John Thomas - Birth and Coming Home - Part Two

A little late, but here is the rest of John Thomas' birth story!

First here are some photos from my camera that I just downloaded!

Very Excited to be checked into our room!

You can barely see these, and they got some laughs, but they are treat bags for the nurses.  I am terrified of needles, so I wanted to make sure anyone coming at me with one had a little bag of happiness!

 

 

Hello Contractions!

Our BIG baby boy!

Meeting him for the first time!

Very Proud Daddy!

Our first picture of the 3 of us!

After Kris and I spent a few minutes together, he was able to bring our family back two a t a time!  I was so excited to share him with everyone who had patiently waited for him to arrive!  As our family came back I made my first attempt at breastfeeding, something I had wanted to do so badly.  Our first attempt was successful! However, a combination of hormones from delivery and hormones from breastfeeding created a "too much cough medicine" effect for me and I barely remember seeing some of our family who came back!

As soon as I finished feeding, the nurses came back to get John Thomas and take him for his bath and testing. 

The whole time we were at the hospital, we were referred to as the "paparazzi" family :)

 

 

 

 

 Our hospital was very small, so much to our surprise, they did not have a postpartum room to move us to!  We were moved to a larger labor and delivery room for the remainder of our stay.  The only downside, was that we were limited to a certain number of visitors at a time and no one under the age of 18, with the exception of siblings were able to visit. The nurses were very kind and let us bend the rules on the amount of people, as long as we were quiet!

During the next hour or so, I was able to rest some and Kris came back so we could spend some time with just the two of us.  My parents joined us and immediately started spoiling their new grandson!

Nana and Papa J

Lucky for us, he was born on a Thursday, which meant that Koen could come see him!  He was a little nervous around him at first, but then warmed up to hold him! 

Later that night, Pappy and Granna came by to visit and do their first spoiling!

Pappy and Granna

Finally time to sleep!

 Our first night was very long, and Kris nor I slept very much!  Between feeding and hospital staff coming in and out, sleep was nearly impossible!  We were hoping to go home on Friday, but since my water had been broken for over 24 hours before delivery, the pediatrician wanted us to stay and extra day.  John Thomas also had a touch of jaundice that they wanted to keep an eye on, so we made ourselves as comfy as possible for another two days! 

We had lots of visitors on Friday, too bad I didn't get any pictures of them!  I guess that is what a new very tired mama does!  By this time, breastfeeding was becoming much harder and more painful and we were both very frustrated.  I had lots of patient nurses come and try to help, but I was very afraid he was not getting enough to help with his jaundice levels.  I am glad to say that I stuck with it and by Saturday, although his levels were still up, they were low enough for us to go home!  With a promise to the pediatrician that we would be diligent about feeding more frequently and supplementing if necessary, he agreed that we could leave that morning.  Kris and I immediately started packing our things and getting John Thomas ready to leave.  After almost 4 days in there and no sleep, we were ready to be a family at home.  

Very tired mama and sharp dressed baby boy ready to leave!

Koen wanted to carry him into the house! 

Funny side note, apparently in packing my bags (which I did over a month before) I completely forgot to pack myself clothes to come home in.  So in the above photo, yes that is my robe paired with the leggings I wore to the hospital and a nursing tank my sweet friend Ashley brought me with the sweetest gift of "survival things" for our first few weeks.  Mommy brain started way before he was actually here!

Koen was so excited to have us home.  The whole time we were in the hospital he kept saying, "It doesn't seem real until we are all home."  He is the sweetest big brother and we can only hope John Thomas is just like him!

A special thank you to my amazing parents and husband for taking care of me through the range of emotions new mommy hood brought!  They were amazing caretakers of me so I could take care of our sweet baby! I love you, very very much!