My little Nixon

Sorry for the delayed blog post! Today Nixon is already one week old! This week has been so incredible. I have loved spending every second with my boys.

Here is the Birth Story: (It's lengthy)

Sunday night at about 2:30 am I started getting uncomfortable. Up to this point I hadn't had any contractions so I was so curious what it would feel like once I finally got one. I knew right away that I was having one! About 4 min later I got another one, lasting about 45 sec. I got out of bed and did what the doctor said, tried to walk through it and/or talk through it. I couldn't do either. Chris started to get up and around and we were both getting anxious. The contractions were coming 3-5 min apart and about a min long. I decided to get in the shower hoping this was really it. I would yell to Chris START to start timing my contraction and then I'd say finish to let him know to stop timing. YES! They kept coming. Lets just say my hopeful dream of having my hair perfectly blown out to go into labor wasn't going to happen. I forced myself to at least dry and straighten my bangs so I wouldn't look completely homely. Chris gave me a blessing and we headed out the door for Saddleback.

Once we got to the hospital it was 5:00 am, and I was eager to get inside. Everyone was telling us first time labor is forever, so wait it out and hang out in the parking lot for a couple hours before going in. I couldn't. We got inside they hooked me up to the monitors before admitting me to a room to make sure this was real labor. The nurse strapped on the heart rate monitors (which KILLED) to my stomach... I cried and begged for her to loosen them with every contraction but she said she couldn't. She asked if I was trying to do it all natural and I told her yes. She checked me and congratulated me, "all natural momma", I was dilated to a 7!! Woohoo! Chris and I were thrilled. She wheeled me upstairs to a room. At 6:00 am the doctor broke my water. The contractions were intense. I swear my nurse truly hated me. No ice when I asked for it, pillow only came after "a few more questions were answered" and three attempts before she got the IV in!! I cried begging Chris to ask for a new nurse in between each contraction. HA! Chris was an awesome coach. He held my barf bag, he helped me breath, words of encouragement (was always you're doing great you're doing great), and let me squeeze the life out of his fingers. He tried lightening the mood with comments like "cmon honey me, you, and the baby, this is family time!" Or calling them "contraptions" etc etc. He once or twice told me "shh" which really made me somewhat angry. Whoops. I did some apologizing afterwards because he was seriously amazing. Good job coach!

So the contractions became unbearable. They were over 2min long and I was getting no break in between. I kept telling Chris I was going to die. I really thought in my mind with each one that he would be raising this baby on his own. I couldn't open my eyes, lift my head, or speak at this point. I begged for the epidural. She checked me and I was a 9! Ah I was relieved but still didn't think I could take one more contraction. They called for my epidural at 8:30 am and it took a bit but was immediate relief. About 5 min later, nurses were rushing around frantically in the room. They hooked me up to oxygen coaching me to breath keep breathing. Nixons heart rate was dropping inside. What was once a steady 140, dropped to 90. I started to panic. This was a main reason I didn't want the epidural. (This happened to my mom when she got it with her first). The nurse called the doctor to have her come down and have me start pushing now, even though I wasn't ready, they needed to get the baby out! I was so scared, praying in my head for it to please go back up. After about 10 min the baby's heart rate was back to normal. Again, relief. About an hour after I got the epidural at 9:30am I told the nurse I could totally feel the contractions again and they were really strong this time in my back as well. She checked me and said oh yep your a 10 and ready to push! She had me push through a couple contractions and called the doctor to come up to deliver baby! We were SO EXCITED! My doctor made it and had me push through 3 more contractions. At 9:57 am he was here! No one called out the sex and I was like what is it what is it!!! They opened his legs and announced it was a little boy. I knew it from the start. My little boy was screaming at the top of his lungs. He was happy to be here. He was absolutely perfect and so beautiful.

My favorite part of the whole experience was they left us all alone for about 2 min right after he was born and me, Chris, and Nixon layed on the bed together and he just stared at us. We were his parents!! He knew us and we knew him. We were a family. It was the most amazing feeling I've ever felt. I'm so grateful Heavenly Father has trusted us with this perfect spirit. He fits in perfectly in our family and I have felt so much peace and love this week with him in our home. Chris is the best dad I could ever imagine. We are so lucky to have Nixon. I just stared at the fellow all week. I loved having my boys at home with me this week, it was the best. I'll never forget it. We had to take Nixon to the emergency room his first night home and to the hospital again last night. I changed his diaper our first night home in the middle of the night to find it full of blood. We had to call the paramedics and take him to the er. Everything is now A OK. I've felt my Heavenly Father's hand in every bit of this week, and I know when we trust him he blesses us. Nixon is going to be okay. It's just quite the healing process. Poor little guy. We love him so much and are SO blessed to have him!!!!!