Tucker Makes Four

Tucker Dee Jones is Here!

And here is his story...

Monday, March 26th

  I was told by Timpanogos Hospital to be at the hospital at 6:30 am to be induced.

Sunday night was a scary and uncomfortable one for me.

I was nervous...for obvious reasons...and it felt like baby was going to break my body in half at any minute.

I kissed Jack goodnight knowing that the next morning I would sneak away to have a baby...and he would not see me until after it was all said and done.  I swallowed pretty hard as I walked out of his room that night...but felt good knowing that soon all of the anxiety that had been building would soon be over and done- and I'd have a darling little baby to love and to show to him.

Monday morning came,with very little sleep under my belt, and with me feeling pretty certain I was already in labor on my own.

{last belly shot}

Annie (who is a total saint) came to our house at 6am to stay with Jack and to take him for the day.

I cannot tell you the peace of mind this gave me.

Brett and I arrived at Timpanogos Hospital for our 6:30 appointment...and I'm not going to lie- it's a bit of a wild feeling knowing that you are undoubtedly walking in to have a baby.  Maybe wild is the wrong word...scary might be a better choice!

Having never delivered at Timpanogos before, I was unsure of what to expect- but we were quickly impressed with their Labor and Delivery accommodations, and really liked our nurse from the start.

Things moved pretty fast from the start.

Upon arrival at the hospital, I was already dilated to an almost 6.

I was having some sporadic contractions, and they were thinking they wouldn't even need to use the Petocin to induce labor.

Within 2 hours, I was all hooked up, had my IV, had my epidural (thank you!), and the doctor had broken my water.

My parents arrived to keep us company around 9:00-- and Brett's parents were soon to follow.

{I swear I did engage in more than my phone during this process!}

I was in good spirits, but honestly was dreading having another labor like I did with Jack.  We had a plan mapped out regarding forceps/vacuums/c-sections... and I was just a little leery of what lie ahead.

All in all, though, I kept my cool- and felt calm throughout.

{Annie kept me updated with Jack news throughout the morning...and I kept entertained by the pictures Annie was sending me of him in a full Spiderman costume.  I replied with a few picts of my own...}

9:30- Dilated to an 8 on my own, started Petocin to speed things along.

10:00- Dilated to a 9.

11:00- Fully dialated.

At this point, the doctor gave me a choice to either start pushing, or to go with the Rest and Descend method for an hour or two.  Given my rough time getting Jack where he needed to go without the use of forceps, Dr. Agaard thought it would be a good idea to use this method where you wait and rest while the baby moves down on his own instead of actively pushing.  Doesn't sound half bad, right?

My epidural was working great- I was comfortable- and super willing to try this if it meant having an easier time getting baby out!

11:00-1:00- Rest and Descend

1:00- We said our goodbyes to the fam, and it was time to start pushing with the nurse.

I felt good, and strong and started to feel encouraged that this truly might go smoother than it did my first time around.

1:30- Our nurse, Kara, called Dr. Agaard to come down, and had me stop pushing until he got there- apparently, we were that close!

I was still a bit apprehensive because it was at this point with Jack, when everything halted in the process.

1:35- Dr. Agaard arrives.

No need for any intervention on this one, baby was coming on his own!

1:45- Baby Tucker Arrived

7 pounds, 9 ounces

20 inches

{Right from the womb-Tucker and Mom officially meet}

Unfortunately, about 6 minutes after he was born, he started struggling to breathe.

Very similar to what Jack went through, Tucker had to be taken immediately to the NICU.

He was gasping for air, his lungs struggling.

In addition to his lungs, his blood sugar was very low.

I was left while he and Brett worked through these problems.

I didn't get to see Tucker for nearly 3 hours as they worked on him, tested him, and eventually deduced that he had made a turn around and could come out of the NICU.

I was so incredibly relieved, and so excited to see him as Brett brought him back to me.

As always, Brett was such a strength to me and kept me calm and with my eye on the prize the entire time. He really picked up the slack at home while I was in the hospital, and took better care of Jack than I could have asked for.

He already has such an obvious soft spot for Tuck, and is so great with him.

My boys and I are so lucky to have him.

Not long after I was able to finally reconnect with Tucker- Annie came and brought Jack to meet his new baby brother.

It didn't go so smooth right out of the shoot.

He came around the curtain to find that I already had about 10 visitors (Jack's not a huge fan of big groups of people), and me in a hospital bed. This seemed to spark the thought in Jack's little mind that hurling the baseball mitt he was wearing off of his hand was a good idea (an obvious choice). It was particularly dramatic as it grazed baby's head and the entire room gasped.

Uhh...

Let's try that again.

So..Brett took him out for a minute, he regained his composure (he was mortified), and then we re-introduced him to little Tuck.

From the moment he met him he's been saying, "awwwww the baby" and lovingly calling him "Sam."

{the new Family of FOUR... Welcome Tucker! I'm sure this is the first of many picts where neither of my children are looking at the camera!}

All in all, Jack held it together pretty well... considering... and thanks to awesome aunts, cousins, and grandparents he made it through the initial transition with lots of distractions and extra love.

My mom is genius and showed up at the hospital on Day #2 with a brand new Spiderman shirt for Jack.

It was definitely a memorable fixture of Tucker's first few days of life.

{Does that look like a big brother or what?}

And now some pictures of this new little guy...

He has the most amazing thick and soft hair in the back. 

It's like a rusty brown color, and he totally rocks a receding hair line in the front.

One major component in the whole pregnancy/birth of this sweet little thing was how hard we struggled with a name.  Truthfully, we had no names that we seriously considered and/or both agreed on until the night before Tucker was born.

Laying in bed, Brett brought up Tucker.

It was in contention with one other name, and so we waited until the afternoon after he was born to officially decide.

Everyone (my mom) was particularly anxious to find out... and by the time we bit the bullet to decide, there really was only one name for him.

Tucker- The last name of my sweet grandparents (and maiden name of my mom)

Dee- Brett's middle name, as well as his dad and his grandpa's.

It's so perfect, and for how hard it was for us to think of- we absolutely love it, and it's like it was meant to be all along.

At first glance you may think he looks totally different than Jack, but every day I'm starting to see more and more similarities.

The first week is so fun, because nearly every day they look different.

I have so many more (and better) pictures of Tucker in the hospital, and will have to post them in waves.  Also, we had so many thoughtful visits in the hospital and upon coming home- and I will dedicate an entire post to those photos...soon, hopefully!

I really had such a great labor and am recovering so much faster than I did after Jack.

Tucker has such a sweetness to him, I have a hard time looking at him without getting teary.

(thanks hormones)

It's funny for how awful I felt pregnant, how fast he has made me forget about it. I guess that's why people just keep having more babies!  My first night in the hospital, as he went to the nursery to sleep, I felt such an immediate void not having him in my belly anymore. 

I surely would have never thought I'd miss that belly!

Probably the only discomfort in the whole hospital stay was just how tired I was.  I didn't sleep the night before Tucker was born, and had a hard time turning off the old adrenaline to sleep very well after. Nearly 48 hours without much sleep makes for a pretty tired mama.

{See? Tired.}

Tiredness and all, though, I could not have been more pleasantly surprised by the entire experience. 

All in all, it was pretty much perfection.

I already feel so lucky to be Tucker's mom, and already have the dreaded "time is moving too fast" emotions stirring up inside me.

I have so many other things about him and his birth to share...but, at least now I have "the story" down. 

Much more to come on the Tuck man...

For now I have kidS to tend to!