He's here!

Welcome, Jackson Kraig Bishop! Born August 8, 2011 at 6:46 p.m. Weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces. 19 1/4 inches long.

So, in spite of having wi-fi at the hospital, the lap top we were using would not let me post on here. For some reason, it's working now! Obviously, Jackson arrived. Unfortunately, some of you are just getting the news.

Here's the story:
We arrived at the hospital on August 8th at 7:30 a.m. Once we got checked in, they did the routine weight and urine check. They then took me to our room (#3) and I got changed into my fabulous gown. The gowns at this hospital have nursing panels in them--kind of. They're more like giant slits that expose your breasts regardless of what you do. My nurse kindly taped the "lactation access panels" (as I named them) to keep the world from having a constant flash. Next up was hooking up the monitors and checking my blood pressure. Blood pressure was good, but Jackson wanted nothing to do with the monitors. After nearly an hour of constant adjusting to keep him on, he settled in for a little while. It was a battle for the majority of the day to keep him monitored. Blood work came next, then my IV. By the time the pitocin was started, it was around 9:00 a.m. The contractions became steady very quickly. The doctor came in at some point early on to check me and I was still not dilated, but 75% effaced. Jack was still sitting very high.

The contractions started becoming more and more intense. The doctor said she'd be in around lunch time to re-check me. I was hoping to wait until at least then to ask for an epidural. I was afraid that I might not be progressing at all and that I'd look like a big wimp asking for drugs so early. When noon rolled around, I was praying the doctor would come soon. The contractions at this point were so intense that Kraig finally figured out that he should stop talking to me during them. I wasn't really able to listen to him and I definitely wasn't going to be responding.

Around this time I knew I had to pee, but I didn't want to get out of bed and disturb the monitors (since they were actually working at the time). At 12:30, I decided it was about time. I went to ask Kraig to help me get up when I felt a small gush. I thought I'd waited so long that I'd actually peed myself. I told Kraig something along the line of, "Ummm, I need to pee or I may have just peed a little or maybe my water broke. Help me go to the bathroom and we'll see." I moved to sit up more and felt more fluid. And then more. So Kraig suggested I call the nurse. In the meantime, I still had to pee! The nurse came in very quickly and I told her I thought my water had broke. She checked and confirmed that I my water had broken and that the fluid was clear. Then she gave me a towel so I could waddle to the bathroom to finally use it. I was so excited that something in this labor process was going to happen on it's own. I was also super happy that it was obvious that some progress was being made.

After my water broke, the contractions were super intense. I was dying for the doctor to come check me so I could feel justified in asking for my drugs. Dr. Reese arrived around 1:30. She was impressed that I was breathing so well through my contractions and was very encouraging. Then she said something about, "Well let's check and see if we can't get in there to break your water." I must have looked at her like she was crazy and responded, "Umm, it already did!" She was very surprised. She had said earlier in the morning that if there wasn't much progress by 5 or 6 that we could always wait and try again on Friday. She didn't seem very confident to me. At this point, though, I definitely wasn't going anywhere. We were having a baby. She examined me to find I was 3 cm dilated, 80% effaced and at a -2 station. Once she was done, the nurse called for the anesthesiologist. There were already two other epidural requests in, but they put me at the top of the list because my pain level was obviously worse. I was very thankful for that. My epidural was in and finished my 2:30. The anesthesiologist was great. The contractions were so hard and fast, though, that they turned the pitocin down while he was giving me the epidural so that they were at least tolerable and spaced out a little farther. He did a great job. It's such a weird feeling, though. Not painful, just weird. Once it was in, my blood pressure dropped a little and I started feeling very light headed. They laid me down pretty quickly and gave me some medicine to bring my level back up. I felt so much better after that. The relief of the epidural was fantastic. It wasn't as strong as with Kate, though, because I could still move my legs somewhat. But there was no pain.

