The Jenkins: February 2016

I can't believe our baby boy is finally here. Those last few months of pregnancy seem never ending. Then, just like that you forget how miserable you were.

Besides all the annoying post partum recovery, we are all doing well. I wanted to write down Stockton's birth story so I could remember and share.

Stockton's due date was January,19,2016 but he decided to join us on January 8.

The 38th week of my pregnancy, Broc was out of town in Las Vegas for work. I had been dilated to a 4 at my last appointment check. With my previous labors being short and dilating fast in the hospital I was nervous of Broc being gone.

He wanted nothing to do with jump starting labor until he was home.

Wednesday January 6, I went to dinner with friends and started getting this horrible back pain on my right side. After a few hours at dinner I went to pick up the girls and headed home. I went straight to bed and was in horrible pain all night long. I woke up feeling so sick and didn't know if I could take it. I think it hurt so bad I eventually just passed out. I woke up feeling much better. On Thursday I went out with the girls and a friend and was feeling pretty good. By mid day the back pain was back. The girls laid down for a nap and I just relaxed. The back pain was back and just got worse. I had no engery and had no desire to move...but I still had two kids to take care of. I had put off going to the grocery for over a week now and desperately needed to go! I didn't want to. Not one bit! But, I had a feeling that I needed too. I had been having contractions and was just in pain. I suffered through grocery shopping, bath time, and bed routine. Then crawled my big belly into bed!

Suddenly that back pain was back. I was getting so sick of this pain. Finally around mid night I took a HOT shower. After that I felt so much better and woke up so refreshed. I even woke up before my kids and didn't go back to sleep. I texted Broc once I got up saying how well I slept and joked that a good night sleep was a sign of labor.

I was going into the doctor that morning (Friday the 8th) so I started to get ready. I started having a few contractions but that was pretty normal. When I got to the doctor I was dilated to 5cm. My doctor stripped my membranes and tried to send me to the hospital but because they were kind of busy he told me to go in a few hours if I had any contractions. After calling Broc and telling him to come home because the doc said we would be having a baby today, I went to lunch with Broc's family and then back to his parents house. His mom and sister tried to get contractions going. After a while of trying... Nothing. I finally just sat down and let the girls finish playing. I was so discouraged because I knew Broc had left his work event and would be a bit upset if he came home and we didn't have a baby that night... Well good thing the kids made a mess with crackers. I got up to get the vacuum and bam, a contraction hit. Painful enough to make me stop. 3-4 min later another one came, and another, and another. By 4:00pm Broc's mom talked me into going to the hospital. Just as we were pulling out of their drive way, Broc pulled up. So I went with him while his mom stayed with our girls. We get to the hospital and they monitor me for about 20 min and after checking me I was dilated to 7cm! Woo! We were having this baby. My biggest concern was my epidural. How fast was I going to progress? I needed that epidural. When se showed up at the hospital, the contractions were okay, but suddenly they got super intense! I had no plans on going natural, my nurse told me I had to get through a bag of fluids before I could get my epidural. When it was taking a while I had my Mother in law go ask her again because I was feeling some pressure and more intense contractions. Thank goodness it was shift change because my new nurse got me the epidural right away. I hated every second of it. It was painful.

Child birth with out it would of been worse though. Anyways, after that my water was broken and within 2 hours now from then, our baby was here! He took about 5 pushes and he entered the world at 7:48pm weighing in at 7lbs 11 ounces and 20 inches. He didn't cry and that worried me. Finally, he cried for three seconds and didn't cry again until we were home the next day.

I am so happy he is here. He is perfect and is already three weeks old! Those pains I was having must of been some sort of back labor. 3 days of that! I guess scrubbing kitchen cabinets and deep cleaning will do that!

After Stockton was born he was really red. The nurse finally seemed concerned when he had not eaten for over 9 hours, didn't fuss during any labs or bath, and noticed his circulation was slow when she would touch his skin. After some labs It came back that his hematocrit was very high. His blood was really thick which was making him sluggish and that's what was causing him not to be able to eat and slow blood flow. The only way to thin it outbid by fluids. If he didn't have two good feedings, then he would of had to gone to the NICU for an IV. Thankfully, after a few hours we were able to get him to eat.

I'm kind of sad that I delivered my last baby and all the experiences that come with it, but our family feels so complete. We are so blessed. Thanks for suffering through my long post. Here are some photos of our perfect little boy!