Jacob Douglas McDonald was born on Sunday, January 25, 2015 at 6:58 A.M weighing 7 pounds 1 ounce and measuring 20 Inches.
(Now he is 5 Months and just a happy little baby!)
I kept thinking lately how I have to write down somewhere my feelings of this little guy, since he is growing so much, and is constantly changing! He is my sweet little man. And he is just so beautiful, and might I add, chunky! He stares at you, as if he is staring into your soul! He is a soul searcher. He is always looking for me, and always smiling at me. I just love, love love it!!
His birth story was much different than Jaxon's, and it was a HUGE blessing.
Pregnancy:
Okay, so yes, Jacob was quite the surprise pregnancy. Jaxon was only 8 months old when I found out I was pregnant again. I was nauseous for 2 days in a row when I was hungry. I had gone back to work part-time, and while I was at work, I asked myself why the heck I was feeling so nauseous, and then it hit me, hard... Oh crap... no, NO, I'm not pregnant....?! So with the question in mind, as soon as I got off work, I went to get Jaxon at his babysitter's house. I told her I think I might be pregnant again, and I needed to go get a pregnancy test. She was so excited for me, and said she had one I could use. So I took it home with me, only to find out it was not a pregnancy test, but it was an ovulation test. Well, I was eager to figure this out, so back in the car we went rushing to Walmart to pick up a test. I come back home, pee on the stick, and for a moment, I felt relief, only seeing one line boldly show up. Thinking, "See, you were worried over nothing..." Then, it appeared, a faint, but distinct second line. I just stared at it, in disbelief. I then started to laugh, and then started to laugh a little more in disbelief...
At this point, John wasn't home from work yet. I'm not good at keeping this kind of secret from my husband. However, I wanted to tell him in some clever and cute way that I was pregnant, since, with Jaxon, I didn't. So I called my sister, she was surprised and thrilled, and I called my friend, Celsea, and she was shocked and laughing with excitement. And we came up with writing on a onsie, and waiting for John to read it, and figure it out.
I had to act quickly, because John was coming home any minute, so I found a plain hand-me-down onsie and viola! I showed the onsie to our summer renter, Emily. She smiled and said, "cute." A few minutes later I showed it to her husband, Eric. He caught on and asked if I was pregnant. Emily thought I was implying on the onsie that he went #2 and needed a diaper change! Lol... so John could take this message another way than planned. I paced the floor wondering what he would think about having a second kid so soon....
Well, he didn't catch on to the onsie... I grew impatient. And asked him to read the onsie. Then I had to practically spell it out to him. He just stared at me. And then said, "Hahaha, you are funny." Then, "No, you are joking with me." Then I showed him the pee stick, and then he said, "Nope... you had someone pee on it for you." This went on for a while. He wouldn't believe me. Celsea called me to see how the surprise went, so as I was talking to her on the phone telling her that John didn't believe me, I noticed John left! He left! He took the car and left! What the heck John?! So after about a half hour, I called him. He took a stroll down to our friend, Robs, to talk to him about the shocking news. I was kind of mad at him at this point, for being in so much shock, and lack of excitement, but at the same time, I was more surprised than excited at this, myself.
Don't get me wrong, I was happy to be pregnant with a sibling for Jaxon, and Jaxon would not be the only child. I was also happy that we were growing our family. I had avoided birth control since it took so long to get pregnant with Jaxon, that I didn't want to mess with my chances of getting pregnant again for another 3-4 years. But the timing was sooner than I was anticipating to be sure. I was barely adjusting to parenthood with Jaxon at this point, and then, Surprise!! Now I'm going to have to adjust to 2?? I needed some time to process that, and apparently, John did too.
The pregnancy was overall pretty smooth. Yes, there was definitely nausea, and even vomiting this time around. It lasted the full first trimester, and midway through 2nd trimester too. I was exhausted. I took naps as often as Jaxon would let me. I went to bed when he went to bed. I tried to hide the fact that I was pregnant at work, and not say a word because, I didn't know what this would mean, as far as keeping my job goes, when baby #2 came. Working part-time, the cost of child care for 2 kids, wouldn't make it worth my while, financially. I would have to bump up to full time, and that would be just to cover the additional child care cost... it wasn't worth it, to me, to spend even less time with my kids, for practically the same amount of pay. So I kind of knew, that when #2 came, my sweet job would have to come to an end.
