It has officially been 1 month since our perfect little bean was born. And I am already forgetting the details of the day that changed my life. I needed to write everything down as soon as possible to make sure I didn't forget a single precious moment. I thought about writing it my journal, but my last journal entry is from high school... And its a pretty great story, so why not share it with the world!
So with out further ado,
Miss Jackson Rose's Birth Story
At 34 weeks I had a little scare where I thought my amniotic fluid was leaking. I had just moved all of our things to Denver and thought maybe I had overdone myself a bit. I called my OB and she recommended going to the hospital just to get it checked. Jordan and I drove quickly to the hospital, but didn't tell anyone because I was convinced that it would be a false alarm and my mom would freak out for nothing.
Turns out I was right, it was nothing! But while there I was checked the nurse said I was dilated already to a 2. She kept asking me if this was my first pregnancy, and then predicted that I would be having this baby at 38 weeks and 2 days. I was so pumped! I would be meeting this little human sooner than I thought!
The next day we had an appointment with my OB, she checked again and I progressed a little bit, but for sure not enough for me to worry about. But because I was already progressing, she could schedule me for an induction! We had been planning on inducing at week 39 because Jordan would be leaving to start work the first week of September (week 37). If we made it to the induction date then we could guarantee that he would be there, but we just had to make it to week 39...
Week 36 came around and I had a regular appointment with my OB, she checked me and said I had dilated to a 4. I hadn't had any contractions (that I could feel) but I obviously was progressing, and was worried that I wouldn't make it to week 39. Jordan was leaving the next week, so we asked what I should be watching for to know that I am in labor and to get Jordan back on his way to Utah to be with me. She told me that if I have painful contractions for an hour to come in, worst case scenario I get sent home, but best case Jordan can quickly get on a flight and meet us!
On the way home I had my first set of contractions that I could feel.
That night I mentioned to my mom how I was progressing and she said that she was sure that I would be having this baby by the weekend, in fact I was having her on Friday the 2nd. This sounds crazy but she had predicted some other things, like the gender, and had yet to be wrong.
Friday rolled around and not only was I not in labor, but I had stopped having contractions all together. My mom called in the afternoon to make sure I was not in labor and then proceeded to tell me that she was not psychic, that it was not only okay that I wasn't in labor but probably good because it was a little bit early.
I hung up the phone and asked Jordan if he wanted to walk to our favorite restaurant Macaroni Grill. He said yes, but he would rather go have a baby. I laughed and then reminded him that he was not ready to have a baby, he hadn't even packed for the hospital yet! He made fun of me and said that that is not the reason why she hadn't come yet, but he quickly packed a bag any way. The minute he zipped up the bag I had the most painful contraction I had ever had. It was 4:21. I reminded him that this had happened before but they stop after one or two contractions. Jordan said, "Nope, this time is different. We are going to go to dinner, you are going to have contractions the whole time, and then we will put Toby to bed and go to the hospital and have a baby."
We walked to dinner, keeping track of the contractions the whole way there. We got seated and I wrote down the times of the contractions I had while walking over. They at that point were 7-10 minutes apart. Every time I would have a contraction, I would write the time down the time on the table. (I wish so badly we had kept the paper table cloth, or at least took a picture, but we didn't...) By the time we were done with dinner and had paid it had officially been one hour, and my contractions had not stopped, in fact they were getting worse.
So to the hospital we went! When we got there we were assigned the same nurse we had when I went in at 34 weeks! We reminded her that she predicted that we would have the baby at 38 and 2, but we were 36 and 4. She reminded us that I wasn't admitted yet... Party Pooper... She checked me, and I was still at a 4, but I was having regular contractions, so we waited for another hour to see if I progressed at all.
30 minutes later the nurse came back and checked again, and I had progressed to 5! That means I was in labor! We called my mom, she thought we were lying, we assured her we weren't and they bolted to the hospital.
So time line: I had my first contraction at 4:21. We left for the hospital at 6:00, and were officially admitted at 8:45. The doctor on call came and broke my water at 9:30, and I got my epidural just 15 minutes later.
I was terrified of the epidural, but I instantly felt so good once it was over. In fact I felt so good that I couldn't move one of my legs! It actually was super funny because the nurse would roll me over and my leg would just roll off the bed. And I was loopy as all get out, so this was the funniest thing to me!
We were told that epidurals slow down labor, so it was a waiting game at that point. I wanted Ava to be there to take pictures, and Mia wanted to be there because she was more excited to meet this little bean than anyone. We called them and let them know that it would be a couple hours, so they should go to sleep but keep their phones close. And hour passed and I didn't progress much. It looked like it was going to be a long night. At this point my Dad and Jordan gave me a blessing, and then we watched the Tonight Show.
My nurse came back at around 12:00 to check again and to her surprise I had progressed to an 8. But it was my first pregnancy so I probably would be pushing for a couple hours. 30 minutes later she checked again and I was at a 10. It was go time.
The nurse was going to have me do a couple pushes just with her to get the baby to move down, and then she was going to get the doctor when it was actually time to deliver. She told us to call anyone else we wanted to be there and tell them to start heading to the hospital, and then she had me push. First push I heard Jordan say "SHE HAS SO MUCH HAIR!" and then the nurse said, "Ummm... You might want to get your sister here fast, this baby is coming quicker than we thought."
