Jack's Birth Story

Today is Jack's due date.

I can't believe that our little man is already over a week old! 

It sure has gone quickly so far.

I'm writing out Jack's birth story mostly for myself, but thought I would share it for anyone who enjoys this kind of stuff (probably mainly those who have gone through labor themself).

Wednesday, Sept. 5th: Jack's birth story starts a few weeks out. At 36 weeks 5 days (Sept. 5th), I went to my weekly appointment. I was shocked to hear that I was already 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. I was told that he could come any day...or I could stay this way for 3 more weeks. I left the appointment anxious and excited that our baby could come any day. The next few days were spent making sure everything was ready...car seat in, hospital bag packed, fridge stocked. Then we waited...the emotional anticipation was rough. 

Wednesday, Sept. 12th: A week passed, and I went to my next doctor's appointment. I was pretty nervous because I didn't want to hear that I hadn't progressed. My doctor walks in and looks at my chart and says, "So, is there a day you want to have this baby?" My reaction was, 'Huh? What?" 

He goes on to tell me that he was going to be out of town at the end of the following week and based on the previous weeks progression, was afraid that if I didn't go into labor naturally by the end if next week, he might be gone when I do actually go into labor. He asked if I wanted to be induced next Wednesday (Sept. 19th). I was all about it. I would rather be induced and ensure that my doctor could deliver my baby (love my doctor) than go into labor naturally and risk my doctor being out of town. He said he wanted to scrap my membranes on Monday though to see if that would trigger labor for me...that way we didn't have to go through the induction process. (I squealed when he recommended the membrane scrapping because my sister had it done 6 weeks prior to try and induce labor with my nephew...and said it was super painful and I would never want to go through it. We both have the same doctor...and he was going to be out of town the weekend before her due date, too. Haha). I left that appointment dilated to 3 cm and an induction scheduled for the following week.  

Monday, Sept. 17th: I went in at 8:45am to have my membranes scrapped. Not comfortable at all, but not as painful as I had thought. I was told to then go walk 3 miles to hopefully get 

contractions started. I was then to come back to the doctor's office by noon, and if I had dilated further to a 5 or 6, they would just send me to the hospital. I walked my 3 miles with my mom, came back to be checked, but had only dilated to a 4. So, home I went.

Wednesday, Sept. 19th: My doctor said I might not make it to Wednesday...but I did. We called the hospital at 5:30 that morning, and they told us to come in between 7:15 and 7:30. It was go time!

8:30am - I was all checked in and hooked up to pitocin to start inducing labor. I was still only dilated to 4cm, but my cervix was almost fully effaced and the baby was pretty low. My doctor broke my water and said he thought I would have this baby around 1:30 that afternoon. I was fine with that!

 9:30am - My contractions were already coming about a minute and a half apart and I was ready for the epidural! The anesthesiologist came around 10 to do his thing and the relief was immediate. They checked my dilation and I was still at a 4. All that pain and no progression!

11:15am- They checked me again and I was a 5.5. However, we started having some complications. My body had naturally gone into labor and started contracting, so my contractions were less than a minute apart due to the pitocin also building my contractions. The baby wasn't able to recover from the previous contraction before the next one started, so his heart rate was dropping too much. They stopped the pitocin and kept putting me in a bunch of different positions to try and stabilize the baby. I was definitely nervous. To make sure the babies heart rate was droppong due to contractions and not the umbilical around his neck, they tickled his scalp. Because his heart rate went up when they did this, it was an indication that the lower heart rate was due to the close contractions.  They also wanted to give me a shot of a terbutaline to slow down my labor, but my pulse was too high and the medication raises your heart rate. The babies heart rate began to regulate with the stopped pitocin and me laying on my back. This in turn calmed me down so they could give me the terbutaline.

12pm- Everything was stabilized and I was dilated to a 6. The baby had pretty much completely dropped. I figured my labor was going to slow down because I was no longer on pitocin and my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart.

1pm: My doctor came to check me and to my surprise I was fully dilated! 

1:30pm - I started pushing.My doctor said I had a good 20-30 plus minutes of pushing.

2:47pm - Our little man, Jack William was born weighing 7 lb 10 oz and 20 in. long.

 

Jack's birth date of September 19th already had special meaning to us as it was the two year anniversary of our engagement! (Plus, the 19th is National Talk like a Pirate Day, so Captain Jack came on a fitting day for his name).

 We had tons of family in the waiting room who came flooding in after Jack was born.

 

 Around 5pm they moved us over to postpartum. I loved being at the hospital. The nurses and staff were amazing, and I loved having them there to look after us and answer our questions.We enjoyed getting to know our little man and showing him off to our visitors.

