Just Say Julie

Today was my 6 week postpartum check up.  I have been dreading it.  Just the thought of having someone mess with me down there knowing how tender I still am around my incision did not excite me.  Fortunately the appointment went better than I expected.  My blood pressure was finally back down to the normal range.  Yay! for 120/82.  I think my doctor and nurse both did a happy dance.  They kept commenting on how much better I looked and how they could tell I felt better so I asked Chris if I really looked that bad.  His answer was yes, I looked pretty rough for a few weeks.  That's good to know.  I blame the pain meds because they made me feel like a zombie. The doctor says I am all healed and released to return to all manners of normal activity.  I have also lost all of my baby weight and then some.  (We won't talk about the additional 30 pounds I need to lose.)  So I guess that means I am good to go back to work in a co...

I heard many people say that their pets could sense when they were pregnant and paid special attention to them during that time.  I was actually surprised that I didn't receive a similar reaction from Maverick.  It wasn't until the end of pregnancy that he started paying closer attention and could sense something was up.  I don't know if it was rearranging the house and his living quarters or what but he definitely knew something was up and would get antsy whenever Chris and I would leave the house.  He also had his own way of greeting the baby. I was hoping that there wouldn't be any drama between the dog and the baby when we returned home but I wasn't totally sure how Mav was going to react to yet another new person in his house.  I had confidence that Maverick would adapt well and I was right.  Having the baby in the house has actually calmed my rowdy pup a bit.  He has become quite the protector for Jackson.  He has to check on him when he i...

For some reason it didn't dawn on me to check out photographers before I had Jackson to setup newborn photos.  I had no desire to take maternity photos so researching photographers never crossed my mine. I used a photographer that my brother and his wife recommended from their Sunday School class.  That meant Jackson's newborn photos were closer to 1 month photos because they were taken when he was 4 weeks old.  I just wanted to make sure I had something to document my baby's early days.  J-Man was not a fan of having his picture taken either.  However, Jenni did a great job of capturing a few sweet moments with my little man.  Here is a link to her blog highlighting Jackson's photo shoot: Jenni Roberts Photography . 

Chris went back to work this week.  I was pretty anxious about being left at home with both of the guys for the majority of the day but it has been a relatively smooth week.  Jackson has been pretty easy to handle and Sean went back to school today so that has made the week go by faster than I expected it would.  However, this turn of events means that it is only a matter of time before I head back to work myself.  I am scheduled to have about 3 more weeks off work.  The sheer thought of going back is tearing me apart.  I don't want to leave Jackson even though I know he will be in the safe and loving hands of my mom for the first couple of weeks after my return to work.  But still it is going to kill me to feel like I am missing out on my time with my son.  I just love watching him sleep.  I love the adorable faces he makes when he is dreaming his baby dreams.  It's going to be so hard to leave him and be away from him for the better pa...

Jackson turned a month old on Saturday.  It's hard to believe that a month has gone by already.  Time really does fly.  I am amazed at how much our lives have changed and how much I enjoy being a mom to this sweet little boy. I keep trying to figure out some way to get paid to stay at home and watch Jackson sleep all day.  I just love his little antics and expressions.  I constantly want to know what he is thinking and why he looks like he has the weight of the baby world on his shoulders.  I still have a lot to learn about this parenting thing but I feel like I am getting the hang of it.  I'm so glad I get to see this face each day and to hold him and love on him.  I know I had my doubts about having a child in the past but I truly wouldn't change it for the world now. After all, how adorable is this little boy?

All total I was in the hospital almost 6 days for Jackson's birth.  That included 2 days for the induction, 1 day of bed rest, and 2 and a half days of postpartum.  I was a lot worse off after the delivery than I expected to be.  Having an epidural for a full 24 hours plus pushing for 3 hours plus 24 hours of bed rest meant my legs couldn't function when I was finally able to get out of bed on Thursday night.  It took me several days to feel comfortable walking without Chris nearby to help me.  I think I was home for a week before I really felt like I could get around on my own and walk for more than a few minutes at a time. They aren't kidding when they say 24 hours either.  Once 10:30 Thursday evening rolled around, my nurse was in my room with a wheel chair to take me to the postpartum wing.  Bye-bye nice giant labor and delivery room,  Hello tiny, oddly shaped postpartum room.  The best thing about moving at that time was that we reques...

