Day 6 or is it 7?

We've been home with Weston since Sunday afternoon... without Internet. So... email and updates are few and far between.
West is doing great, during the day. He's unhappy most of the time during the night, just absolutely screaming in pain, we think it's gas. We're trying so many different things and we even went to the Pediatrician this afternoon. He's perfect on all counts. I am currently working on the whole breastfeeding issues, but other than that, yeah.
I am beyond exhausted. I barely recognize myself in the mirror anymore. But, I can't get over the look on West's face when he's happy, or the size of his feet! And I am absolutely in love with his hands. I swear he actually grabbed his pacifier out of his mouth and whipped it at me the other day.
So... I am off to feed my gorgeous son, and to hope he sleeps mostly through the night.

Weston Christopher Jones

So... we just shipped West off to the nursery for some much needed sleep. If I'm going to be honest, and I usually am, then I have to say that my son is one of the most beautiful boys in the world. But his arrival left a lot to be desired.

When i last blogged, it was 630 pm, 2 days ago. I was hanging out at Mercy waiting for the Cervidil to work magic on my uterus. I caught a glimpse of myself in the dark window... and was amazed at how pregnant i looked... how normal I looked. So, I had Scott take a few pictures.

My water broke at 2am... I was not prepared for that at all. I actually thought that I had had an accident on my way to the bathroom. So... my water broke and i proceeded to start having serious contractions. The doctors once again started Petocin at 4am. By mid morning, I was in such pain from the back spasms, and my hips felt like they were trying to single-handedly drill through concrete. I was given drugs that were wonderful since i basically slept through the morning. When the drugs wore off, and my labor had turned into the dreaded "back labor" complete with back spasms, i was almost dilated to 6cm. So... I quickly put in the order for an epidural. Once this was in, I went almost completely numb from the waist down. So... I kept moving around, rolling from side to side, having Scott talk to Weston, and by 230pm, I was fully dilated to 10cm, and Weston was "engaged" and ready to go. So... I pushed my hardest from 230 until just after 5pm. Once checked around 5, it was discovered that while though Weston was head down and engaged, he had, at some point in the last week, turned fac up. A baby cannot safely be born facing up. So... I attempted a new hands and knees position with the intent of getting West to flip back into a face down position. My epidural had been turned down, so i was feeling every single back pain, added to this the new pain of pushing, in combination to the added pain of being on my knees and legs so swollen that they turned new shades of purple, as well as being completely numb from the original epidural. This position did not work.

There was nothing that could be done. After being admitted and on various medications for exactly 36 hours, 15 hrs of which spent in active labor, my doctor decided that the safest method for Weston and I was a C-section birth. I was in the OR by 6pm, and Weston Christopher Jones entered this world at 620pm. He weighed 8lbs, 4oz. He was 20 3/4" long. He has blondish-brown hair and blue eyes (as of today anyway.) He was immediately allert, and is one of the most beautiful childrean i have ever seen. Scott got some great pictures. And we were informed that West was born in perfect health.

Weston Christopher Jones
born: 7.31.2008, 6:20 pm
8lbs, 4oz; 20 3/4" long
15 minutes old here

I, on the other hand, did not have it so easy. After 3 hrs of hard pushing, I had to undergo major abdominal surgery. Right now, i am in almost constant pain and a constant state of exhaustion. I have a huge incision being held together by staples, and massive bruises from all of the IVs and blood drawing, and sugar counts to monitor my diabetes. And I am being awakened by the nursery to feed my son, which is awesome! I love being able to feed him.
I wish for him nothing but the best. So... I hope you enjoyed the trials and tribulations of Weston's arrival, as well as the pictures. We have loved having so many of you visit and calling to check in on us. We truly feel blessed.

pictures of day 1

Nicole starting my Acupuncture... in my feet!

My Husband looking all buff and totally hot!

Of course, i was trying to blog...

Aunt Linda, Shannon, and Mom, surrounding me... I feel like a Beached Whale.

