to the hospital room where we'd be staying. The nurses helped me change into a prettier robe, I put on some mascara (if you've seen our first few pictures with Owen, you know I learned the no-mascara lesson the hard way), and let my mom know to come on in! We also had someone there to record Owen meeting his brother for the first time. I'm excited to get that video back!

I'll share more pictures and experiences from the hospital in my next post, but that's the story of J joining our family here on Earth! We're so grateful he's ours!