What a Welcome Home!

I know...I'm not exactly keeping up with the blog now that Jackson has made his arrival. What can I say? Things are a little busy around here. It's been wonderful though! There have been a few "new parent" moments where Scott and I look at each other and wonder what the heck we're supposed to do but that's normal, right?

I wanted to post a few pictures of the wonderful "Welcome Home" we received when we brought Jackson home from the hospital on July 5. Danielle and Zoe really made the arrival special with the driveway messages! I cried, of course. It was such a nice thing to do and really made Scott and me feel special!

So sweet!!

This was a big week for us. We made our first trip to a restaurant! I've been craving french toast from Perkins, one of my favorite things for breakfast, since I left the hospital. On Tuesday Scott, Jackson and I made the trip to Perkins and everything was wonderful! The french toast was yummy and Jackson slept the entire time. Of course, Scott and I were constantly worried about him waking up and crying but it all worked out. The staff were all oohing and aahing over Jackson which sure made his mom smile!

On Thursday we traveled out to Stillwater, a beautiful town right on the St. Croix river. It was Jackson's first real venture out, other than to Perkins and the occasional trip to Babies R Us (that's right, it's become the place where we spend all of our money). Because I'm a mom still learning the ropes, I forgot my camera so there aren't any pictures but he was wonderful. It was a perfect day and we all had a great time.

Scott returns to work next week (BOO!) but my parents are coming to help out for the week (YEAH!). We are beginning to settle in to more of a routine and Scott and I are slowly learning Jackson's various cries. Speaking of which, I hear him right now so I should probably get going.

More later!

Jackson David Carter

HE'S ARRIVED!!!

Ok, I know this is late and that most of you already know that Scott and I welcomed Jackson David Carter on July 3, 2009 at 2:30am. He weighed in at 9 lbs. 0 ozs and was 21.5 inches long. Here's how it all happened...

I had been scheduled for an induction starting on the evening of July 1, 2009. Well, starting in the evening of June 30 I was having contractions -- nothing particularly regular but they were fairly intense and I could tell that things were progressing. By the morning of July 1, the contractions were more regular and after a quick call to the OB, Scott and I headed to the hospital. After a few hours at Labor Assessment, the nurse deemed me not far enough along to admit so we headed home. The OB decided to skip the dose of meds to be admitted that evening and told us to just come in early on July 2 to start the induction.

Well, about 12:30am on July 2, I woke up with extremely intense contractions that kept getting closer together. I continued to labor at home until I was scheduled for the induction -- around 7:00am. These were by far the most painful contractions I had ever had. It's true what they say -- you'll know it's the real deal once it starts. There was no mistaking these for Braxton Hicks contractions. Once we got to the hospital, the induction meds were started right away and before too long everything was getting to be unbearable. My idea of trying to do this without an epidural went right out the window and by noon I was begging for pain relief. Ok, now for some advice for my pregnant friends....GET THE EPIDURAL!!! It's heaven, seriously! Once it kicked in I was able to relax and actually have a conversation. My mood changed instantly which I know Scott appreciated.

All the nurses kept telling me that I was progressing so quickly that I would probably have the baby by 5-6pm. No such luck unfortunately. Things stalled and by 9pm the OB started to talk about other options, namely a c-section which I really wanted to avoid. Before that happened I really wanted them to try every other option so they decided to up my pitocin and see if that moved things along at all. Well, it worked and by 11:30 I was pushing. Three hours later (yes, that's right -- THREE HOURS!) Scott and I welcomed Jackson into this world. They had to take him immediately to the NICU for some respitory issues but everything was fine and we were thrilled!! It was exhausting but worth every minute! We are completely in love!
Adjusting to life with a newborn has had it's challenging moments but we couldn't be happier! Jackson is wonderful and learning his little noises, tendencies and quirks has been fun.

Enjoy the pictures!