On April 21st I was uncomfortable most of the day at work and as the evening went on I realized it turned into waves of pain. I was 33 weeks pregnant. When I realized they might be contractions I started keeping track of the time. They were 3-4 minutes apart. I called the doctor on call and they advised that we should head to Northside to get checked out. We arrived around 11pm. Once we got into a room they checked me out and hooked me up to lots of monitors. I was indeed having contractions and was 1 cm dilated already. They began a series of shots to help stop the contractions. After the 3rd one was given and they determined they were not helping they switched to a magnesium IV drip. The following morning I had an ultrasound and the baby looked great. I received the first of 2 steroid shots to help develop the baby's lungs in the event I went into full labor. The magnesium drip continued for the next 48 hours and I received the 2nd steroid shot. The contractions decreased slightly in intensity and were spaced out a bit more. As the week went on nothing was changing yet they were still keeping me in the hospital to monitor me.
These were my last 2 weekly prego pics, both taken at the hospital.
On Thursday, April 28th, the contractions were worse than they had been all week. I didn't want to eat much lunch and had no desire to do much of anything. When they checked my cervix I was now 2 cm. 2 hours later I was 3cm. At this point there was no stopping the labor. They moved me into a delivery room. When I called Jimmy I asked him where he was and he said he knew why I was calling. He got there before I knew it. As the day went on my contractions got worse and I was progressing fast. I decided to go ahead and have my epidural.
The epidural was so strong I was numb from my neck down. Within just a couple hours I was fully dilated and ready to push. We were still waiting for the epidural to wear off some and eventually it did enough. After about 45 min of actual pushing Jackson Wyatt Gosma arrived at 9:11 pm weighing 5 lb 13 oz and 19.5 inches in length. They placed him on my stomach and Jimmy cut the cord. They immediately rushed him over to the team of NICU nurses to check his vitals and assess him.
After a few minutes they brought him back to me let me kiss him and then off the the NICU he went. Jimmy went with them. I was so sad to not able to hold my sweet boy yet. After visiting with family we finally got moved to our room around 2am. I was exhausted yet wide awake at the same time.
The following morning we were able to go see Jackson. At this point we were not decided on his name so he was still "baby Gosma". He was beautiful :)
We had several visitors that day and the following day. I was feeling pretty good and was just wanting to be able to sit and hold my baby all day. Jackson was hooked up to lots of machines that monitored his vitals and he had a feeding tube through his nose.
On Saturday we went home and leaving without our baby was one of the hardest things ever. It was nice to finally get fresh air and get out of the hospital though. That was the first time in 9 days that I had been outside.
We went to see him everyday and spend time with him. After just a couple days they removed his nasal cannula and began giving 2 of his feedings by bottle. He was improving everyday. I was pumping and bringing my milk in for them to give to him. After about a week they began 4 bottle/breast feedings per day. We knew we were getting closer to bringing him home.
When we went to see him on Wednesday May 11th he no longer had his feeding tube. He was taking all feedings by bottle and as long as he kept this up he would be coming home soon. It was wonderful to see him without a tube coming out of his nose.
While he was in the NICU we were required to take a CPR class and he also had to pass a "car seat test" He had to sit in his car seat which causes him to be more upright than he is used to and they check his vitals for 90 minutes to make sure he can handle it. He passed with flying colors! We were told that he would be discharged on Saturday May 14th. We went to Northside and were finally on our way home with him around 4:30. We came home to balloons on our mailbox and family and friends to welcome us home.
It was so nice to finally hold him with no wires!
Welcome home baby Jackson!
