The Name and Story

After much discussion, we have named our baby Jackson Porter Pendleton. Porter is a family name on Justin's side.

Isn't he an angel?

A few details from our visit.

My mom and the girls brought me these pretty flowers!

 The story:

Friday night I started having contractions at about 5:30 pm. After they had gotten to be about 5-7 minutes apart for about an hour and a half, I told Justin we should head to the hospital. When we got there, they checked me and I was still at a 3. No good! They monitored me for an hour, my contractions slowed down and when they checked me again, no progress. It was so disappointing! I have only had my water break before, so this contraction business is new to me! So they sent me home. 2nd false alarm!

The nurse suggested I take a warm bath and that would help either speed up or slow down the contractions. So I took a bath and then we went to bed. I had contractions all night. For about 4 hours they were roughly 5-7 minutes apart, but they suggested waiting until they were 3-5 minutes apart. Then the next hour they slowed down again. They started back up again and I finally decided it was about time. I had been in pain all night and I better have some progress after all that! I had a bowl of cereal, woke Justin up and after he was ready, we headed to the hospital again.

We got to the hospital just before 8 am and when they checked me this time, I was at a 5!! I told Justin if they had told me I was at a 3 still, I would have started to cry. And I really think I would have! My contractions were hard enough that if I was walking I had to bend over. The nurse asked if I wanted an epidural and I said yes please, as soon as possible! She said she needed to get my blood work back before they gave me an epidural, so they started an iv and when the blood work came back, the dr. came in and gave me the epidural. This was probably around 9 am or so. After that, life was good! I was so happy to get some relief at that point. I needed 2 doses of penicillin before the baby was born, so they waited until I was at a 7 to break my water. After that, they thought it would be about an hour and a half and he would be ready to come.

They were right and after the last of the penicillin, they checked me again and I was dilated to 9 3/4. They called the doctor and he checked me a few minutes later and I was at a 10. I pushed through 2 sets of contractions and he was here! He was born at 1:24 pm.

After they weighed, measured, and cleaned him off, they gave him to me to do skin to skin and then I was able to nurse him. He did great. It was so nice to be able to hold my baby and keep him with me since last time they whisked Alison away and I didn't see her for several hours. He is such a good baby. He is great at nursing and sleeps great too. They would have discharged me yesterday, but I wanted one more night with the nursery. My pain has been really low, so that has been great. I have been able to take naps with him and don't feel too exhausted yet!

He was not too happy when we took him out of his warm blanket and changed his clothes to come home! He sometimes takes a binky, but it takes a few minutes for him to figure out what to do with it.

He was bawling as we walked down the hall out of the hospital. Poor guy! But he finally stopped crying and when we got home, the girls were so excited to see their brother again. We are thrilled to have Jackson in our family! He looks a lot like Justin from baby pictures, but Justin had blond hair. He also has full cheeks and a double chin already! He passed his hearing test and we take him in at 2 weeks to see the dr. again. It seems kind of crazy to have 3 kids, but so far, so good! It's nice to be home!