Saturday, October 25, 2008

Baby is here!!!!

On the morning of Thursday, October 23, Jaxon's due date, Megan woke up with contractions in her lower... regions, and her kind and loving husband (betcha can't guess who is authoring this portion of the blog for the first time) convinced her to get checked out. The midwife looked her over and told her early labor had started, but we needed to wait for contractions to get much closer together. So she spent the day doing what any 9month pregnant woman does... walking, cooking, making a quilt, pretty much anything but resting. But we got the house all clean and ready to come home to, packed the car, and by 3 pm, contractions were 7 minutes apart.

We went in to the hospital, got admitted, and they put Megan on a monitor. The contractions pretty much... quit right then. They nearly sent us home, but gave us an hour to walk around, and when we came back, labor had officially started. Megs waited about three hours through very painful contractions before she got the epidural. Then we both tried (unsuccessfully) sleeping as the 17 year old girl next door screamed obscenities through her particularly painful labor.

Around 1:45 am heavy labor started. The nurse came in and helped Megan position for her first practice push while the midwife was still on her way. Megan tried it and SPLOOSH!, her water broke like a super soaker blast, striking the wall (and rolling down) four feet away and dousing the nurse's hair and clothes. Another nurse had just walked past. Fate was on her side.

Soon the regular pushing began. I really thought I would be unable to watch the birth part itself, but surprisingly I did great, and was thrilled through the entire thing. Jaxon came out in about 8-12 pushes, really easy, which was a relief because he'd had a brief scare earlier when his heartrate dropped due to the cord being around his neck. He was very purple his first few minutes, but immediately cuddly with these giant chubby cheeks. Megs and I were both awestruck, proud, amazed, in love, and really really humbled by the whole experience.

Well Jaxon is now 36 hours old. He looks a bit different and has developed a small set of lungs that seemed to be absent his first day. He's having a hard time learning to feed, but is about the sweetest thing either of us have ever seen. Megan's parents are here to help now and we are thrilled.

Thank you all so much for sharing in this excitment with us! We'll post more stories and pictures once we can count the total hours of sleep we've had in three days on more than five fingers. That's both of us. Together. Five hours. Total. :D

5 comments:

Shaela said...

HURRAY!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! He is SO precious, and absolutely adorable!! that is so wonderful. Thanks for the naration Chad - it will be fun to hear Megan's side! ;) Parenting will be the hardest, most challenging, most trying experience ever, but also the most rewarding, inspiring, beautiful, and spiritual experience as well. Good luck and get some sleep if you can... sleep in shifts if you have to - been there, done that! congrats again, keep us posted.

Cristi said...

I totally feel you on the no sleep thing! I forgot to tell you-- if it seems he cries a lot and is uncomfortable like with lots of gas, consider looking into allergies. Emma was allergic to all dairy products I ate which then got into my breast milk. We had no idea what was wrong with her and the first 3 months of her life were awful. I hate to say that but it's true. So just be aware that can be a possibility. We had no idea about that kind of thing. I try to tell everyone I know. It's like my mission in life now. :) Love ya!

mmclem said...

Congratulation, I am soo happy for your little family. However you can keep waiting for that SLEEP thing for a while. Unless you are lucky enough to hire a night-time nanny - sleep whenever he does, and you might fell better in a few weeks.

The good new is that they eventually sleep six hours at a time. That first night is pure bliss. But I wouldn't give up a moment of the last 15 months.
Love you guys.

oldangelgirl said...

CONGRATS!! You two are going to be such amazing parents. Wow, Chadley! You're a Daddy!

thirdofeight said...

HA

Well I'll be. It's about time I remember my roots.

I'm so proud of you! (since you needed it) I hope you're getting more sleep these days. I just learned about you new boy! What a thing to look forward to. Congratulations!