The pregnancy was extremely stressful going into my third trimester. We had made the decision to move from Juneau to Kenai. It was a very last minute decision, that overwhelmed me emotionally. I was so worried about selling the house, getting a new house, things were tight financially, I felt awful about giving a 60 day termination of tenancy to our long term renter in the apartment to get the house in the shape it needs to sell, and that decision led to a lot of contention and anger between her and us. I was stressed about training my replacement at work in time. I was basically in high stress mode.... all the time. I don't think the pregnancy hormones helped at all, in fact, it made it much much worse. I had made really good friends in Juneau that I loved, I felt happy and at home. But the opportunity presented itself to move, and John didn't think there would be another opportunity to move in the future with his job, so he felt an urgency to make it happen now. I resented him a bit for a while, because he wanted out of Juneau so bad. On the other hand, I knew we wouldn't live there forever, and eventually we always wanted to raise our family on the peninsula, it was just happening sooner than I wanted. The move process is a long drawn out story full of ups and downs and bumps along the way. But the end result is, we moved to Kenai in December of 2014.
I didn't gain any weight during this pregnancy. I wasn't too concerned about that though, because I was on the heavier side to begin with. I had gestational diabetes this round too. But this time around, I didn't have the time or mental will power to check my numbers every two hours, see a diabetic consultant, etc. I knew what I needed to eat and not eat, and so I just went with that. When I occasionally checked my numbers they were right on target for where they needed to be, so I didn't worry. I had too many other things on my plate I was worrying about to have that be another stress factor, and stress doesn't help your numbers!!
Labor:
(Our 1st Family Photo minutes after Jacob was born.)
Can I just say, Hallelujah?!! This experience was completely different from Jaxon's birth story. It was awesome!
January 25th (Exactly 39 weeks pregnant)
4:30am: I woke up feeling pressure and the feeling that I needed to pee, As I was getting out of bed I felt this gush of water running down my leg. I kept trying to stop it, and as I was having no success in accomplishing that I was muttering, "Uhhh, ohh dear, Ohhhh!" John woke up asking what was wrong, and I said, "Either I just peed a lot, or my water just broke!" Well that made him spring out of bed. I wobbled my way to the bathroom, sat on the toilet while the water trickled out, It was clear, and for some reason, that threw me off, because I didn't know if my water breaking should have some sort of color to it, mucous, or what? I also expected there to be more water than that, so I was second guessing whether or not I really did just have my water break or some really bad bladder control issue. So we talked about it for a while trying to decide what to do. I didn't have immediate contractions, and I was told that some women don't go into labor all that quickly after their water breaks, so I didn't feel an urgency to get anywhere.
5:00am: We called the OB Nurses station at the hospital to tell them what I had experienced, and they told me it sounds as if though my water broke and to come in just to check things out. No contractions, so not to rush, but to get here within an hour. After hanging up, we were wondering around the house thinking about what to pack, if we should get Jaxon somewhere. (We didn't know anyone well enough to be comfortable with calling someone at 5 in the morning to watch our 16 1/2 month old.) John ended up calling his parents to ask them to drive to Kenai and get Jaxon. They were more than willing to do so and they were getting ready to leave from Anchorage. (3 hour drive).
As we started packing and waking up Jaxon, the contractions started. They were mild for a few, but then they began to get harder and harder, and about 5 minutes apart. I kept saying, "Oh, I remember this feeling, Oh I don't like this feeling, I don't miss this feeling..."
5:30am: About this time, the contractions were so painful, I was telling John that we need to leave right now!!! So we got in the car and started the 30 minute drive to the Soldotna hospital. The entire way I had contraction after contraction. We tracked them, they were 1-2 minutes apart lasting 40-60 seconds. I knew that meant that at this point I was in active labor. I kept saying, " we got to get there, and I want my epidural!!! Make sure I get my epidural!"
6:00am: I didn't register yet, because I didn't expect to go into labor at 39 weeks. I was planning on registering that week. So I went into the hospital while John went to go park the car, I went to the desk and no one was there for the first few minutes. By the time she gets there, I'm going through a big contraction. Then we rush the paperwork, John gets there and we all walk to the OB ward down the hall. By the time I get to their desk I'm having another contraction. I'm trying to tell them that I'm the women who called earlier about my water breaking... I could sense the urgency to get me into a room and changed, in the nurses behavior. I begin to change and have another huge contraction! They get me into the bed and check me, I'm dilated to 6cm. While I go through several more contractions, I keep asking for my epidural, and they keep telling me that the anesthesiologist has been paged and should be up shortly.
Meanwhile, they were putting our wrist bands on, since we rushed that part at checking in, and nurses are trying to find any vein that they can stick an I.V in. They tried 4 times, and couldn't get a good vein! Then they called in an expert to find a good vein. I was confused, thinking it was my epidural walking into the door, not a vein finder person, so I kept saying, "thank goodness you are here!" All the while I'm seriously in a lot of pain. John was holding Jaxon, trying to keep him calm, so he wasn't able to be holding my hand or be super supportive while I was in pain. I then felt sick, like I needed to throw up. The nurses rushed a very convenient blue bag to my side. It got used, and while it was getting used, Jaxon was laughing at the sound of me vomiting!
