Jayden's Birth Story - Part 2

It's about time I finish Jayden's birth story. He'll be 6 months old next week. This is getting ridiculous. Next time I am writing this all out within the week of the birth.

As a side note first though... I heard about a type of photography called birth photography where you hire someone to take pictures during your labor and the birth of your child. At first it totally sounds weird but the more I looked into it, the more I like it. I would want someone that I don't know (weird, I know, but things happen in the delivery room that I don't really care to share with those close to me, other than my husband of course. I'd rather just forget some things and those close to me may decide they need to remind me and then it's awkward and I can't look you in the eye and yeah... Anyway...), someone I don't know, someone who is a professional (obviously) and knows what they are doing (of course) and won't get in the way. I would want the person to be discreet. What I love most about it is that the photographer would capture things that I wouldn't necessarily know is going on at the time and we would get more pictures of our baby as a new newborn. Plus I can look back at the pictures later and remember that day to the fullest. I just like the idea. Something to think about for next time...

So I left off last time, click here if you haven't read Part 1, with Jayden headed to the nursery and me enduring horrific pain - part 2 of the delivery. People forget to tell you about what happens after the infamous part of delivery but it's not pretty. The nurses had to push on my now very flabby stomach to get the uterus to contract and it's just a horrible feeling all around. I'm not feeling like sharing the gruesome details is relevant at this point but to give you an idea, you could probably watch a war movie which contains a lot of blood and gore, aka Saving Private Ryan. Only there are no limbs flying off, thank goodness. I didn't realize it at the time but my mom told me later (both sets of parents were waiting out in the hall, which I also didn't know at the time) that they could hear me yelling. I told you, it was painful! It took about an hour or so before I was all stitched, contracted, delivered, etc and Jayden was breathing normally. And then, they finally brought my son back to me.

Here's where the photographer would have been oh so helpful. I can't even remember when I first saw my son for the second time. I do remember that he came in with a giant orange knitted hat on and DJ told me it was in honor of the Broncos that would be starting their game shortly. I thought that was sweet but honestly, the hat was ugly. I can say that now. It's ok. It was way too big and the color was just not fitting for a newborn baby boy. But like I said, it was very sweet that DJ was bonding with his new son and teaching him early on where his loyalties should lie.

Unfortunately, because it had been a good hour since his birth, Jayden was getting to the sleepy stage again. Newborns have a window of energy right after their born when breastfeeding is best. However, we missed that window. Needless to say, my first experience with breastfeeding was disheartening; Jayden was too tired. The nurse brought in a pump a little later and I attempted to pump a little colostrum (as in like 2 measly drops) which they then fed to him using a microscopic tube while he sucked on the nurse's pinkie finger. But the nurse said even that little bit of colostrum (which for those of you that don't know is the liquid gold before the actual milk comes in that contains a huge amount of nutrients and vitamins; it's all a little newborn baby needs when their first born. God is amazing like that - He created mothers to provide just the nutrients a baby needs just when they need it.) but anyway, the nurse said even that little bit was great. Newborns have a teeny little stomach and don't eat much initially anyway.

The rest of the evening was spent with me showering (that was heavenly), the new grandparents visiting, those darn nurses coming in to do more pushing on my sensitive tummy, more attempts at breastfeeding and finally a little bit of rest. DJ spent the night on a fold-out chair that they made into a little bed, Jayden slept in his cage, I mean, bassinet (DJ would slip up and say cage every now and then. It was funny; he was obviously used to taking care of a dog, not a baby.) and I tried to sleep in my bed propped every which way with pillows. I was very sore.

That night, around midnight, they decided it was a good time to give Jayden his first bath. I don't remember why they said midnight was a good time for that but I remember they had a reason for it. I thought it seemed a bit late. That would be his first and last immersion bath until his umbilical cord fell off 14 days later. I remember the nurse kept saying that it looked like he had already had a bath because he had been rubbed down so much when they were working on his breathing earlier. He had none of the white stuff that is normally present on a newborn's skin. I've actually read that whatever that white stuff is called (I can't remember right now) is actually a really good moisturizer and babies don't need to have that washed off. I figured for this first go around, I would just go with whatever the nurses wanted to do (to a certain extent). So they said to bathe him, ok.

We stayed in the hospital a couple of nights. We probably could have gone home the next day, but I wasn't quite ready. I just needed another day to wrap my head around what was going on. DJ went into work the next day so I tried to get some rest. My mom and dad came to sit with Jayden and I for a while and since I was still working on breastfeeding, I didn't want many other visitors. I can say that the whole hospital experience was not bad at all. I've since learned that the hospital in Laramie is unique and not like a lot of hospitals. They allowed me to do a lot of things that I've heard other hospitals have "policies" against. For example,

I wasn't forced to have an IV when I went into labor;

Jayden stayed in my room almost the entire time - with the exception of a couple of tests and one night where the nurse watched him in the nursery while DJ and I got a few hours of sleep - she had my expressed instructions that he was to come back as soon as he got hungry. I did not want him getting a bottle whatsoever;

the hospital was very pro-breastfeeding - I never once was recommended to supplement Jayden with anything when he wouldn't eat right away (and when my milk didn't come in for almost 5 days);

I wasn't discharged the next day and was allowed to stay an additional night; and

during my labor, I was allowed to walk the halls, get in the tub, eat, drink and pretty much do whatever I felt like doing.

The nurses were also AWESOME. There was only one nurse that wasn't the best of the best and she wasn't even that bad. I don't even remember what I didn't like about her but I remember thinking that I preferred my other nurses that I had seen previously. They were so kind and compassionate and understanding plus it didn't hurt that they said I was awesome during the delivery and DJ was awesome too. Flattery is always nice.

I look back on those first couple of days in the hospital with great fondness and nostalgia. Almost everything about Jayden's birth was perfect for a first-time delivery. And now I know exactly how I would want the next one to go.

A couple of other things I want to remember. We chose to forego the Hep B shot until his first appointment the following Monday. I wanted Jayden to avoid any unnecessary pain his first few hours of life. He did however have to get the Vitamin K shot and the heal prick. I wanted to forego those too but DJ and I didn't necessarily see eye to eye on that. We were also able to wait to perform other "boy" procedures until his 1 week visit.

As we were leaving the hospital, I remember it was a little surreal that we were leaving with a baby. But I was excited. I was ready for the journey and in fact, felt like I had prepared my whole life so far for that moment. I didn't always know I was going to be a mom but when I did realize that was what I was made to do and to be, I couldn't wait. Of course, I was nervous but I also knew I had to take it one day at a time.