Alex and Mariah: Our New Handsome Little Guy!

So, as I said in my previous post, Thanksgiving got pretty exciting! I had been having contractions for a while, but on Thanksgiving they started getting pretty uncomfortable. But, they were still just random. My mom and I were planning on Black Friday shopping and we were going to leave around 11:30. I went to take a nap before leaving, but I couldn't sleep because the contractions were painful and about every 20 minutes. When my mom was ready to leave the contractions were hurting and coming every 10 minutes. I decided I was really in labor and probably shouldn't go shopping. I was sad to miss shopping, but SO excited to have a baby! Alex decided to take a nap while I waited for the contractions to become more frequent. I watched some TV with Sam (she said she is never having a baby because I looked like I was in such pain! I thought I was doing pretty well-no moaning or crying or anything!). Around 2am my contractions were anywhere from 2 to 6 minutes apart and lasting from 1 to 2 minutes. They had been like this for about an hour and a half. So, I told Alex we should head to the hospital. I think the hospital staff thought I was crazy for coming to Nephi when my doctor was in Ogden, but I knew things would be just fine. I got checked and was dilated to a four. They hooked me to the monitors and said they wanted to wait an hour to make sure I was actually in labor. After an hour I was dilated to a five. At this point I was having some really hard contractions-I was ready for an epidural! But, since I had never been to this hospital they had to do an ultrasound to check out the baby's fluid, position, etc. and give me a fluid bolus before the epidural. The ultrasound was done (I felt really bad because they had to call the on-call person from home to come in) and the baby looked great. Finally around 4am I got my epidural! One of my best friend's dad placed my epidural. The epidural caused my blood pressure to drop pretty low for a bit. I was really nauseated and light headed for about a half hour. They gave me some meds to help and it finally got back into normal range. I was a little freaked out for a minute, but that is probably just because I am a nurse! Other than that the epidural was perfect! It was so much better than with Jackson. I was free of pain, but could feel and move my legs the entire time. I progressed to about a 7 and then I stayed there for two hours! Finally they broke my water a little before 9 and by 9:30 I was ready to push. As I was pushing the baby's heart rate was too high so they had me put on some oxygen (I hated the face mask! I have much more sympathy for my patients who have to wear them!). I was pushing really well (according to the doc), but he just wasn't coming. Finally the doc realized that he was posterior, meaning face up. The best position is for the baby to be face down so the biggest part of the head can come through first. So, to help my contractions be more forceful to aid my pushing they started pitocin. This luckily did the trick and a few contractions after starting pitocin and he was out!
As soon as they handed him to me I just started crying! I seriously could not stop crying! I was so happy he was here and healthy and absolutely perfect. His poor head was a major cone with a huge lump in the front and his forehead was bruised-fortunately his conehead went away in about an hour! We all guessed his weight and the nurse won! She guessed 9 pounds 2 ounces and he was 9 pounds 3 ounces and 22 inches long. I couldn't believe he was so big! They got him cleaned up and had Alex bring him back to me. I was just in heaven. I know this sounds weird, but I seriously wondered how I could love anyone like I love Jackson. Well, I immediately fell in love with Gavin. He was just so perfect and most definitely belonged in our family.
After I got cleaned up and breastfed Gavin, my parents came in to see him. It was so much fun showing off my handsome little guy! My parents were pretty in love themselves. They stayed for a little while and then left to get Jackson. I was worried Jackson would be freaked out, but he did really well. I had him bring a present for Gavin and Gavin gave him a present as well. Jackson got a Bumblebee transformer and this did the trick! He was really interested in Gavin and didn't seem bothered at all. I was definitely relieved about this! A funny story about Jackson-the second time he came to visit I was breastfeeding Gavin. He asked what I was doing and I said I was feeding Gavin. He climbed on the bed to have a look and said, "What is that? A tomato?" Then he looked a little closer and said, "Oh nope! That's just a boob!" I couldn't stop laughing-what a nut!
It was a lot of fun being in Nephi. I had lots of visits from friends and my family. I had wonderful nursing care! With Jackson I had terrible nurses, but in Nephi only one nurse wasn't good. Every one else was so helpful and great. The doctors were great as well!