Wesley Jack Jury was born January 16, 2018. He weighed in as our biggest babe at 8lbs 2oz measuring 20 and 1/4 in. He came out fat and stretching back like he did the entire time in my belly. Like stated yesterday, he was quite the surprise. Mike and I had made that decision after we had Preston. A lot of prayer and discussion went in to that decision, it is not something we took lightly at all. Having had 4 c-sections already was our main reasoning, I had already had thin spots in my uterus with previous pregnancies and overall, it didn't seem like a safe decision to have any more. Fast forward 3.5 years, I was having issues with my IUD-terrible side effects and we felt strongly to have it removed and started praying about a more permanent solution. In December of 2016 I got it removed. Truthfully, I started having dreams about a baby girl. I kept brushing that aside and in my prayers told the Lord that was clearly a joke and nothing I needed to be concerned about-HAHA! Mike and I continued to talk and pray about a permanent solution with no real confirmation coming. In March we got the answer, very clearly in the temple, that that wasn't the route to go quite yet. What does THAT mean exactly?! I told the Lord it just couldn't happen, after all, hadn't that already been confirmed?! Well, May 18th I was driving home from the gym (which we had signed up for that week!) and I realized the date. Not really feeling nervous but I went to the store grabbed a test-truly thinking I was just confirming that I wasn't because I couldn't be. Well, clearly, I was. I didn't know how to speak really. the 3 days following that test was probably the quietest 3 days of our entire marriage. While I was in complete shock, and had a lot of worries, I had an amazing sense of peace. It was a weird combination. Mike, bless his heart, was just in complete shock. He had to sort through a barrage of feelings and emotions but, he is Mike after all, and softening comes easy for him. Clearly this was what the Lord wanted and what we needed-and what this little babe needed too.
Within a week the sickness began. It was a really rough pregnancy for me. And, the whole world seemed privy to that information as it was also my whiniest pregnancy too, and painful. Hands down my hardest pregnancy. The last month was probably my best month, aside from being totally exhausted. We had quite a few scares with him, which made our gratitude for him even greater. At 13 weeks, I started bleeding, a lot. Mike was certain we needed to go to the doctor-I wasn't, mostly because it was late on a Saturday night. We had experienced miscarriage before and had gone to the emergency room, it was absolutely pointless and frustrating. I didn't want that again. So I called the on-call doctor Sunday morning and he confirmed we had made the right decision. As hard as it would be, it was best to wait until Monday morning and be seen by the OB. Sunday was long, like really really long. Monday, my doctor wasn't there so I saw someone else. I thought I would have an ultrasound but I didn't (truthfully, I still feel very frustrated by that). She came in and found his heartbeat which instantly put me to tears. It was sweet sweet music! She did an exam, told us what not to do and sent us on our way. While we were relieved to hear a heartbeat, neither of us left feeling overly relieved. We left confused, wondering where that bleed came from and nervous that the next appt may produce a different outcome. I did call my doctor a day or 2 later and, long story a tad shorter, I went in the following week and heard his heartbeat again but still had no answers. At 15 weeks pregnant, on a Friday, I got a call from my doctor that blood work came back positive for spinal defects and that they were most concerned about Spina Bifida. That was a rough day. That's hard to process, like really hard. And, again, it was a Friday and the afternoon and we were confident we wouldn't even be able to schedule an appt with the specialist until Monday-which felt like an eternity to wait for. We could really have done without that information until an appt was already scheduled-that was our feelings then and definitely our feelings still. No one needs that. We called our family and asked for prayers. Not prayers of healing but prayers of peace and patience as we waited. Prayers work and they very much did. We didn't know we'd end up waiting nearly 2 weeks before being seen. That was so long to wait to find out such big news. Again, prayers work though. That appointment showed, a more than likely, false positive. I say "more than likely" because the doctor stressed that nothing is ever fully confirmed until birth. However, we felt such relief. That was the same day we found out this baby was a boy. That was an overwhelmingly good day. That appt did prove that we needed a return specialty ultrasound. He had highlighted intestines-which the doctor believed came from the earlier bleed (which there was still a visible clot so more bleeding was possible) however, it could cause slowered growth that they needed to keep an eye on. That ultrasound also showed that the umbilical cord was attached in a different location on placenta which could also cause slowered growth. If he indeed had that problem, they may have to bring him early-because they could get him to grow better out than it at that point. Jump to 34 weeks, in December. He was growing perfectly. The only problem now was increased water. So, from then on we had weekly ultrasounds-which I didn't mind at all, more times to see our little guy. Clearly everything turned out just fine. In fact he came out and received a 10 and 9 Apgar scores!
So, remember the dreams of a baby girl, I mentioned earlier? Between those and my morning sickness we were 100% convinced we were having a little girl...100%. So, when we went in for an ultrasound and saw that manhood between those legs it was even more of a shock! Ha! We weren't wanting a girl over a boy but we were just that convinced that was what we were having. The kids shock after we told them was nothing short of what we expected. The girls cried and were genuinely so disappointed and the boys whooped and hollered with excitement. The girls got over it though and couldn't love this little guy any more!
January 16th proved to be such a sweet day. I was very nervous, not knowing how a 5th c-section was going to go...like crazy shaking, had a slight anxiety attack (or so they were saying) on the table as they were prepping me. I did calm myself down and finally caught my breath enough to stop shaking as bad, and breathe like a normal human being. They gave me oils to smell to calm my nausea, brought on by the anesthesia...which was the most amazing thing ever-it also calmed my nerves some. Finally I was prepped and ready and FINALLY Mikey got come in and really calm me down...how much I need that man. Dr. Stone told us what was going on every step of the way, which I loved. I had adhesions which made things last longer before he came and apparently made for some of the pain of this pregnancy. She prepped us all for the "waterfall" that was about to come when they got ready to break my water-since I had such a high amount of fluid. That was no joke! SO MUCH FLUID!! I felt this instant "ahhh" of relief and then there came a second waterfall and even more relief. Then the pushing on my belly as they were working him out. I got to have a special curtain this time so as they pulled him out they dropped part of it to expose a clear curtain and I got to see him instantly, in his new, fresh and beautiful state-stretching back far enough for her to say, "that stretching is all him, I'm not doing a thing!" And the tears flowed from my eyes and Mike couldn't smile any bigger-that's one of my most favorite parts of having a baby. They took him and as they cleaned him up hollered out, "8 lbs 2 oz! Big boy! 20 and a 1/4 inches!" I just smiled and cried. Mike took pictures and got to watch and observe this new addition to our family. Then we hear, we meaning myself and the Dr and team, "He's a 10 and a 9!" Music to my ears after everything we worried about. They brought him over and I got to kiss on him and tell him I loved him, Happy Birthday and thank you for coming to our family. We were finally all stitched up and done and ready to go back to the room. I got to look him over good and then have our first feeding together. He latched great and had a great first feeding. He was a beautiful newborn. Mike and I enjoyed quite a bit of time with him before we had the kids come up. He was born at 8:08am and they came up in the afternoon-we needed to make sure I was recovering well and able to get some rest first. Joy. That is the very word I would use to describe the moment they met their littlest brother. Absolute, 100%, joy.
Life changed, yet again, for our family that day. I am, over and over again, amazed at how much my love my heart has to give and how much it can hold.
First look, as he's coming out.
Getting ready for clean-up. He had such a soft cry.
