A Little Piece of JONES

A lot of this is for me, but if anybody is interested in how my recovery has been then read on!
I felt great right after delivery and for most of the evening because I was still numb and then once the anesthesia started wearing off I didn't have to move really. I had a catheter (spelling?) in and it was heaven!! They left it in until about 11 the next day and I LOVED not having to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. I could drink as much water as I wanted without worrying that it would mean having to heave my hurting body out of bed and into the bathroom. Anyways... I slept pretty good that first night despite being woken up to have my vitals checked, be given more pain medicine, and to nurse the baby. At 5 am they came in and told me I had to get out of bed and go for a little walk. Why it had to be at 5 am I do not know, but I very slowly rolled myself out of bed. When I finally got to my feet and stood up I was shocked to discover how much you use your stomach muscles just to stand! In fact it was a while before I could really stand up all the way straight and walk around. But I made it down the hallway almost to the nursery and back on that first walk. I was so happy to be back in my bed when it was done though. After that I didn't get back out of bed until about 1 o'clock that afternoon (and only because I had to use the darn bathroom). I will say that going to the bathroom is not near the ordeal after a c-section than it is with a normal delivery. There was no soreness down there, except sitting down on the toilet was a little painful.
My blood pressure stayed really low until the morning I came home and the nurses couldn't figure out what to do. I wasn't feeling nauseous or light headed but my blood pressure got all the way down to something over 36 (I can't remember the top number now). They even retested my blood to make sure I didn't have any internal bleeding going on and those numbers showed that my blood pressure should be getting higher, not lower. But since I was feeling fine nobody panicked and eventually it came back up. I was really pale though.
I felt kind of like a human pin cushion at times. I had 5 or 6 attempted IV pokes in me which left bruises on both my hands and a really big one on my arm that still hasn't gone away. I had my blood drawn twice, got my Rhogam shot, and had the TDAP vaccine. So that was fun.
At about 1:30 a.m. that second night I woke up in a lot of pain. Luckily it was time for me to be able to take my next pain pills but when I was swallowing the water to take my pill it kind of went down the wrong tube and made me cough...which hurt like hell. (I'm just saying, it did.) I also had to go to the bathroom so I had to get out of bed and then back in. By the time I got back into bed I was shaking from being cold and in pain. I also had this sharp pain in my neck and back so I couldn't relax and lay down. Justin came over to help rub my neck but that hurt so bad along with everything else that I almost started crying. Finally the pain meds kicked in and I was able to relax and fall back asleep. That was the worst part, and from there things have just gotten better.
Friday I was feeling much better...as long as I had my pain medicine in me. My butt was hurting so bad from laying in bed that once I got out of bed to use the bathroom around 10:30, I never got back into bed. I just sat in the chairs, or would sit on the edge of the bed but not actually get all the way in. Justin had to go to class and then take a test so I was alone for an hour and a half but then my mom came and hung out with me for the day. Dr. Dewey said I could go home if I was feeling up to it and by that afternoon I knew I was ready to go home. Sitting on my couch that was low enough to be able to get on and off of sounded much better than staying cooped up in that hospital room with a bed that was too tall and hard to get in and out of. So I was discharged and came home at 5:30 on Friday, exactly 48 hours after my c-section.
I have spent a lot of time sitting on the couch and resting, but have gradually been doing more each day. I slept on the couch until Tuesday because my bed is really tall and I didn't want to have to climb in and out of it through the night to take care of the baby.
Tuesday I went down the stairs for the first time to take Koyle to the doctor and it wasn't bad at all. I even walked home from the health center and did just fine; it actually felt really good to get some fresh air and stretch my legs. Every day has been significantly better than the previous day so I feel pretty good about my recovery. I even went 17 hours without taking any pain medicine between last night and this afternoon-go me! At this point, one week later, I can pretty much function fine for myself. I have most of my range of motion back as far as bending and twisting goes. Laying down and sitting up is still a little hard because that really engages those tummy muscles. My endurance isn't super high yet and I get tired easily and need to sit down and rest. I still have a long way to go but I am gonna make it.
Some random other things:
The nurses told me I couldn't lift anything heavier than my baby (or a gallon of milk) for an entire month! That is a long time. Today is my first day alone with Matthew and so far so good. But it really changes what you can do when you can't lift. I can't really go anywhere or do things like grocery shopping (carrying the groceries in to the house) or doing the laundry. So it might be a long month for Justin and myself.
As mentioned before it has been nice not to be sore down in the netherland regions. And my bleeding was very, very minimal and has pretty much been done for a few days now. : )
And that's all folks!

I feel like so many things are happening that I could write a million blog posts! Justin was in Virginia for the weekend and just got home last night. He had the computer with him so I haven't been able to post any pictures until now; but here are some more pictures finally.

I think this picture best captures the way Koyle looks:
Koyle totally has red hair and it is super cute. It is hard to capture it in a picture because it looks different depending on how the light hits it. Sometimes it looks more like an auburn color, but then when the sun shines on it is seriously orange. I love it! Chances are it will darken up as he gets older, but I really hope it stays because it is so cute.Stay tuned for more pictures...we took some cute ones with my mom's camera that I am going to be getting from her soon.
And on another note, my flower that I have been babying along all summer FINALLY decided to bloom! It is so beautiful. It bloomed the day after I got home from the hospital and it was so nice to see my baby that I had been nurturing, and my flower that I had been nurturing all bloomed and magnificent.

Here is how it all went down:
Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. we went to the doctor to get induced and have this baby. For those who don't know, I was delivering in my doctors birthing center. He checked me before we got started and I was still about the same: dilated to a 2 and my cervix was getting softer and thinner but not all the way ready. So we got my IV in and all that good stuff and at noon the doctor broke my water to start things off. Then about 12:30 he started me on some pitocin. Right off I started having contractions and by 1:00 I was having regular contractions, every 2-3 minutes that were getting stronger. So around 1:45 he took me off the pitocin and I continued to have regular contractions on my own. He checked me again but I still hadn't changed much. So he put me back on a lower dose of pitocin just to help things move along. My contractions continued to get stronger and I was just getting to the point where I needed to take deep breathes through them when he came in to check me again, probably around 2:30 or 3 (the times are all a little hazy in my mind because so many things started happening) and I was dilated to a 3 and a little thinner but I just wasn't progressing the way I should have been, especially considering how quickly I labored with Matthew. Dr. Dewey said that sometimes the baby's head will get turned sideways and so they can't descend down into the birth canal and they just need to turn their head and then they drop right down. So he was feeling for the baby's head to see if he could help turn it if needed and the more he felt around up there (yes, this part was pretty uncomfortable) he discovered that he thought the baby was breach. He had checked a few weeks prior and thought the baby was head down, so either baby turned during that time or it was just one of those cases where the doctor misjudged what he felt.
In any event, they brought the ultrasound machine in and sure enough, baby was breach; I was going to have to have a c-section. I was surprisingly calm and didn't freak out at the thought of having to have a c-section. It was just one of those things where there was nothing I, or the doctor could do about it. It wasn't anybody's fault (besides my silly baby's) and so the only thing to do was take it in stride. I was actually the most scared about having to get a spinal to tell you the truth. There is a reason I have never had an epidural and that is because that whole process always seemed very daunting to me. Anywho, we packed up our stuff and they took me in a wheel chair across the parking lot to the hospital. I got all checked in there and had to get a new IV in. Both my doctor, and the anesthesiologist had a hard time getting my IVs in and so I have poke marks and bruises on both hands and arms as a result. But they finally got it in and then I had to wait for them to drip 2 liters of water through my IV before they could do the surgery. I was SOOOOO thirsty during this time and they wouldn't let me drink anything-not even one tiny little ice chip. My nurse Bonnie was amazing and helped me through everything. She explained exactly what was going to happen since I really had no idea and made me feel very calm. The anesthesiologist was also great and explained everything really well to me, and stayed there with me through the whole thing. During all of this my labor was starting to progress quite quickly and my contractions were getting harder and more painful with each one. By the the time they were ready to take me back to the surgery room I was in hard labor and really hurting. Justin wasn't able to come into the room until I was all prepped so my wonderful nurse Bonnie helped me breath through contractions, talked me through them, let me squeeze her hands and sides, and was just all around amazing. I could not have done it without her. When my doctor got there I was starting to feel more pressure and so they checked me to make sure baby wasn't trying to come. I was dilated to a 5 or 6 but baby was still really high. It was still a few more minutes before they got the spinal in and had that baby been turned the right way, I would have had another fast labor.
The spinal wasn't bad at all, which was good since that was the part I was worried about. I hardly felt anything, just a little poke like when they gave me my IV. One of the hardest parts was waiting for it though because I knew I was going to be getting the spinal and that as soon as I did I would be all numb and unable to feel anything. Each contraction I had to work through made me wish they could give me that spinal a little faster. But finally the pain went away and my body could relax. My blood pressure dropped really low and I started getting naucious and so they had to give me some medicine to help with that and they watched my blood pressure really closely because it stayed super low during the whole surgery. It was at this point that they brought Justin back in and they started cutting. From the time of incision to delivery was only 4 minutes!!! It felt super weird because I could still feel pressure and as they were working my stomach felt like a water bed that somebody was jumping on. It kept sloshing around all funny. Even though it went really fast it felt like forever and at one point I asked Justin to tell me what they were doing because I couldn't see anything, I was just laying there staring at the ceiling. Then they pulled the baby out and I could hear him cry. Koyle Fielding Jones was born at 5:38 p.m. They took him right over and started checking hime out and Justin went over with the baby. This was the absolute worst part of the whole thing. I was just sitting there being stiched up and I could hear my baby crying in the room but I couldn't see him. I started getting emotional and had tears in my eyes because I just wanted to see my baby. Once they had the initial check done Justin carried the baby over and I got to see him for just a second and then they took him to the nursery. As I was getting stiched up I kept getting colder and colder. It was kind of weird because I was numb from the chest down so the bottom half of my body was warm and calm, but my arms and hands were freezing and I was shaking. They finally finished and wheeled me back into the recovery room. I was sooo cold and I couldn't stop shaking for about 45 minutes after. My mom was there with Matthew as soon as I was done and so they came in. Then I had to wait and wait to get see my baby. It was almost 2 hours before they finally brought him in to me. He was so precious. A perfect little baby; really he was because he hadn't been squished or anything. He nursed really well right away.
I was really pleased with the way everything turned out. I was healthy, baby was healthy, the surgery went perfectly, and even though it was definitely not the birth I had planned, it all worked out in the end. Once again I was grateful for modern medicine and the fact that I didn't have to labor for hours and hours upon end, not being able to get the baby out because he was turned the wrong way. Instead I had a healthy and beautiful baby boy!

He finally made it! Not exactly the entrance we were hoping for, but everyone is healthy and happy and doing well.

Koyle Fielding Jones

7 lbs. 8.4 oz.
19 1/2 inches
Born 9/21/2011 @ 5:38 pm

While I should be doing some 'responsible' things like washing the dishes, cleaning out the humidifier, etc. I really wanted to do a post about Matthew before the baby is born. He is getting so grown up and so smart. Matthew is very good at singing his ABC's-well, for a 2 year old I think he is good : ) He sings them all the time. One day he actually sang the whole thing and it went something like this: ABCD..FG..JKLMNOP..RS..T..WX..YZ It was so cute. I have tried to get him to do it again on camera but he usually just gets stuck on the LMNOP part because he really likes that part. This is not the best video of him singing as far as accuracy goes, but I think it's pretty cute:


He is also getting really good at his shapes, thanks to the shape train you tube video. He knows star, heart, square, and triangle. He also tries to identify pentagon and hexagon but doesn't do it accurately. I love listening to him try to say those words though. And when he is watching the number train he says all the numbers well and a lot of the time will say it before it tells him what the next number is, but he doesn't count very well on his own. He usually just says, 1 2 5. This is a picture of him watching videos with his dad:
The last few weeks in Primary Matthew has really started engaging during singing time. He is so cute to watch, I love that I get to be there to see him. He loves to sing the songs at home too, and is repertoire is growing.

I bought this sweatshirt at SVU before I graduated and have just been waiting for Matthew to grow into it. It was pretty chilly the other morning when we were going out and I was so excited to put this on him.
I always ask Matthew what he wants to wear in the morning and he will usually tell me. He doesn't just pick the same thing every day either, he really knows which shirts he has and what he wants to wear. I also ask him every day what he wants to eat for lunch. His answers always make me laugh. Sometimes he chooses normal things like Macaroni and Cheese or a bagel and yogurt. But some days he wants things like ice cream and a pickle. Silly boy.

And I should mention that he has learned how to open the refrigerator. We have only had one major spilling of orange juice so far, but he loves to get into the fridge so I know it is only a matter of time before something else brakes or spills. He also tries to microwave things which is a little dangerous. And while he has known how to open his bedroom door for a while, he has actually started doing it this week. So far it hasn't been a big problem though.

He loves drawing on the whiteboard and we spend a lot of time drawing pictures for him. I wish I could say my artistic abilities were improving as a result, but I don't think they are. We did finger painting last week and Matthew loved it. He mostly enjoyed painting his tummy and arms, but he did make some sweet pictures. The camera battery died so we only got a picture at the beginning and not at the end.

And Matthew got a cold from Justin this weekend. So far it has just been a runny nose so nothing serious. Except last night he did cough a few times in his sleep and his cough always has that croupy sound that gives me instant dread. Hopefully it clears up quickly and we don't have to worry about the baby catching the cold.

Yes, I am still waiting to have a baby. But I am actually in good spirits and feeling quite well. Last Tuesday at my appointment I was dilated to a 2. That was good news. Dr. Dewey said to come back in on Friday morning and if I had progressed and was looking ready then he would go ahead and start me. So, we got all our ducks in a row and Friday morning we headed off to the doctor. Unfortunately I had not dilated any more. My cervix was a little softer and thinner but not enough for him to feel good about inducing me. So he said to call him that night at 6 and if anything had changed we would go from there. Our families, who had been on call that morning, decided they were going to come down for the weekend anyways since it was the only chance the grandpa's would have to see the baby before October. I came home determined to put myself into labor within the next 48 hours. Justin and I went on a VERY long walk. For those of you who know the area, we walked down to the Buy Low Parking Lot and got an ice cream cone at our new favorite place JCW Burgers. It was probably about 2 miles and took us around 2 hours, including stopping to eat our ice cream. But nothing happened. I mopped, vacuumed, did some accupressure, relaxed, you name it. But alas I did not go into labor. Saturday afternoon still nothing and it was time for everyone to go home. I felt bad that they had to leave empty handed. My mom decided to stay because Dr. Dewey had told me to call him Sunday morning and he was hoping to be able to do it on Sunday. Well, we drove down to Payson Sunday afternoon all prepared once again to stay and have a baby...but it was not meant to be. I still had not progressed or done anything at all. Lame. All that walking for nothing. (Looking through my pregnancy journal from last time I did the same thing with Matthew-started dilating and was effaced, but then just sat there for a couple weeks until BAM! one day I just decided to have a baby.) Anyways, we came back home, but this time with a for sure appointment for Wednesday morning. Justin is leaving out of town on Saturday and I told Dr. Dewey that I didn't really want to go later than my due date of Thursday because I wasn't going to wait and have Justin gone, or leaving the next morning when I had my baby.
My mom went home Sunday afternoon, ready to come back on Wednesday after we give her the for sure that I am having my baby. I felt really bad that she had come and stayed and then I never actually had the baby. But putting that factor aside I feel good about how everything has turned out. I only had two worries about delivering in my doctor's birthing center instead of in the hospital. One, that he would induce me before I was ready just for convenience sake and I would end up having a long, hard labor, and two, making sure the baby got the care he needed. Dr. Dewey assured me all along that he would check me regularly at the end and we would wait until I was ready to have the baby. It's not his fault that my body was showing signs of being ready, but then decided to just hold off for a few more days. So even though he wanted to do it on Sunday, he said let's wait. No point in having a long labor if you don't need to. It is all working out as planned and I feel comfortable being induced on Wednesday and I really do like my doctor. So hopefully all goes well tomorrow, and unless something crazy happens, I really will be having a baby. Yeah!

A few notes to start. First, Justin just called and said he got an interview request to the University of Utah!! That is exciting, especially because he doesn't have to travel to go to that one. I don't know yet what date he will be going for that. And second, I posted a few things all at once today so don't forget to read the other two posts below this one : )

I just wanted to record some of the cute and silly things Matthew has been doing lately.

