He's Here!!!

Jacob Thomas Kiefer was born on September 5th at 9:55am.  He was 20 inches long and 6 lbs 15 oz.  We were so excited to finally meet him!  He captured our hearts from the moment we heard his first cry.   He is healthy and absolutely perfect!

Labor & Delivery

The story of how he made his appearance.  During my pregnancy I had an idea of what I thought labor and delivery would be like and how it would go.  Well, I was way off!  It was not what I was expecting at all.  I started having contractions on Saturday, mostly in my back.  I thought that I probably should be in more pain than I was in, but decided to head to the hospital anyway.  They checked me once I got there and said my contractions were about 7 minutes apart but I was only dilated to 1 and sent me home.  They told me to come back once my contractions were under 5 minutes apart.  I continued to have regular contractions throughout Saturday night and all day Sunday.  They really weren't getting much closer together but a lot stronger.  I have no pain tolerance so I tried to wait but couldn't anymore.  We headed back to the hospital at 10pm Sunday night even though my contractions were still 6 1/2 min apart.  We were expecting them to send us home again but to our surprise I was dilated to 4-5 so they admitted us.  I immediately received an epidural and waited for my labor to progress.  At 4am I was dilated to 7 and was feeling a lot of pressure and pain.  They told me there was a chance that the epidural wouldn't completely work with back labor and they were right!!  As time went on the pain was becoming unbearable.  They ended up giving me the best pain medicine they had and it took care of the problem for about an hour.  Unfortunately, they are only allowed to administer that medicine once, so I was on my own.  I then spiked a fever due to an infection, so they immediately started me on antibiotics to combat that issue.  They tried giving Jacob a catheter to give him medicine as well, but couldn't get it inserted, so after delivery he was on antibiotics as a precautionary for 48 hours to make sure the infection didn't affect him.  After a few more hours, I was finally at a point where I could start pushing.  Yay!!  I ended up pushing for about an hour and then the nurse found a lesion that could be passed to the baby during delivery.  After she consulted with the doctor, he suggested that we move forward with a c-section.  They didn't have time to test to see what the lesion was to know whether or not it would be harmful to the baby if passed.  I was about in tears at this point as a c-section was the last thing that I wanted.  But, when it came to Jacob, we obviously wanted to take the safest route possible.  So, we were off to surgery.  About 15 min later we met our precious little boy.  I got to see him for about 2 minutes and then he was taken to the transition nursery for all of his checks.  Joe got to go with him and then met me in recovery.  I was only supposed to be in recovery for about an hour, but my blood pressure had spiked, so I ended up spending about 3-4 hours there before being released to my room.  I was very anxious to get to my room and spend more time with Jacob.  Luckily, he was released right before me, so by the time we got there he was waiting for us.   It was great that we could finally be together and bond.  A day or two later the doctor had come in and told us that the lesion was nothing and that as it turns out we didn't need to do a c-section after all.  But, that isn't something we could have known at the time.  We were released from the hospital on Thursday.  Once we got home, I started to go downhill and kept feeling worse.  I took my blood pressure and it had spiked again.  I called back to the hospital and talked to my doctor.  She suggested that I come back in.  We got back to the hospital at about 11:30pm Thursday night.  It turns out that I had developed preeclampsia.  They wanted to get me on a magnesium drip as soon as possible because one of the side effects of preeclampsia is seizures and the magnesium would prevent that.  So, the fun began again for another 2 nights in the hospital.  I had to be on the magnesium drip for 24 hours.  It is some nasty stuff!  I felt that I was completely strung out.  They told me that it would make me really hot and I would feel as if I had the flu.  I was really dizzy and every so often had a strong burning sensation somewhere in my body.  It was very uncomfortable.  The good part about it was that it made me lose a ton of my water weight.  That in its self made me feel better.  I was released from the hospital on Saturday just in time to catch the Badger game.  Since returning home, I am feeling better with each passing day.  I'm still sore from the surgery, but that is to be expected.  What a week... I'm just happy to be home!

Joe has been absolutely amazing through this whole experience.  I know that it must have been really hard on him to sit back and watch the labor as I was in so much pain.  He stayed calm and was very supportive throughout!  After being admitted back into the hospital, Joe had taken Jacob home with him so I could try and rest up.  I would have been a nervous wreck taking a newborn home by myself overnight for the first time, but he did great!  I really appreciated getting the extra sleep as well.  Jacob and I are very lucky to have such a loving husband and wonderful father.  I could not have made it though this without him!

Every day is a new learning experience for us.  We feel very blessed to have welcomed such a precious little boy into our lives.  Every day is filled with firsts and we are trying to soak up every moment we can.

Going Home!

First Bath

Family walk

Working with Dad

We are excited for the road that lies ahead of us as a new family.  Thanks for checking in.

Joe, Jenny & Jacob