Jacob Joshua Dayton

Natalie went into labor around 5pm on her birthday. In an effort to give our baby his own birthday, she held off going to the hospital until around 10:30pm. Within a couple hours she was in the operating room, undergoing her first C-Section. Our baby was born at 12:23am on February 5th. We named him Jacob Joshua Dayton. He was born 8 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20" long. He has blond hair.

So Josh wrote the above, but I thought I would add a little since this is our family journal. We are so happy that our sweet little Jacob is here. After I got to the hospital they checked me really quick and found that I was dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced. We were very happy that all of those painful contractions actually did something! As soon as they called the doctor on-call and told him my situation he said to prep for surgery. As soon as we heard the news we were very happy that we would soon see our son. Everything started happening so fast. I started to get SO nervous for the c-section! My legs started going crazy! It felt like I was having a panic attach in my legs. I was surprised how scared I was for this since I had expected this for a little while. Josh was an amazing support for me (as always) and told me that everything would be okay. I did not like the fact that I had to go in the operating room and get prepped without him. When I delivered the girls he was able to be with me through everything. I asked him to pray for me as they wheeled me away because I was so nervous (the nurses had no idea though) and he said that he would and that made me feel a little better. It turns out that he was praying really hard for me the whole time he was waiting (so was I!) and I am so glad because I did pretty well while they prepped me. The Lord always takes care of me! It seemed like I was in there forever (Josh said it seemed like he had to wait a while too) while they were prepping me until Josh could come in. They gave me the spinal and immediately laid me down. I guess that stuff works pretty fast. It didn't hurt at all, but the shot they gave me to numb my back before they put it in sure hurt. I was glad that I didn't feel anything after that. Almost right after I had laid down I heard Josh's voice and I just smiled...it was amazing how much comfort I felt just knowing he was there. He said that by the time he got to me behind the "curtain" he already saw blood and they had already started cutting me. I had no idea! I couldn't feel a thing! He told me what was going on and it was pretty cool. I couldn't feel anything and it was crazy knowing that they were cutting into me and I had no idea!

During my pregnancy we knew that I had excess amniotic fluid. When they broke my water I guess there was so much water that it spilled all over the floor! I could hear everything gushing! Everyone was definitely surprised by how much water I had...it was funny to hear everyone's response. Josh was just laughing looking at it all. He loved watching! Before I knew it they were taking out Jake and Josh was just amazed! He told me when the shoulders came out and everything. When I finally heard Jake's cry my heart was just warmed and I immediately began to cry! Josh was so overwhelmed and excited that the doctors' had to remind him to pull out the camera!! It was so cute. It was the weirdest thing to not see Jake! They took him right over and started caring for him. I really didn't get to see him for a while! Josh went over with Jake and watched everything with him. I became really tired all of a sudden! It was hard for me to stay awake! Josh said it was very difficult for him because he wanted to be with Jake and watch everything with him, he wanted to stay and be there with me, and he wanted to watch the doctors sew me up! Too bad he couldn't be in 3 places at once!

The worst part about the c-section was when they had to push on my stomach to get all of the remaining water in my stomach out. It felt like I couldn't breath and that someone was jumping on my chest. That was really really hard, so I was glad when they were done! When they had checked Jake out and wrapped him up Josh was able to bring him over to me and I was finally able to see my baby boy! I was so excited and happy to finally get to see my little angel. He was such a big boy!! I just loved his blond hair! We took a few pictures and then they took him off to do further testing. Josh went with him and they finished cleaning me up and they took me to recovery. I waited there until Josh came back. It was great when he came back and told me all about Jake. He let me know that his lungs were not quite developed fully so they put him on oxygen. He also had some fluid still in his lungs so they were treating him for that. Josh continued to go back and forth between me and Jake and I was able to rest.

The whole first day I wasn't able to go and see Jake because he had to go to the NICU. I wasn't well enough to go and see him so I just had to wait. The spinal was still working so thankfully I didn't feel a ton of pain. I rested a lot that day and I was happy that Josh was able to go back and forth to check up on our son.