The Thompson Adventures: Happy Birthday Baby Boy

Easton James Thompson

Born at 4:45 pm on November 5, 2016

4 lbs 11 oz

17.5 inches long

Grumpy, mellow, and totally sweet.

He committed!

Baby boy decided to join us and man are we excited and scared and not ready.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I was having the constant cramping/contractions per usual but on Saturday morning I was having such crappy back/hip pain... I blew it off because 1) I could handle it and 2) I was waiting for the "yes, this is way worse than any other time". But I of course avoided anything going on because I was sick of the cycle, I didn't want to go in and it be the exact same scenario as the last 5 times. Go in, have cervical change, go to Anchorage, get sent home.

Around 12:30 p.m. after eating a slice of old pizza I went to go get ready for the day and I felt like my water had broke, not because anything exciting happened but because I couldn't control my bladder haha. I swear I knew how to use that thing before!

Trying not to make Jeff panic, I got in the shower, rinsed off, and politely asked him to shower as well because I felt like we should go in.

THEN on the way, as I called the L&D floor, he was informed of my most likely water breaking/leaking. haha. He was probably super happy with me.

Once we got there we did an amnisure to get a fern to make sure it was my water but once Dr. Fitzgerald checked me he said there was no point in waiting for the results, he could tell it was ruptured and that I was dilated to a 7, complete, and +2. They started me on fluids, antibiotics, and admitted me. They considered the option of shipping me via helicopter to Anchorage but once he checked me again I had changed too quickly for that to be an option. NICU was contacted and then we waited. Once I was put into a labor room the pain had kicked in significantly, definitely a 10/10 haha. My hips felt like they were going to snap to the outsides. The anesthesiologists had to come from home so we had to wait a little while..... longest 30 minutes of MY LIFE. Once I got up to get the epidural the contractions were so close and hurt so bad it was a painful process just waiting for the epidural to kick in. Of course it was a pain because I have such small cartilage spaces but the anesthesiologist was awesome and got it in as fast as she could. The tester dose was just enough to take the edge off that I was HAPPY. But it felt like the my right thigh was a million pounds. There was only pressure in my right leg lol. Luckily for me I got to deliver in the O.R. just to make things exciting ( it was a first for all the nurses to deliver in the O.R. -that wasn't a twin birth- they were all a little disoriented but they were so awesome, as usual). Our c-section "room" is connected directly to the nursery so the dr's. decided it would probably be safer for baby to deliver there and then they would have more space to work and have access to everything they needed. I wasn't complaining. It was a party.

Right after they got the epidural in they immediately rolled me to the O.R. to hang out until the impending arrival. I switched to my other side and realized that the heavy weight in my thigh wasn't a faulty epidural but the baby's head putting pressure there. Reassuring haha.

We got to the O.R. and patiently waited for the NICU team to arrive from Anchorage. Now that I had my epidural, I was easy going. I had the stressed shakes pretty bad but once I got settled I was able to relax and function. Jeff was on triple duty being the camera man, husband, and dad.

Once NICU team got there I swear it was literally 15 minutes between setting up the bed and pushing that the baby was out and we were getting cleaned up. But I probably was not that oriented to time very well lol.

Baby didn't like me on my back or right side at all, so in between pushes I was on my left side. The pushes and or laying on the wrong side stressed the baby out and made his heart rate drop several times so oxygen for me it was.... I was trying to breath deep for baby but hold all my air in to keep the baby down, that is hard work man!

After a few pushes and the baby stressing out they decided he needed to come a little faster so the doctor decided to do an episiotomy to help get his big noggin out. Of course that was the moment Jeff decided to walk around and watch the baby crowning.... poor timing lol. I honestly could probably say that labor did not hurt at all ( besides before getting an epidural lol) until I got snipped. THEN it hurt. I'm grateful it wasn't a tear so it would heal wonky but man that has been the worst part of all the laboring. After I was snipped I pushed once and he was out.

First words: he is big!!

Second words: give me the camera!

haha, that was probably so un-suave of me but I wanted to get Jeff cutting the cord! Unfortunately everything moved too fast for him to do it so he got to just watch.

That sucker was slippery, or so I'm assuming by the words said by the doctor as he tries not to drop him ha ha!

Baby had a double nuchal cord ( cord wrapped around his neck twice), but came out screaming and grumpy and that was the last of him I saw for a little while.

Jeff switched to Dad duty and hustled to the nursery to watch what was happening with the baby while I got stitched up. They would update me occasionally through the window but not a lot was processing because I couldn't see it for myself. After about 10 minutes Jeff came back to the O.R. to show me pictures of the handsome kiddo and update me. He was breathing on his own but then decided he didn't want to anymore so they intubated him, but only for a few minutes. He just needed a reminder of what to do. He was doing great so we were RIDICULOUSLY lucky to have them bring him to me to hold. I held him for less than 10 minutes and he just blew bubbles on my chest. Jeff was just stinking happy to see that the baby had a chin! lol. He was so worried based off of sonograms that he would be chinless, but this kid had an academy award winning chin. I was super excited to see his head full of luscious hair, BLONDE luscious hair.

Not even being able to process they took the baby away to get shipped to Anchorage. Jeff stayed with me so we could get out of the hospital as quickly and safely as we could. It was a long painful night but we survived with only a couple phone calls made to the NICU and zero sleep haha.

We got up, cleaned up a little, I ate breakfast while Jeff went and showered and got things ready to haul to the hospital, ate a quick lunch and darted out of the hospital for Anchorage. That was a long drive.... potholes and anticipation. Jeff was extremely anxious to get to the hospital to finally hold the baby. He hadn't been able to yet and the long process was wearing on him.

We had to check in and do our surgical scrubbing, hair pulling back, and waiver signing before we were let into the unit.

Once we got there ( Otter Raft unit.... fancy) we were happy to see our little nugget still content and healthy. We got FLOODED with information the second we walked through the door and to be honest I am not sure if I remember much of any of it. I was just fixated on the baby, as I am sure Jeff was too. We were dying to get up, touch, and hold him. Which, was not done until after washing your hands yet ANOTHER time... We didn't want to break him but we were so excited to hold him. Jeff held him first and learned the process while I tried to recoup from walking into the building.

Watching THIS, was heaven. He was so stinking tiny next to him but Jeff was a total natural.

I got to hold him next and for several hours we fought for his attention. Later in the afternoon he was WIDE awake for maybe an hour and we soaked in every second of it. He was so intent on listening to our voices and just hanging out.

We were happy.
The name game was a long process, almost painful. Jeff refused to go another day without a name picked. We really came out of left field with our last two options: Jeff from the beginning had his heart set on Korver, something we picked and liked a long time ago. After the last ultrasound we got we felt like that wouldn't be the name so we threw Korver off the table and were nameless. Our last stay at Providence gave us a whiteboard to sit and brainstorm name options one late night. We threw out so many names and crossed off so many from the list that I was surprised we even narrowed it down to the middle name! James was the only thing we settled on that night and we decided it would be the middle name because it went with all of the first names we liked. We had 4 names on the board but we really only had discussed the options of two that we liked.
The day we came to see the baby we sat for hours telling each other to commit to a name lol. It was mostly me fighting the commitment but can you blame me?! It's a big deal! We HAD to get this name thing figured out for birth certificates, people asking every two seconds, and before family came. Jeff refused to do anything else until we decided. It was painful but I finally agreed to commit on his favorite.
The one, The only, Easton James.

He is healthy, happy, and doing wonders.