Jackson Bryan

Another little boy joined our family on August 18, 2010 at 7:11 in the morning. Jackson Bryan weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. As an added bonus, little Jackson now shares a birthday with my dad!

We are in awe of God's goodness in blessing our lives with another little one!

In the interest of remembering even the little details, the following is the birth story of little Jackson, so read on at your own risk, ha! Even if you don't care about the birth, enjoy the pictures.

Unfortunately, this entire pregnancy went by without one belly shot. How sad. I can tell you that I was bigger than last time. I was waaay more uncomfortable and complained alot more. I'm so sorry if you were on the receiving end of my whining. There are probably several people (mostly Matt) that are pretty glad I'm no longer preggo, haha!

My official due date was August 18, but around the beginning of the month I had several nights where I was up for hours in the night with contractions that would always go away in the morning. We kept getting our hopes up that it was time and then had to get over the disappointment. It did help me keep myself prepared for things and enjoy my days alone with Graham. We for sure made the most of the last couple of weeks together!

My 40 week dr. appointment was on Tuesday and I was a little more than 3 cm and fully effaced. My doctor was pretty sure it would be soon and not another week. I breathed a sigh of relief at that one. For the rest of the afternoon, I was a little crampy but didn't want to get my hopes up that it meant anything. We carried on as usual but I did make sure that our bags were all sort of packed and that we had milk in the fridge.

Around 2ish in the morning, contractions woke me up. But they were just like the ones I'd been having and I had no trouble going back to sleep. They would just sort of make me stir every 10-20 minutes. Then around 4:30 I had one that made me get up. I called my doula at 4:45 and gave her an update (they were still only 10-15 minutes apart but starting to hurt.) She was glad I called and said to call her when they were more like 5-6 minutes apart. As soon as I hung up, they jumped to 5-6 minutes apart and by 5:15 we had talked again, I'd woken up Matt and we were getting ourselves ready for baby. Matt called my parents to let them know to head our way and also the doctor to let her know we'd most likely be seeing her in the next few hours. I think that with Graham, I didn't know what labor was supposed to be like and before I knew it, it was over. This time I think I was way more whiny and nervous about things speeding out of control. Matt was great though and was at my side rubbing my back or just reminding me to breathe while remaining calm himself.

My doula arrived around 5:45 and I could have hugged her. She watched me work through one contraction and then had me lay over the yoga ball. That's apparently when she looked at Matt and said that it was time to go and asked if my mom was here yet. Matt finished getting things in the car and my mom pulled up. We were in the car headed out by 6:15. Let me tell you, laboring in the car is the worst! Sweet doula rode with us and boy was I glad. With each contraction she reminded me not to yell and reminded me that I wasn't allowed to push yet. With her help I think I only yelled out profanity a couple of times and managed to breathe through the contractions for the 30 minute drive. It also helped that Matt was going like 85.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:45, walked through the parking garage, through the construction detour entrance, up the elevator and into the "labor evaluation unit". That's where you go so that they can make sure you're actually in labor and not just hoping to be in labor. They must have laughed at me because I couldn't even stop at the desk. I just paced in a circle and told them that I was pushing and needed a bed. Must have been convincing enough because they told me to go ahead into labor and delivery. Another set of nurses and desk where they ask me routine questions and such. I can't even stand still... then we're in a room. My doctor had just arrived on the floor and heard a nurse say that room 24 was a "full 10cm and pushing" and knew it was me. I was so glad to see her! I have no idea what time we were all present and accounted for in the delivery room. All I know was that between Matt, my doula, and doctor...the room grew calm and it seemed as time stood still. Such a different experience from last time with Graham where it seemed like everyone was buzzing around and everything seemed so urgent. With the first push my water broke. Maybe (probably) too much information - but because I was pushing, it literally shot water across the room. Everyone laughed. With a few more pushes little Jackson was laying on my chest trying to look at me (it was 7:11.) After all the intensity, all the transitions from home to car to hospital.... there was my baby. All tiny and pink and warm. Instant love. We immediately were in awe at how tiny newborns are and had fun talking to him and snuggling him for several minutes until she cut the cord. Everything went smoothly and much more calmly after this point. We moved to our next room around 8:30 I think. They were able to do the "bedside check-in" for us and so we were able to hold and snuggle little Jackson without him having to go to the nursery. It's just like people say... our hearts doubled.

Brand new Jackson.

Proud daddy.

Family trickled in to visit throughout the day. It was nice to have time with each person instead of everyone at once. My mom brought Graham up to us late morning. He didn't really care so much about Jackson but more about my sitting in the bed. Graham does not do well when I go to the doctor or the chiropractor. It's like he doesn't want anyone to touch or possibly hurt me. So sweet. So he was most concerned with making sure I was ok and wanted to make sure to sit as close to me as possible. He and Jackson had presents for each other. Graham gave Jackson a yuh-yuh just like him and Jackson gave Graham a toy guitar. While the gift exchange was great, the toy guitar was a mistake, it's preset songs are sooo annoying.

I must say, many thanks to both of our families for practically stopping their lives to help us and keep Graham. Matt's family was about to leave for Ireland for several weeks and my parents were getting my brother settled into college. And yet they helped us make sure Graham felt special and spent time with us. We love them so much and can't thank them enough!

First (but not great) family picture.

G is way more interested in taking apart Nana's wallet...

Sweet sister spent the first night with me, thanks Laura!

We really wanted to keep G's life as normal as possible, so Matt slept at home with him.

"Oh hello world!"

Isn't he precious?! I plan to do alot of staring at that face.

We think he looks alot like Graham but isn't that blond hair so cute?

We have this same picture with G and it's the same.

All ready to go home!

We are thankful for our sweet little boy. Every aspect of this delivery went so smoothly and was such an answer to prayer. We feel so blessed to have had the gentle, drug free birth we prayed for. Praise the Lord for this little life! Matt and I can't believe we have two little ones, wow!