Once the epidural was in, I thought I'd try to take a nap, but it was never calm enough for that. The nurse checked me again at around 4:00 and I was 6 cm. Things were definitely speeding up. Sometime around here, Jackson's heart rate started dropping occasionally with contractions. They rolled me to my other side, laid me back a little more and gave me some oxygen. That seemed to help, but it didn't totally solve the problem. They scaled back the pitocin and everything looked good again. I started feeling some pressure, I thought, a half hour later and the nurse decided to check me again. I was at 8 cm. Two centimeters progress in a half hour. Can't imagine what that would have felt like without drugs. So glad I don't know! She told me to call if I felt anything different because things were obviously moving quickly. Around 5:30, I asked to be checked again. My nurse (Holly) checked me and said she thought that we were at ten. She's newer to the L&D floor, so she asked the charge nurse to come in and double-check. She was right, though. They called the doctor, who was already at the hospital, and around 5:50 we started pushing a little to see how it would go before the doctor arrived. She came in shortly after and we got down to business. Jack's heart rate started dipping again, so they turned off the pitocin, hoping that my body would continue to contract on it's own. Once the drugs were off, though, the contractions spaced out to about 10 minutes apart. So, we'd push, chit-chat for 8 or 9 minutes, and then push again. It was ridiculously slow, but the pushing was effective. I still wasn't having any pain, but I was definitely able to feel the pressure of contractions. Once his head was crowning, I asked if I could just keep pushing. Who needs contractions, right? I think I pushed twice more and his head was out. She had me stop pushing and suctioned him out. He was crying almost immediately. I pushed once more for the first shoulder and the second nearly came out on it's own. It was quick and easy. He was born at 6:46 p.m. Had the contractions not been so far apart, I probably would've had him out in less than 20 minutes. I'm a very good pusher:) She asked if I wanted him on my chest and I was super excited that it was an option. When Kate was born, they immediately took her to be cleaned off and I barely got to look at her. They put him on my chest and I was ecstatic. He was out. He was definitely a boy. I couldn't stop smiling. Kraig took some great pictures at this point. He stayed on me for a decent amount of time and then they took him to be weighed and cleaned off. I had a first degree tear, so the doctor stitched me up while they were tending to him. When they announced that he only weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces, the doctor was shocked. He never really dropped before we began pushing, which, along with the ultrasound, made her believe he really would be a ten pound baby. She was wrong, thankfully. He weighed exactly what Kate weighed, in spite of the fact that he was born two weeks later and that I had gestational diabetes. I was really blessed to be able to keep that so well controlled.

It wasn't long, and Jack was back in my arms and we began nursing. He latched on very well almost immediately and nursed for about a half hour. Once he was done, we brought Kate in to meet her little brother. She did well for a few minutes. She held him and hugged him. Then something spooked her and she tried to push him off her lap. I wasn't surprised. She's terrified at the doctor and of anyone wearing scrubs. Kraig took her back to the waiting room and his parents came back. Then my parents came back. Then we brought Kate in again. We gave her a present from Jack at this point and she seemed to be a lot more at ease. She asked to "hold it" again. She's in love. Once she left again, my nurse helped me get up and cleaned up and we gathered our things to move to the Mommy/Baby unit. At this point it was about 8:45, and we sent our dads down to the Subway to get us dinner. I was SO ready to eat! I got to hold Jack as they wheeled me out to the other unit. We went past the waiting room, where we were able to tell everyone goodbye and get our food. Then we settled in for our first night.

Our hospital experience was great. It's definitely a great place to have a baby. Jackson is doing very well with sleeping and eating. I can't complain. We got home from the hospital Wednesday afternoon. He had a checkup on Friday and he's doing well. He was already up three ounces from what he was when we left the hospital on Wednesday. He's definitely getting plenty to eat. Today, he's a week old. It's hard to believe, but I'm so glad he's here. He's a beautiful baby and we couldn't love him more. What can I say? We make cute kids:) I'm feeling great. Recovery has definitely been so much better than it was after delivering Kate. I only gained 7 pounds total this pregnancy, and I've already lost 21 pounds. I currently weigh 14 pounds less than when I got pregnant. It's awesome. Once the baby belly has shrunken, I'm not going to have clothes that fit. Pretty fantastic.

More on how things are going later. Here's a few pics: