Our first week

Check out my two favorite men!
Well, we made it through the first week! Whew! What a whirlwind! I can't remember life before sleepless nights, 3am feedings, poopy diapers and the trials of breastfeeding!!!!! This is no walk in the park! Nevertheless, one look at this little guy's face and my heart melts! It is all so worth it!!!

We got home from the hospital last Monday, December 18th. Lucky for us we had Grandma Ginn (Scott's mom) waiting at home to help get us through! What a lifesaver! She cooked, cleaned, did laundry, and of course gave unconditional love to Jackson! I don't think we would have made it through the week without her! Tuesday we had a nurse come to the house to do a check up of both Jackson and I. He got a thumbs up from the nurse weighing in at 6 lbs 3 ounces. They say babies can lose up to 10% of their birthweight before they leave the hospital, luckily he didn't. The first night was crazy!!!! We had his Pack-n-Play in our bedroom. Any little sound he made the covers were flying off and I was at his side making sure he was okay. Needless to say I did not get any sleep! This was also probably the worse day for me since my milk had come in. When the nurse checked me I was completely engorged!!!! She just looked at me like you poor thing! I was miserable! It literally looked like I had a boob job! They were painful to the touch and even more painful when he nursed. The nurse had to massage the milk out while Jackson was feeding and it had to have been equal to the pain of the contractions I had giving birth!!!! I sat there crying my eyes out while she did this. Luckily after this was over breastfeeding got better.

Wednesday Scott and I went and bought me nursing bras. It turns out that the nursing bras I had bought from Motherhood Maternity were too small and were not fitted properly. That was what was making me engorged! So we went to the hospital's lactation store and got fitted for nursing bras. Literally later that day it was so much better!!!!

Thursday night I started feeling sick like I was coming down with the flu. I was getting cold and hot and had muscle aches. I also had a fever of 100.8. I called my doc and she informed to me take some Tylenol and rest. Soon after that I was feeling so much better.

Friday was Jackson's first pedi appt. I was scheduled to see the doc after him. (We have the same doc). He weighed 6lb 6oz. Doc said he looks great and is gaining weight fast! That night we also decided to put him in his own room to try and get some sleep. I was a little nervous but at the same time was lacking in sleep! To my surprise he did so well!!!! I maybe got up 2 or 3 times to feed throughout the night and the rest of the time I got to sleep!!! It was great!

Sunday (Christmas Eve) we had to take Grandma Ginn to the airport. :-( It was so nice having her here the first week. Now that I'm feeling better and able to do things it's a little easier to take care of him. When we got back he slept and slept and did well again last night. We also opened our Christmas gifts. It was nice being at home, the three of us, spending Christmas Eve together as a family.

Well that was our week in a nutshell. My dad, stepmom, Alyson and Chris are coming to visit today (Christmas Day) They ended up going straight to Aunt Gloria and Uncle Rob's because my grandfather is in the hospital. Hopefully he'll get better soon and we'll make a trip out to North Carolina to see him and let Jackson meet his great grandpa. Scott's dad, stepmom and brother Nic are coming this Thursday and staying a week as well. Uncle Mat and Aunt Amanda are planning on coming mid January. We can't wait for everyone to meet him!!!!

Well that's it for now.....someone is hungry!!!! :-)

Love,
Steph

Here are some more picks...I'll take more closeup shots today and post again.

He's Here!!!! Jackson Henry was born December 16, 2006 at 2:52 pm, weighing in at a whopping 6 lbs. 12 oz. He showed up 2 weeks early, what a great Christmas gift. Steph did great, she was a pushing machine, and very determined.... I surprised myself and was able to stick by her side throughout the entire delivery! Trust me when I say~women are incredible...it looked very very very painful, but Steph managed to keep her composure. Here are a few pictures of my beautiful wife and son. Oh, and there may be a few pics of me as well. Enjoy...hope to see everyone soon.

Proud Father.

