I’m so happy that this sweet, tiny guy is here! It was a wild ride at times, but so worth it in the end. 🖤
He’s here!!!
I hardly got any sleep Wednesday night before heading to the hospital Thursday morning to be induced. My left arm kept becoming painfully numb which made it quite hard to sleep and I of course had to keep using the bathroom every hour. By the time my alarm went off at 4:55am, I’d gotten about 2 hours of sleep. 🙃 I called labor and delivery to make sure there was room for me and they told me to come on in, hallelujah! Our neighbor came over to watch the kiddos and off Kyler and I went!
We got there right at 6am and entered through the ER due to the other doors all being locked during the night. We waited for about 5 minutes and then a nurse came and took us up to labor and delivery.
We got checked in and they put me in room 509! I got changed into a gown and we got settled in and got all of the initial stuff out of the way. My nurse Kim put my IV in on a lower spot under my wrist instead of on top of my hand which made it a lot less painful overall. Then she started me on pitocin right at 8am. She checked me and I was a 1, which was what I expected since I was only 37 weeks. She said baby was still kind of high in the uterus so we googled ways to help him come down faster as well as help me dilate and Kyler helped me do some squats and then the nurse brought me a yoga ball. I bounced on it with my toes pointing outwards for probably about an hour. Apparently the toes pointing outward helps baby descend better! Then when I was too tired to do more of that, she checked me and I was a 2 1/2. I was happy to see the bouncing around was helping me progress because I was SO tired and really just wanted to get my epidural asap. Once that was all set then I could get a catheter put in so I didn’t have to keep getting up to use the bathroom and could hopefully squeeze in a nap!
Kim upped my pitocin every 45 ish minutes or so and then she brought me a peanut yoga ball to put in between my legs. I always forget how GIANT those things are! After laying with it for about a half hour, the contractions were getting stronger and she checked me again and I was a 3 so she went ahead to order my epidural. 🙏🏻
Kyler and I watched This is Us and the anesthesiologist came in about a half hour later. Once I got my epidural in (this one hurt a little
more than I remember with my other ones 😅) nurse Kim put my catheter in about 20 minutes later. It was delightful to not have to get up to use the bathroom every ten minutes!
I tried to get a nap and Kyler went to get himself some food since he hadn’t eaten all day. I had just gotten comfy when I felt a gush of warmth in my legs- I reached down and it was blood. I called the nurse and she called Dr. Chang and he said since baby was showing good movement and heart rate on the monitor that he wasn’t too worried, but we’d just keep an eye on things. Kyler got back and we took a little nap. After about a half hour I woke up to another even bigger gush of warm wetness again and called the nurse who immediately grabbed Dr. Chang. He said I was having a placental abruption and he checked my cervix- after an hour and a half on the epidural I had gone from a 3 to a full 10.
He broke my water and commented on how I had an entire lake coming out ha ha ha (no wonder I felt so much better after this point!) Then they put my legs in stirrups, I pushed for three contractions and thankfully didn’t feel pain but definitely some good pressure. The second to last push I felt some relief after his head popped through, then one more push and out came the shoulders and I felt instant relief! Jack Gordon was born at 1:10pm on 02/22/2024! He weighed 5 lbs 11oz and was 18 inches long.
He was so white and SO quiet. He made a few little cries but not much. They put him on my chest and he looked around and moved but did not make a peep. The nurse Meredith took him over to her work table to try and check his vitals and get things suctioned out of his throat. Doctor Chang showed us a true knot in his cord, just like with Eli! So dang crazy and frankly stressful- stop flipping around McCarty babies! Also side note- both of my February babies are the ones who had the true knot in the cords- weird coincidence!
Kyler went over to watch Jack getting sorted and I delivered the placenta and Dr. Chang massaged my stomach to get out all of the placenta pieces and any blood clots. I felt so much better once Jack was out! I had the tiniest tear but didn’t need stitches so that was great. After Jack seemed to be doing okay (despite being so quiet) they brought him over to me and he immediately breastfed and we did skin to skin. He did great! The we just took a million pictures of him and loved on him. He was so tiny and perfect. I couldn’t believe how quickly everything had gone at the end. I ended up being in labor with him for just about 5 hours.
The nurses would pop in and out to check vitals on us or to press my belly and all was going well. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries for lunch with chocolate cake- all of it was actually pretty good!
I wanted to go to the bathroom and the nurse told me to wait until she got someone to help but they were taking a bit too long so I just went for it and was able to get up and go to the bathroom by myself about an hour after delivery. My legs didn’t really feel numb at that point anymore and it was nice to be able to get up and use the restroom myself. I got busted though when she came in and I was already in there ha ha I just HATE having them watch me in the bathroom. I feel awkward and feel like I can’t clean myself up as much as I want to and I just prefer to do all that by myself. The nurses acted so shocked at how quickly I was moving through the recovery steps but like.. when you gotta go you gotta go?!
