On February 29th we welcomed our little leap day baby, James Allen Jenkins into the family! What a miracle baby he is - one that we prayed for for 2 years. My entire pregnancy seemed almost too good to be true and the entire 9 months I was almost afraid to get excited about it. It seemed unreal that I would actually get a snuggly little baby at the end of it. We are truly grateful for this sweet blessing that has been sent to our family!
Just like our other 3 kids, we went in for an induction on his due date. I was all checked in and ready to go by 9:20.
I had high hopes of having my water broken soon after arriving and delivering by 2pm - in time for the kids to come over after school. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned this time. After getting checked in I was informed that I had tested positive for group B strep and would be given antibiotics and then have to wait 4 hours before baby could come. I was crushed and had to practice a great deal of patience as I knew nothing would be happening until well after 2pm.
I was hooked up to my IV at 10am, given my first dose of antibiotics at 10:15 and thankfully started on pitocin at 10:30. Then we just waited . . . .
I got uncomfortable sitting in the bed, so then moved to the rocking chair, then resulted to standing and doing leg lifts and squats while trying to be patient. Pretty sure I was driving my nurse crazy with all my comments about trying to hurry this along.
Finally the 4 hour antibiotic window had passed. I was given a 2nd dose of antibiotics and at 3pm my doctor arrived to break my water. Contractions started coming on pretty quickly and more painful so I got my epidural at 4:35pm. By 5:15 I was still only dilated to 4cm and 70% effaced. It was then that I came to terms that it might still be awhile. It was about 6pm when I was laying on my side with this cool "peanut ball" between my legs, sending a text to Clark, that I felt a ton of pressure and knew something was going on. I quickly put my phone down, the nurse hurried in, checked me, and found I was fully dilated and ready to push. It all went so fast. James was born at 6:20pm!
We instantly fell in love! One thing I liked about this hospital was that they immediately put James on my chest and let us snuggle skin to skin. All our other babies were cleaned up first, weighed, measured, etc before we got the snuggle time.
Sadly Spencer didn't get much time with James before he needed to leave to pick up the kids and bring them home for bed. They'd been with Aunt Lindsay since school got out - having all sorts of fun. Aunt Lindsay took Cal to McDonalds for lunch when he got out of preschool and then they got Thrifty ice cream after picking up Ashley from school. Linds helped with homework, picked Elle up from her friend's house, and then fed them all dinner. It was so wonderful and comforting to know they were well taken care of and in good hands. It was after 8pm when Spencer left the hospital though and I knew they were all going to be tired after such an exciting, action packed day.
Right after Spencer left I was taken to my postpartum room where we got cleaned up and situated for the night.
Sure loved having this for my view Monday night while I tried to sleep. Ya, didn't get much more than an hour or two that night.
Tuesday morning James was given his first hair wash before getting to meet his siblings for the first time.
Spencer decided to take the kids late to school so that they could come up to the hospital and meet their new brother.
It's always so crazy when the kids come up to the hospital so they just stayed a short time before Spencer took them to school. Then Spence and Cal went out to lunch before coming back to the hospital to hang out with me.
All this back and forth to the hospital (a 25 min drive each way) was so exhausting and I was anxious to head home so we could all be together as a family. Spencer picked Elle up from gymnastics at 4:30 and then picked up Madi and Brittany from Aunt Lindsay before heading home. Cousin Brittany stayed at our house to help feed kids, help with homework, and get them into bed while Spencer came up to the hospital to be with James and I while we waited for James to pass the last of his tests. We got home at 8:30pm but all the kids were asleep. Brittany got to meet James first and then Lindsay and Shaun came over to meet him.
Morning came too early (with yet another sleepless night for me). Thankfully Spencer took the whole week off to help at home. Before heading off to school I made the kids pose for a picture in front of the cute "Welcome Home Mommy and James" sign they had made with Brittany.
Oh how I love these beautiful kids of mine!! And how grateful I am for a safe delivery and this healthy baby boy. My heart is full!
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