Hospital pics

So I was induced on Sunday night, July 12th. My parents flew in on Saturday night and Bob and Kari were are the tail end of their visit. It was crunch time because they were due to fly out on Monday at noon. No pressure! 

I had been feeling contractions for about three weeks, but they weren't progressing. Sunday morning, I was starting to feel more uncomfortable, so I thought I would risk being turned away at the hospital, in hopes that they would just keep me. No such luck. I refer to it was the "walk of shame." 

As it turns out, Sunday was a lovely day, and one that I would have been sad to miss. We met up with both sets of grandparents for lunch at Texas Roadhouse and made sure to have one last quality meal before the induction. Those ribs have never tasted so good! 

Then we took the boys to swim at Bob and Kari's hotel. They are so fun to watch now that they are both more comfortable in the water (with water wings). And Pete gave them a ton of "Shamu rides", so everyone was happy. 

Then we went back to our house to chat. It was fun just relaxing and having some funny conversations to pass the time. Pete and I left for the hospital at 6:45pm and gave one last hug to our TWO boys. Life as we know it would never be the same. 

We checked into a room (much better than the agonizing memories I have of being in excruciating pain in triage with the other two, before they would admit me). They hooked me up and started some overnight treatment, and expected to start pitocin in the morning. Throughout the night my contractions picked up and I was longing for some pain meds (not quite epidural level but definitely uncomfortable), but they didn't want to give me anything in order to keep baby more alert. At around 6:00am I was definitely ready for some relief, and in came the anesthesiologist. He was kind of annoying, telling me to "speak up" when he was asking me questions... but pardon me... I'm having contractions here. But once it kicked in, I liked him a lot better. 

An hour later they broke my water and things continued to progress... slowly but surely. At around 9am, I felt like I wanted to push, but unfortunately my body wasn't ready for that yet. So I had to hold this big kid in for two hours! It was brutal. And the epidural doesn't touch that kind of pressure-pain. Ugh... it was miserable. I kept saying, "I can get him out, I just can't keep him in!" Then when it finally came time to push, I felt like he was never going to make it out. At that point I'm yelling, "I can't get him out!" I just couldn't do anything right! But after 30 very long minutes... out came my 9 lb 12 oz boy. He took up most of the isolette. Jackson Luke Dahlquist... has my initials:) 

So in total, this labor was about 14 hours (cutting 12 hours off my previous 24 hour labor record):) He came out very black and blue. It was so sad to see evidence of the trauma of his delivery, but it was amazing to see how quickly the bruising subsided and he looked more "normal". I told Pete to hurry and call Bob and Kari so they could meet their 9th grandbaby before heading to the airport. I'm so glad that Jackson got to meet them. Not long after, my boys and Mom and Dad arrived to meet the big guy. 

It was a very happy and exhausting time. All the nurses were so kind and I had a great experience. I left the hospital after about 30 hours, which meant they had to scurry to get some of the testing done on Jackson, but I was ready to be home.

He already loves being sung to. He opens his mouth mimicking Pete's mouth...

 Going home!

 With Grammy and Papa...