"Heaven Here"

Well now that Hadlee is a week old, I guess I should take the time to write down the happenings of the last week. It is going to be very long, so I don't blame you if you don't make it all the way to the end.
So last Wednesday, the 13th, we picked my mom up at the airport. I cried almost immediately when I saw her. I was so relieved she was there. And Keelia just loved having her grandma with us again. We went to Target and did some other errands to get some last minute things that we needed. Then we came home. After dinner, I started having some really bad back pains. I assumed it was back labor, but seeing as I was being induced the next morning, I wanted to wait it out as long as I could. When I couldn't talk or stand up straight, my mom kindly suggested we head to the hospital. Hunter frantically threw some last minute things into the hospital bag and off we went. We got there and I wasn't dilated anymore than 2cm, so I wasn't in labor. So they did a catheter to get a urine sample and my pain went away. So I must have had a kidney stone blocking things up, which was causing the pain. Anyway, they sent me home from labor and delivery just after midnight, only to have to be back sometime the next morning. Hunter and I got some food on our way home and came back to try and get some sleep.
The nurse called at 6:30am to tell us to be there by 8am for my induction. So yes, I got about 5 hours of sleep before giving birth. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Anyway, so I got to the hospital, got all checked in, and got my IV. They started the Pitocin at 9:30am. My doctor is kind of conservative, so he only upped it by two ml every half hour. So it was a long day. Luckily Hunter and I had our FRIENDS dvd's to keep us company. Around 4pm, I decided I had had enough and got my epidural. I was only dilated to about a four and was about 60% effaced. But my contractions were getting worse and I was exhausted. So I tried to sleep and wait for my doctor to be found so that he could brake my water. Well by 5:30pm, no one could find him, so the nurse found a resident to come brake my water. They thought for sure that would speed things up. I got to 6cm really quickly, but didn't progress anymore after that. At about 7pm, Hadlee's heart rate started dropping with every contraction. My doctor seemed pretty worried about it, but said they would check me again in an hour. At 8pm my doctor came in and told me they were going to take me off the Pitocin and I should get ready for a c-section, because I wasn't progressing and the baby was in stress. And they put me on oxygen because neither of us were getting enough, apparently. My doctor went to do another delivery and said he would come back and check one last time when he was done, but it would most likely end in a c-section. Being exhausted and having been at the hospital twelve hours already, I started to cry. Once all the doctors and nurses left, Hunter gave me a blessing and I sent out a text to my family asking them to pray that things would be okay. Well at about 8:30pm, I started to feel a lot of pressure. The nurse checked me and said I was a 7 on one side and a 9 on the other, and about 80% effaced. Then I started to get kind of uncomfortable, so they gave me another small dose of my epidural. Then I felt much better. To make a long story short, when she came and checked me at about 9:20pm, I was 10cm, fully effaced, and the baby had lowered. So she found my doctor, but he didn't believe it, so he had to check for himself. And sure enough, it was true and I was ready to have that baby!! By 9:30pm we were ready to go and the pushing started. Hadlee Lola Jackson arrived at 10pm exactly, weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces, and 19 1/2 inches long. I have never been so relieved. She was beautiful and had a full head of dark, curly hair!! They handed her to me and I couldn't believe she was actually there. The doctor, and the resident that helped in the delivery, sewed me up and we stayed in the labor room for about an hour after that. (Too much information, probably, but I only had a stage 2 tear this time, compared to my stage 4 tear with Keelia. So I was feeling pretty great about the delivery.) We got to the recovery room just before midnight. I was exhausted and starving, but the tiredness won out. Once they left us alone, Hadlee and I tried to sleep. Hunter went to get some food. Nurses came in about 1:30am to bother us again and brought me a snack, which was nice. It didn't taste very good, but I was so hungry that I ate it anyways.