Meredith took great care of us once Kim had to switch to help with an induction. Meredith was asking us about the temple being built in Farmington so we told her about it and that she could tour it when it’s all done before it was dedicated! She seemed excited about that. She was a sweetie and did a good job explaining things to us. We really liked her. A random lady came and had me take a verbal survey which wasn’t too bad. In Provo it felt like someone was coming in to talk to me constantly at the hospital but I had a lot more privacy here. They are apparently often short staffed so I think that worked in my favor ha ha. At some point Kyler went to get me some Costa Vida.
The night shift came at 7:30pm. I ate some dinner, watched a little more This Is Us with Kyler, and Jack got his first bath! Then I fed him a bit more so I could go to bed early. Kyler left around 9 to go sleep at the house.
I was able to get maybe 30-45 minutes of sleep before my darn IV machine started beeping a bunch. They said I couldn’t take it out until a whole bag of fluids was emptied to help my body after the placental abruption. Anyway, the bag was empty so they took it out! It was kind of hard to sleep with it in anyway. And my dumb hands and arms kept getting so painfully numb in any position. Come to find out it was because I had pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome, so that was fun. 🤪
I forgot to add earlier that I got super itchy after the epidural until about 6 or 7 hours after delivery. Then the itching stopped on my belly and legs but at night time it was back in my hands and feet again 🙃 I was able to get a couple more hours of sleep after midnight and then was woken up at 3am by nurses checking on my stomach and bleeding. I went to the bathroom and saw my face and hands were super swollen. Like SO swollen. The Nurse just said to drink more water and to not panic, it was only because I was on fluids for so long after delivery and it’d go down eventually.
By around 6am I decided to just get up for the day. I got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep that night at the hospital, which wasn’t the best but wasn’t the worst. The night shift left and we got our nurse Meredith back!
I watch the sunrise, ordered some breakfast, fed Jack and then took some fresh 48 pictures of him in his swaddle and his box. Then I waited for Kyler to come back, he got there around 10:30 AM. I was feeling really good, able to walk around and use the bathroom just fine and just felt overall really great, just really tired.
Around 9am the pediatrician and his assistant came in and did a quick exam of Jack and then about an hour later they took him and circumcised him. Kyler and I ordered some lunch and took turns taking pictures with Jack once he came back. We were excited and ready to leave shortly after 1pm when he had his final test that had to be done 24 hours after his birth. He was passing everything until we got to the very last thing: his blood sugar. We were all ready to go when Meredith said “oh no, he failed his blood sugar test!” So we couldn’t leave yet. Wah wah. We had to feed him breast milk and supplement with formula and then stay at the hospital until he woke up again to eat in order to do the blood sugar test again. So I was stuck there for another 3-4 hours. I felt really frustrated because I hadn’t been able to get any more sleep that day and I had thought I would be able to get a nap at home that afternoon. I don’t sleep well at the hospital, it’s so hard with people coming in constantly. 🙃 Kyler had to leave to go pick up June and Peter from our friend who was watching them (thank you Kami! 🙏🏻) and I just sobbed in the hospital room because I was so tired and wanted to go home. The hormones and exhaustion were strong!
A few hours later Meredith came back and tested his blood sugar and thankfully he passed by one point so we could go home. Meredith was so great and so kind and helpful. We really loved having her as our nurse!
We finally left the hospital around 6 PM and Kyler got me a salad and pineapple mango lemonade from Wendy’s ha ha dinner of champions. When we were about 10 minutes away from home there was a huge car crash and fire off of the highway so we got stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes. It was pretty frustrating because I was just so tired and wanted to go home but we made it through and got home around 7:15. We have a tradition where the new baby brings gifts for the other kids to give them something to keep them busy while mom and dad are a little more consumed with the new baby for the first little while. They got different variations of busy book gifts (sticker books, mystery puzzles etc) and then Kyler put the kids to bed and I nursed Jack one more time.
Kyler then topped him off with some formula and we put him to bed. Kyler then slept on the couch so he could get up and feed Jack that night so that I could get some rest, he is just the best husband ever. I wasn’t too itchy that night which was a blessing, and I looked up stretches and things to help my carpal tunnel so I could sleep better. I also wore a wrist brace with an ice pack and it made sleeping so much better that I woke up feeling like a human again.
I’m currently one week postpartum and I’m still fairly swollen and the carpal tunnel numbness is still there but both things are slowly getting better each day. Overall, I feel like a new woman and I’m so happy to not be pregnant anymore! Recovery with Jack is already going so much better than my recovery with Peter did . Huge blessing because I really did not want to repeat all of that awfulness.
While I was in the hospital, the Relief Society had a group of women come and clean my house and left meals in my fridge. They also provided huge boxes of paper towels and toilet paper as well as paper plates and bowls. They have been feeding us all week and even have babysat my kids before Jack was born just to give me a break. These women have just been amazing and I’m so thankful for their love and support, especially since we are further from family now.
Jack is just the best little nurser and he also takes a bottle really well. He is such a calm, quiet little baby. I can’t believe how perfect his little face looks! I can’t believe he’s finally here, and frankly I can’t believe I have six children! Ha ha life is hectic and crazy right now but WOW I just feel so lucky.
