Meet The Jetson!

In honor of of him turning 4 weeks today, I decided I should catch up my blog and post about his birth (you know, to make it official and all...)

My mom flew in to help May 30th, (Memorial Day). That is also the day I had my last prenatal check-up and talked to the dr about being induced. Betsy was 2 days late. I went into the hospital with regular contractions, but other than that my body was not making any progress into labor. If I hadn't been past my due date, they would have stopped the contractions and sent me home. I was pretty miserable the last month of Jetson's pregnancy and was SO READY to be done. So I talked to the dr about the possibilities of being induced. He said he'll induce after 39 weeks. So Memorial Day I was 38 weeks and 5 days. He said to come in Wednesday to be induced, but I asked to make it Thursday so Eric could just take off Thursday and Friday and be with us for 4 days straight.

So Thursday, June 2 we went into the hospital at 6am to be induced. There were several things about this hospital that I wasn't crazy about, but one good thing is you can have the epidural WHENEVER you want... pretty much as soon as you walk through the door if you want. So they started the pitocin drip to start the contractions and asked if I wanted the epidural, but I said I was fine. With Betsy before the epidural they put me on Stadall (sp?) for the pain and it made me really out of it. Apparently with Jet I wasn't on any pain meds until the epidural. At 8:45am the dr came in to break my water and by asking I found out that is usually when the pain kicks into overdrive. Up to that point I wasn't in any real pain, mostly discomfort. So when he broke my water I went ahead and requested the epidural to try and beat the pain to the punch. Totally worked! After the epidural, during the contractions Jetson's heart rate was dropping so they came in and made me lay on my side and switch sides occasionally to reduce the effects on him. At 1:05pm I was dilated to 5cm and 90% effaced. Shortly thereafter, I started feeling pressure and they told me when they did the epidural if at any point I could feel anything let them know and they would up my dosage. So I buzzed the nurses and told them I was feeling pressure. 40 minutes later no one had come and the pressure was getting pretty strong, so Eric buzzed again. 10 minutes later at 2:50pm they finally came in to check me and were like, "O wow, you're ready!!" Me: Gee, you don't think maybe that could have been the case for the past 40 minutes! So they went to get the dr and at 3:09pm Jetson made his grand entrance into the world weighing 7lbs 12.8oz and 19 1/2" long.

When they discharged us from the hospital he had slightly elevated bilirubin levels, so they told us to stick him in sunlight as much as possible and to bring him back in to have them rechecked at 4 days. When we took him in for his check up at 5 days his levels had risen some, so they sent me to have them checked again. The next day they got the results and they were still rising so on June 7 they readmitted him to the hospital to be under a bili-light to treat the jaundice. We were in the hospital for 36 hours before his levels were back down and we finally got to go home and begin a normal life. At his 2 week check up he weighed 8lbs 8oz and was 20in long. My mom stayed with us until June 18th and was heaven sent. She was the biggest help with Betsy, she helped Eric and I with projects around the house and she took Jetson for the night feedings and let me sleep! I was extremely sad to see her go!

Adjusting to 2 kids has definitely been a challenge. Betsy has been great as far as being a big sister. She absolutely adores Jetson. If anyone refers to him as "their baby" she quickly pipes up with, "No, that MY baby!" We're working on the gentleness factor. She loves to kiss him, hug him, and just touch him in general, but isn't always the softest. She is really helpful and will get anything I need for "baby Jetson".