Braxton Jacob Nielsen

 
He's here!!  Our beautiful baby boy arrived last Thursday May 3 at 1:18am.  All day Wednesday I had been having a lot of contractions but nothing too consistent.  Jake got home from work that night and my contractions started getting very close together.  He finally talked me in to going to the hospital (I was convinced they were just going to send me home if we went.)

When we got there they checked me.  I was at a 4.  The nurse told me to walk around for an hour and they would check me again and then they would decide if I should go home or not.  We actually ran into my doctor when we came in so he came to check on me and he told me I was not going home.  He said I could walk out to the car with Jake to get our stuff and come back in.  As soon as they gave me my epidural they were going to break my water and get things started.

Well the anesthesiologist was called into surgery right before they called him to come so I had to wait.  And IT. WAS. AWFUL!  I don't know how women give birth naturally!  I never got to that point with Kaylee - they gave me my epidural way earlier with her so I had never felt such pain.  If ever I was thinking about doing it naturally - I now know I can't do it.  By the time I got my epidural I was dying! Anyway, while we were waiting for the epidural, the nurse had me sit up a little bit to do some paperwork and when I sat up, the baby's heart rate dropped.  She called in the doctor and had me move in different positions to try to get it back up.  It finally started to go up and then they gave me some oxygen to try to help him also.  It really scared both Jake and I.

I finally got the epidural (which they had to do twice because he was having a hard time getting it in - and that was awful too!) But as soon as I got my drugs, the doctor came in and broke my water.  I was at an 8 and maybe 5 minutes later the baby's heart rate dropped again.  The nurse checked me and I was already at a 10.  They immediately started calling the doctor and the other nurse.  They tried to reassure us that everything was fine but they were working so fast to get things ready that it didn't reassure us very much. His heart rate was continuing to drop.  Anyway, I pushed through 3 contractions and Braxton arrived.  But he wasn't crying and it took them a few minutes to get him to.  So we had a few scares but everything turned out okay.  They said that his heart rate probably dropped because things were starting to move really fast and he just didn't like it too much.  But he is perfect and beautiful and has lots of hair.  He was 7 lbs and 19 inches long.

 

We were taken such good care of at this hospital and I have loved my doctor - Dr. Nolte.  It was a really good experience (for the most part). 

Kaylee loves her little brother.  She loves to hold him.  She also tries to give him toys to play with, she tries to wipe up spit up (even if there isn't any) and she really loves trying to wrap him in his blanket.  She also loves giving him hugs and kisses.  It's pretty cute.

My mom and dad came out for a few days to help and it was so good to have them here.  I may have broken down when they left (or a quite a few times).  I really miss having my family (especially my mom) close by.  But it was really good to have them here for as long as they were.  And Kaylee loved having them here.  In fact, every morning she asks where Grandma and Grandpa are.  Jake's mom and Ken came out for a little while on Saturday and it was so good to see them too.  I'm so glad they were able to come and meet Braxton.  Kaylee loved snuggling with Ken while he was here!

 

 

Isn't he beautiful?!