Our hospital stay was annoying as usual. They want to wake us up every three hours to check one of us and it is impossible to rest. Hadlee swallowed a lot of amniotic fluid during delivery and was having a hard time processing it, so she had to get it suctioned out twice with a tube. But it helped, so that is good. Keelia and my mom came to see us about 9:30am on the 15th. Keelia instantly loved her little sister. She was nervous of me in my bed. But was pretty excited to see me, that it didn't last long. Because of how long my labor took, I didn't see Keelia at all on the 14th. That is the first day in her life we haven't seen each other at all. It was a hard day for both of us, so we were happy to be together again on the 15th. Keelia bought Hadlee a bracelet and my mom brought us balloons. It was nice to have them there with us. Around lunch time, Traci, Teah, and Addi came to see us. Addi couldn't come in because kids aren't allowed unless they are siblings of the baby, but it was nice to have Traci and Teah there to visit us. My mom and Keelia left for a little while because Keelia needed a break, but they came back, which gave me and Hadlee a chance to rest. Before dinner, Cassie and Carol came to visit us, too. They are old friends. My mom went to college and roomed with Carol and Cassie is her daughter, one of my great friends. So that was nice, too. Hadlee bought Keelia the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" as a gift and Hunter bought me "Beauty and the Beast" since it is my favorite Disney movie and is just recently out on dvd. So on their way home from the hospital, they stopped to pick those up. We have probably watched the dragon movie 20 times at least since we got it. But she sure does love it!!
Saturday morning came and I was ready to go home. The doctor on call came and checked me out at 6:30am and told me I was fine to go home. So we waited for the pediatrician on call to come check Hadlee out and he gave us the okay to go home too. Hunter went to get my mom and Keelia to bring them to the hospital. We spent the morning trying to get everything ready to go. We finally left the hospital just after 1pm. It was so nice to leave.
Hadlee slept great at the hospital. They wanted her to eat every three hours, but all she wanted to do was sleep. She would cry because I woke her up to try and nurse her. She went nine hours without eating, so they tested her blood sugar, which came back better than normal. But they didn't like that I didn't feed her as often as they wanted me to. It was just super annoying and I wanted to just go home.
Hadlee also came out making this weird squeaking noise, like she is gulping the air. It is weird and it made me nervous she would gag, so I held her most of the time in the hospital. But we slept great and would have slept better if it weren't for the nurses waking us up every few hours.
Saturday when we got home, I took a much needed nap and so did Hadlee. My mom entertained Keelia and Hunter caught naps in between helping keep Keelia busy. Both Saturday and Sunday we just tried to adjust to being a family of four. Hadlee continued to sleep great. She went for 6-8 hour stretches both Saturday and Sunday nights. It was fantastic. She barely ever cried. And she did a lot of sleeping, which allowed me a lot of time to rest. Sunday night my brother Sean came by to see us. It was nice to see him and very sweet of him to stop by to see the baby. Sunday night as I was putting Keelia to bed, in walked my sister and her three youngest kiddos. They drove out to surprise us. They had some car trouble, so we are super glad that they made it safely. Keelia was so excited to see them and we were both super shocked!! We stayed up and chatted a little while before going to bed. My sister and her kids ended up staying with us the three nights they were in town.
On Monday we mostly just lounged all morning. And my milk finally came in. (With Keelia, it took six days, so having it only be four days this time was great!) We went to In-N-Out for lunch and then to K-mart for Keelia to get a birthday present with some of her birthday money. Keelia also decided once and for all that she wants to be Cinderella for Halloween and we found a cheap costume at K-mart that was perfect. Plus, it was a lot of fun to just be together. And it was so nice to get out of the house. Keelia was in absolute heaven having her Guellers and her grandma here to play with. And besides needing to eat, Hadlee slept through most of the outing. For dinner we met Sean and Shelley and their kids at the Training Table. It was a little crazy, but it was fun to be together with family.
