Weekend in Georgia

Two weekends ago we took our first road trip with Wyatt... to Grandma and Grandpa C.'s house in Valdosta, Georgia! It was for a very special occassion.. my dad's Promotion Ceremony! He is being promoted to Chief Master Seargant in the Air Force (E-9) which is the highest rank!! By law, only 1% of the entire Air Force can hold the rank of "Chief" at any given time. We are SO, SO VERY proud of you Dad! You deserve it! Thank you for your service!

The ceremony was a blast.. mostly due to mom drinking a little too much wine ;) But she looked gorgeous and deserved the celebration too =) My brother, Jeremy, his wife, Heather, and their kids, JJ and Claire, also came down from Virginia to celebrate with mom and dad. And now for the picture overload....

This of course was Wyatt's first time staying with a babysitter! His first babysitter was an older couple/friends of my parents from their church. They just loved keeping him... and I didn't even cry =)

This weekend was also Wyatt's first time meeting his Uncle Jay, Aunt Heather, and cousins!

Wyatt wasn't too thrilled about picture time =)

JJ loved playing train tracks with Uncle Tyler

(Just realized I didn't get any good pictures with Claire :( )

This weekend was full of firsts for Wyatt that will go in his baby book... first road trip, first babysitter, first time at a park!



Part 3

*TMI Warning still in place*


So this is my favorite “part” of the story... I mean, it does end with Wyatt in my arms =)

When I was fully dilated Dad and Chandler left the room to go roam the halls. Tyler and my mom were my leg holders and “push coaches.” I am SO thankful that I got the labor nurse that I did, she was awesome! Before I started pushing, she sat down with Tyler and mom and me and explained how it would work. She said she would be watching the monitor and let me know at the start of a contraction. My coaches would help hold my legs as I pulled up on them. She described the pushing process as taking a deep breath in, diving into a pool and swimming all the way across the pool under water… I was to “come up for air” as I needed and then bear down and push. She said she doesn’t like to count like you often see because she just wanted me to push as long as I could every time. And then described a little about the process of Wyatt making his way down the birth canal and how all that works. We were all ready!

12:25 PM = Showtime!

I loved the illustration she used about diving into the pool. At the start of each contraction, I pictured myself on the edge of the pool. Took a deep breath in, “swam” (pushed) as long as I could, came up for air (breathed out and took another breath in), and “swam” again for as long as I could, ect…. LOL Each contraction was 3 sets of pushing. It worked really well for me. All the while my coaches were cheering me along =)

In between pushes we all just relaxed and talked. Tyler and mom had me cracking up and the nurse joined right in with us. Dr. Baird came in to check on me at one point and said, “You’re not even sweating! I want to see some sweat!” haha He did a couple contractions with me except he had me doing 4 or even 5 sets of pushes per contraction! Man, he was really making me word hard, lol. I was determined to be sweating the next time he came to check on me… I was… well, a little bit. Lol

The reason I was pushing for 2 hours was because for some reason my contractions realllly slowed down. So sometimes we were waiting 5-7 minutes in between contractions. When Dr. Baird came in again at 1:40 and realized this, he had the nurse run a little bit of Pitocin through my IV in an effort to keep the contractions coming and “get this baby out of here.” He worked through a few more pushes with me.

Shortly after that, a bunch of nurses came filing in… setting everything up for delivery. They looked like a bunch of busy bees =) The Dr. got all his “gear” on and at this point I knew we were getting close. Of course the hardest pushing was right at the end… mom was so excited, “Jenna! I can see him! You’re so close!” And Tyler was my #1 cheerleader just like he always is =) Together they were so, so awesome!

The end was just amazing… I felt no pain, yet I could still “feel.” My epidural was just the perfect amount. At 2:25 pm I could literally feel his head push through and then the rest of his body slide out… absolutely incredible. Nothing will ever compare to it.

However, then it did take the Dr. a minute to get him up on my chest as he noticed the issue with his intestine/umbilical cord right away and he had to be careful where Tyler cut the cord. Tyler was able to cut the cord though and I got to hold him very briefly, but did not get to do skin-to-skin or start breastfeeding.

He was taken over to the warmer for the rest of his assessments and the Doctors were called to look at him.

It was immediately decided that he would be transported to Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital downtown. We were able to hold him one last time before they took him to get ready for transport =(

He was gone by 4:45.

Praise the Lord, we all know this story still has a happy ending!!

Jaiden Photography

"Every good and perfect gift is from above..." James 1:17

As crazy as it sounds, I loved giving birth. It was just such an incredible feeling (the whole labor and delivery process) and such an amazing thing to experience. There’s nothing more special and I am so very thankful I had a wonderful birthing experience.

