A JJ Story....

It all started the week after my Grandma Ellen's 80th birthday.  You see, that week was so magical!  We had family in town for her birthday from all corners of the country.  And is you know anything about me, the first thing you know is my love of everything family.  Many late nights were spent going to the airport for pick-ups, talking, laughing, catching up and of course eating!  So after the wonderfully whirlwind week, my family went back to their homes and we tried to return to a somewhat normal routine.  You see, having a 7 month old at home makes NOTHING normal!  And on top of that, I started feeling ill!  "Must be that I am out of my eating and sleep routine!", I said.  "Give me a couple of days of clean eating and great sleep and I will be back to normal!", I said...

Fast forward one week...

Still feeling yucky, Nate says, "Could you be... naw, not possible, right??" "Right!", I respond! "There is no way I could be... or could I be?!"  OH CRAP.  I was.

How do you tell you family and friends you are pregnant?  For a 5th time. While your baby is only 7 months old?  You pray.  Then breathe.  Then pray some more that it's not twins!!  All in all people took in stride.  Only a few sour comments, but hey, when the national average for family size is below 2.0 kids per family, I guess we are bound to be second guessed!  But a baby in any circumstance is a blessing!

So, all the name calling began!  The kids would only talk to us about boy names.  This house had a staunch "No more girls allowed!" policy and it began to worry Nate and myself.  So just between us we decided that if this baby was indeed a girl, we would name her Charlotte and call her Charlie.  Hopefully that would avert any crisis!!  But a boy name eluded us.  William David was a difficult enough decision.  Many wondered about a Nathan, Jr. but Nate wasn't interested.  Then all at once it became so incredibly clear.  We were in Idaho, enjoying our summer vacation, visiting my uncles, aunt and cousin, when it just hit us... Jeffrey James. Two men in my life that have always meant so much, Uncle Jeffy and Uncle Jimmy.  It was perfect!!

After (thankfully) finding out a boy was on his way, the real fun began!!  A c-section date was picked, arrangements for the other 4 kiddos were made and the pre-op check-in/blood draw with Lucy as my tag-a long was complete.  And the most exciting part????  Palomar Hospital has been doing renovations to the Labor and Delivery Floor and I get to see it!!

My appointment for delivery was at 10am.  At about 9:30, we heard loud cries of pain and exhaustion coming from next door...  a woman was in the throws of delivering her baby, and MY DOCTOR was also HER doctor!!  When the anesthesiologist came in, he asked me to turn off the TV so he could go over the procedure.  A few minutes in to his spiel, he asked for the TV to go back on, because he couldn't concentrate with all the screaming.  Seriously... it was that loud!!  Needless to say, we had a good laugh.  Then I met the nurse that would accompany me through out the surgery and recovery and JJ's nurse that would be with us too.  After the 2+ hour delay (due to McScreamy next door) I was becoming quite hungry (last meal and liquids was at dinner the night before!) so my nurse would do everything to take my mind of that fact!  She was a riot!  JJ's nurse kept encouraging us to go for #6, to "even up the genders!"  We later found out she is the oldest of 6 (3 and 3)!!  Together they started us off on a wonderful journey!

Once the surgery commenced everything was perfect!!  My doctor, Dr. Cizmar, even cleaned up all my scars!  Now I only have one c/s scar!!  While he was sewing me up, Nate, JJ and the awesome nurse went to OUR recovery room (more on that later!).  I got to follow about 5 minutes later!

They have converted two L&D rooms to recovery rooms.  The significance you ask?  Well, I am glad you did!  Because with my previous 4 c/s all my surgical recovery had been done alone, next to someone who probably just had their gallbladder removed and nurses ran around tending to ALL the post-op patients.  I would be without family or my baby for hours!!  First baths, first meetings and first cuddles were not seen by this momma.... Until NOW!!!!!  The 5 of us (two nurses, mom, dad and baby) were ALONE in our room, while JJ got his bath, that I WATCHED!!!  Then as soon as he was sparkly clean, the nurse gave him to me to cuddle, inspect and eventually nurse!!  Less than 30 minute post delivery he was in MY arms!!!!  JUST GLORIOUS!!!  A true answer to prayer!!!  After an hour or so of recovery, the 3 of us were transferred to our hospital room, then we started having visitors and I was much more ready to let others hold him!!!

Our nurses were so great and accommodating!  One even remembered us from when Lucy was born!  All the apple juice I could drink, pain meds on call and not a one of them demanding I wake up for them to take my vitals!  Such sweet ladies!!!

So as you can see... what started off as a crazy surprise, ended up being a most amazing gift!!  I truly loved this experience.  Thank you to all the nurses, from beginning to end, that made this an incredible gift.

JJ at 5 1/2 weeks

Love you all!

Molly and Troupe