Yes... it has been well over a year since I have posted. I am hoping I can make this more of a habit. There is no way to catch up, so I am just going to focus on the most important update in our lives. We had a baby! I am getting ahead of my self, let me start from the beginning.
WARNING:: This will probably be a novel, but I want it documented. Sorry.
I had been wanting to have a baby for awhile, but things were just not working out. I had graduated and lost my BYU health insurance and there was just not really a way we could make it work. Finally, in November I got offered a full-time job with insurance! We decided to start trying (which is a much more emotional process than I thought it would be - I thought I hated getting my period before (TMI?), but this was a whole new experience - poor Brady). I was not handling all of the negative pregnancy tests very well, so I decided not to take another test until I was at least five days late. February 3rd was the day I was finally 5 days late, so of course at about 3AM I couldn't wait another moment. I ran and got the test and it was positive! I woke Brady up to tell him the news (I was wayyy to excited (and lazy?) to be one of those cute wives that tells everyone in some creative way). He was really excited - and then fell back asleep like one minute later. Later that day we took a million more tests, and then went out to dinner to celebrate.
At around 19 weeks we got to find out the gender. We were both thought we were having a girl, but we were wrong! We were having a boy and were so exciting we hit the stores in search of boy clothes right away.
I had a pretty rough pregnancy full of high blood pressure, a 24-hour urine test, follow-up ultrasounds, 3-hour glucose test, weekly stress tests and ultrasounds to check my amniotic fluid the last couple of weeks, and LOTS of swelling (hence the lack of pregnancy pictures). I will spare you the details, but here are the few pictures we have::
By thirty-seven weeks I was so uncomfortable and ready to be done. We decided to take that weekend to clean and get everything ready for the baby, pack a hospital bag and go on long walks. I had my doctors appointment and had not progressed as much as I had hoped. I was hoping to have the baby early because my mom was wanting to go to Germany with my dad, and we obviously needed to make it down to the St. George Marathon, which was one day before my due date. The doctor told me not to get my hopes up, because about 70% of first time moms do not go into labor before their due date. After my appointment I went and got my weekly stress test and my fluid was really low ( if it was any lower they would have had to induce me right away) so I went home with a list of symptoms to watch for, and extremely stressed.
I woke up that night feeling almost light period cramps (37 weeks and 2 days). I, of course, went to google immediately, but couldn't find much. They were close together, but not that painful so I just thought it was a weird pregnancy thing. I woke Brady up and we started timing them. They were about three minutes apart, but again not painful so I called the hospital to see what we should do. They told me that it probably was not active labor unless I couldn't walk or talk through them. So I just laid in bed for a little longer. They started getting a little more painful and I threw up so I decided to call my mom. She told me that I was in labor and should go to the hospital right away. Brady just kept saying "Are you sure? But you can still walk and talk!" We decided to trust my mom, grabbed our stuff, and headed to the hospital. On the way my contractions started getting very intense and knew that we were going to have a baby that day. When we got to the hospital, at around 7:30AM, they did a test to see if my water had broke, it had, which was surprising because out of 10 pregnancies in my immediate family this had never happened. They suspected it had been leaking for awhile, which is why my fluid was so low the day before. She confirmed what I already knew, September 17th was the day.
We were moved into the room I would deliver in and I was hooked up to all of the monitors. The rest happened so fast that it is a little bit of a blur, but I will do my best. I wanted an epidural, but had to get a blood test done before since I had high blood pressure. By the time I got an epidural I was already at a 7 (and dying!) and progressing very fast. They checked me a half hour later and I was at a 10. They said that I should wait about an hour before pushing and it would make it easier, but about 20 minutes later there was so much pressure I knew it was time. The nurse came in because Jackson's heart rate was dropping and they had to put another monitor directly on his head. After about two and a half contractions he was out at 10:19AM.
As soon as I saw him I knew something was wrong. He was floppy and blue. The doctor immediately cut his cord and called in a NICU nurse. They took him to the side of the room to try and get him breathing. After about a minute I finally heard him cry and got to hold my precious baby. The nurse that handed him to me made a comment about how amazing it is that our bodies know when babies need to come.
After 48 hours in the hospital, we were discharged and on our way home with our baby boy.
Jackson Reid McArthur
Weight: 6lbs 3oz
Height: 20 inches
Time: 10:19AM
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