It's a BOY!!!

First picture after delivery

MY 5 boys...gorgeous!

LOVE THIS BABY BOY

4 days old and in the ER the night before thanksgiving

This little guy was born on Nov. 20th, 2010 at 5:37pm. Boston Richard Jones weighed 7 lbs 13oz and was 20.5 inches long. The labor was exactly how I wanted it to be. I have been dilating and thinning for quite some time. The week I delivered, Garet was in Canada on a hunting trip, and I was home trying not to have the baby until he got back. Well I did it! It is very hard when you are 37 weeks pregnant and ready to be in labor and instead of progressing it along you are trying to stop it. Garet came home on Nov. 20th at 4am. My water broke at 12noon. I didn't want to rush to the hospital because I wanted to progress on my own and didn't want any pitocin. We left the house at 2 and arrived to the hospital in slc at around 3:30pm. Upon check in I told the nurse I wanted to try to go natural IF I continued to progress on my own, didn't have to have pitocin to progress, and if the baby would turn to face down position. I definitely did not want to have the baby flipped while I was delivering. She tried hard to get me to commit to a natural delivery and I wanted to do it but there were so many considerations. When I checked in I was dilated to a 6 and thinned. The pain was totally manageable and the contractions were not too intense. at 5pm things started to change. The contractions and pain were SO INTENSE! I looked at Garet and was like I need help. In my mind I was thinking I still had hours to go and things were going to get much worse. He was asking what he could do to help and I was like I have no idea call your mom and get me an epidural in here asap. At this moment my doc. came in and I told her I needed help. Garet told them I wanted the epidural and the nurse looked at him in shock and said "you didn't tell her?" Then she looked at me and said "he is in a c-section there is no way you are getting an epidural." Garet had told me this, however all my labors have lasted 7-8hours so I thought I had plenty of time. My Doc. Gretchen looked at me calmly and said, "she can have one, don't worry you can have one." She knew I couldn't but didn't want to send me into hysteria. Then I told her I needed to get to the bathroom. She said do you feel like you need to push in your bottom? I was like yes...feeling embarrassed and dieing in pain. She said lets check you I think you are ready to go. And she was right. I was feeling so thankful because I knew I was at my limit. Thankfully the intense part was like 6 contractions and then I was ready to go. about 5 contractions later we had our baby. It was intense and very special and I am so happy I was able to have the experience. The question I am asked repeatedly is would you do it again? My answer... absolutely! It was magical.

So here we are home with our new baby and we love him SOOO much. He was born with Coombs Jaundice and has had to stay on the lights. I am grateful to have lights at home but it is hard not getting to hold and love him as much as we all want too. His bilirubin levels have gotten higher and higher and so I have to pump and feed him formula. On wed. night before thanksgiving his levels jumped to 19. My pediatrician sent us to the hospital to be admitted. About 5 hours after we checked in we were sent home. His levels had dropped to 15.7. What a blessing. We continued him on the lights Thursday and Friday they were still dropping...now 15.2. I hope they continue to drop and we can get him off the lights, start nursing, and hold and love our baby.

He sure is special and has been so good through all the poking, prodding, and not being able to be held much. We love him more than words can say and wouldn't have it any other way.