Jackson Grady

It's safe to say that since my last post- July 2- life has been crazy, busy, wonderful, and joyous! I will quickly wrap up the last few weeks of the pregnancy and then move on to the delivery and the first month of little Jackson's life!

July was full of baby showers, house prep, finishing the nursery, and a week at Peach Valley camp. Thankfully, the new director's cabin was completed {enough} so that Jordan and I could stay there for the week at camp. Maybe it was because of the pregnancy, but camp was HOT! :) It was also a wonderful week and I am so happy I was able to go! I was worried a little bit throughout the week about getting too hot, but I was comforted by having our two great nurses there. I swelled more during camp than I did the entire pregnancy combined. Once we were home, the swelling was gone within 24 hours! So, camp ended on July 22, the next weekend we made our last trip to Yoakum pre-baby for a final shower and for Jordan to preach. The next week followed with a doctor check up (where she first mentions inducing early) and Discipleship University. The next week, we had what turned in to our final pre-baby doctor appointment, our last date night as a family of two, lots of finishing touches and deep cleaning around the house {thanks to mom!}, and before we knew it, we had a scheduled date to meet baby J!

Due to my blood clotting issues, doctor thought it was best to go ahead and induce at 37 weeks (2 days). Being that I have a crazy problem with wanting my entire life planned out, I did not mind knowing ahead of time exactly when we would be going to the hospital :) I was a little nervous and anxious as we left the house that morning {8-16-16} at 5:30 am but mostly we were so excited. I had complete trust in my doctor and we had been praying for a safe delivery, so we weren't really worried. We got to the hospital at 6 am and the IV with pitocin was started by 7 am. Then we waited, and waited, and 12 members of our family waited and waited- taking up a large portion of the waiting room :) I was progressing as she expected, though. She decided to break my water around 1 pm and then I really started progressing quicker. I got the epidural around 2:45- which was AMAZING. I'm all for the pain killers. Modern medicine definitely has benefits and I have no problem taking advantage of that :) After the epidural, the rest of the day seemed to go by quickly. The nursing staff changed sometime around 6. My new nurse- named Erin- was super sweet (all the nurses were, but she was my favorite). She was with us from the moment she came on shift until we had baby J and were moved into our postpartum room. Delivery of Jackson went rather smooth. We pushed for about one hour and then he was here! And there are simply no words to describe how amazing it was to finally have our baby in our arms. He weighed 7 lb even- we only expected him to weigh right under 6lb. He measured 20 in long. He was perfect- little cone head and all ;)

I was feeling great and told the doctor I felt much better now that he was here! She informed me that I was not finished- I had forgotten about the placenta needing to come out! That's when we realized there were some complications on my end. I'll spare you all the details, but long story short- it was more serious than we knew at the time. And I am so glad the doctors and nurses did not inform us of how serious it was until the next day. We simply got to enjoy everything about baby J while the doctors were working on me. She told me to push the epidural button for some more medicine before she started working on me, so I was just fine- adoring baby J and Jordan across the room. About 45 minutes later, she had removed the placenta and cord and was finished. She discovered that the placenta and umbilical cord were both abnormal and would sent off for testing. We were immediately worried. The results came back a few days later and it turned out that the placenta was infarcted. We had to Google that one because we had never heard of it before! We also had a followup appointment about it- don't think we solely relied on Google ;) In layman's terms- parts of the placenta were dead. Due to my blood clotting issues, blood channels feeding the placenta had clotted causing parts of it to die. The doctor and nurses were shocked that that placenta, "one this size" (apparently it was small) could support the growth of a baby his size. We knew it was just an answer to many prayers. We learned that after 38 weeks gestation, with a blood clotting disorder, the chances of still birth are much higher. We did not know about the placenta issues before the birth and we are so thankful that everything turned out perfectly.

We were home two days later and we have spent the majority of the last month staring at, holding, hugging, loving, kissing, and rocking baby J- saying a thousand times that we just can't believe he is here, he is ours, and he is so perfect. And baby J has spent his whole, one month life EATING. :) During the first month, he gained about 1 pound a week! :D

Happy 1 Month, baby J!

Likes:
eating
his moose paci
rocking
his swing
riding in the car
white noise
baths
rock and play sleeper

Dislikes:
being hungry
starting to fight going to sleep
restricted leg and arm movement
waking up is so hard :)

weight: 9lb 7 oz
height: 19.5 in--dr office says hospital measures wrong :) ?