Jax Thomas David Hart

We were blessed this week to welcome our sweet baby boy Jax. Born on October 1, 2012 at 2:31pm, weighing in at 8lbs 10oz and 21 inches long. I will preface this post by saying it may be a little long, boring, and too much information so if you do not want to hear the labor story, stop reading now and scroll down to the bottom to view photos :)

It started on Sunday September 30th at 7:30pm. I wasn't really sure what to expect when going into labor and what it should feel like but I thought "ok, this might be it. I better start timing these contractions." I wanted to stay at home as long as possible so around 2am, the contractions started to get stronger and I was going to want an epidural soon. We get to the hospital and they tell me I am 4cm dilated. We continue to the birth suite where I started breathing 'gas' (not sure of it's official name) to take the edge off of the contractions. By about 5am, the contractions were getting a lot stronger and I thought I better ask for an epidural now before it's too late. The midwife said there were 2 other women in line for an epidural and it would be about an hour. I said put my name down for then!!

About 30 minutes later, the anesthetist showed up and proceeded to the put the epidural in. He was having a hard time because he kept hitting a nerve in my back and he said that my spine is slightly curved (which I did not know) which is why it was making it difficult to put it in. After 3 attempts, it was in and the drugs were working! We took advantage of the pain killer and decided to take a nap.

By 12:45pm, I was fully dilated and ready to push! I pushed for about an hour before the doctor came in to assess my progress. He said that he would give me another 30 minutes to try to push him out before they would have to take me to 'theatre' (operating room) and perform a caesarian. This was NOT part of my birth plan so at this point, I really had to dig deep. In 30 minutes, I made significant progress and moved him down low enough for the doctor to extract him using a vacuum. Fifteen minutes later, our baby boy was here!

After the delivery, the doctor spent 1 hour stitching up my 2nd degree tear. They also told me I lost a liter of blood, which my mom later told me is a significant amount, about 1/5 of the amount of blood in your body.

Labor is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life, but when he came out and they put that tiny baby boy on my chest, with Heath at my side, everything was perfect and worth all the pain. Also, a huge thanks goes to my sister-in-law Renae, who is currently studying mid-wifery and was able to share this experience with us. I am so grateful that she was there to help and support, especially since my mom was unable to be there with me. I am now on the count down until my parents visit, which is in 2 weeks!! Can't wait for baby boy to meet his grandparents!

 Best midwife, Jo!

 Baby Jax had his first outing this week as well which was to the Annual Singles vs Married AFL Match. Daddy made us proud and kicked 2 goals and the team won by 7 points!

 Cousins Hannah  and Kellan

 Dad was the captain and accepted the trophy on behalf of the team

Post game cuddles