We came home Friday afternoon as a family of three. We are beyond blessed by him and amazed at the love you can develop for someone so quickly!

Our Gender Reveal Party!

When Jason and I found out we were pregnant, we both knew we wanted to find out the sex of the baby before he/she was born. However, we thought it would be really fun to share the moment with our family. I had heard of people doing the colored cake reveal, but I wanted something that was a little more visible for everyone to see. I love balloons and thought they would be such a fun way to reveal our baby's sex.

Early Friday morning, we had our 20 week ultra sound. I was definitely nervous and praying for a healthy baby. The ultra sound went great - our tech was so nice and totally put me at ease. It was so fun to see our baby, as it had been two months since our last ultra sound.  Our baby was not cooperating and being stubborn (of course) and was on its head the whole time.  However, the baby was moving around like crazy and the ultra sound tech was not surprised that I had been feeling kicks for 3-4 weeks already. Our baby has super long arms (91st percentile...legs only in the 48th) and a 'big belly', already weighing in at 13 oz. She said our due date is closer to Sept. 23rd now, but they don't change due dates after the first trimester, so I'm still staying with the 28th. The doctor confirmed a 'perfect baby', which was all I wanted to hear. They then wrote the baby's sex on a card and put it in a sealed envelope, along with a picture of 'the parts.'

All day Friday I starred at the envelope with our baby's sex in it. It was torture to just have it sitting there. We had previous plans for Friday night, so we had to wait until Saturday night for our reveal party. 

On Saturday morning, we brought a big cardboard box to the local party supply store and asked them if they could fill the box up with balloons. They looked at us like we were crazy. We then explained how we had this card in a sealed envelope with our baby's sex written on it. We wanted them to open it, fill the box with the appropriate colored balloon depending on the sex, and the tape up the box. They then looked at us like we were even crazier. One guy even said, "Are you serious?" But, they did agree to go along with our odd request!

Finally the time came for our family to arrive. It was our first time hosting a big event in our new house, so that made the whole night even more exciting. Here is a picture display of the evening:

The box of balloons

Pink Lemonade and Blue Punch

Cupcakes made by my sister, Mel.
(All pictures are also courtesy of Mel)  

 Here we are making our tally marks for boy or girl:

I wore pink for girl; Jason blue for boy.

From 8 weeks on, Jason had called a boy. I had no inclination until about 12 weeks, when I started thinking girl. I really thought we were having a girl. However, at 19.5 weeks, I had a doctor's appointment, after which I started thinking boy. Then, after our ultra sound at 20 weeks, I thought boy even more. I still wore pink since I had thought girl the longest.

Right before we opened the box!
Final tally: Boy 7, Girl 8

 

 

We each cut our side of the tape, ripped off the center strip of tape together, and on the count of 3, we opened the box. This is what came flying out...

Love our reactions!

This is my mom's reaction...she has 3 daughters, 2 granddaughters, and is terrified that my sister (who is 6.5 weeks ahead of me and not finding out) and I are both going to have a boys.

Twin Boys?!

My mom, sisters, and nieces...and the boy in my belly!
We had all voted girl...and were all wrong!

Yep, definitely a penis...

 

 

We are very excited for our new adventure and to welcome Baby Boy Baker!

Celebrating

Well, I have disappeared once again since the New Year (just like I did last year between January and April). Last year I was busy in wedding planning mode. This year, I have been busy, too...just with some different things.

One year ago today, Jason and I celebrated our wedding day.

Still can't believe it has already been a year. It has definitely flown by! We are so thankful that our first year of marriage didn't live up to everyone's sayings of being 'very difficult.' We both adjusted very well to marriage, and while it has not been perfect and has had its challenges, we feel so blessed by this past year together and seeing our love for one another grow.

So, what have we been so busy with? Well, at the end of January, our offer was accepted on our first place! We are currently in renovation mode (making more trips to Home Depot than I would ever want to in a lifetime), and are hoping to move in this weekend! (Pictures to come soon). Meanwhile, we are bunking up with my parents, which has been such a blessing.

We have also been busy celebrating this...

Well, maybe it's just that I have felt too sick these last two months to actually feel motivated to blog. Nonetheless, we have been celebrating that we will be parents in six months, which we are thrilled about.

Also thrilled to be celebrating this...

Yes, my sister and I are less than 7 weeks apart! Could not have planned that if we tried. Never did I think that her and I would have kids the same age. So fun! She is calling them "cousin-siblings" since they will pretty much grow up side by side. We are so glad to go through this process with each other. We're convinced that it will be the hottest summer in years because we are pregnant. We are already making plans for our summer days floating in her pool.

So looking forward to celebrating this next year to come! So much to be excited for. We are blessed. Praise to our Great God!