My New Friend

It's only been a week and four days since I gave birth to Jaiden and started breastfeeding him, but, Oh My God, I'm really sore! ^.^;; I know it's because they're not used to this kind of treatment, but, as of today, they get a bit of a break. I got my breast pump! Woot!

The lactation consultant, Megan, who visited with me in the hospital, gave me a prescription for a hospital grade pump that I get to rent for a year. If I use it that long, great! If not, I can return it when Jaiden and I are ready to stop breastfeeding. But I can already see it's going to get a lot of use and it will definitely come in handy! I've already used it twice and (although it's a very strange thing to see) I love using it! My boobies are very thankful.

One of the best benefits of me pumping is this:

Jaimie finally got to feed his son! Yay!! It will definitely help when it comes to those middle of the night feedings. That is where I have a lot of trouble (not wanting to wake up at 3 am and all), aside from the soreness. I just need to get up a good surplus of milk!

By pumping, I've realized a reason why Jaiden can sometimes get cranky after he's fed for nearly 30 minutes. I haven't been able to get an entire ounce out of my right side ... but my left gets nearly three ounces. So Jaiden might not be fulfilled if he's not getting that much from one side. The breast pump has helped me see this! =D

Oh, and in some weird moment of feeling a great amount of accomplishment, I took a picture of the bottle of expressed milk. Boobie team, GO!

So This is Love

I (finally) changed my music player ... sorry to those of you still listening to my Christmas music half-way thru January! LOL

For those of you who have known me for a long time, you know of my past experiences with 'love'. You also know about Jaimie and myself ... and, again, for any of you left doubting the intensity of our love and the sheer happiness I feel when I am with him, take a gander at this:


On our second day in the hospital, Jaimie came back upstairs from a smoke-break and led me to the window in our room. Outside, in the snow, was this wonderful message from the most amazing man I have ever known. He stood out there in the freezing cold, shuffling his feet in the snow, just to tell me he loved me.

Jealous? lol If I were still where I was 2 years ago, my answer would be yes. Certain parties never would have done something like this for me.

I love my life with Jaimie, that's for damn sure.

The Journey Begins...

...well, truthfully it started Friday when Jaiden was born!! LOL But I've been so busy with him and the rest of the family that I'm just finally getting a chance to post now!

It is so hard to put into words how amazing his entrance into the world was. I still look at him and think, "This is *my* baby ...that *I* pushed out. No one's coming to pick him up at the end of the day ... he's MINE! OMG ... *I* am his mother." =D Totally surreal!

I won't lie and say the whole thing has been easy. A lot of the times he cries, I cry. I know it's hormones and whatnot, but that part of it stinks. If I didn't have Jaimie here helping me (and OMG, he is the greatest Daddy ever!!), I think I would have freaked out or screamed or something.

Jaiden also finally took his longest nap ever last night (aside from his "baby comas" in the hospital after he was born and after he got his peepee snipped). He slept for 7 hours straight ... between 9 pm and 4 am! Now if we can shift that a little ... to something like 11 to 6, it'd be perfect!! LOL I got a nice long nap in too while Jaimie kept an eye on him during his super nap. And when Jaiden woke up ... he had a nice big surprise for us ... a SUPER POOP! lol He'd been storing it, I think ... 'cause it was an explosion. =D

Right now, the little man is sleeping soundly in my lap while I catch up on blogs and forums and emails. He just got done having breakfast, so he's out for the count for a couple hours, at least. Hopefully that'll be enough time to get stuff done!!

I'll be posting the birth story right after I get done with this post. I will post-date it for the 9th, when Jaiden was born. So look for it after this one!! =D

And lastly, I shall leave you with a picture of the cutest baby EVER!! =D My little Jai-bird!

Jaiden's Birth Story

A cab arrived for Jaimie and I at about 7:15 pm on Thursday, January 8^th. After saying our goodbyes to the boys and Luna, we headed to Alegent Health Midlands Hospital and arrived around 7:45 pm. As I started doing paperwork, our nurse, Connie, put in an IV for later use.