On Tuesday morning I took Hadlee to her first doctor's appointment. Everything seemed to check out fine. She was down to 6 pounds, 14 ounces and was still 19 1/2 inches long. She had been having trouble pooping, but the doctor squeezed her tummy and then she had no problem getting her poop out. Which was a relief for me. After the doctor, we went to Cafe Rio for the adults to get lunch and then ate at Wendy's so the kids could get lunch. Then we walked around Temple Square, which was so much fun. Keelia has been wanting to do that since we moved here, but it was always too hot and I was too pregnant. But now that the baby is here and the weather is cooling off, I hope to be able to do that more often. And again, Hadlee was a trooper and slept through the whole outing, except for needing to eat. After Temple Square, we headed up to Sean and Shelley's house for dinner. We had yummy Chinese take out and the kids had lots of fun playing together. And the triplets loved having Hadlee at their house and getting to see more of her. She mostly slept there, too. (Turns out, she is a really good baby. And if this is how babies are supposed to act, we may even be able to have another one somewhere down the road.) By Tuesday night, I was pretty tired and emotional, due to my tiredness. Hadlee was sleeping most of the night, except waking up to eat, but I was staying up far too late playing with my sister and mom, not wanting to miss out on anything. But I was lucky because I got to sleep later than most anyone else these couple of days because my mom would take care of Keelia and Hadlee and I could just sleep.
Wednesday morning my sister and her kids left for home. It was sad to see them go. We really loved having them here and we miss getting to see them often like we did when we lived in Colorado. Keelia is still having withdrawals and asks about them all the time. She talks about the things we did while they were here constantly. It was really pretty great of my sister to go through all the trouble to come spend some time with us and to meet our baby. It means a lot to me, and to Keelia, I know. In the afternoon, I had to make a lot of phone calls to get Hadlee added to our insurance and a bunch of other blah things. And Hadlee had her first fussy time. She cried on and off for about three hours. Hunter finally got her to settle down and I finally got to take a shower. We left kind of late in the afternoon to get some errands done and some things crossed off my list. But we did get some of the things done, so that is good. Hadlee had her first bath at home before bed. She didn't like it. Hopefully she will like it better when she can have more than a sponge bath. Wednesday night Hadlee decided to make up for lost time I guess, because she was up a lot to eat. She didn't really cry, just wanted to eat often. So I woke up Thursday a little less rested than days before, but I still can't really complain.
Today we tried to get more things crossed off my to do list. Hadlee pooped all over our bedspread on Tuesday. It got ruined in the wash, so we had to find a new one. I like our new one. It is animal print, and it was fairly inexpensive, so it will do for now. But we got a few more things done on my list, so that is good. Then we headed down to Lehi to see my mom's sister (and family) and her mom. Hadlee was a big hit with everyone and it was nice to get to spend some time with that part of our family. And I was glad my mom got to see her sister and mom while she was here. We ate some yummy soup at their house and just visited. We got home and got Keelia to bed. My mom showed me how to use my sewing machine. Hopefully I can use it on my own. She also fixed some things for me, so that was a bonus. And I think that brings us up to date on our week's activities. I am sure I missed a bunch of things that I wanted to write down, but that is what happens when you wait so long to post stuff. Hopefully I will be better about posting more often.
Having my mom here with us has been fantastic. I absolutely do not want her to go home tomorrow. It is going to be so hard for me. She has been here and has done the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry, and taken care of Keelia almost 100%, so that I could take care of Hadlee and myself. But my mom also did her fair share of baby holding, so that I could get things done at night, too. I don't know how I will do it without her. Heaven help me.
We have had a lot of love and support from our family and friends over the last week and we really appreciate it. Having a new baby is such a joy and such a miracle. We really feel blessed to have Hadlee be a part of our family and we are really loving getting to know her.
If you made it to the end, congrats. You deserve some kind of reward. I can barely reread it to proofread it, so sorry if there are tons of mistakes. And here are a ton of pictures, from our check in at the hospital on the 14th, until today the 21st, which, by the way, was Hadlee's due date.