I'm happy to say my beautiful miracle son is here on Earth
But there was a lot going on the past two weeks, so understandably I haven't been around. Birth story incoming though A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a drop in Jacob's fetal movements. I figured I was 38 weeks at the time and that he was running out of room, plus people told me that babies sleep a lot in the womb, so I wasn't *too* worried about it...until Friday (6/12) came and I still had barely felt anything out of him, which was very unusual. I called maternity before my husband left for work that morning and we booked it down to the hospital to be monitored. A couple of hours into monitoring, my doctor was unhappy because Jacob's heart rate deceled a couple of times, so she decided to start an induction with cervadil. Two long, agonizing, contraction-filled (and rage filled from my MIL but I'll save that story and the other related one for another day) hours into that, my doctor came back and said that the baby wasn't "happy with labor" so she called for a C-section (his heart rate kept deceling). They rushed me down to the OR and did the C-section, and Jacob Charles was born on June 12, 2015, at 2:44 PM. He weighed 6 lbs, 10 oz and was 20 inches long.
However...there were some complications. Many, actually. For starters, Jacob came out with his cord wrapped around his neck. Not unusual...but his cord was very unusual. He had blood clots in his cord and had torn his umbilical artery near his belly button, causing a hematoma that was dangerously close to rupturing and bleeding out. On top of all of that, he had taken a breath in utero and inhaled amniotic fluid, so they had to give him oxygen right there in the OR. They brought him to see me for like 2 seconds (with me high as a kite on my spinal I might add) and I noticed his hands and feet were blue. I sent my husband (who was in the OR with me) to be with him while they worked on him and they stitched me up and sent me to recovery - mind you the only issue I knew he had at that point was the blue hands/feet. So I lay blissful in recovery but worried because of the blue hands/feet (and the fact that we barely heard him cry at all when he was born) and unable to feel my legs/feet bc of the spinal...they eventually wheeled me to my postpartum room and then wheeled Jacob in in a medical transport thing with little circles you could put your hands in to touch the baby. He instantly put a death grip on my finger as his pediatrician was explaining all the other issues to me. Basically, while I was in recovery, they almost lost him twice. It's a miracle he's even here right now.
The hospital and pediatrician sent him to a separate hospital an hour away to get better treatment at the NICU (because my hospital is such shit we don't have one lol) and I spent the next 2 days trying to recover from the shock of everything that happened on top of C-section recovery. My best friend and her husband heard the news while at their friend's wedding 4 hours away and booked it to see me (and surprise me) after the reception was over. My husband arranged the whole thing as a way to try and cheer me up, because between being poked and prodded by nurses and being depressed because of what was going on with Jacob, I barely slept at all in recovery. My husband went to the NICU every day after Jacob was born (and I got to go every day after I was discharged that Sunday). Being in bed most of 2-3 days was miserable, and C-section recovery hurts like a bitch and a half (although I'll take it over the hell that was cervadil-induced contractions only being dilated to a 2...).
With the NICU, Jacob ended up staying there for a week between all of his issues. They fixed the problems with the umbilical cord, managed to do away entirely with the hematoma, and had him off oxygen and a CPAP by day 4 I believe. Then the only other issue was jaundice, where they had him under special lights to keep his bilirubin under control. It went down but then spiked back up on day 5, and eventually when Jacob was a week old we got to bring him home. So we've spent the past almost week trying to get settled in at home...my stepmother has been by every day cleaning the house while we sleep/take care of baby, and if we need to shower/sleep she takes care of the baby on top of that. We've had a few people by to see him but nothing too crazy.
I was adamant about breastfeeding Jacob while pregnant with him, but I couldn't get anything pumped by the time they wanted to start him on food, so we are currently pumping milk and supplementing with Enfamil. I'm determined to see if I can cut the Enfamil out entirely because that shit is expensive...I literally broke down crying in Walmart when we had to get it because of all the emotions of him being in the NICU plus having to spend that kind of money...it sucks. I'm getting help breastfeeding from nurses and lactation consultants whenever possible, but Jacob is a "lazy latcher" and does not open his mouth wide enough most of the time to latch. So I just deal with it...
And so...that's it
We are just here enjoying our beautiful miracle and thanking our lucky stars he is still here and healthy now and thriving. He's now up to 7 lbs 2 oz per a visit from a nurse yesterday. C-section recovery is just about done - I haven't had my pain pills in probably 3 days and everything else is good now. But let me tell y'all, getting up from a bed with torn abdominal muscles from a C-section SUCKS ASS. Lol. And even though Jacob's birth was traumatic for us, we're still wanting a baby #2, just probably not for a year or so. Give my body time to recover and let us enjoy what we have, you know? 
xoxo
Here's one of the first breastfeeding updates she did: