My mother in law brought Paxton up to see me around 10 and they stayed for a little while until I really started feeling the contractions. So I got my epidural at 11:30. I never let myself get in extreme pain so I was actually quite comfortable through everything.
After my epidural I took a nap to pass the time and I was really tired. Things were really slow at first. I got to the hospital and I was only a 2. And by 1:30 I was only a 3. So I thought I am going to be awhile. So around 3:30 I sent Brandon to Walmart to get me some chapstick and to get out because he was going crazy. The nurse came in to check me about 15 minutes after Brandon left and told me I was a 7. I was so excited and called Brandon to come back to the hospital. Right after Brandon got back the nurse came in and checked me and I had gone from a 7 to a 9 1/2 in 30 minutes. I called my mom and she was soo shocked and was on her way. The nurse said we were going to get ready to start practicing pushing. But one practice push and she said she could see his head. So we would have to wait for the doctor. She told me not to cough because everytime I did he would almost come out. So when the doctor got there I was ready to go.
After about 10 minutes of pushing Aiden Jay Emery arrived at 5:33, 7 pounds 15 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. I was so overwhelmed and instantly all my fears of loving another little person diminished.
He was a serious cone head due to being pushed up against my tail bone for a couple of hours.
Paxton instantly loved him and wanted to hold his little brother.
Little did I know that when I went to bed that night and sent Aiden to the nursery that I wasnt going to get to hold him very often. The pediatrician came in around 1 am and was saying something about bilirubin and lights. I was like ya I understand and went back to sleep. (Note to doctors dont expect moms who are on drugs to remember what you are talking about at 1 am). So in the morning I woke up and went to the nursery to find my baby. They told me I couldnt come in that the nursery was closed for an hour while the nurses swapped shifts. So I went back to my room and sat all alone and cried because I didnt know what was going on. Finallly someone came in an hour later and explained that my babies bilirubin levels were high and that he needed to be on triple the lights. He needed to remain in the nursery and I could down there every 3 hours and feed him.
Luckily I had an awesome nurse who went down and demanded that once every 3 hours I could feed him in my own room and enjoy him for 30 minutes at a time.
Our first official family picture. I love all these boys soo much.
My 3 boys enjoying their first night home together. Little did we know it was going to be short lived. The next morning I took Aiden in to get his bilirubin levels tested. He had sky rocketed up to a 20.1. They told us we would need to go straight to primary childrens in Riverton and have him admitted. So I threw stuff back into my hospital bag because all I knew was I was not leaving my 3 day old baby alone.
We checked him into the hospital and got him on the lights. We checked his levels a few hours later and he was at a 22.7. The doctor came in and informed us that this was a very critical level, that 25 was life threatening. He told us that he hated to be a bearer of bad news but if we could not get the levels to come down at all in the next 3 hours that we would have to life flight him to the other primary childrens and we would have to start blood transfusions. I was a total wreck and Brandon had gone home to take care of Paxton. Luckily my parents were there. Finally around 1 am I got news that his levels had dropped down to 21.6. So I relaxed a little and my parents went home. We rechecked in the morning and we got them to come down to 17.8.
He stayed on lights for the next 2 days and then they took him off for 6 hours to see if they would stabalize but they didnt.
We would get to hold him for 30 minutes at a time every 3 hours. But even when we were feeding he had to stay on part of the lights at all times.
His poor little feet. One of them had an IV and the other one would get blood taken 3 times a day and it was black from being bruised.
The hospital was soo nice. Every room had their own flat screen TV and xbox. Brandon at least had fun with that. They had a huge toy room that Paxton loved to play in and they even let Paxton bring some of the toys back to our room to play with. Finally after 5 days at the hospital we were able to go home. But within 24 hours his levels had gone back up enough that they had homecare come and set up lights at home. It was an interesting Thanksgiving weekend. We did go to my moms but we had to bring all the lights and set them up in her play pen. I thought being at the hospital was bad, but the lights at home were worse. Aiden wouldnt sleep and would cry alot because he wanted to be held. But they told me if I wanted to help him I shouldnt hold him more than 40 minutes at a time. But finally when he was 2 weeks old we sent the lights back and were done drawing blood. And now the last week has been so nice to be home and enjoy my little family. I am so grateful for all of the friends and family who helped us through.