A Week in Pictures

After 16 hours of labor, he's FINALLY here! Mommy looks like a HOT mess. :)

My beautiful boy.

Kisses from Daddy.

After his first bath!

The most precious boy in the world.

James' Birth Story

Jimmy and I went to the hospital at 9:00 PM on Tuesday, July 14th to begin our induction. After checking in and getting settled into the room, I was hooked up to an IV and to the external fetal and contraction monitors. At about 10:00 PM they gave me the first round of gel to begin to soften my cervix. When we checked in, I was dilated to about 2 centimeters and was still thick. I was given another dose of the gel three hours later at 1:00 AM, I had dilated a little more to 3-4 centimeters, yea for progress. I was supposed to receive another round of gel at 4:00 AM, but the nurse on call was in a delivery so I wasn't seen again until a new nurse came on the clock at about 6:45 AM. By then I was at 3 cm so they started the pitocin drip. I began to feel stronger contractions pretty much immediately. They were strong, but still relatively irregular.

An hour later at 8:00 AM, I was at almost 4 centimeters and the Dr. broke my water. The contractions immediately became worse and the Dr. told me I could request the epidural at any time. I was able to hold out for about another hour, but requested the epidural around 8:45. The anesthesiologist took a little while, but I had the epidural by 9:30 and was feeling much better. As soon as I was given the epidural I was put on oxygen. The nurse said it was just how the anesthesiologist preferred to do things, it was fine with me, but I didn't like the plastic smell. I was able to cat nap for a few hours and enjoyed my company. Jimmy's Dad and stepmom had come by to keep us entertained and we all just hung out for a bit.

At about 11:30, Jimmy and his Dad decided to venture out to get lunch nearby. The hospital food wasn't appetizing for them... The nurse came in to check me at a little past 12:45 and said I was at 9 centimeters. No one was expecting that, especially not me! Jimmy's stepmom immediately called Jimmy and his Dad and told them to get back here (they'd been gone almost an hour and a half). As I was being checked, the nurse had lost the babies heartbeat on the monitor from having me shift sides and all of a sudden three nurses ran into the room. Everything was fine, but it freaked everyone out a bit. The nurse propped me up in bed a bit to try to help him wiggle a bit further down the birth canal before we started to bear down. At about 2:00 she checked me again and I was at a full 10 centimeters. She had me prop up even more and turn on my left side to try to get him down lower. She came in about 20 minutes later to shift me to my right side, but every time we tried to have me lay on my right side his heart rate would drop, so we stuck to the left.

At 3:15 it was finally time to push! The nurse and Jimmy were the only ones in the room and he was thrown head first in to the action which he totally wasn't expecting. He was holding my leg and although he swore he would never watch, he ended up having a front row seat and couldn't seem to help himself. He kept looking and telling me the progress, he was an awesome cheerleader. After about 20 minutes of bearing down, the Dr. finally came in and got prepped. It was game time and my epidural had started to wear off. GREAT! I couldn't feel major pain, but the pressure was unbelievable. His heartbeat would drop drastically with every push and the Dr. and nurse would stop and watch the monitor to make sure it would come back up. It always did, but I was seriously freaked that at any moment they were going to yank me into the OR for an emergency c-section.

The Dr. told me that the cord may be around his neck or that the cord may be getting cramped in the birth canal so we needed to make the next few pushes really count and get him out ASAP. That was all the motivation I needed. I pushed like crazy and at 4:02 PM on Wednesday, July 15th, our little James Scott Labita was born. He was 8 pounds, 5 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. With all the stress at the end of the delivery, he had ingested some meconium and had to have his lungs suctioned out. They let me hold him for a few minutes, but had to take him back to the nursery to keep an eye on his lungs and watch for any congestion from the meconium. They brought him back within about half an hour and said he looked perfect!

We were in the hospital until Friday afternoon and when we checked out he was down to 7 pounds 15 ounces. As of our first pediatrician visit on Monday, 7/20 he is back up to his birth weight at 8 pounds 5 ounces and is doing absolutely perfect! Breastfeeding was a bit rocky in the beginning while we both got the hang of it, but now he eats like a champ and the Dr. said he will be gaining about an ounce a day.

We have to go in tomorrow for his circumcision. With the stress from delivery, the Dr. preferred to wait until about a week to make sure he was in good health before putting him under any more stress. I prepared for a fussy baby for the next few days and I know I'm going to cry with him tomorrow. Wish us luck.

We are so absolutely and completely in love.

I'm having some issues with blogger, but will upload some more pics as soon as I can. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers, we are truly blessed with this amazing little boy!

He's Here!

James Scott
Born 7/15/09 at 4:02 PM
8lbs. 5ozs.
20 1/2 inches

More details and pics to come soon.

The End is Near!

My ticker says 4 days. I have shown NO signs of going into labor on my own. My body seems to be perfectly content holding this little man in me forever... If our little monkey doesn't decide to come on his own by Tuesday, I am scheduled for an induction Tuesday night at 9PM which means he will be here anytime between now and Wednesday.

In no more than 5 days we will have our baby. AH!!!

The Unprofessional World we live in...

I've thought about writing this particular entry for a long time... and since I'm bored today at work, here goes.

I've always known that I would go to college. It was never a question. My Mom had it instilled in me at the age of four that I needed to get good grades so I could go to college and be successful in life and it just was. There was never the option for me to not. And I loved school, so it was never a challenge. I knew that if I worked hard and got good grades, I'd go to college and be get a good job and make lots of money... haha... haha... ha.

No seriously. I thought that was the magic ticket. Good Grades = College = Good Job = Money/Success.

I also had this idea of grandeur that those illustrious careers held by all those college graduates were straight of the movies. Fast paced environment, uber professional, highly motivated, amazing companies with cool perks.

I've now been out of school for 3 1/2 years. Can I just say how wrong I was.

I graduated in December of 2005. We moved to Arizona at Christmas time and I had a job by January 4th. At an ad agency no less. SCORE! Yea, not so much. My boss was a NIGHTMARE and I immediately began to wonder, what the H is going on, this is not what this is supposed to be like, I worked my butt of to be here, why am I being treated like I'm stupid... This was more related to my boss than the job itself, but I digress.

Regardless, the last three years or so have taught me a few things.

1) Going to college will not make you rich... In fact, it will make you broke.
I went to school out of state. I went to one of the best Communication schools in the country and have a degree from the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication with an emphasis in Advertising. Meaning I had to learn all disciplines in Communication including the basics for broadcast, journalism, public relations, organized communication and advertising, but my main focus was advertising. This school has over 2,000 applicants to the school every semester and less than half are accepted. The ones that are not accepted after their sophomore year usually change to a "general education" major because by then, it's too late to refocus their studies. My advertising classes were HARD. I presented to actual company executives using actual budgets and actual campaigns that they then went on to select and use in the real world. It was intense... I loved it. My total education cost upwards of $110,000. While I had a lot of financial aid and scholarships, my portion of this was nearly $60,000. I deferred loans for a year, but now pay between $300-$500 EVERY SINGLE MONTH. For 20-30 years. Ouch. No one tells you that you will come out of college with more debt than you realized was possible. No wonder our youth are doomed from the start.

2) Going to college does not put you in front of the pack, it simply makes you eligible for the job.
Where you went to school and what you have your degree in mean NOTHING. As long as you can say I have a Bachelor's degree, employers don't give a crap! What do they really want... EXPERIENCE. What is the one thing you don't have when you're fresh out of college... EXPERIENCE. See my issue with this? How can you get experience if no one will give you a job??? No one tells you about this life dilemma in Sociology 101...

3) The "Professional" world doesn't exist.
You go through life thinking about working for these amazing companies and that the executives and employees of these companies must be so skilled and smart and have such amazing talents to be so successful. When in fact, these people have survived and thrived due to good luck and poor morals. These people are successful because they are good at deceiving people and tricking clients and consumers into thinking they know more than they do. I'm appalled on a daily basis at the lack of professionalism in the industry I'm in. I have no idea how some of these people have been working in professional environments for 20+ years and don't seem to have basic people skills. They can't write emails. They can't and aren't willing to learn and adapt to new changes in the industry and in technology. I'm baffled... daily.

4) Success is Luck.
You can work your pretty little butt off. All day and all night long. The man next to you can be lazy as a cow. But the boss man likes him. They're buddies. He gets the promotion. You don't. Such is life. It sucks and it's not fair, but I'm learning that this is more and more the case. And not just in my industry, this seems to be fairly common no matter your field... explain me that por favor.

Anywho, I think that's the end of my rant for now. Per request, I will be highlighting "Tips" every so often which will be inspired by my run ins with some of the aforementioned people. It should get entertaining. I have a few examples I will post about in a bit. :)

Huh.

Did you know that this is the difference in brain development in 4 weeks at the end of pregnancy? Fascinating. Our bodies do amazing things growing these little people.


http://www.marchofdimes.com/pnhec/240_48590.asp

I'm STILL here.

I'm still here (at work) and Jace is not here yet. 39 weeks. I know I'm not due until next week, but GET HIM OUT OF ME! I can't sleep AT ALL. The first thing people say to me is "You look so tired." Yes I know I do. That's what happens when you can't sleep because you can't get comfortable and you have contractions all night long. But said contractions are not strong enough and not regular enough to be anything more than annoying. And add to that the fact that you have to pee 5 times every night and getting out of bed requires more effort than you thought possible... and last night the neighbors dog decided to bark until almost 1 am...

But anyway. Here we are. 39 weeks. I can officially say, I'm due next week. AH! Last week, the Dr. said they won't let me go past 41 weeks, so I suppose it's comforting to know that I won't be pregnant for any longer than 15 more days. At the most. But dear lord I hope it's FAR FAR less than that. The thought of having a baby scares the holy bejesus out of me, but the thought of being pregnant much longer makes me struggle with sanity.


On the bright side, this means I will see my Mommy in a few days/weeks. I haven't seen her since last September, so it's been a while and I'm glad she is coming down to spend time with me... oh and her new grandson I suppose. :) Can't wait!


Anywho, here is the latest pic from this AM. He's definitely dropped and he's heavy!