Baby Cruz's Birth Story

Hello Blog World!
My Sister-In-Law has a blog and wrote her sweet baby girl's birth story on it & that FINALLY gave me the push to start my own blog (which I've been saying I was going to do for years now) & write my little man's story before I completely forget it! I'll probably rewrite/post this.. The computer I have now is horrible and I'm afraid to upload my phone pics to it bc when I did right before Cruz's birth I lost all my prego pics on it!! :(( not taking that chance with his beautiful baby pics!

Mr. Cruz was due Monday, July 15, 2013. About 3 or 4 weeks before his due date I learned my doctor would be out of town on my due date! WTF?! Doctor's are not suppose to have personal lives! (JK) So he asked me when would I like to have this baby.... meaning when would I like to be induced. Well I really didn't want to be induced. My pregnancy had been awesome, (except the first few months that I spent sick on the couch) so I was just like "Ummm I'll wait it out for a while.". So my doctor left the Thursday before my due date and wouldn't be back till the Monday after my due date.

I love my mother but gooooooodness was she a worry wart the month Cruz was due! Even more so when I went past my due date. She was a Labor & Delivery nurse for 18 years so she knows just about everything that can go wrong during he birthing process and she worried and worried and worried and bugged me about being induced. I know she was just worried about Cruz but at the time I was getting annoyed. (Love you MOM!) But I couldn't have done the labor or delivery or take care of Cruz without her! She truly is the best Mom & nurse ever. Now I see why so many ladies told me while growing up how wonderful my Mom is. She has a gift from God to be so caring and attentive to her patients. On top of her amazing nursing skills I had the "first child giving birth to her first grand child" care on top of that. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful Mom! :)) Okay back to my story, I tried everything in the book to induce labor on its own but I was SUPER active during my pregnancy so I guess the classic stuff just didn't work. I saw my doctor the Monday he got back and decided to be induced the next day. The week he was gone was my only uncomfortable week during the "large as a barn" portion during my pregnancy so I was EXTREMELY blessed.

The next day we arrived at the hospital around 7:30 am. My loooong time friend Autumn was there waiting on us at check in. :)  We got checked in and went on up to the L&D floor. Autumn's mom (who is my mom's friend too and worked L&D with my mom) works in the hospital and came to meet us and my parents were there too! Our Birth class teacher was my nurse, how lucky am I? Like i said before my mom worked L&D for 18 years and it was at the hospital that I had my baby so I had the best of everything at the hospital. We had one of the suites right beside the nurses station which I'm very glad of bc we had about a million people come visit that day. Oh here's a fun fact, I was having contractions all that morning before we got to the hospital but I thought I just had bad gas! hahahaha! When we got in the room and they hooked me up to the monitors I was already contracting. My nurse was like "Mallory are you not feeling those?" and I'm like "I thought that was a gas cramp." Nope... wrong-o. Those are contractions. They hooked me up to everything and I got my epidural shortly after. Jacob wasn't there for that and I know he felt terrible bc he missed it but my Mom was there to guide me through it.  Epidurals are the shiz. Seriously. Around 11 am my doc came in and broke my water. I was 2-3 cm and contracting about every 5 min. After he did that I asked everyone to stay out for about an hour bc i just wanted to spend some time with my main squeeze and relax. He found the supply closet and we had some good laughs at him dressing up. Gaw I LOVE him! He was amazing by the way. As the day went on and I got more uncomfortable he was was there catering to my every need. I know everyone says this but I seriously don't know how I got so lucky to have this wonderful man as my husband. At 1:30 I was 4 cm and contractions every 2-3 mins. At 2:30pm I was 5 cm and my doc was going down stairs to do another surgery. Then I started getting restless. Jacob and my sister Hillary were so good to me. They kept helping me move to try and get comfortable bc I was soooo numb. My mom's friend Kim who she worked with still works at the hospital and made sure she would be working that night came in early to help out. Did I mention the whole time we were there was like a reunion party for my mom and Jacob said he felt like he was married to a celebrity bc soon as we stepped on the floor everybody was like "oh hey Mallory" lol. Anywho my nurse came in at 4:40 and said she was going to check me and I was like good check me and then keep everyone out bc I want to take a nap! Well no such luck. I was a full 10cm. She brought Jacob down and showed him Cruz's hair! lol At 4:55 they set up for delivery. It was awesome. I had so many nurses there taking care of me and baby Cruz! Jacob is an amazing doula/ birth coach if any of you are in need of one! haha:) I pushed like 3 or 4 times, only 10 mins and Cruz was here! SO AMAZING! If you have an epidural I highly suggest using the mirror. Just so you can figure out where to push bc you are all numb.

Words can't describe what I feel for my sweet baby. He is so perfect. They placed him on my chest and Jacob was standing over us and we both just stared in awe at him. He was finally here. Lying curled up on my chest, breathing, moving, being perfect. He was so wrinkly and skinny. We could see his ribs when he breathed. The first thing we noticed were his huge hands. He was 7 lbs 6 oz, 19 1/2 inches of pure beautiful perfection. When he finally opened his eyes we discovered they are a smokey BLUE! Who would have ever thought I'd have a blue eyed baby!? Later that night we moved to postpartum where we had a double bed room waiting on us and my beautiful cousin Mandy Dodd was our nurse.... :) the perks of being a L&D nurse's daughter!

I can't wait to get a new computer and post pictures of this wonderful day & boy!

love-mal