Summers Family: February 2011

One week old

Disclaimer: Sorry this is such a long post and probably pointless for most, but again, this is pretty much my journal and I wanted to record all this stuff

Jaxson's first week of life was a crazy one and went by way too fast. I think I'm just gonna have to go day by day to remember everything that happened.

Sunday - He's born :) We spent the day in the hospital relaxing, having some visitors, and enjoying time with our precious baby boy. We started working on breastfeeding and Jax was having some issues with it. He was latching on really well, but he wasn't eating. He just kept falling asleep. Some nurses were concerned, but then the lactation specialist came in and she told me that it is completely normal for them to not eat for even the first 24 hours.

Monday - Jax got his snip snip surgery done in the morning and still wasn't eating well. They said again that it's totally normal especially after his surgery cuz he was just tired and worn out. Since he was latching on so well they let us go home, so long as we promised to take him to the Pediatrician the next day. We went straight from the hospital to my parent's house to see the family and see baby Camdon who was born on 2/19, one day before Jax. Carrie and Cam got released about the same time as us so we all met up to meet the new babies. Jax continued to not eat the rest of Monday night.

getting ready to go home

Camdon & Jaxson

Tuesday - I called the Pediatrician first thing in the morning cuz Monday was President's day so we couldn't make an appointment, but we got in right away and Jax was down to 6lbs 4oz. As all mom's know, losing weight is normal in the beginning but the Dr. said he was definitely concerned especially since we were having such a hard time breastfeeding. So he had me take this syringe with this little tiny tube attached that I was supposed to put formula in while breastfeeding. Jax was also looking yellow, which was to be expected since he wasn't eating so he had to get his blood drawn to get tested for jaundice. So, he still wasn't eating well with that tube thing so finally I decided to try a bottle. And he took to it the second it was in his mouth. It really relieved me a lot that he was finally eating, but I was really bummed that breastfeeding didn't work out. We also got a call that afternoon telling us that he was jaundice and that they would be bringing by the bili lights for him to stay under. We got the bed and he had to stay in them til Thursday morning. Putting him in that bad seriously made me cry. We had to cover his eyes and he just looked so sad it was really hard for me. When he's under the lights he has to be watched 24/7 so we had to take shifts through the night. You also have to take his temperature every hour to make sure it doesn't get too high.

saddest thing ever :(

Wednesday - Was pretty layed back. We stayed home all day and had some visitors come by, Jax was supposed to stay in the lights 24/7 like I said so he was in there all day when we didn't have visitors.

Thursday - We took Jax to the Dr. in the morning and he was up to 6lbs 10oz! The Dr said that was great and actually a ton. Most gain about an ounce a day on average and he gained 6 in 2 days. So that made me a very proud momma :) He had to get blood drawn again for his bili test but the Dr said he looked good and not to worry about keeping him under the lights anymore. Then we got a call that afternoon telling us we were for sure cleared and his levels were great.

proud papa

Friday - We went and hung out at Carrie's for a little bit to see Camdon and mom was spending her days there too helping out. Then we went to Ron & Lori's for dinner that night. Jax's umbilical cord fell off this night.

Saturday - We went to Carter's in the morning cuz Jax is such a little peanut that we only had one outfit that fit him. So we got a couple cute outfits including the cutest one for church! Then we went over to mom and dad's to watch the BYU vs SDSU game. Yes we are still definitely Utah fans, but we love Jimmer and we always cheer for BYU when they are playing someone else. Plus SDSU fans are pretty retarted.

Sunday - We went to church at my parents' ward cuz that's the ward I grew up in and there's a lot of people I wanted to show Jax off to. Then we just hung out all day and played games that night like normal.

he looked so freaking cute!

first family picture

James was able to be home all week with us and was a huge help. He is already such a good daddy and is so so cute with Jaxson. A huge thanks to my mom who brought us dinner every night. Even though I have been feeling pretty good, it is nice to relax and not have to worry about making anything for dinner. She also gave Jax his bath every night which was fun. As far as Jax's sleeping schedule... it's been great! He is a really good sleeper. He usually goes to bed around 9, the wakes up at 11:30, then 3:30 then 7 or 7:30. However, last night he didn't go to bed til 11:30 and didn't wake up until 4 and then not again until 8 this morning. It was really nice, we'll see if it keeps up :)

