I found out I was pregnant on December 28th, 2015. After 5 years of trying, we were finally going to have a baby! We decided to opt-in to taking a blood test for all genetic defects for a couple reasons. Not only would this give us the peace of mind not knowing y husband's genetic history [he is adopted], but we would also be able to find out the gender MUCH earlier than the anatomy ultrasound!! On March 8, I found out what we were having - and the following day, I sent Ryan an edible arrangements to break the news to him!! On March 9, we told the world we were pregnant! I was completely overwhelmed with the love and congratulations that was sent our way over the next few weeks. On March 19, we announced that our little peanut was a boy! Although I was a tiny bit sad that we weren't having a girl, I was completely thrilled to be blessed with having a child!!
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| Baby Boy's first picture |
The following 9 months were trying to say the least. Not only was I pregnant, but my husband was living 6 hours away in California [see "My Life in a (fairly large) Nutshell" for that story]!! Thankfully, I was surrounded by my friends and plenty of distractions!!
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| The Hostesses with the Mostest Schwartz Baby Shower - May 7, 2016 |
The ladies in the picture above (along with my mother and mother-in-law) threw the best shower a girl could ask for! I couldn't have asked for better friends or a more special way to celebrate our little bundle!!
Over the next month, I moved myself from Phoenix to Dallas and in with my parents. I started my job the second week of June. I went house hunting and found us a house to move into by mid-July. My husband got to Dallas the following week, and all of our stuff on the moving truck finally got to use the last week of July.
August is a blur. It was spent unpacking, doing dishes, LOTS and LOTS of laundry, putting together baby furniture, washing baby clothes, putting together the nursery, and getting the house ready for bringing home baby. We have a LOT of stuff. We still weren't where I wanted to be when the time came, but we were in a much better place than we had been!
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| The last day before baby... September 6, 2016 |
September 5 was Baby Jackson's due date. On the evening of September 6, I went in to be induced. The entire experience was surreal.
A little background... prior to being pregnant I had never had an IV, never had blood drawn, never had a surgery, never had anesthesia of any kind, never stayed overnight in a hospital.... basically I was a medical virgin.
They started me on pitocin around midnight. At around 2 am, the nurses came in and turned it off because it was negatively affecting the baby's heart rate. They had my doctor on the phone and she suggested I continue trying with the induction medications.
Around 8 am, my doctor was there and she broke my water and got the pitocin back up and running. The baby's heart rate fluctuated throughout the morning and the nurses came in and had me turn over to my left side then my right side probably at least once every hour. However, around noon, the nurses came in very quickly, got me unhooked from everything and told me they would need to do a cesarean because baby's heart rate plummeted.
That was the scariest moment of my life.
Throughout the morning they had brought up the possibility of a cesarean for the pure fact that I wasn't progressing at all [not just slowly... not at all] and the baby didn't seem to be tolerating labor at all. His heart rate would drop whenever there was a contraction and it just got to the point where it was no longer safe for him.
They wheeled me into the operating room faster than I thought was possible and the anesthesiologist was there ready to get me prepped for the delivery. My doctor was held up at the other side of the hospital at this point. The checked the baby's heart rate and everything seemed normal so they decided to wait for my doctor for the surgery.
The surgery was such a strange experience. The meds the anesthesiologist injected made the upper half of my body shiver uncontrollably. I felt nothing throughout the whole thing... no pressure, no pulling... nothing!! Not that I'm complaining - because I'm definitely not - it was just very weird!
Jackson Bradley was born at 2 pm on September 7. He weighed 8 lbs and was 21.5 inches long. He is absolutely perfect!
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| Welcome to the world Jackson Bradley! September 7, 2016 |
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| Newborn Photo Shoot Shutterbugs by Blair September 17, 2016 |
