Jaxon Ross Mitchell

It all started back when I was 34 weeks pregnant. I was at my doctors office and he asked my thoughts about having an induction. I asked what his requirements were for being induced and he said I would just need to be at least 39 weeks along and that was it. I said I would think about it and let him know. I had an induction with my first son Nixon and was happy with how everything went and loved that I knew the date on when our little guy would be coming. After having an induction for my first child, a part of me for this pregnancy wanted to let my body decide when the baby would come so I could experience that unexpected excitement and anticipation.

20 weeks

32 weeks

                                                                        37 weeks

A few weeks had gone by and I started getting more and more uncomfortable during this pregnancy. I no longer had a decent night sleep. I had carpal tunnel in both wrists so my hands and forearms would be painful, swell and go numb, and I was having a lot of back pain.  Overall it wasn't the easy breezy pregnancy I had had with Nixon and the idea of an induction was starting to sound more like the way to go.

At my 37 week appointment I told my doctor I wanted to go ahead and schedule the induction. It was set, our little guy would be coming on Sept. 5th.

38.5 weeks, a few days before the induction

My parents had planned on coming up when I had the baby but about a week before my induction my Uncle passed away unexpectedly so my parents flew up for a few days to attend the funeral. It was nice to have them come before the baby was here as well as after.

What an adorable little boy we have! :)
He was trying to pick up this rock ha

The last family picture of our family of 3

We love this picture so much we tried to recreate it with Nixon one more time before the new baby came...

He didn't seem to like us kissing his cheeks this time around. :)

One thing on my to do list was get a forward facing carseat for Nixon. Lucky for us Lance's amazing sister Sarah was offered this carseat for free for her little guy but they already had one so they offered it to us!

Nixon has loved sitting in it, especially now that he can see all the cars his little heart desires as we drive.

At my last doctors appointment before the induction our little guy had decided to turn breach on us. This made me nervous because the doctor said if he didn't turn then I would need to have a C-section. He told me to try putting an ice pack on the top of my stomach where his head was because babies don't like the cold and will sometimes move to try and get away with from it. If that didn't work he said he would try and move him before jumping straight to a c-section.

So for the next few days I put that ice pack at the top of my stomach hoping the little guy would move. I could tell he didn't like the cold (nor did I) but I didn't really feel any "flipping" going on, so I was crossing all fingers and toes that he would be a good little boy and turn back into the correct position.

The night before baby boy Mitchell was scheduled to arrive.

The day of the induction had arrived and we were to report to the hospital at 6am (lucky for us the hospital is only a 5min drive from our house). 

Once I was in my pretty hospital gown and set up on my IV's and such the nurse got out the ultrasound to see if the baby had turned on his own or if my doctor was going to have to take a shot at flipping him. I was very positive in thinking he cooperated and flipped, but he was too comfortable where he was and was still what they call Frank Breach. That's where his bum was just sitting right on my pelvic bone.

Since my doctor was going to try and flip him they told me it would be very uncomfortable with A LOT of pressure, so to help with that they gave me an epidural. I was a little nervous getting an epidural when I wasn't in labor because I thought it would hurt more or I would notice the needle more but it actually wasn't that bad.

I always get so tired once the epidural is flowing (probably because I'm so relaxed :). this time around soon after the epidermal was put in I got real light headed and really nauseous. I don't remember having that problem with Nixon. I did not like it and luckily the nurse had some meds to give me to stop those symptoms, then I was able to take my naps. :)

Once I was all numbed up it was time to try and flip the baby. I had the doctor on one side of me and the nurse on the other with the ultrasound to monitor the babies position the whole time. The best way to explain what the doctor did was it literally felt like he had scooped his hands under the baby (like he was trying to pick the baby up from outside my body) and then just started twisting and rotating the baby. I was very grateful to have that epidural because even though I had it I could still feel a good amount of pressure from what he was doing. I don't know how long he was trying to flip him but at one point (according to Lance) the babies heart rate had dropped quite a bit and they were starting to get worried. So they put oxygen on me and told the nurses to possibly get ready for a c-section. Luckily my doctor is a patient man and decided to stop and wait for the babies heart rate to come back up and then he would try it one more time. 

At this point I was nervous because the way the baby was sitting made it a lot harder for my doctor to flip him and it was looking like a c-section was going to happen. Once the babies heart rate was at a safe level the doctor went back to turning the baby, but this time he had a different approach to it and was able to get our little guy to flip back around. That was the best news ever!

Soon after my doctor got the baby to flip

Once he flipped him he broke my water to "lock" the baby in that position so he couldn't flip again, and then the waiting game began.

As time went on I began to notice that my legs weren't as numb as they were when I first got the epidural and I was starting to feel some contractions. I worried my epidural was wearing off, and I am not one to want to have a baby without it! I called in the nurse and told her my situation. She said it was normal and if I was getting uncomfortable I could just hit my drip button, when she then realized the anesthesiologist forgot to set up a drip button for me. So she quickly called in the anesthesiologist and got that set up. I clicked that drip button quite a few times to make sure I was all numbed up again for when it was delivery time.

Poor Lance was so tired (and slightly bored) just waiting.
 Luckily my labor doesn't take too long

Once my stats were where they needed to be and I was ready to deliver, the doctor realized baby's head was facing up instead of down like it should be. So the doctor again had to flip him to the proper position. At this point our baby wasn't too happy with all the flipping and turning he had to go through and his pay back was resisting coming out! There was a good amount of pushing going on until finally he decided he would join us.

Our sweet boy 7lbs 19in

we had a hard time coming to a decision on a name. It wasn't until we were leaving the hospital (2 days later) and under the wire that we decided on Jaxon Ross Mitchell.

