It seems like the week before having a baby lasts forever. Yesterday was 1 week since Jagger was born and it seems like it went way too fast. I thought I'd sum up a little of what's been going on for us since then.
The week before Jagger was born was crazy. We were fixing up the house, I was taking the boys to 7 peaks as often as I could, we had last minute errands to run, and Nate's family was in town for a reunion. I was running all week long until finally it was Wednesday and my mom was coming into town. I felt like I could finally breathe when she got there because first, she made it before the baby came, and second, she is such a HUGE help and it was so nice to have an extra person helping with the kids and running last minute errands. It has been so crazy that I hadn't even packed for the hospital until the night before. Nate and I hadn't even talked about names!
We also had a little confusion with the date too, so I wasn't 100% sure if it would actually happen. We had booked my induction, but then my doctor's schedule got switched around and he had surgeries scheduled all day on the 11th at another hospital. He agreed to still induce me on the 11th, but it would have to be later in the day so he could come over after all of his surgeries were finished. But...since I would probably be one of the last inductions, I was afraid that if they got busy I would be bumped to the next day.
The night before, the hospital called to say that my doctor requested that I come in at noon, but that I should call at 11:30 and make sure they weren't too busy.
So, the morning of the 11th, we got up and got ready, and Gregor came to watch the kids. My mom and I decided to snap some pregnant pictures since that was the one thing that I didn't have time to do in the craziness of the last few weeks.
So here I am at 39 1/2 weeks on the day that I delivered:
We asked Gregor to take some of the two of us, and we ended up laughing so hard because Gregor just snaps away before anyone is ready. We kept telling him to stop so we could think of a pose, but he said that we will end up liking his pictures best because they will be candid. We loaded them up on the computer and it was true, we did like his best :)
At 11:30, I called the hospital. They said to come in, but they weren't sure how to do it yet because the timing needed to be right for my doctor to be able to be there. I told them I didn't mind if they took it slow, because I have really fast deliveries anyway so it doesn't matter if it's slow getting started.
At 11:40, we left Gregor with the kids and headed to the hospital...
When we got there, everything was quiet in the hall, and their board wasn't very full.
They assigned me a room and gave me a gown and said that my nurse would be there in a minute.
And then an hour went by...
Finally a tech came in to say that right after I got there, things got crazy and my nurse would be in as soon as she could.
Then another half hour went by...
Finally the nursing manager came in and said that it would probably be another hour before someone could come in. She asked if I wanted to leave and come back, but I might not get my room back. I definitely did not want that. I said we didn't mind waiting. Then she said that she would try to get a few things started for me in between calls. My mom (who is often the nursing manager) said that it was really nice of her because when you're in charge, you usually don't take patients.
She got everything going pretty quickly and called my doctor to see when he would be able to stop by. He said he would be by at 2:00 to break my water. He had one of his surgeries cancel so he was able to run over to our hospital to break my water before heading back. He said that he had 5 more surgeries but that he would keep the pitocin really low so that things would go slowly. I got an epidural a few minutes after he left and the nurse said I was a 3 and that she would be back in a while to check again.
Around 3:00 the nursing manager, Kristy, came back in to say that my nurse would finally be able to come in a few minutes so we could meet her and then she would take over. She checked me just to see where we were at and said that I was complete. Everyone was surprised because it had only been an hour! Then she said "I just have to see this one through" and she decided to be my nurse instead of trading off. I was glad because we really liked her! She paged the doctor (who thought he would be back later that evening), and then we just had to wait again for him to get there. My mom said she would be surprised if he really could come back because he had so many surgeries. But, around 3:30, he really did come back! Once he got there, we were ready to get going and the baby was born at 4:05 p.m.
We had hardly talked about names before the baby was born, but we had a few on a list that we brought to the hospital. I knew that I wanted the middle name to be "Roy" after my Grandpa Roy, and my brother Ryan's middle name is "Roy" also. Jagger was always my favorite on the list, so since Nate didn't care what name I picked, we decided on "Jagger." The only thing that we had talked about was that we wanted it to end in an "er" like Bridger (since Saxon and Dalton both end in "on"). And, we wanted it to start with a different letter so each boy could have their own letter.
He weighed only 6 lbs. 13 oz. My smallest baby.
All three of the other boys all weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz.
Jagger was so wiggly and kicked so hard that I was sure that he was going to be my biggest baby. Even before they put him on the scale I could tell that he wasn't very big. He was 20 inches long, but so skinny.
Right when he was born they laid him on my chest. I've never had them hand me my baby before. It was so special to hold him the very minute he was born. With my other kids, the doctor held him up for me and then handed him to a nurse. I got him back once he was tested and cleaned up. Then after an hour they usually take the baby back to the nursery again. With Dalton, they took him right away because he wasn't breathing well. This time, they handed him right to me and dried him off while he was laying on me. They told me to snuggle him and nurse him and that they would be back in a few hours. They came back later and bathed him in the room with me and then gave him back to me again. The first time he ever left me was to get weighed once in the middle of the night.
The boys were so excited to come by that night and meet their new baby brother. Saxon wanted to hold him right away, Dalton kept saying "He such a cutie!" and Bridger said "I don NOT want to touch him!". It was so funny. We took a bunch of pictures before Gregor and Joy took them home again.
By the end of the day, we were exhausted, but so excited that we couldn't sleep. Nate and I watched movies all night and held the baby. It was such a special day for us!
My favorite days in my life are the days that each of my children were born. The whole process is so amazing to me. I feel so blessed to have 4 beautiful children! Each time it's over, I can't wait to do it again! Of course, I'm going to have to get over that one day because I obviously can't keep having kids forever. But for now...this is my favorite phase in life.
He weighed only 6 lbs. 13 oz. My smallest baby.
All three of the other boys all weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz.
Jagger was so wiggly and kicked so hard that I was sure that he was going to be my biggest baby. Even before they put him on the scale I could tell that he wasn't very big. He was 20 inches long, but so skinny.
Right when he was born they laid him on my chest. I've never had them hand me my baby before. It was so special to hold him the very minute he was born. With my other kids, the doctor held him up for me and then handed him to a nurse. I got him back once he was tested and cleaned up. Then after an hour they usually take the baby back to the nursery again. With Dalton, they took him right away because he wasn't breathing well. This time, they handed him right to me and dried him off while he was laying on me. They told me to snuggle him and nurse him and that they would be back in a few hours. They came back later and bathed him in the room with me and then gave him back to me again. The first time he ever left me was to get weighed once in the middle of the night.
The boys were so excited to come by that night and meet their new baby brother. Saxon wanted to hold him right away, Dalton kept saying "He such a cutie!" and Bridger said "I don NOT want to touch him!". It was so funny. We took a bunch of pictures before Gregor and Joy took them home again.
By the end of the day, we were exhausted, but so excited that we couldn't sleep. Nate and I watched movies all night and held the baby. It was such a special day for us!
My favorite days in my life are the days that each of my children were born. The whole process is so amazing to me. I feel so blessed to have 4 beautiful children! Each time it's over, I can't wait to do it again! Of course, I'm going to have to get over that one day because I obviously can't keep having kids forever. But for now...this is my favorite phase in life.
This is a collage my mom made for instagram, but since I don't have instagram, I wanted to post it on here :)