15 minutes later Ava, Mia and my Doctor walked in. And 15 minutes after that, and 5 pushes later I heard my baby's first cry. I was surprised how fast and easy the whole thing was! They quickly took her and checked to make sure she was okay. (remember she was technically a premie) Then they slid her on my chest for some skin to skin and I got to cuddle this little princess for the first time.
We named her Jackson Rose Hale. Jackson, because I have always loved the name and then my brother dated a girl named Jackson and I fell in love with the idea of traditionally masculine names for girls. (Also shoutout to Blayke Lively and Ryan Reynolds for naming their baby girl James and making this a little bit normal.) That girl also ended up being one of my students, and she has since told everyone at Timpview that I named my baby after her... Ha. Rose is family name, and I wanted to give her a very feminine middle name to balance the masculine first name. And obviously Hale was picked for us...
Jordan and I still laugh about how he (and my mom) called the birthdate. We laugh about how everyone and their dog said I would be there for hours, only to deliver 4 hours after I was admitted and after 5 pushes. But mostly we are so incredibly grateful that we get to be parents to this angel of a baby.
And now pictures! I can't thank Ava enough for being willing to take on the daunting task of taking pictures for me! These mean more to me than I could ever imagine.
The last picture of me pregnant. This was literally seconds after Ava walked in.
The first time I saw my baby. The first thing I saw was her hair. I was so surprised!! I was bald, so I was expecting a bald baby.
I love this picture. It is the first time that Jordan had seen Jackson and he is a little pale in the picture because he almost passed out while I was pushing. I felt so bad because we always talked about him just being by my head, and then all of a sudden the nurse was asking him to hold my leg. He did so well, and then on the 4th push he got super light headed and my mom had to take over. She got to cut the umbilical cord too, but Jordan is not upset about that because he is sure he would have lost it at that point.
She is perfect. She weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and was 20 inches long. Born at 1:03 a.m.
Literally everyone is obsessed with her. She is more than loved.
This is my favorite, because she still makes this face. I feel like you can see her sweet little personality starting to come out.
Our first family photo. We love her more than words.
It been a year since I last blogged... And I just read that last post and I had promised some BIG things about blogging more.. oops...
I am not going to promise that I am going to blog more, but I did need to write this post. Actually I needed to write this post plus another one. I was going to write one giant post about my pregnancy and our birth story, but then it was decades long. And wouldn't load. (so many freaking pictures) So two posts it is! Anyway....
I had a freaking baby!
We found out we were expecting in January, and told our parents and families that week. To tell my family, we made a fake Christmas present for my mom that we claimed someone dropped off at our apartment and we forgot to bring her because we were out of town for Christmas. Below is the video of them opening the present.
Sorry about the swear words.... But it's too funny.
This was what was in the present! It also came with a card where we wished my mom a Happy Birthday, because the due date was 2 days before my Mom's Birthday.
We told Jordan's parents by sending the photos below to them while skyping! We explained that Toby has been a little naughty lately and getting into some stuff he shouldn't and then said, "you have to see the pictures we took a couple days ago!"
We unfortunately didn't video their reactions, but I can tell you they were just as excited as my parents, though there was a little less profanity. And by less I mean none.
My first trimester was probably the worst part of my pregnancy. I was CRAZY sick, and teaching full time. You think being constantly nauseous is bad, and then you add a classroom full of stinky sophomores to the mix... I thought I was going to die. Luckily for me I never threw up in front of my students! (That honestly was my biggest fear)
Once I hit 12 weeks we decided to tell the world! Before I was even pregnant I had a dream that we announced I was pregnant during a Vocal Point show. I wanted so badly to be able to surprise the guys on stage, but all of the shows around the time we would want to start telling people were like private events, or the 25th anniversary of Vocal Point. I might feel that I am pretty important, but I knew not to upstage that...
Then they added a special joint performance with Noteworthy in Saint George! We asked McKay if would be okay to announce it there, and not only was it okay but he was pumped! From there we got the ball rolling! We got the sound engineer and the stage manager in on the surprise and then took some pictures!
This is the picture that I posted on Instagram after the show, and which started the nickname "Ming Soon Hale" with the VP guys...
During the show Jordan gave his talkie, a talkie that he had given hundreds of times, but this time it had a little special surprise at the end!
Isn't this just the cutest?? This is exactly how I saw this going in my dream. And I am so happy that we got to do something so cool for the VP guys, because they honestly have become our family!
Fun fact: I actually never told my students, except for my Student Government kids. Ha. I figured they either followed me on Instagram, or didn't really care. I don't think some of my kids ever caught on...
Trimester 2 and 3 were relatively uneventful. I just had some crazy heartburn, the occasional asthma attack, and so much fun watching her dance around in my belly.
We found out the gender at 20 weeks, and then went to Disneyland! I couldn't wait to get this princess her first set of ears!!
My last belly picture! 32 weeks pregnant! Little did I know she was coming 4 weeks later...
I couldn't believe how fast this pregnancy went! Jordan doesn't agree. But before I knew it she was here!
