Jack's Birthday

This post is mainly to document the events of Jack's birthday. If you don't feel like reading it, skip to the pictures!
A couple of weeks ago, Jarod and I decided that we would be induced on the 24th of March. I won't go into why we chose to, but I know we made the right choice. I saw the doctor late afternoon on Monday, March 22nd. I was dilated to a 1 1/2 and 40% effaced. On Tuesday I felt a lot of changes going on in my body. I had taken the day off to get some last things done. I stayed busy and never stopped moving.
Jarod and I got the hospital at 7:30 in the morning. We dropped off Allie at Ms. Carmen's on our way. She was so excited about becoming a big sister! After we got checked in and everything set up, nurse Rhonda checked me and I was dilated to a 4 and 70% effaced. A big change since Monday afternoon. I was already having a lot of contractions and they started pitocin around 8:45. My doctor was supposed to get to the hospital by 8:30 to break my water. For two hours, I was having very strong contractions and my doctor had still not shown up. Shortly after 10:30, he arrived and broke my water. Wow, that was something else. Immediately, my contractions came even harder and closer together. I was already a 6 when he broke my water. I decided shortly after that I wanted the epidural.
I have to say, my experience with the epidural was horrible. It was a piece of cake with Allie. I don't know what the deal was this time, but it did not go well. The hardest part was that I could not see Jarod while I was getting it and between the pain of labor and the pain the lady was putting me through, I was having a hard time staying calm. My wonderful nurse finally grabbed my hand and just rubbed it and really helped me relax. Once the drugs were in, it did slow down my contractions, but for the first time in months, nothing in my body hurt. It was very weird.
Around 12, I tried resting for a bit. I had only slept for 3 hrs. the night before. Jarod and my dad went and got lunch. By 1 or so, everything started progressing very quickly. I had a lot of pressure and my nurse came in around 1:30 and said that I was now at a 9 1/2. The problem was Jack refused to drop all the way down in the birth canal. He was still high in my ribs, which seemed weird since I was feeling so much pressure. Nurse Rhonda had me lay on my side to see if we could get Jack to move. He didn't move so then I switched sides. He was moving some, but still not enough. Then she had me push 4 times just to get him fully engaged. By then it was 2:00. We called my doc and he was on his way. This was a little frustrating, because Jack was ready and I was ready! I honestly have no idea what time my doc got there, but once he was there, a team of people came in and we were ready to to!
I pushed 3 times and Jack entered the world at 2:42 pm. We were all very shocked at how big he was. (9lbs. 4oz. and 21 1/4 in.) My doctor had told me 7 1/2 lbs. He was off by two! While we watched them clean him up I couldn't get over how big he was. He had a double chin and little rolls. After he got all clean, they let me have Jack. I got to hold him for the first hour of his life. It was truly amazing. I enjoyed his first hour of life so much and it is something I will always cherish. After Jack and I had skin to skin time and feeding time, Jarod held him for a while and then he went and got Allie. Allie was so excited to meet her little brother. She had been waiting a long time for him. After we had our family time, my parents, aunt and uncle came in to join us.
Jack's birth was an amazing experience. Our hospital created such a wonderful atmosphere for us as a family (much different from when we had Allie). We had tons of support from all of our nurses while we were there.
It's hard to believe that my little man is almost a week old. We are enjoying every moment with him. I will post more about our first week together sometime later this week!

This was on our board when we first got there.

First time Allie saw Jack

Allie holding her new baby brother

Nurse Rhonda: she was awesome!

Allie loving on Jack

Family of Four

Getting ready to go home! My mom made the blanket that Jack is laying on.

Already to go!