Welcome to motherhood!

I thought hazing was illegal or close to it, but apparently babies are exempt.  Jackson did quite a number on me last night.  He woke up at 1:30 am to eat, so being the good mother that I am I jumped up to feed him.  As he was eating I heard him clearing his pipes but thought I would wait to change him until after he ate.  Then I realized my hand was wet, which happened to be on his back.  Jackson officially had a blow out.  Poop out of his diaper onto his pajamas and my hand.  I picked him up quickly and said "Everybody up, everybody up!"  So everybody, me and Jackson, got up to change him.  He was so mad!  Not only was I changing his diaper, wiping him down but I had the guts to interupt his feeding!  He changed outfits and went back to eating.  After a few minutes he acted like he needed to burp so I sat him up to burp him and spit up like a waterfall comes spewing out of his mouth all over me and him.  Perfect!  I thought well why stop now.  We were both disgusting and he now had no liquids left in him so he ate some more.  When he was done I changed and wiped him down again.  As I was changing him I looked at him and said "What else, pee?"  Oh yes, pee like a fountain up and onto the rug.  I barely escaped that one,  I had to laugh.  Only a mother could get pooped on, puked on and almost peed on and not only still like the one that did that to her, but absolutely love him. 

Happy Birthday Jackson!

I can't believe it, he's here!  After 40 weeks and 3 days and 17 hours of labor we finally got to see his sweet face.  We were going to be induced on Thursday, September 23, and Monday morning, September 20, I woke up before 5 am with strong contractions.  After timing them for 2 hours the doctor said to come in.  It was a long day full of drugs and waiting.  By 8 pm the contractions were insane!  The doctor said they were going to start a slow pitosin drip at 10 pm and if I wanted any sleep I needed to go ahead and get the epidural.  Wow, drugs are good!  Drew and I got sleep off and on trying to rest up for the next day.

My family had come in when I called them Monday morning and had to wait for nothing Monday.  My mom spent the night in the waiting room and everyone else went to their hotels or our house to sleep.  The doctor ramped up my pitosin about 6 am on Tuesday and that really got things going.  Our friend, Becky Steed, just happens to be a L&D nurse and took amazing care of us all day.  I had to get a re-dose of the epidural a few times and then got a crazy cocktail about 9 am that did the rest of the job.  I started pushing about 12:45 pm and turned on my music to keep me distracted.  The doctor and nurse loved that I was playing Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce.  You have to have something to focus on!

Jackson Doyle Ashby was born at 2:10 pm on Tuesday September 21.  He weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz. and was 22 inches long.  It was amazing!  My music was still on and Hillsong United came on.  It was amazing to bring things into perspective.  One of the nurses knew the song and was singing along.  I couldn't help but just be in awe of everything that had happened.  This person had been growing inside of me and now was in the world.  What a miracle!  Praise the Lord!

We have had an amazing few days and love this little boy more than he knows.  We're getting used to his schedule and love noticing every little thing about him.  He has already changed so much!  We are so happy! 

Our nurse/friend Becky Steed

A fun filled weekend

It all started Friday afternoon about 4:00.  I had just gotten back from the pool with my friend Meredith, I know rough life, and I started having contractions.  I didn't pay any attention to the first few but soon I realized they were coming pretty close together.  After about 45 minutes of timing them and realizing they were every 5 minutes I called Drew at work.  "I don't want to freak you out, but...".  Probably not the best way to open, but he was very calm.  I told him to stay at work for now and I would call the doctor.  She asked a few questions and said we needed to come in.  When we got there I got hooked up to about 3 different things.  One monitor was watching the contractions.  It made me feel justified because they were coming every 5 minutes and lasting for a minute, it wasn't my imagination.  The doctor sent us home after about 45 minutes and told us I was definitely in a pattern but the contractions weren't strong enough yet.  Ok, a little disappointing but we all just knew Jackson would come over the weekend. 

Saturday I drug Drew around the whole neighborhood, with a pit stop at Waffle House trying to speed things up. About mid afternoon the contractions started getting stronger.  So after 2 hours of timing them the doctor said come in.  She said she may even want to start pitosin to help me out.  When we got there they checked me out and said I had 2 choices, to start pitosin and possibly be in real labor for over 24 hours or go home and see what happened.  As much as I would love to see Jackson I do not want to be in labor that long if I can help it, so we took the Ambien they gave me and left.  I was so upset that I had become that girl who goes to the hospital and gets sent home.  Drew was very encouraging of course and we left.

Yesterday when I woke up the contractions were much more irregular and had lost some of their strength, so we went to Drew's brother's wedding in McDonough.  I was so glad Drew didn't have to miss the wedding and  I was glad to get out of the house so I wouldn't obsess over every little twitch.  No matter how many times I had to hear "You're not that swollen" or "You've lost some of your water weight", it was worth it.  I would like to give a little piece of advice though.  If you see a really pregnant woman and you want to say something but you don't know what just tell her how great she looks.  Please don't feel like you should be the one to tell her her face is getting bigger and please don't just feel like because there is something living in her stomach that gives you free reign to touch it.  Yes, we know it is as big as a house but people don't just come up and touch your stomach so please think before you act.

Moral of the story is we had a very interesting weekend, but Jackson is not here yet and doesn't seem to be in a rush.  Hopefully the doctor will have encouraging news for me tomorrow and we will get to meet him soon.  Only 5 days until my official due date!   

Freedom

Before this week started a few friends asked me if I thought I would be lonely.  Really?  Obviously they don't know how much I need to get done before Jackson arrives.  This is day 3 of not working and it is amazing!  I have a list of things that need to get done and if I don't sleep at night (which is a common occurance) I can just take a nap.  What a concept!  So if you see me wandering around a store just saddle up beside me, but only if you're ready to walk slow.

Pennster

Happy Birthday Mom!  I can't believe you're 30 already!  Who knew it was possible to only be 2 years older than your daughter.  I won't go into some long, sappy letter but I would like to thank you for a few things:

1.  The school talent shows you helped us with.  I don't think anyone can beat the "Little Old Lady from Pasadena".  Only a mother could tell me that was cute.
2.  The crazy Halloween costumes.  A garbage bag into a California Raisin?  Really?
3.  The karaoke machine you got me.  You seemed happy for me, but why?  You knew I was horrible!  You were just torturing yourself and Brian.
4. Telling me when you were at the next to the last straw.  I still don't really understand where all your straws went.
5.  Giving me my first makeup when I was like 5.  And you wonder why I'm still obsessed with having a ton of it, but never wearing it.

Just a few things that have made me who I am today. So, drink a fruity drink for me and enjoy your day!  

I looked and looked for an embarrassing picture of you to put up (like the one when you're eating bologna with that hideous pink crochet sweater from 1985), but lucky for you I couldn't find any on the computer.  So, instead a picture from VA.  I'm glad we're closer now!