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Okay, I've finally got a little bit of time to type up Jackson's birth story before I end this blog site for good. From now on, I'll be keeping a blog at JacksonBoyce.com and have a gallery there with tons of pictures, which I'm sure I'll be updating constantly because he's just so darn cute!

So...on Saturday, June the 9th, I started having contractions around 1:00 in the afternoon. They were pretty far apart at first, so I didn't think much of it. They started around 20-30 minutes apart and gradually got closer together as the day went on. We went over to mom and dad's for dinner that night and they were still coming around every 10-15 minutes or so. By the time we got home that evening, they were about 7-8 minutes apart, so I though I better go ahead and shower and get prepared in case we'd be making a trip to the hospital that evening. At this point, they weren't painful at all, just slightly uncomfortable, so I was able to shower, dry my hair, pack up our last minute things, etc. By around 11:00 that evening, the contractions had been 5 minutes apart for an hour and a half and getting more uncomfortable, so I decided to call my doctor to see if I should go in and get checked out. He told me that wasn't a bad idea, so off we went to the hospital.

We got there around midnight on the 10th. Since it was during the night, we had to go through the emergency room entrance. They put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me right up to the labor & delivery unit. They were soooo busy, I thought for sure we'd be sent home. They hooked me up on the monitors right away and started monitoring my contractions. They were getting a lot more irregular at this point (go figure), but were still getting significantly more uncomfortable with each one. After about an hour and a half of monitoring, they took me back to a room to check my cervix. I had told the nurse that I had been 2-3 cm dilated for two weeks, so when she was checking me she asked me what I thought I was at now. I said, "oh, probably still 2-3". Much to our shock she said, "no, you're 8!". They had another nurse come in to double check and she said I was 8 cm also. So, they got me into a gown right away and into an L & D room and called Dr. Nashed since he was the one on call that night for that practice.

After we got back into our room, we started calling our parents right away, for fear that if they didn't hurry up and get there, they might miss the whole thing. Dr. Nashed arrived soon after and broke my water. Now, I really wasn't in pain at all until after he did that. Then the contractions were almost unbearable. They gave me some Stadol to help me relax before the anesthesiologist arrived to do the epidural. It was really intense for about an hour or two until that epidural got there. Then I felt just heavenly. The needle in my back didn't even hurt - and he had to do it twice since he hit a bone spur the first time. But, I was in so much pain from the contractions at that point, I don't think I was even paying attention to what he was doing with my back. After the epidural took effect, the nurse told me to let her know when I start to feel pressure and then left me alone for quite a while before coming back in around 6:50 to check me again. At that point, I was ready to push even though I couldn't feel a thing. I did one push with that nurse before a shift change at 7:00.

After 7:00, my nurse (Buffy - she was so great) took over with helping me push. I did a couple more pushes and they called the doctor back in for the delivery. Jackson was born at 7:23 a.m. He came out sunny-side up and had the cord wrapped around his neck, which caused a few minor problems, so they took him right away after Adam cut the cord. I was a little sad that they couldn't put him right on me after the birth, but he had a rapid heart rate and breathing, so they wanted to be sure he was okay. The moment the doctor held him up and said "here he is" will forever be etched in my memory as the most perfect moment. He was so breathtakingly gorgeous, I can't get over it. While the code pink team was cleaning him up, the doctor was stitching me up a bit. I met my goal of avoiding an episiotomy, but I did have two first-degree tears. After what seemed like forever, I finally got to hold him. It was so amazing. I never believed in love at first sight until then. They gave us a little bit of time and let all the grandparents come in and hold him for a few minutes before taking him off to the nursery for a few hours to monitor his heart rate and breathing.

While he was gone, my epidural started wearing off. I was so thankful I had a good one. I honestly did not feel a thing. Absolutely zero pain during the delivery. The most pain I had was actually when they had to rip the tape off of my back, yikes! Getting up to go to the bathroom for the first time was a chore. I didn't realize what a process it would be. Buffy had to show me how to use the peri-bottle and how to pat dry, bleh. I have to apparently do this until I stop bleeding.

Anyways, they brought him back to me a few hours later. We were still waiting on a mother-baby room at this point. The whole floor was so full of babies, we had to wait for someone else to be discharged before they could move me. My cousin Emily and aunt Sally were the first visitors that hadn't been there the whole night before. Adam's step-brother Andrew came shortly after that. They finally got a room for me around lunchtime I guess it was. The visitors started pouring in after that. Adam and I were so exhausted at this point, I don't even really remember much of the rest of that day.

The first night was pretty hard - only because I didn't have much help. Adam is a really sound sleeper and wouldn't wake up for anything, so I basically was on my own, which is hard to do when you're in pain and the bed is practically eating you every time you move. Seriously, that bed was horrible. It was some automatic thing that was supposed to be comfortable and contour with your body, so it moved and made noise whenever I moved. It was incredibly annoying and very, very uncomfortable. I was sitting in a crevice, which made it very difficult to get up and down. The second night was a lot better. Adam moved the couch closer to the bed so I was able to reach him to shake him awake when I needed to.

On Tuesday, which was the 12th and was Jackson's actual due date, we finally got discharged. We dressed him in his little froggy outfit from Old Navy for the trip home. He was swimming in it. He really needs preemie clothes to get a good fit, but we're making due with what we have. I'm sure he'd outgrow the preemie clothes very quickly anyway. We got home around lunchtime that day and mom came over shortly after to help us out. She has been a big help in the last week. She cooked most of our dinners and even stayed all night on Saturday so Adam and I could get a full night's sleep for once.

So, we've been home for almost a week now and things are going well. Jackson still has his days and night mixed up, but we're working on that. Adam and I are both still exhausted for that reason. I'm still a tad sore, but it's nothing I can't handle. We started out nursing exclusively for the first four days, but after my milk came in, Jackson didn't want anything to do with that anymore. We tried a bottle and he loved it, so that's what we've been doing since. It's really a lot easier since I don't have to be the only one to feed him anymore. Adam can get up in the middle of the night if I need him to, so I think it'll really work out for the best, even though I am disappointed the nursing didn't work out. I've already lost most of the 25 pounds total I gained during the pregnancy. I only have 8 more to go, woohoo! It's so nice to have a semi-flat tummy again. I can't wait to do my toenails, haha.

I guess that's it in a nutshell. Everything went so well and the labor and delivery was so incredibly easy! I had the greatest nurses. They really are wonderful in the L & D and mother-baby units. I'm so glad that the end of the pregnancy went well. I think I deserved it after being so sick for the whole nine months. So, this is the end of this blog. Like I said, I'll be blogging on the JacksonBoyce.com site from now on. And who knows...maybe I'll have another pregnancy blog here in a few years? We'll see :)

Jackson Boyce Stein arrived on Sunday, June 10th at 7:23 a.m. weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces. We just got home today, so we're obviously very busy right now, but I'll definitely be posting a more detailed birth story soon. In the meantime, here's a couple of pics of our perfect little angel.