Jacob's Birth Story

I apologize for not posting this story earlier, like I said, I've been super tired and just plain wiped out with this little boy.

Last Friday (June 6th) Steve and I dropped Cam off with Grandma and headed to the hospital for our scheduled c-section. We were supposed to be there at 7:30, but we were there at 7:00! (I couldn't really sleep that night...I woke up all excited and anxious at 3:00!) As soon as we had left our house to go to the hospital I started having regular contractions. I remember thinking, "If we hadn't already planned on having Jacob today, then I'm PRETTY sure we would have had to have him today anyway!"

After checking in at the labor and delivery desk (which over the last month I had become VERY familiar with) and laughing with some of the familiar nurses (one who had helped me with my last Non-Stress Test the night before....) I went into the room, dressed and waited with Steve. I was SO exhausted after my long night, that I kinda snoozed here and there. It felt pretty good. After a while, the nurse came in and told us that we were going to be pushed back. There was a "ruptured breech baby" ahead of us. That's fine, I thought, I'm going to try and sleep anyway!

Then after another hour she came back and said that we weren't sure how long it would be until we were taken back because another person had come in, and they were premature, and all preemies are delivered in the ORs so that the babies can be whisked away to the NICU.

We filled out paper after paper...put our thumbprints on the birth certificate....and watched morning television.

Soon enough the anesthesiologists came, prepped me on the anesthesia, and started my IV drip (that is supposed to be given a half hour before surgery.) We were getting ready. I drank the nasty stomach acid stabilizer and waddled to the surgery room.

Once we got to the room, they made Steve sit on the garbage can outside and told him that they'd bring him in as soon as I was ready. The poor guy was SO nervous!

They took me back and started giving me the spinal. It was THEN that I realized, "HEY!! I'm having a baby today!!" (Yeah, not necessarily the BRIGHTEST crayon in the box!)

After the spinal (which BURNED like none other...) things went pretty fast. I didn't feel a lot (thank goodness) but I could "feel" the pushing, pulling, tugging....soon enough, I heard the doctor say, "You look like a boy face." Then they pushed on my ribs (I SWEAR, he was WAY up there!) and they showed him to me. He was absolutely perfect!

They put him through the window to the NICU for him to get cleaned up and weighed. Steve and I just kept staring at one another, I couldn't stop the tears or the smile!

Soon enough Jacob was sitting contentedly in his daddy's arms...and we were commenting on how he really favors MY side of the family (Cameron is ALL his daddy's boy....Jacob is all his MAMA'S boy!) After a while the doctor told me through the blue curtain that there was a cyst on my ovary and she'd try to save it, but couldn't promise anything. I started to worry, but knew that I was in good hands.

The doctor removed half of my ovary and said that the cyst was a dermoid cyst. It isn't necessarily linked to PCOS, but is something that can happen to any woman. What happens is the ovary decides that it needs to make a human being (yeah, no ovulation or anything, just spontaneous human production) and it makes this cyst. They can contain bones, teeth or hair. Usually they're benign, but since there's no symptoms, by the time they're found often they're HUGE and require the whole ovary to be removed. My cyst wasn't huge, but it was about the size of a chicken's egg. It had hair in it, but it didn't seem to be a problem (we found out that it was completely benign, and just some random thing that sometimes happens!)

The doctors put me back together and I went to the recovery room where I saw a couple who used to be in our ward, they'd had THEIR baby an hour before. I asked them how big their baby was and laughed, "Ha ha!! We won!" Jacob was 8 pounds 13 ounces....their baby was 8 pounds 12 ounces! ;) (He was 22 inches long as well...see, I TOLD you he was in my ribs!)

The day went quickly, but everything turned out well. I stayed in the hospital until Monday and was FINALLY allowed to come home with my baby! (The one thing I'd DREAMED of since I had to leave Cam in the hospital when HE was a newborn!)

Since then things have been going well. I had a scare earlier this week when my incision started bleeding, but the doctor assured me that it was because of all of the old scar tissue. Jacob had his circumcision (crying the WHOLE time.) There's lots of sleepless nights, but I'm SO grateful for this beautiful little boy in my life! Who would have thought after all those years of struggling that I'd be blessed with this wonderful experience!