Announcing Jackson!!

We are happy to announce Jackson has arrived!! He was born July 23rd @ 7:51pm. He weighs 7 lbs 12 oz and is 20 inches long. Labor and delivery was smooth and both Mom and Baby are doing well!

The birth story: I was scheduled to be induced on July 23rd, which was only 3 days early. I was so nervous that I would go into labor early. Markham had been out of town A LOT. First to Minnesota for a client, then to Bear Lake for a work retreat. I was alone and really freaked out, especially at night. Every time I had to get up to pee, which was a ton of times, I was afraid my water would break and put me into immediate labor. I prayed and prayed that Jackson would wait until his Daddy was home. I am so grateful those prayers were answered.

I was supposed to report to the hospital at 6am on the 23rd. My mom had come up, as well as my sister, Lindsey. Mom was planning on being there for the birth, as well as my sis-in-law, Ashley. Lindsey was very nice to stay home with Kaitlyn- she'd seen it all before when I had Kaity.

Needless to say, I didn't get very much sleep the night before. I got up at 5am and took a shower. After I was dressed and ready to go I realized I had missed a call from the hospital. I was super bummed because I knew what that meant. I called and sure enough, the nurse said they didn't have any room right then and that they would call me later to let me know when I could come. WOW...that was tough. We all tried to go back to bed and get some sleep, and I think everyone was successful except me. I was just too excited!!

Finally at about 1:15pm, I received a call to report to the hospital. About an hour later, Markham and I were all checked in. I changed into one of those lovely, open in the back hospital gowns and was ready to endure whatever I had to for my baby boy to get here. They broke my water right away, which is a crazy sensation! I was dilated to a 3. I made sure everyone knew I wanted an epidural stat, I had absolutely zero interest in being a hero and going through child birth without meds....that is just nuts. It was about an hour later that I got one. My contractions were getting stronger and I had a killer headache. It was yucky. But after about 20 minutes, I was feeling pretty good. I was progressing quickly and before long, about 7:30pm, Dr. Hurst came in and I started to push. It only took pushing through 3 contractions and my sweet little boy was here. Only 6 hours from when we had checked in!! The doctor immediately put him on my chest and I was in love immediately. What a miracle!! Markham cut the cord and they took him to get him cleaned off and to check his vitals.

After all was well, they gave him back to me all swaddled up. I held him close and kissed his little head. There is nothing like holding your newborn baby for the first time. He nursed right away, he was hungry! I was relieved that he knew what he was doing, Kaity and I had NO clue what we were doing when she was a newborn.

My little boy was finally here! It was awesome.