Connie checked my cervix at about 8:40 pm. I was still only 1.5-2 cm dilated, but I was 60% effaced! The baby was still high, but the cervix was feeling soft. Five minutes later, Connie came back in with the “blue pill” …actually, it’s not blue, but that’s a Matrix reference because by taking it I was opening up a whole new world to myself. =D The pill was Cytotek to help soften my cervix more.

By 9:30 pm, my contractions were about 4 minutes apart and lasted for a minute. At this point they only felt like mild period cramps … nothing I hadn’t felt before! At 10:15 pm, the contractions were about 3 minutes apart and still felt the same pain-wise.

Nurse Connie brought me a sleeping pill just before midnight so I could get some rest. She came in a little after 1 am to check my cervix and I was 2 cm dilated and she pronounced I’d entered ‘active labor’. My Group B Strep antibiotics were started and Connie predicted I would have Jaiden by 2:30/3:00 in the afternoon! My antibiotics were recalibrated about 15 minutes later because it *really* hurt my arm and hand. That’s something they don’t necessarily mention …Group B Strep antibiotics hurt!

Just after 2 am, I got another Cytotek pill. When I went to the bathroom, I noticed a light bloody discharge, so things were definitely progressing! Two hours later I was still only 2-3 cm dilated, but at 5:45 am when I went potty again, the bleeding was a bit heavier.

I got to eat breakfast around 7:45 am. My sleep was not very solid since they kept waking me up to poke and prod at me … but I was too excited anyway! At 8 am the day-shift nurse, Sue, started me on what Jaimie likes to call “Go Juice!” aka Pitocin. I was 3 cm dilated when they started Pitocin in my IV. Not even half an hour later my contractions were MUCH stronger. Dr. Gina came by an hour later to check on me, and while she was there she broke my water. Talk about getting wet! Whoo!

Because the contractions were getting a lot stronger and I was moving around more trying to find a good “spot” to deal with the pain, my belt that monitored the baby’s heartbeat kept losing it. So at about 10:15, Nurse Sue put a scalp electrode monitor on the baby’s head. His heartbeat was still very strong! =D

By this time the contractions were super painful. The best way I can describe the pain was that it was very intense and sharp. I opted to get the epidural and we started prepping for that with a bag of fluids at 10:35 am. By 11:30, Dr. Rhogan came in and had my epidural in and set! Wow …it *immediately* took the edge off the contractions. That sharpness became dull …then all the pain was gone! My legs eventually became ‘dead’ and I could really only move my feet. I had no control over my left leg and very little over my right … but I couldn’t feel any pain, so I took a well-needed nap after 12:30 pm!

Nurse Sue came in after 1 pm and checked my cervix (5 cm!) and put in a catheter. At 2:30 she returned and I was 7 cm, and when she checked on me again at 3:30 pm I was 10 cm and ready to push! However, we didn’t start the pushing till 5:45 pm. It took quite a while to get his head down, but they could eventually see the top of his head. For every set of pushes, I could get Jaiden out just a little bit, but when I stopped his head would scoot back to where it was. I could feel when my contractions were coming … there was this feeling of pressure on my bottom, but not one drop of pain. Nurse Sue had me try a few different techniques for pushing. Finally, when Dr. Gina came in, they set me up with an oxygen mask and had me do sets of 4 pushes instead of 3 like I had been doing. That 4^th push is what helped a lot.

After an hour and a half of pushing, Jaiden finally made his way into the world. Dr. Gina had made a small cut to help get his big pumpkin head out, but again, I didn’t feel any pain at all … even when I pushed his head, then shoulders and body out. Dr. Rhogan’s epidural rocked!!

Dr. Gina cleaned him up some and he started crying. I can’t tell you how wonderful that moment was. That was my baby she was holding … a baby I just pushed out of me … that I had carried for 9 months! OMG! =D

She clamped off the umbilical cord and handed the scissors to Jaimie. The proud papa freed his son and they set him on my chest while Dr. Gina finished working on me. Everything else went smoothly … no complications whatsoever, and we are very thankful for that!

I would most like to thank Jaimie for all his love and support throughout the entire pregnancy and the labor (and now thru parenthood!). He may say he didn’t do anything, but I am here to tell you that I could not have done it without him. He is my rock and I love him with all my heart!!

So now, the journey really begins. I’m ready for the ride … how ‘bout you?