Jacob's birth story

Here it is, all the details everyone has been waiting for!

Monday afternoon I had been having lots of contractions that were getting closer together. We had gone through this just days before so I didn't want to get my hopes up. But then I got ummmm leaky. Jeff thought my water had broke and I was hesitant. I just knew with our luck that my water didn't break on it's own. We called the nurse hot line and they told us to come in. So we packed up all our hospital bag and a bag for Christine. Put Christine in her pajamas and brought her over to our friends Sarah and Teddy's house to stay for the night. At the time it was about 7pm

When we got to the hospital they started monitoring my contractions and they were still going strong. Then they tested to see if my water had really broken, the results said yes and no. So we had to do the more accurate test that takes longer. The results came back negative. (Jeff and I were both so disappointed, we were READY to have this baby!) Then they checked to see how dilated I was. Still a 2. AHHHHH! All those hard contractions had done absolutely NOTHING! The on-call doctor suggested that I try to walk around a bit and try to get the contractions to do something (we could have chosen to just go home at this point, but we really wanted to have the baby before we moved!) So Jeff and I walked the halls of the hospital from 8 to 10pm. I felt so ridiculous wobbling around with my huge-o belly wearing the lovely green hospital gowns and blue hospital socks with bumpy soles. Everyone who saw us gave us that look of sympathy/look at the crazy pregnant lady. Jeff was so supportive and made the walk fun, we hadn't had that much time to just talk for a long time with the craziness that has been happening in our lives. They measured my progress and I had progressed from a 2 to a 3. So they sent me out for another hour of walking the hospital halls. By the end, I was dying, I was having strong contractions that I couldn't walk or talk through, and my joints were so sore from all that walking. We went back for another check and I was still at a 3. I was still having contractions but they were inconsistent (the labor and delivery nurse commented "what IS your uterus doing?") They told me I could keep walking if I wanted to, or I could rest. I was exhausted so I chose to rest. So Jeff and I fell asleep in the labor and delivery room. After 2 hours the nurse came to see if those contractions did anything, and I was STILL at a 3. So they sent us home at 3am

At this point I finally made peace with the fact that my body did not know how to go into labor. ALL those contractions, doing absolutely nothing!

I had an OB appointment the next morning at 9:30am. I went in and my doctor was mad that the on-call Dr. sent me home from the hospital. He told me he was AT the hospital at 7 that morning and had they just let me sleep for the rest of the night he would have gotten things going for me and that I would have been having the baby that afternoon. (he understood our wanting to have the baby before our move). I asked him what our options were (should I just go on complete bed rest this weekend while Jeff is in Temple moving our stuff? I did NOT want to have the baby on moving day) and he told me that he was on-call at the hospital that night and that I should just get a string of contractions going and when I called he would admit me and get me going and we would have that baby that night! I was so excited!  I called Jeff and we made our plans.

I was tired from not sleeping much that night, but was too anxious to take a nap (and the loud construction still going on at our apartment complex didn't help). So Jeff and I worked really hard packing and boxing up all our belongings (all the while I was have HARD contractions). We ate lunch, then went to Barnes and Noble. Christine loves going to the bookstore to read books. We had planned to buy the book Dora's Mermaid Adventure for Christine but it was sold out. (making Daddy happy- Dora's a little crazy). Then we were ready. We called the doctor and told them I was having 5 min apart contractions for the last 2 hours and they told us to come in. Then we realized that Tangie Bear was still at home so we had to drive back to pick her up. Then it was over to Annalia's house for another sleep over (our friends Sarah and Teddy are seriously the BEST FRIENDS we could EVER have! Thank you guys!)

Notice that Tangie Bear has her pants this time.

It was about 4 pm when I got to the hospital. Not 5 minutes in, one of the nurses in the hall recognized us (by my purple pleather duffel bag she said) and asked Hey weren't you in here last night? "yes. that was us" and funnily enough we were put in the same room we were in just 12 hours before. In fact, the nurse noticed my paper work was still in the printer.

They checked to see how dilated I was, and to my astonishment I was at a 5 and 90% effaced! yay! my body was actually going into labor on it's own! all that walking the night before really had gotten things going! To be honest, at this point I was still convinced that I was going to be going home yet again. I didn't really accept the fact that I was going to be having a baby until they were getting ready to put in my epidural, then I started to panic a little bit. I was in such denial it was hard to be like "I am going to be having a baby now!" (note to future self: epidurals aren't worth being anxious over, seriously getting the IV placed was much more painful)

After the epidural and catheter were placed, Dr Ramos came in and broke my water. We watched a little bit of Dance Moms on TV and then I decided a nap would be nice. I asked my nurse how long until the Dr would be back to check on me and she said, "Oh probably not for an hour or two." So we turned down the lights and not 2 minutes later Dr. Ramos walks in to check on my progress... and I was complete. I was dilated to a 10 and ready to have the baby. It was a little crazy! There goes my nap!

The delivery went really well.  My current doctor, Dr. Ramos, is seriously SUCH a better doctor than the one I had with Christine. I am going to have to come back to Houston when I am ready to have baby #3 just so I can have him as my doctor again! 

I pushed for about 15 minutes and everything was just so calm. I felt a lot more in control this round. I was most excited the next day to realize I could still feel and use my muscles down there. The nerve damage I had with Christine was so traumatic to me last time, and I was NOT looking forward to going through that recovery again.

Now Jacob is here! He's eating really well. He is very sweet and loves to be cuddled (oh how Mommy missed that! Christine refuses to be cuddled!)

 Christine came to the hospital the next morning to meet her little brother. She was so excited. She gave him the giraffe blanket that she "helped" make. Then Jacob gave her a little present too.

A Hello Kitty Baby! (that's what we call our Hello Kitty stuffed animals)

Now we are all at Jeff's parents' house while Jeff is at our apartment finishing up the move. He picked up the moving van this morning. Friends from our ward will come help him and Bruce load up the van with all our stuff this afternoon. Then tomorrow Jeff and Bruce will drive out to Temple and unload it all to our new house! Crazy!  As soon as I am feeling well enough we will all go to the new house! We may go up as early as Sunday (but that might be too optimistic of an estimate)

We'll keep everyone updated on our progress!