When he came out the nurses noticed that his breathing/crying wasn't quite right. they gave him to me to do skin to skin to see if that helped regulate that. After only 5 min of holding my sweet boy they decided to take him down to the NICU to put him on oxygen and figure out what was going on with his breathing.

That was so hard not being able to just sit and hold my baby for hours but I knew he needed to be checked over to make sure everything was ok. I sent Lance with him so he knew one of us was there with him.

He had 3 nurses working on him. putting an oxygen mask on him, putting IV's in him, and hooking him up to different monitors.

He had to wear this oxygen mask for about an hour because they figured out he had a little pneumothorax on his lung.

It was hard sitting up in my room all by myself with out my boys, but Lance would keep me updated and send pictures. I was glad Lance was able to be there for Jaxon.

So Sweet

Once he was done with the oxygen mask they kept him in the NICU because some tests they had run showed he could have a possible infection of some sort. They decided to run another blood test to see if in fact he had an infection, but this test takes a full 48 hours. so Jaxon would have to stay in the NICU for that 48 hours to wait for those blood test results as well as to monitor his breathing to make sure the pneumothorax was healing. 

Lance was able to bring Jaxon up to see me for only 30 min so I could try and feed him. That was the fastest 30min ever!
(This was before he was all hooked up to monitors) 

I wanted a family photo of all 4 of us in the hospital but Jaxon couldn't leave the NICU and they don't allow 19 month olds inside the NICU, so we had to take the picture without big brother Nixon.

Anytime we (or any visitor) wanted to see or hold Jaxon we had to go to the NICU. This included when I had to feed him. I just had to wait in my room until I got a phone call saying he was ready to eat. I didn't mind it so much during the day but at night it wasn't my favorite. I usually would end up falling asleep (mid-feeding) in the rocking chair in the NICU.

Having a baby in the NICU was not very fun. It was sad seeing his tiny arm hooked up to an IV and wires attached all over his body, but we were lucky because he only needed those things for monitoring. It wasn't like he was in there hooked up to things that were trying to save his life like some of the other poor babies in there.

Big blue eyes like his older brother

They had to tape this sling on his arm so he wouldn't bend his elbow to much and cut off the connection to the monitor.
(and when I say tape I mean they taped that bad boy on good, not thinking that eventually the tape would have to come off this poor boy's delicate skin.)

My sweet sweet husband got me flowers

My wonderful sister-in-law Megan was so sweet and watched Nixon for us. When she brought Nixon to visit he looked SO much bigger to me after being around tiny Jaxon. It even felt like he gained 10lbs when I picked him up.

Another cute family photo - minus our little Nixon :(

I had Jaxon on a Friday at 1:37pm and they started the blood test around 4pm that day so the 48 hour mark was Sunday around 4. We had been getting updates from the doctor on the blood test and things were looking like we would be able to take Jaxon home on Sunday soon after the 48 hour mark hit. The nurse had told us that they had also been monitoring his blood glucose level (which was the reason for the IV) and before we could take him home he would need to keep his blood glucose levels at a good range.

Sunday around 4 came and we got the clear that Jaxon's blood test for an infection came back negative and that his pneumothorax was all cleared up. However, the nurses didn't like how low his blood glucose level was. They said we would need to wait until before his next feeding (in 2-3 hours) before they could check his levels again to see if he was ok to leave. So we went back to the room to wait until Jaxon's next feeding.

His next feeding came around 7pm and his levels were still not what the nurses wanted so we had to wait again until his next feeding to check his levels. So back to the room I went to wait. The next feeding came around 10pm and the nurses said they were happy with Jaxon's levels and we would be able to go home! 

I was so used to Nixon being in this thing that I forgot how tiny babies are when they ride in the carseat.

Nixon was never a cuddly/snuggly baby, but baby Jaxon sure is!

Aw I love my boys!
Nixon may not look like he cares for Jaxon in this picture but he actually loves his brother. It's so cute to see how loving Nixon is towards Jaxon.

I love my tiny burrito baby

Babies always get a hearing test done in the hospital but since Jaxon had to be on this one antibiotic for the pneumothorax and possible infection he had to get another kind of hearing test done as well. He passed.

side note; I have to brag about my amazingly talented husband for a moment. Lance had this idea to create a bookshelf that would only have books on the top half so little kids couldn't reach them and pull them all off.

This was what he started with, and these were two separate pieces he purchased

and this is the amazing end result that he surprised me with when I got home from the hospital!

These boys are going to be the best of friends

Grandma Kathy with Jaxon

My mom came up the Monday after I had Jaxon and stayed for a whole week with us! She cooked, she cleaned, she took care of Nixon, she basically just spoiled us rotten for a week. I loved having my mom here. It's so hard having kids without having your parents living in the same state. :(

My dad came up as well but was only able to stay for a few days but we loved having him here too. I think Nixon enjoyed having my dad here the most. They have such a cute relationship and it makes me so happy to see that. 

Grandma Taylor and Jaxon

The proud grandparents of now 3 grandsons
(we're counting on my sister Chelsie to give the family a baby girl :)

Jaxon's great Grandma Taylor

Again I loved, loved, LOVED having my mom stay with us for a week! It really made the transition of going from 1 to 2 kids smoother.

Nixon at the park with Grandma and Grandpa

He recently mustered up the courage to go down the slide by himself, and he loves it!

It is so sweet to see Nixon around Jaxon. Any time Jaxon's crying Nixon always tries to comfort him by touching his head, kissing him, or tickling him. I can't wait to see their relationship grow.

I am so lucky to have 2 of the sweetest boys as my own!

Man I love this family of mine!