• We all know that Matthew loves 'Happy Day' parties and so last weekend when we told him we were going to have a Boise State Party, he thought we were having a birthday party for Boise State. He kept asking all day to blow out the candles and I just couldn't resist giving in. So when we had our BBQ, I stuck some candles in his salmon, we sang happy birthday to Boise State, and then he got to blow out the candles. Luckily, Boise State won which really did make it a happy day.

• The other day we were cleaning the house and we found Matthew doing this:

• 
• He LOVES to go to the park and swing and go down the slides.
• When Matthew gets hungry and dinner is not ready yet he will climb up in his high chair and then say a prayer to bless the food in hopes that doing so will make it time to eat.
• He loves to sing "Follow the Prophet" and can identify fairly accurately pictures of the prophet. (This was a surprise to me when I found out. I guess they have been learning about prophets in nursery because I did not teach him who the prophet was.)
• YouTube is still one of his favorite activities. He currently really loves watching old Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoons, Curious George episodes, or anything to do with the alphabet. He also loves to play on Starfall.com with me and is getting pretty good at his letters considering he is only 2.
• Matthew always pretends to be a puppy and he will crawl around and make me pet him.
  
• He also loves to pretend that he is a baby. He will crawl into the crib and lay there, kind of flailing his arms and legs and whining as a baby would. He will also cry and then tell me that he is a baby. This one, although a great use of his creative skills, I don't find very fun.
  

I could go on, but I will leave it at that for today. The cute and funny things he does and says are endless.

My life these days can pretty much be summed up by saying, "I blame it on being pregnant." If you noticed at the top of my blog, I am carrying around a watermelon, that is full size but still managing to move around. The translation of that is: I am very uncomfortable and tired all the time. The last few days my patience has been low to non-existent and poor Matthew has had to put up with me. Or should I say that poor me has had to put up with Matthew? But seriously, I just need to have a baby. Bending down all the time and sitting on the floor is such an ordeal and so uncomfortable. I get so sick of picking up Matthew's things all day, or getting down on the floor to 'play', or having to pick him up because he won't cooperate. Holding him isn't very much fun anymore either, especially if I am sitting and trying to hold Matthew. My lap just isn't big enough and then baby gets all squished up in my ribs. My pants are all too tight and I hate wearing them. I try to wear my skirts as much as possible or I just take my pants off and walk around the house that way because otherwise I get even more cranky from my pants being too tight. (This baby has sat so low this pregnancy that this has been a problem since the first trimester.) I dislike doing the dishes because the counter hits my stomach right at the biggest point, which also happens to be right where my belly button is and I hate my belly button being touched, especially when it is stretched and bulging as it is now. So apart from having to lean over to do the dishes because I can't get close enough to the counter to reach the sink, it is uncomfortable. And my back aches and my feet get tired. I just want to sit on the couch.
Since that is not an option I am doing my best to put a smile on my face, be patient, and keep my house running. Today I am going to attempt finger painting with Matthew. Wish me luck.

Justin turned 25 on Tuesday!! We are getting so old. I'll admit, I didn't do a whole lot to make his birthday special; I will blame that on being pregnant. On Monday (since there was no school due to the holiday) we decided to go to the arcade and play Skee-Ball. This was my attempt at creativity since Justin was turning 25, a quarter of a century, you use quarters to play arcade games.....you get the idea. So we rounded up all our spare change and had a little family outing. Matthew of course enjoyed it because he has taken after his mother and really loves arcade games, especially Skee-Ball. Matthew got some sweet little toys with his tickets too. Then we walked around the outdoor mall and I got to spend my Bath & Body Works gift card that I've had forever, and Matthew got to play in the splash fountains. Oh man did he think that was spectacular!!So even though the focus of the day was kind of on Matthew, we still had fun hanging out as a family. On Tuesday, Justin opened his present from his mother (my present he got a few weeks ago because it was something he used on his trip to his interview) and talked to everyone who called to wish him a happy birthday. My day had been a little crazy but I did manage to bake him a delicious carrot cake. The cake got finished in time to sing happy birthday and blow out candles, but he had to take it to bishopric meeting with him and eat it there. Matthew loved the celebration so much that we sang to him and blew out candles again the next night. : )
So Happy Day to you Justin. I promise that I will throw you an awesome party celebration when you turn 30!