Part 2

*Warning - Following post may be TMI.. read at your own risk ;)*

Because it was between 7 pm and 7 am, we had to enter through the ER entrance. We walked up to the desk and a girl (probably late 20’s and with 2 other people) was checking in, who appeared to have broken her arm. As we walk up, they all turned around and looked at us and the girl said, “Oh my gosh, you’re about to have a baby! Here! Go ahead of me!” I assured her I was just fine (haha) but she took her check-in paperwork and moved off to the side so we could get checked in.


A guy brought down the wheelchair and after asking if my water was broke and finding out that it was, laid down a pad over the wheelchair seat. He rolled me into labor and delivery and the nurses at the desk were trying to figure out if I needed to go into “triage” to be checked and monitored for true labor or taken right into a delivery room. I told them my water had broken and the nurse told me to stand up. When I stood up and they all saw that I had soaked the pad on the seat, she said, “Oh! She’s a keeper!” And they took me straight to a delivery room, lol.

Three nurses were in the room to get me all set up. They sawTyler walk in pulling the duffle bag behind him with the Boppy strapped to it and a pillow under his arm. A nurse said, “Wow! Ya’ll look prepared!” and then turned to Tyler and said, “You must either be in the military or a Boy Scout.” To which he responded, “Both!” We all cracked up! Lol

I got dressed in the hospital gown and they started hooking me up to the monitors and getting my IV put in. The nurse blew my vein with the IV on the first try… WOW, talk about painful!!! That junk hurt. Bad. On the second try, it went in just fine. They asked me about dilation and I told them I was 3 cm at my appointment on Thursday and she said she would go ahead and check me. I warned her how hard of a time the Dr. had finding my cervix though. To which she responded, “Ooo, let me get Pam to do it then! Her fingers are longer anyways” LOL, Yeah, that sure made me feel good! “Pam” came in and briefly tried to check me, but said, “Nope, I can’t even feel it so we just won’t worry about it for now. No need to add to your discomfort” (whew!)

We were finally all settled in our room and left to ourselves by about 5:00 am. At this point, Tyler contacted family to let them know what was going on and my mom got right on the road from Valdosta, GA with my Dad and Chandler leaving shortly after her.

Contractions started kicking in at 5:30 am. Tyler was fully prepared to coach me through each contraction! He was instructing me to “breath” and “relax” and doing all the things we learned about. Poor guy, after a few contractions, I told him, “Please don’t talk to me. It just bothers me.” He obliged but after a little while said, “Can I please talk to you? I hate just sitting here watching you.” =( I told him he could but to just say “breathe” and “relax” a couple times.. not over and over. Lol

I just continued to labor through contractions as my family arrived. At first, they were just sitting in the room watching me and I suggested they play a card game. They looked bored and I think my Dad and Chandler were a little freaked out watching me go through the contractions, haha. So Tyler got out a new Monopoly card game we had recently bought. We will laugh about this for years to come (as we already have several times)… Tyler was sitting in the bed with me so we pulled up the table to my bed and my family brought up chairs and they played Monopoly Cards as I labored! When I felt a contraction coming on I’d let Tyler know and he’d pause from the game to be with me, then when it was over he went back to the game. And even in between contractions I was involved in the game too, haha. Here’s a picture to prove it, lol:

I think it was a really good distraction... I wasn’t thinking about the last contraction or even the next one to come! I was completely relaxed in between them, enjoying the card game. Although they were definitely getting more intense and closer together! At one point, Tyler said, “OK, We’ve got to figure something out here because you are about to break my fingers.” Haha My mom said, “Jenna! You aren’t supposed to be squeezing his hand, you should be relaxed!” OOPS! (I knew that! Thanks for the reminder though Mom, it did help) =)

Dr. Baird came in to check me at about 9:30 am. I really didn’t have any expectations as far as how much I had dilated. I felt like I was still handling the contractions pretty well and didn’t plan on getting the epidural for about another hour. I was surprised to find out that I was 6 cm dilated and the Dr. recommended that I really consider getting the epidural (he knew I planned on getting one) soon because I was progressing rather quickly for a first time mom. I felt good but didn’t want to miss my opportunity to get the drugs, ha, so I told him I’d go ahead and get it now. It’s a good thing I did too because it was kicking in at around 10:00 am and at noon I was fully dilated! I imagine that would have been a rough 2 hours without it! But instead, I was just relaxing in bed hanging out with family… modern medicine is amazing ;)

Next up... time to push!

