Jax Roman Peterson entered this world on Thursday, July 9th at 3:03 in the morning. He was a teeny little thing weighing 5 lbs 11 oz, and 19 inches long. He was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen and my life has only gotten better each day since his arrival.
The story of his birth started on a Wednesday morning. I woke up to get ready for the gym (I'm literally a gym Nazi) and happened to loose my mucus plug. I decided I should stay home because I wasn't sure if that meant I was going into labor or what. I waited until my OBGYN's office opened, then I called to get the nurses opinion. Now, since my blood clot (see pregnancy posts) I had to take shots of blood thinner twice a day...in my belly, and if I went into labor and wanted an epidural the thinner would have to be out of my body for 24 hours. At 9 AM when the office opened I called the nurse line. The nurse was a wicked human being, she told me I was fine to take my shot and that it would probably be weeks or days before I went into labor. She was really short with me and made me feel like I was being silly. I wasn't taking my shot. I had bad vibes about that thing. I didn't like her answer so, I called back. A different nurse answered and she was MUCH nicer. She still said it was probably ok to take my shot but she also gave me some more information like, if my water breaks, start bleeding bright red blood, or start having contractions close together, go in. I still didn't listen and skipped my shot. I sat at home with an upset stomach for awhile until I felt like I could leave the house without running to the bathroom every few minutes to empty my bowels. I walked over to the mall that is right around the corner from my house and shopped around for a few hours until B got off work. I got there about 10 minutes before he got home and I had to use the bathroom...again. After I was done I started standing up and a big gush of water came out. Immediately I thought it was my water breaking except it was watery, bright red, bloody, liquid. I called B and told him we were heading to the hospital. He got so surprised/excited/serious at the same time. It was cute. He got home and before we headed out I had to show him what I got him at the mall but he was rushing me along like Jax was going to plop out on the floor any second. Being a pregnant lady I, of course, had to pee again before we left and even more blood came out!
When we arrived at the hospital they sent us up and got us checked in. They did some tests to see if it was amniotic fluid and wanted to monitor my blood loss. Turns out it wasn't my water breaking but I was loosing quite a bit of blood, so when the Doctor finally got there she decided it was best to just start me because she said I was most likely starting labor anyway. The smile on B and my face was priceless. We were ecstatic!! I was supposed to be induced that Saturday but we were having our baby THAT DAY and didn't have to wait a few more days to meet him! We called our parents to come down and mine started loading up, but Brady's parents had just got to Lake Powell the day before and they couldn't come back until Saturday. They were pretty bummed.
My nurse started me on a small amount of petocin around 5 pm. At that point I was more than happy I hadn't taken my shot that morning because I only had to wait until 9 pm to get an epidural because I wouldn't have lasted until 9 the next morning. When the nurses switched shifts I landed the coolest nurse in the hospital. She cranked the petocin up a couple notches so I could make some progress and I would get to feel what contractions felt like instead of making little to no progress with the petocin turned down so low. She came in and cranked me up a couple more notches at 8 pm. I was feeling the contractions but they weren't too bad, this made a big difference. OUCH! Needless to say at 9:02 I called for my epidural. It took some of the pain away but I was an idiot and didn't want to push my button too many times because I didn't want to have super dead legs after. About halfway through labor I pushed it though, because I could still feel some of the contractions and if I had an epidural, I might as well use it.
Right after my epidural Jax decided that he hated the petocin...his heart rate plummeted and the nurse had to turn it down and try to move me to a different position. When his heart rate steadied she turned it up again but, he still didn't like it so they ended up turning it off for the rest of my labor.
It was an eventful night with lots of heart rate drops, the nurses running in to move me around, the oxygen mask, and the peanut ball. Finally I was fully dilated, fully effaced, but he hadn't dropped down far enough yet. The nurse set up the room for delivery and the doctor came in to have me push once to see if Jax would just drop down. I pushed and boom! There was his hair. I'm one of those people who like to watch, so I had the nurse grab the mirror for me so I could watch him come out. The doctor said he'd probably have to use the forceps to get him out because of his heart rate. I pushed a few times and was given a little episiotomy then pushed a couple more times before the doctor pulled him out the rest of the way with the forceps. DANG that was a great feeling!! So much pressure, gone!
Jax had the cord wrapped around his neck a few times so the doc got that off quick and sucked his mouth out. He finally started making little noises. It was the best sound in the world! Brady cut the cord and they whisked him away to the baby table. The baby nurses gave him a 7/9 apgar score because of his color, but he pinked up pretty fast. They brought him over to me and I got to hold him for the first time. That moment will forever be etched in my brain. I now know why people have so many kids...they want that moment over and over. Every bad thing about pregnancy was wiped from my memory. I couldn't believe he was actually here!!! I'd waited what seemed like forever to hold him in my arms, and that moment was happening. We snuggled and I was nice and let Brady have a turn. Next best moment of my life was seeing the look on Brady's face when he was holding Jax (it's still the same to this day). He instantly fell in love. They are going to be the bestest of buddies forever.
After the doc was done stitching me up and my family got to meet him, they sent us down to the other room we'd be staying in. We got to watch Jax's first bath and took lots of pictures. When we finally got settled into our room it was light outside and I was exhausted from a long night of labor. I tried to rest while everyone loved on Jax. The little man did VERY well latching on, but his sugars were low. The nurses had to feed him some formula through a tube directly into his stomach so that it would boost quicker, plus I wouldn't let them feed him a bottle if they'd asked. The days in the hospital flew by to me but they also seemed long. When we were released we headed straight for Walmart to buy a couple preemie onesies because the newborn stuff drowned him! He was so tiny. Riding in the car with a newborn for the first time is kinda scary. I felt kinda uneasy when we loaded him up.
(His binky was almost as big as his head)
We had the perfect little family now.
