Today marks two weeks since our whole life changes. Two weeks that marks the most monumental event in our lives. At 1:46 pm on June 16th, 2016 our baby boy, Jaxon Thomas Lucas was born. A whopping 8lbs 12 oz and 23 1/4 inches long.
The story of Jax’s birth is a long one. It was long for me, so I know it was 10x longer for Sara. The nine months waiting for our little one to make his appearance was nothing. It seems to have flown by. I swear it was just yesterday we were running around trying to find a toy camera to make our pregnancy announcement photo. The pregnancy was overall super easy on Sara. A few tired days here and there, a few weeks of swollen feet and about 30 milkshakes was the brunt of the pregnancy. Sara’s friends hated her because of how easy things were going. I mean we’re talking a girl who shot around 15 weddings pregnant all while working 3 twelve hour shifts at the hospital up until 39 weeks pregnant. Some would say she didn’t have any free time to be tied. I would agree with that.
On the 40th week and one day, Sara went into the doctor hoping that she would be meeting her son any day now. The Doctor asked Sara “would want to wait until next week to be induced or get this done this week. Of course, we were ready to make this happen. I mean, we’ve had bags packed and everything ready for the past month. Let’s make it happen Doc! So we set our sons birthday. Kind of cool in a way 6/16/16. It’s an easy one to remember. That night we came home and realized we know the exact date that we will no longer be a duo. From this point on we will be a trio. In a way it’s sad. In a way, it’s the most exciting chapter in my book. But overall it was like waiting for Christmas. With only one day until the induction. I decided to have one last night of its just you and me. We went out to our favorite restaurant, Stix; we splurged a little. I had some sake, Sara and I shared a log of some delicious sushi, and we both had an amazing entrée. We talked about family, how excited we were, and our big plans for him to be an Alabama Football player. #RollTide. We went home that night with our hearts just as full as our stomachs. Wth in 24 hours we knew our whole life was going to change.
The evening before the induction, June 15th, we were scheduled to come into the hospital, get comfortable and begin the “pre-induction” process. From what we were told this would be a pretty easy night, and we’d wake up at 7 am the next morning to start the real deal induction. So, naively, I loaded my computer with movies to watch and downloaded games to my phone to keep us occupied for the night as we were told it’d be pretty simple. Here’s where the story really kicks off.
About 4 hours after being admitted and starting the second round of Cytotec. Sara started having full-on, real deal, labor contractions. Like the kind you see in the movies where the girl is in bed screaming. Like for real! That bad. No amount of pain medication helped. So Sara was out of luck until around 4 am the next morning when she was able to get her epidural. That was a long, long night. We both maybe got 1-2 hours of sleep. I felt so bad for Sara and felt so nieve that I thought we’d be watching movies all night. I was so so wrong!
The next morning things happened so fast. We work up to them breaking Sara’s water and the doctor saying, “Are Y’all ready to do this?” And we started the full on induction process. Around 8:30 is when the magic started to happen. Contractions were 3 minutes long with a 2-minute break. One would start just as quickly as it ended. And Sara would push for the next 3.5 hours. I repeat 3.5 hours. Those of you who are probably like me and had no clue how long delivery takes, it’s generally around the 1-2 hour mark. 3 hours is a long, long time in the delivery world. Sara was doing her absolute best, but the issue was Jaxon was face up. Again for those of you who don’t know (like me), babies are supposed to be face down. Typically this isn’t a big deal it just makes delivery a little more challenging. And that it did. At the 3-hour mark, Saras Dr said we have 30 minutes, and you’re going in for a C-section. We both did not want that. It takes so much more of a toll on your body. So we opted for what’s called a vacuum-assisted delivery. What this does is gives the doctor something suction to the babies head and help pull him out. You know when babies come out with cone heads? This is typical because of a vacuum delivery. Upon starting the vacuum deliver the Doc said if the vacuum comes un-suctioned three times we have to do a c section. Someone cutting open my wife was such a scary thought. So we went for the first time, and it almost immediately popped off. The second time was a little more lucky but again popped off. Emotions were high, everyone was crying, doctors and nurses yelling push! Push! Push! Time seemed to slow down on this before this last contraction. I leaned to Sara’s ear and said: “He’s going to be a stubborn redhead and he’s going to wait until the last second to come out.” Sara and I were both at crossroads of mixed emotions. Scared, exhausted, excited, and for her pain the epidural was wearing off, but this last contraction was what it all came down to…
After 3 hours and 30 minutes of pushing out comes a big ole baby. Quiet at first but with a nice little tap on the bottom from the doctor, our baby was crying for his mommy. Jaxon came out 100% healthy. Sara, on the other hand, was left with essentially no pain medication and some complications that still needed to be attended to. 4 hours into delivery (if your counting that’s 18-hour of labor) and finally it was over. Sara and Jax, both healthy but with some battle wounds. We were now parents to the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen. A silent, easy going, blue eyed, light red haired, baby.
Thank god Jax has been a pretty easy baby to take care of. We learned so much in those next three days at the hospital. But the majority is left for you to figure out on your own. Diaper changed took me 10 minutes to do for the first week. I was christened with Pee my first day home. My time still is slow, but I’m getting better. Sara is a champ at feeding something you think should be so easy, isn’t! I’m not going to lie. We thought were prepared, but we weren’t. Luckily Jax is making it as easy as possible and we’re finding all the things that he likes. The sound soother and a tight swaddle have been our best friend. If you follow me on SnapChat, you saw the magic in action the other day. Although it’s only been two weeks, day by day we are getting better and more efficient. Diaper changes are going faster, Nights of sleep are getting longer and the worry of breaking him getting less and less. This can be contributed to the advice from our friends and family and frequent visits to YouTube to make sure we’re burping him correctly or how to bathe a newborn. I’d like to say we’re getting the hang of it.
This chapter is defiantly going to be a long, exciting one, most likely filled with great stories and a lifetime of memories that I just can’t wait to happen. Right now we are just enjoying these first weeks as much as we can. One thing we do know is how fast they get out of the newborn stage. So our phones are full of photos, and our social media feeds are mostly about Jax and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Jaxon Thomas Lucas, your mom and I love you so much. Thank you for the greatest Fathers Day gift ever and thank you for all the memories that are yet to happen. We love you to the moon and back!
Please enjoy some of these photos captured by 2B Photography!!!
One Comment
Congratulations you to the both of you!! He is just beautiful!!