[jkl123]

Thursday was not a good day for me - I was tired, miserable, and just kinda "done" being pregnant. We had seem my doctor on Tues for my 37 week check-up, and she said she wouldn't be surprised if I didn't makeit til the following week, for my scheduled c-section date of Oct. 15th. I slept til almost 1 o'clock and by the time myhusband got home around 6, I realized i still hadn't felt the baby move since I had woken up in the afternoon. So, we took a trip to L&D at the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors. Of course,he started moving right away, but they discovered I was having some timely contractions. We had gone through this a few times before - I had been feeling contractions for weeks. They had me drink a bunch of fluids and take a pill, and by 7:30, they had pretty much fizzled out. The DR on call released me and my husband and I went out for dinner. I wasn't really comfortable that the doctor had released me so soon, espec. where I was still having contractions, there was just no consistency to them now. About midnight, they were seeming a bit more intense, but I did not want to go back to the hospital and have that DR deliever my baby, or waste my time to be sent home again. I stayed up til 4 AM, re-organizing every cabinet in our kitchen!
On Friday, I had an ultrasound and non-stress test appointment to go to . I have had to go to these twice a week for some time now. I had a hard time walking around straight up without pain, but figured it was just pressure that you get at the end. I had my ultrasound done and everything was perfect - during the NST, I noticed the contractions were pretty frequent, but not really intense. The nurse came in to check on me and said she was going to have me see the DR before I left. The DR took a look at the contraction paper and said she thought something may be going onthere and sent me to the hospital for a fluid IV. I arrived at L&D (for the 2nd time in 24 hours) around noon and they hooked up the IV and started fluids immediately. There were contractions, but again, no intense ones, and no real routine to them. The nurse did some intake paperwork "just in case" and because she figured it would be done for the following week anyway. I ended up falling asleep around 3 and slept for almost an hour. When I woke backup, the nurse said they were going to keep me for anotherhour or two, but then probably send me home, as the contractions weren't really strong. The on-call DR was going into a c-section surgery and would check on me after.
Well, in the next hour, my contractions really changed - they got so intenes, that it brought tears to my eyes, and they were coming every 2-3 minutes. My husband was tracking the monitor, and could actually tellme when to expect another and was right about them. A different nurse came in, wth a serious look on her face and asked what and when was the last time I ate. DH and I just kinda looked at each other, knowing whatthat ment, and the nurse said she thought they would be taking out the baby that night. Soon after,the DR on call (who I liked) came in and said, Well, it appears things have changed. I think we'll go ahead and prepare an operating room.
So, we had about 2 hours to prepare ourseleves for the fact that our baby was coming that night! Luckily, we already had a bag packed and in the car, so we had important stuff, like the cord blood kit, with us. DH frantically got on the phone to make arrangements for our other two boys, and they quickly prepped me.

Jackson Paul came into the world at 7:09 PM, weighing 9 lbs,5 1/2 oz nad was 21 inches long. His Apgar scores were both 9's and the DRs were thrilled with that. I had so many complications, they weren't really sure what they were dealing with, and none of them were my team of DRS that were planning on delivering me. But he was perfect, and there were no problems with my placenta issues, so that was a relief.

I ended up with severe anemia and refused a blood transfusion, so it will take me a while to recover to normal again. We stayed in the hospital for 4 days, and on the 3rd day, they had a lactationist special come to see me. Jackson had already lost 10% of his body weight and they were afraid my milk may not come in at the right time because of the anemia. He was nursing every hour, and not gaining. I kept trying to tell them thatthere was still time for my milk to come in (I had him Friday NIGHT and they were counting Friday as Day1). They still were pretty insistant on trying some other measures, so they had me pump a little and 'finger-feed' the baby. I personally felt they were over-reacting a bit, but didn't want to do anything to risk the baby, so I went along with it. My milk finally did come in Monday afternoon, and Jackson is now gaining back his weight and nursing fine. He has what is called "tongue-tie" and we will have to take care of thet, but he is now feeding every 2 hours (instead of every hour) and seems satisfied.
He went to the pediatrician today the DR said he is doing great!!

So... that was the long version of his birth ( ) and I will post some pictures as soon as I get some uploaded to that other site (Photobucket??)