My brother, Nathan is also here... interesting thought, I know.

life in progess

Well, it appears that our doctor over-exaggerated my progress last week. i was only to 1 cm when i came in this morning... not exactly what today's doctor was expecting. I actually had hoped for much much more. I had spent most of yesterday bouncing and swinging on Yoga balls trying to make progress and work Weston down. It didn't work.
I was given Oxytocin to start labor this morning. Nicole, my amazing Acupuncturist, stopped by to add her efforts to the induction process as well as to add some pain blockers. Unfortunately, the acupuncture didn't work any better than the medication, we still had no additional progress at noon. After my labs came back... my doctor decided to give it until 4pm and then we would go off the Oxytocin and start Cervidil to help things along from the inside. Not too horribly unpleasant, unless you count the part about lying flat on your back for over 2 hours, which unfortunately causes my hips to feel like they are burning and crushing from the inside out.
So now it is almost 630pm. We've been here for 13 hours. I am finally able to sit up and type. They finally let me eat something, while i was lying flat on my back. Scott had to feed me (thank God!) And i am currently being infused with my 3rd dose of IV Penicilan, which by the way, burns throught your veins like boiling acid.
So far, I am in more pain from the Penicilian IV, the laying on various parts of my hips, and the inability to move as i need in order to get a good blood pressure reading or a good heartbeat reading from Weston.
So, the plan is this... the Cervidil stays in place until 4am. Then they will turn on the Petocin to activate labor again. Hopefully we will progress enough to have a baby tomorrow morning/early afternoon. I have a feeling that a c-section might be in order if things do not progress to the doctor's liking.
Cross your fingers!!!

Delivery Day!!!

And here we are... just waiting for the drugs so we can get things started. I am so hungry and tired... and we haven't really started yet. But we have a room!!!

Arrival Date

The doctors have scheduled a medically necessary induction on Wednesday, July 30th at 5:30am. So early!!! But unless he comes on his own, we now have a date!!!

This weekend

Scott and I chose to make this weekend our "Last Big Hurrah." Basically meaning our last chance to do anything we wanted from waking up until we went to bed that did not revolve around us thinking (worrying?) about Weston. I think it was a tribute to our last 6 years of being a couple, since after this week we'll officially be a Family of 3. (!!!)

We started off the weekend with dinner Friday night at Ohana Japanese Steakhouse. We invited almost 20 people to celebrate with us, and 10 were able to make it. For those of you that don't know Ohana, this is a West Des Moines restaurant where they cook all of your food right in front of you. And it is delicious. As of September, I will have been celebrating my "Big Events" at Ohana for 10 years. My bachelorette party started there, Scott and I have celebrated anniversaries, birthdays, sometimes just a Saturday, at Ohana. It made sense to celebrate Weston' s impending arrival there too. Here's our "banzai" picture:

Ok... so this isn't the clearest picture. A Banzai is a Polaroid snap shot after all.

Left to right, row 1: Chris and Melissa Spencer (XO sister + husband), Scott, Me, Shannon (my sister), and Jason Taylor (friend.)

Row 2: Ken (our Chef), April Barkely (XO sister), Stephanie Stanley (Cousin-in-law), Teri and Kenny Dean (Teri used to work with me at Onthank.)

We had a wonderful time. and the food was fabulous. As usual.

Saturday, Scott and I decided to spend the day alone... one of our "Date Days." We started out at Mercy for our usual Saturday Non-Stress Test. West did great, and we were out of there by 11am. We then proceeded to the Science Center of Iowa to see The Dark Knight at the Blank Dome IMAX theatre. Great movie. Wonderful actually. There shouldn't have been children there, but then again, their parents have to live with those consequences I guess. NEVER see a movie that long, that action packed, on an IMAX Dome. I had a headache through Sunday. It was like watching a 3 hr movie on a Planetarium.

After the movie, we walked through the Science Center - neither of us had ever been. I thought it would be a lot cooler. Like more adult friendly. This was very much geared towards children. I don't think we'll be going back for a few years. But, they did have an exhibit called the Humongous Among Us. It was small, but it was about the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, and no, it wasn't the T-Rex. That's the T-Rex skull "behind" the Big one. I was about 6-8 feet away when i took this picture on my phone.

After the Science Center, Scott and I had over 2 hours to kill, so we went Downtown to Legends and had an early dinner, and then we went to the I-Cubs Game. Alfonso Soriano from the Chicago Cubs was supposed to be rehabbing in Des Moines this weekend, but he never made it down. So we watched 6 innings of a pretty good

game before I asked if we could go home.

(Pregnancy reared it's ugly head, and my legs and feet were so swollen I could barely walk.) On a side note, it started to thunderstorm before we made it out of Downtown, so I obviously made the right choice. :)

But don't we look like we are having a great time? In mirror image thanks to the camera on my phone.

We spent Sunday sleeping in, doing laundry and washing bottles. We watched a movie, and I went swimming with Shannon and Jason. It was an awesome weekend! And we can't wait to meet Weston! Only a week or so to go!!!