A few more minutes pass by and I have this really big sensation that I needed to push. I was saying, "I-I- I think I need to PUSH!!!!" So the nurses and my OB were scurrying around trying to get me into the position to push, and then I realized in that moment, that my epidural wasn't going to be coming, and I was going to have to give birth naturally!!
They told the nurse that was going to be looking for a good vein, that she would need to wait, because this baby is coming.
Pushing:
I guess the best words to describe my unexpected natural delivery is, bringing out the inner Xena Warrior within me. I have never heard myself scream like that before!!! It was the most incredible, and painful sensation I have EVER experienced!! It was both horrible and amazing all at the same time!! I felt this overwhelming sensation to push Push PUSH, and I wanted to, because I wanted him out of me, bad!! When my OB told me to stop pushing (the cord was wrapped around his neck) It took everything in my power to stop pushing, because it was as if my body had taken over. Then when I was clear to push again on my next contraction, I pushed that baby out in one big push!
6:58am: Jacob was born! She threw that baby right up on me! Which I didn't expect, because, if we had time to think of bringing a birth plan, it would have said to wipe him down first! I know that there are many mother's that wouldn't have it any other way then to catch their own babies, but I'm not one of them. I don't personally like to feel a wet, bloody, mucous baby all over my arms. So I was a little put off by it, trying to act as if I wasn't... He didn't stay in my arms very long though, because he wasn't crying or breathing the way he should, so they took him over to the baby station to supply some oxygen, and get him to be more alert than he was acting. While they were working on him, I worked on delivering the after birth. The contractions were gone, completely, so I didn't have any sensation to push, but with a little effort, it was delivered. When I finally get the wrapped up baby Jacob back in my arms, it was like I came out of "the zone" I was in to give birth. I looked at Jaxon, realizing, he was there the entire time, and wondering if he will be traumatized for life seeing me scream like a crazy women and push out his brother!! He didn't seem effected by it, he was interested in everything that was happening, but I think he is young enough, he won't remember this experience.
Overall, the experience was so invigorating!! I just felt amazing! No drugs to induce, no drugs to block pain, and it went so quickly!! There is no doubt that God was involved with my labor and delivery. I had been praying for a good experience giving birth. I was so nervous that I would have such a depressingly horrible experience again, and I didn't think I was going to be able to handle that. I was so worried about it, and my sister was praying for me because she knew how upset I was. My dad and husband gave me a blessing. And then, I have this birth. This quick, amazing birth. I couldn't stop smiling all day. I was so chipper and giddy with happiness. Honestly, if my deliveries go this quick in the future... I could probably do it without the epidural.... I will always request the epidural anyway, but, it's nice knowing that I can do it without one. :)
* Fun Side Story: We were asked to give talks at church that Sunday. I wrote my talk and I was very happy with it. John was struggling like crazy with his talk, he had writer's block. So I went to sleep that night completely content, and John set his alarm for 5 am to work on his talk. He had a silent hope/prayer that I would give birth so he wouldn't have to give his talk. lol... It's funny, that at 4:30 am my water breaks, a half hour before he tries to attempt writing his talk again! So, instead of me being able to deliver my talk, I ended up delivering my baby instead.
Nursing:
As opposed to the nightmare of nursing with Jaxon.... my nursing experience with Jacob was so much better. Jacob gained the right amount of weight, and was a good nursing baby, He was so good at sleeping 4-5 hours through the night before waking up to eat. After a while, he wanted to nurse all the time though. If he heard my voice, he wanted to nurse. So after about 10 weeks, I started him on formula to supplement. Now, I just nurse once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and through the night. It works better for my sanity. But he is so chunky and healthy, and I love not worrying about his weight, and knowing he growing right on track.
I'm not as stressed this round. I have been able to mentally cope much better. I think I had a bit of postpartum depression... not having the excitement of socializing, and hosting get togethers, like I used to, but again, in comparison, this round is better!!
I do a lot of comparisons with experiences, I hope that my negativity about Jaxon's story doesn't make me appear that I resent him!... I don't, and I don't plan on making him a "whooping child" or anything! Hahaha, I just am so glad this round went more smoothly than the first. It makes the idea of having a bigger family more attainable, than it would be if my experience was the same as before.
I love my little family, I'm so happy to have two happy, healthy boys, what a blessing....
If you look closely at our 1st family picture above, you will see that both Jacob and Jaxon are looking at each other. It is so sweet. I have a high hopes and a prayer that they will be close all throughout their lives.
I think they are getting off to a pretty good start.
