Outside My Southern Comfort Zone: February 2019

Ok, so my goal of blogging weekly was a bit ambitious. That's not going to happen. Especially considering that our son is now 4 weeks old and I am just getting around to writing a post about him! They say having a baby changes everything... and there are no truer words.

Clayton Jude made his debut into this world on 1/23/19, weighing 8 lbs 7 oz and was 20.5 inches long. His name has meaning for Mike and I: Clayton is for Clayton, NY - a place with a lot of meaning for Mike and his family. And Jude is after my mom, Judy. He is absolute perfection although his delivery was anything but perfect. To keep a LONG story short, we went in on Monday night to start the induction process and finally left the hospital on Friday. He was born Wednesday via emergency c-section when the induction didn't really go as planned. The cytotec drug gave me cluster contractions (those are straight from Satan himself) and put me into labor. I progressed QUICKLY in labor however, I couldn't handle it and got an epidural which stopped my pain but also stopped my labor. So, we started the Pitocin to get labor going again. He didn't like the Pitocin, so when they would up my dose, his heart rate would drop. After a LONG time of lying only on my left side and getting small doses of Pitocin, it was time to push. I pushed for 2 hours before the doctor realized he was face up, not fitting in the birth canal, and wasn't descending with each push... so off to the operating room we went.

Is that how I imagined his birth going? No.

Do I care? Nope.

My baby is here. He is healthy and happy. I was able to be awake (perk of already having an epidural in place) during the operation so I got to hear his first little cries.

Mike got to do skin to skin with him while they closed me up and I am SO happy he got those first moments with our son. While I was still half asleep and high as a kite on morphine, they put that baby on my chest in the recovery room (although all I could think about was getting something to drink for the horrific cotton mouth I had from all the drugs). All the things I thought I wouldn't be able to do if I had a c-section, like breastfeed asap, I was totally able to do (with some assistance, again I was pretty doped up). The hospital was amazing. The staff was all AWESOME. And for some reason ALL of our nurses were travel nurses from the SOUTH. Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina. It was so crazy. I felt like I was back in North Carolina listening to them talk. It was strangely comforting.

One nurse who got me through it all... Cindi. I won't forget her. She helped me labor. She gave me tips and advice. She comforted me through my tears when the doctor said c-section. We had just been through so much together at that point. She was awesome.

Ok, let's get on to the good stuff shall we??? PICTURES OF THE SWEETEST LITTLE BOY ON THE EARTH!