Birth Story

As a heads up, I don't know how long or exciting this will be, but I am putting it on here so I have all the details and specifics recorded so I don't forget :)

Around my 34 week appointment I started having a little extra protein in my urine. This, along with high blood pressure are signs of preeclampsia. So it was just a little bit and they just told me to make sure I was staying hydrated and stuff. The next few appoinments were the same thing, there was just a little bit extra but not too much to be worried about. Then at my 38 week there was more than they are ok with, so I had to do a 24 hour urine sample and bring it back to have it tested in the lab. We got those results and again, a little high but not a huge deal. But they still wanted me to go and get hooked up to the monitors and have the stress test done for a couple hours. So that was Friday the 18th. They got the results of the tests back and said I was fine. I was dilated to a 3 and scheduled to be induced on Tuesday the 22nd, so I was really trying to convince them to just induce me. BUT, since I wasn't 39 weeks (for TWO more days) they wouldn't. They did however make me do another 24 hour urine and bring it back the next day and get hooked up to the monitors again. So Saturday morning we went to the hospital to see baby Camdon who was born that morning, then we went all the way up to our hospital to go through all this crap for 3 hours again. At this point, in the back of my mind I was obviously hoping they would just induce me, but went into saying we weren't getting induced for 3 more days (as retarted as that was :)). Oh, and side note, the reason that hadn't been all that concerned so far is because my blood pressure had been prefectly normal this whole time. So, after about 2 hours and all the monitors being normal, the nurse comes in to tell us to go home I was sure... but to my amazement and joy she said that my protein count was 308 and the cut-off for ok is 300, so we barely made it and we were being induced immediately! I was so excited! Not like 3 days later would've made a huge difference, but we were already at the hospital, already hooked up to machines, and it was like just do it already.

So we got into our room at about 6pm, met with the Dr and did all the paperwork and stuff, and got pitocin started at about 6:40. I got the epidural immediately and it was smooth sailing until midnight. The Dr. came in and broke my water, and instantly I started feeling parts of my contracts, which of course isn't supposed to happen with the epidural. So that was a little worrisome but I decided to give it a little bit. After about 40 minutes I was feeling EVERYTHING! It was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. So the anesthesiologist came in and tried giving me some different meds, he tried raising the dose on my epidural, my nurse tried giving me some pain meds through my IV... and nothing was working. So finally, he decided to take my epidural out and put a new one in. Of course he had an emergency C-sections, so THREE freaking hours later, I got a spinal and an epidural. The spinal only lasts for 2 hours so they were thinking that would at least give me some relief if this second epidural didn't take. Thankfully, the spinal is immediate and I started feeling relief before he was even done. It was so great. That was absolutely the worst 3 hours of my life. I have mad respect for women who do the whole thing naturally. So after that ordeal, I got checked and was at a 9 and started getting ready to push.

This whole pregnancy has been in my back. My back has hurt the entire time, my false contractions were always in my back, and I had complete back labor (which is another reason those 3 hours SUCKED). So I was prepared for that, but wasn't prepared for how hard it would make pushing. I only pushed for about 10 minutes with Riley, so I was expecting a pretty similar experience. Not the case. Granted I still only pushed for 40 minutes which to most women probably isn't that bad... but it was so freaking hard. Posterior babies come out face up rather than face down which is not how it is designed and makes them coming out much harder. It also gave him this ginormous bruise on his head which was so sad.

After all that, little Jaxson came into the world. He scared me a little bit at first cuz he didn't cry. He was whimpering and making noises and stuff, but he wasn't crying like he should've been. They were flicking him and doing all this stuff and he still wouldn't, but he was moving and making noises. So they took him over and started doing some more stuff and finally I got to hear a really short cry, but that was it. And we have come to learn that he's just not a big crier anyway, except at bath time.

I have actually recovered pretty quick. I didn't tear at all which definitely makes healing an easier process. We stayed in the hospital Sunday night and came home Monday afternoon. Jaxson is everything we could've hoped for and more. He is a great baby and I am so completely in love with him. I can't believe I am finally getting this opportunity to be a mom and have a baby of my own. It's also made James and I much closer and has made me love him even more. I just couldn't begin to describe how happy I am and I am just trying to enjoy every minute and soak up all the cuddles and milestones right now cuz I know he won't be this little forever.