Wyatt's Birth Story Part 1

So Tyler temporarily took over my blog! I'd like to think I am finally back now =) I'm sure you'll still hear from him though ;)

I am working on typing out Wyatt’s birth story! I am going to post it in 2 or 3 parts, as I am only able to sit down and type a little bit here and there. It is going to be pretty detailed too, so sorry if it bores anyone.. it’s mostly for my own good though. I never want to forget those amazing (and humorous) moments…


I had Tyler take notes as the labor and delivery progressed so I would be able to go back and write it all out. I’m sure glad we did that because while I do remember most of the day, reading the notes sure helps trigger all the little details.

__________________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, December 16th I had a Dr. appointment. After a (extremely uncomfortable) cervical exam it was determined that I was 3 cm dilated. However, my cervix was still extremely high and posterior. We went ahead and set an induction date for Monday, the 27th, as that was the latest they were going to let me go.

Friday night, the 17th, was our typical night out and we went and saw Tron in the movie theatre.

Saturday, the 18th, we didn’t do much of anything other than go for a very long walk outside.. it was a gorgeous 73 degrees and sunny so we went walking around the neighborhood. I like to tell myself that this is what finally did the trick =) Of course we had also been joking for the last couple weeks how cool it would be if Wyatt came on his due date since I had read that it only happens about 5% of the time.

Well, Saturday night I could not sleep. I was tossing and turning all night it seemed, just unable to get comfortable (which wasn’t too unusual anyways in the 9th month of pregnancy). I could also hear our neighbors outside which didn’t help either. I finally got to sleep probably about 1 or 2 in the morning. While I was sleeping, I woke up all of a sudden caused by the weirdest popping sensation in my belly. I don’t think I’ve ever awakened so suddenly! And I immediately thought, “I think my water just broke.” I wasn’t sure so I stayed real still to see if I could feel anything… nothing. So I got up slowly and walked to the bathroom. I had a tiny trickle of fluid and shouted, “TYLER!” ... it must have sounded pretty urgent because I've never seen him jump out of bed so fast! We talked for a little bit trying to decide if my water really broke. I was in denial but Tyler did the smell trick and convinced me “Jenna, that’s NOT pee... your water broke!” We checked the time.. it was 3:00 in the morning, Sunday December 19th =) We couldn’t help but giggle. I called my Dr.’s office and the nurse took down some information and said the Dr. on call would call me back. The Dr. we were hoping would deliver Wyatt happened to be on call! (Dr. Baird) He called me right back and said, “Isn’t today your due date?” I told him it was and he said, “Sometimes we do get it right!” =) He told me he would notify the hospital and to come on in!

We had our bags packed and a list on top of the bag with last minute items to grab (toiletries, pillows, ect.) At this point, Tyler was SO excited! I mean.. he. Was. Pumped! He got dressed and started gathering all of our stuff together and was just as happy as could be. On the other hand, I. was. Freaked. Out. I don’t really know why… I had been waiting for this day for how long now..? But I was so scared. I was telling Tyler, “Calm down!” haha He was making me even more nervous with all his excitement!

I had actually showered Saturday evening since we had just bummed around most of the day, so I really didn’t need to shower. I will admit that I put on some mascara and brushed my teeth though =) I got dressed and we headed off to the hospital at about 3:40 am.

We got to the hospital, parked, and as I stood up to get out of the car… here came the “gush” of fluids! Grossest. feeling. ever, but there I am in the dark, freezing cold, early morning, standing in the ER parking lot shouting, "ewwwww! This is so gross!" as the gush of fluids soaks my entire bottom half, visible through my sweat pants and everything! We were cracking up as I uncomfortably waddle in to the ER with my big ‘ol belly and soaked britches =)

(sidenote- contractions had not kicked in yet)

New Years Eve Visit From The Christians

Hey everyone, we just wanted to share a few photos of our weekend visit with the Christians. It was just another casual weekend visit that we have come to enjoy so much over the last few years. It has been awesome living only two hours away from each other. Enjoy!

First time visiting with Wyatt at home instead of the Hospital

Uncle Chandler holding Wyatt for the first time.

MOMMY!!!!! 

Grandma Christians showing off Wyatt's "Nuts about Grandma" outfit.

I'd say he can fall asleep anywhere!

 

Dad taking foot and hand prints for the baby book.

He's taking it like a champ!

The finished product.

Grandma & Grandpa Christians at a local park.

Mommy & Daddy sitting by the St. Johns River. 

Our 1st Outing

European Street Cafe

We hope everyone had an awesome 2010, we certainly did! God has blessed us tremendously and we thank Him so much. Now we look forward to 2011 and the many blessings He will give us this year. So to all our family and friends, here's a toast to you and your family, God Bless!