Here's the rest of the story, there are a few little details about childbirth that maybe some people don't want to hear, nothing too gory, but be warned......
So I pushed for a little longer, and my doctor came in and checked me again, and said the baby was still too high for forceps or anything like that, and if there wasn't progress soon, we might have to consider other options (c-section.) She said, "You still look like you have plenty of strength, you're young and focused, and I think you can do it," and I said I thought I could do it too, and I would do it. I resolved to push as hard as I possibly could to get my baby out. At about this time, I started having bad pain in my rear end area. I explained it to the doctor, and she said I was probably having pain from pressure on the pudendal nerve, and I think I was probably acquiring hemorroids. (sorry for the details) Not fun. The pudendal nerve thing just kept getting worse, and the epidural didn't do anything for it, but at least when I was pushing, it didn't hurt as bad. It was in between contractions that was really painful. I was getting tired, but still knew I had a ways to go, and then I would get to see my baby. So of course that was my motivation, and I knew the pressure would go away when he came out, and that sounded pretty nice too. In the room everything was still pretty calm, except for the intense pushing during the contractions. We were still talking and even laughing a bit in between, even though it hurt. I was laughing at myself saying, "ow, my butt hurts." I just didn't ever expect that was something I would be feeling or saying during childbirth. :) At this point, the monitors weren't working to help them know when my contractions were, but I could feel them pretty well, and so they just told me to decide when to start pushing when I felt them coming on. I started to make some pretty good progress, and soon the head was visible, and the baby had a lot of hair. I remember Kirb telling me later that he thought I was almost there, because it already looked like a little round head, but he didn't realize how much the head can morph to get out, and was shocked later how much bigger around Jeff's head actually was. :) More nurses started coming in to set up for when the baby came out. It was exciting to see the scale and the warming table and the little towels and blankets that were for my baby that was almost out in the world! I was making good progress, and was seeing how the baby goes back up a little after each set of pushes, so I decided to try one extra push each time. Then he really started to come out, and then his head was out, and I barely saw it and kept going to get him out. In another set of pushes, at 8:48pm on Thursday, August 16th, 2007, his body came out and it was the biggest relief to my body, and I heard my doctor say, "Oh Megan, it's a BOY! And he's HUGE!" I said,"Oh, a boy! A boy! My baby!" I turned to Kirby in disbelief that our baby was out, and they put him up on my chest. I was just beaming, and telling him to cry, because he wasn't crying very hard, and smiling at him and saying, "hi my baby boy!" We both were just so excited and gave thanks to God that we had our baby and everything was ok. He looked great even when he had just come out, he had really nice color and looked perfect! His head was a bit cone-shaped, but that was to be expected. I remember thinking I didn't recognize anything that looked like Kirby or me at first. We hadn't planned on cutting the cord ourselves, but it was just right there and not really that big of a deal, and I actually did it myself. What a crazy and amazing thing that cord is. It was a bit surreal thinking that I was cutting him off the sustenance my body had provided for the last 9 months. He was now own his own and now had to eat and breathe and live without me. Crazy. They took him to weigh him and wipe him off a little more, and also to do the little reflex tests and stuff. Kirby just hugged and kissed me and kept telling me how proud he was of me and how he couldn't believe what I had just done. I couldn't have done it without him there encouraging me though.
Right before they put him on the scale, Kirby asked everyone in the room how much they thought Jeff weighed. Kirby guessed 9lbs, 6 oz, and others were in the nine pound region, but no one said 10. The nurse who weighed him was just about yelling across the room to everyone, "Oh my gosh, he's 10 POUNDS, 4 OUNCES! I just can't believe how big he is!" When he came out I thought he looked pretty darn big, but I don't know that I would have guessed quite that large. Oh well. :) They were wrapping him up and Kirby was over there near him, and I asked, "Is he our Jefferson Paul?" And Kirby looked over back at me and nodded and said, "Yes, I think he is." I said, "I think so too." So then he was named, after Kirby's cousin Jeff, and my dad, Paul. Jefferson Paul Sand. We think it has a nice ring to it. :) Kirby had wanted to name his son Jefferson pretty much ever since I knew him.
Then I told Kirby to take him out the the people in the hall. My mom was there, as were our friends Austin and Janelle. They were so sweet and had brought us dinner earlier, having no idea that we were already to the pushing stage, and then they decided to stay to see when he was born. Kirby took him to be held by his Gramma Mimi, and I was getting all fixed up. Having a 10 lb, 4 oz baby doesn't happen without damage. Oh well. He was totally worth it. We realized that my epidural was pretty much gone for the end of the birth, and so I was feeling the stitches, but I think after everything else it didn't really matter, and I was still on the high of just having my baby finally!
After I got fixed up, I told everyone that they could come in, and we called lots of people and we all hung out in that room for a while and everyone held him and I held him some more. It was at that point that I looked down and just saw Kirby in him so much, and it was such a crazy feeling, seeing that familiarity in my little baby.
I finally got to eat, (thanks Janelle and Austin, woo hoo for Local Boys!) I was starving since I hadn't eaten since about 6am and it was about 9:30 at this point. That food tasted better than anything! The rest of the evening consisted of Kirby bathing Jeff for the first time with the nurse, Jeff got some shots, me trying to go to the bathroom, and trying to breastfeed. We didn't get into our overnight room until about 1am, and we were exhausted. Our new little family got all settled in, the boys probably more comfortably than me, but I still slept pretty well considering. I woke up to try and feed, and just look at Jeff, and of course there were nurses coming in throughout the night to check on me and Jeff.
The next day and a half we stayed at the hospital, and had visitors including friends, family, doctors and nurses, and just had time to try and rest and take care of our little baby. I was very sore and it was hard to get around, especially up out of bed, but I managed. The morning after we had him, Kirby went home to get a few things and take a shower there, and while he was on his way home, he got pulled over and received a big speeding ticket! I felt so bad, he was about delirious and obviously it had been a big day for us when Jeff was born, and he just wasn't paying attention. He told the officer about it, but he didn't seem to care. I thought it was pretty low. Oh well I guess. The day we were going home, I got a bit emotional thinking about how our lives were forever changed, and just wondering about all the things that would happen in our lives with our little son. That ride home seemed completely different than it had just a couple days earlier.
When we first walked in the door, one of our cats, Jack, came bounding in to greet us, and we had set Jeff down in his carseat, and Jack was getting near it when Jeff made a little movement and sound, and Jack seriously sprang a couple feet in the air and made a little hiss sound. He was really surprised. After that, it was like he was tip-toeing in slow motion around the seat, sniffing. He seemed ok after that. Our other cat came in later and seemed just terrified of Jeff, hissed at him, and she didn't come in the house for about 6 weeks after that. Anyway, that afternoon, a bunch of people came to visit, and somehow we ended up having a BBQ for about 10 people. I think my mom thought we were crazy, and looking back, I think we were. I don't know what we were thinking, but it was fun to show Jeff to everyone, and no one stayed the night or anything, and we just used paper plates and stuff so we didn't have much to clean up. We were exhausted by the end of the day, but feeling very happy and it was great to be home. My mom was still there helping out and she was so wonderful. Late that evening, we all went to bed. We kept Jeff in our room, in the cradle my mom brought out for us that was my Grandmother's. We finally had our baby in our home, and we were all sleeping together in the same room, our happy little family!
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