The Samuel Family

I'm in labor! Contractions started at 3:45 AM. We called the doctor and told them that contractions were 5 to 6 minutes apart, lasting 45 seconds. The doctor told us to try to wait another hour or two. They started coming every 5 minutes so we called the doctor again. He told us to come into the hospital. So we left the house at 8:08. We got to the hospital and they put me on a fetal monitor to check Jackson's heart rate. The doctor came in to check me and I was 5 centimeters, 90% effaced, 0 station. Now we are just waiting for the doctor to come check us again. By the way, my name is Micah and today I am the blog poster. Stephanie is dictating what she wants on here. Bye for now the doctor is here again.

38th week appointment

Well I'm still progressing!!! We saw Dr. Owens today who is my original doctor. We finally got to see her after we've made all the rounds with all the other doctors. She said everything looks great and his heartbeat was normal. I actually lost a pound from last week! I've been eating like crazy so I don't know how that happened! I am at 138. The nurse said my weight can start tapering off now since we're towards the end.

My internal exam was a little unpleasant but tolerable. I am now 2 cm dialated, 80% effaced and 0 station. She said he is really low and she actually felt the bag of water!!! How weird is that! I told her she could go ahead and pop it if she wanted to! She told us she thinks he'll come within the next ten days which would be at the end of next week!!!!

We are so ready for him to get here! Hopefully I can kick this cold before he arrives. I feel horrible so sorry for not calling anyone after my appointment. I had no energy to talk. I just want to lay down!!!! :-( Well that's it for now. Hopefully it will happen soon!!!!!

Steph

I have a cold! :-(

Perfect timing huh? I am feeling horrible! I thought I was doing good keeping away from Scott when he had his cold last week. I was doing really good about washing my hands and spraying anything he touched with Clorox antibacterial spray! I guess it didn't work. Hopefully it will be gone before Jackson comes. I can't imagine having to wear a mask during labor!

I have my appointment this afternoon at 3:30. I'll post later this evening and let you know if I've made anymore progress.

Send get well vibes my way!!!!!!

37th week appointment

Had another appointment today and Jackson is progressing fast! From just last week I have gained 3 pounds from 136 to 139! I really don't feel like I'm eating all that much but at least he's putting some fat on!

Dr. Culver checked his heart rate and it was in the 140's then all of a sudden jumped into the mid 170's! He continued to check his rate but said that it is common for the heart rate to jump around like that. I'm sure it didn't help that I was having a contraction at the time he was measuring his heart rate. He finally got it stabilized in the 140's. He reassured us that that was normal.

On to the internal exam.....drum roll.....I am now 1.5 cm dilated, 75% effaced and 0 (zero) station! Just last week I was 0 dilated, 0 % effaced and 0 (zero) station! I couldn't believe the progress and from the look on the doc's face neither could he! He told us that I am farther along than most women at this gestational week. Then again anything can happen! He could still decide to be on time or go past his due date! I guess the exercise ball is paying off! Well, that's all for now....my next appointment is next Tuesday!

Off to go bounce on the ball!!!!!

December is here!!! 36 weeks

Well, we finally made it to December!!! I have my next appointment on Tuesday. I've had no more contractions but he still feels like he is going to fall out! I went walking today to see if that would help but it just brought on more Braxton Hicks contractions.

I think Scott is coming down with a sore throat. :-( I'm trying to keep my distance as the last thing we need is to both be sick when Jackson arrives. Hopefully he'll wait a little longer till it passes to make his arrival. Watch.....he'll come at the most inconvenient time! :-)

We're headed out tonight to go get our Christmas tree! I'm so excited. We put all of our Christmas decorations out last weekend but have no tree!!!! Though the weather outside does not make it feel like Christmastime! We have highs in the low 70's!!!! It feels like summer! I think we're supposed to get a cold front today to bring the temps back into the 30's and 40's though. Texas had some snow yesterday! How weird is that!

Update: We finally got our Christmas tree up last night! I had fun decorating it while Scott watched. He's still feeling crummy but up and about. I went Christmas shopping on Saturday and walked around forever! I even bought a birthing ball to sit on to get things moving! I started feeling a little like I was coming down with a head cold....I took some Tylenol sinus and it went away....whew! Can you tell from the pic how much I have already dropped? I finally noticed it in the mirror yesterday. He is way low!

Well, that's it for now. I'll update next Tuesday!