Around 6:45 on Wednesday evening, the time finally came for me to push.  And push I did for the next 3 hours with my nurse, Lauren, and Chris encouraging me the whole time.  The on-call doctor came in around the 2 hour mark to check on my progress and told me that we would have a different conversation the next time she came in if the baby still wasn't here.  That's exactly what happened.  At the 3 hour mark, it was determined I had not made enough progress to continue.  The doctor gave me the option of forceps or a c-section.  Since there was no way I was going to let them try to yank my baby out, I went with the c-section. At that point, things started moving quickly.  Suddenly there were more people in my room and things were happening.  They were stopping the pitocin and stopping my contractions.  Chris was given scrubs to wear and told to wait outside the operating room until they came to get him.  Everyone was moving ar...

With the epidural in place, I was more comfortable and thought I would be able to get some rest.  Unfortunately, the cervidil wasn't doing anything more than make me contract so it was time to bring in the big guns.  Two hours after getting my epidural, they removed the cervidil and started the pitocin.  I was in for a long night.  With the pitocin in place, Chris and I tried to settle in for the evening.  However, with nurses checking on me periodically and the blood pressure cuff going off every 15 minutes, sleep was not to be had. One of my night nurses even asked if I ever slept to which I responded that I was resting but the noise from the BP cuff was keeping me awake. At some point during the night, I got quite a scare.  The nurse had come in to make some adjustments to my IV and I started to get a tightening in my chest.  It felt like I had something sitting on my chest and I couldn't breath.  Since I was still on the potassium,...

Chris didn't show back up at the hospital for another 3 hours.  I knew I had given him quite a list of things to accomplish on top of getting my stuff and getting Maverick to the kennel.  Since we were completely unprepared for Jackson's pending arrival, I had also told Chris to wash all the newborn clothes and sheets and anything he thought we would need as soon as we got home.  Needless to say, by the time Chris got back to the hospital, I was beside myself.  Here I was in labor in the hospital alone.  I was not happy. The rest of Tuesday went on pretty much the same.  I had contractions.  I was uncomfortable and I was tired.  But nothing was happening.  I wasn't dilating so the labor was progressing.  Even though I wasn't in a lot of pain, I was uncomfortable enough that they gave me a couple of sedatives so that I could relax and get some rest.  After the second sedative wore off, I told the nurse that the contractions were st...

Disclaimer: I wasn't sure if I would want to share Jackson's birth story with everyone.  If you aren't interested in reading all this then by all means, skip this (and any related posts). However, I want it documented for my sake because there are things I have already started to forget and it just happened 3 weeks ago. This is going to be long and it might have to be broken up into several posts.  So I apologize in advance. I went in on July 15th for my 38 week appointment.  This was the first time I was going to be checked for any progress towards having the baby so I was cautiously optimistic about what the results would be.  I also felt like crap.  It was one of the hottest days we had had so far in the summer and I (wisely) decided to go shopping with my coworker, Jennifer, after we got off work that day.  (Yay for half day Fridays!)  The thought was I needed to be up and walking around to get this baby moving.  Well, apparently t...

One of my friends had to remind me on twitter yesterday that I am not, in fact, superwoman.  That is something I guess I am having a hard time with.  I had a baby just over 3 weeks ago via c-section (more to come on that later).  A c-section is a major surgery.  It takes time to heal and recovery.  You cannot resume normal activities immediately after.  Somehow, I cannot get that message through my head. I feel like I have gotten mixed messages on how to handle recovery.  Some say get up and get moving while some say take it easy.  I went with get moving which meant going to the store, going to the mall, going to church, anywhere we needed to go I went.  Mom was worried I was over doing it and kept telling me I didn't need to be taking Jackson out this early.  Apparently, she was right only Jackson wasn't the one we needed to worry about. I ended up back in the hospital.  As if 6 days at delivery wasn't enough, another 24 hours ...

I guess it is time that I finally updated everyone on Jackson's arrival.  Baby J is 2 and a half weeks old now.  And because I have to share, here is a bit of baby cuteness for you to enjoy. As I am sure you can imagine, my life has been turned upside down.  It is amazing how quickly my focus has shifted away from budgets and invoices to dirty diapers and feeding times.  We are still trying to get adjusted and get into a routine.  Right now, Jackson seems to have no problems sleeping all day only waking up for diaper changes and bottles.  The nights are a different story.  He apparently thinks 1 AM is a great time to wake up and party for a little bit.  Fortunately for me, Chris has been taking the night shift so I am able to rest at night.  That is going to change soon though when Chris heads back to work in a couple of weeks.  For me, I am dreading going back to work.  Mostly because I don't want to put Jackson in daycare but I ...