New pics of Jackson

My mom requested that we post more pictures of Jackson, so here they are.


Here's our little man looking like a stud

Most doctors agreed that he was the most perfect baby they had seen. He was awarded the Cutest Baby Born at Banner Gateway award and they said he scored higher on the APGAR than any child in over 2000 years.


Here he's showing off his gighnormous hands

Sometimes he'll fuss and fuss in the morning until he can lay on daddy's chest
Jackson's favorite show is O'Rielly Factor. It's a real pain, but we have to watch it every night.

He loves his car seat....so far


He hasn't smiled yet too much, but he does always look very ponderous





He was born with jaundice which shows real clear in the this pic. Look how yellow his eyes are.



We love this beanie my Grandma D made, but he loves to either pull it over his eyes or throw it off completely

Jackson and daddy
Jackson and mommy


Jackson's first enounter with his cousin Audrey. He was really good for their first meeting, but I love this picture of him doing his cod fish impersonation while Audrey kisses his forehead

Jackson playing it cool during his first meeting of his other cousin Peyton. Peton is 6 weeks older...Jackson is one big little man.
Daddy gave Jackson his first Mohawk

The mohawk is easier to appreciate from the side when you can see how much hair he has



First stroller ride, started off fussy
was asleep in about 30 seconds
First day of working in the yard with daddy...he really wasn't much of a help

Jackson's Story

Jackon Carver Petersen is finally here. And it has been a long long road. Today is 10/8/09, he was born 3 days ago on the 5th. Let's go through what happened.

10/3 - we were supposed to be induced the day before but I came down with the flu so we postponed. We called on the third to see when we could re-schedule and they told us to come down any time that day. So, down we went.

We drove to Mesa with the back of my truck full of all the boxes of trash from all the new baby stuff we have. On the drive down the highway boxes kept flying out and I had to keep stopping to get it picked up. We stopped by dad's office and threw all the boxes in the trash, then went over to my parents. We had a good moment together getting blessings. Mine for health to recover from the flu and Amy to have a good experience having Jackson. After that we left for the hospital. We arrived around 4:00-5:00.

They got us in pretty quickly and hooked Amy up to a drug called Pitocin to get her contractions started. Her contractions started up pretty quick, but weren't too bad. Amy mostly said she felt like she just had bad cramps. At 10:30 they came in and said the Pitocin wasn't working very well and they needed to soften up her cervex. They waited an hour then gave her something that I can't remember the name of. it has to sit next to the cervex for 12 hours.

Once the Pitocin was off she could eat and drink again, which was nice. I ran to MacDonalds and grabbed some food. They gave Amy a sleeping pill and I tried to sleep on the couch which turned into an uncomfortable bed.

10/4 - Amy slept OK and I didn't sleep too well at all (which isn't good because I get grumpy when I don't sleep.) Amy was able to eat breakfast and lunch and take a shower before they put her back on the Pitocin around 12:30.

By 2:00 she was only dialated to a 3, but was 80% effaced. Still she didn't feel anything more than just some cramping.

At 3:30 her water broke. She was laying in bed resting. We had tried to play some Wii games, but her mind wasn't on it. Finally she felt like she had to pee really badly and that she had already gone down her leg. She rushed to the bathroom and told me that she thought her water just broke.

About 3 minutes later the doctor walked in saying he was going to break her water. We told him that we think it just broke on it's own. Dr. Faulk checked and said the it did break, and he roughed it up a little to make sure it was good and broken. He also told us that he was coming down with something and unless the baby came within the next hour or so he would not deliver. We asked his estimate on how big Jackson would be and he said between 7-7.5 lbs...he was WRONG!

Within the next 30 minutes her contractions went from cramps to real contractions. The pitocin made them come strong and quick. By 4:00 they gave her the Epidural. Poor Amy was in so much pain as they had to sit her up, position her, get her prepped and get it in. She held my hand and was as strong as can be, but I know she was in a lot of pain. Within a little bit all pain went away.

We were exhausted at this point. I had a DVD player I set up to watch the Scarlett Pimpernel. We watched it, but Amy was just trying to sleep.

By 7:00 that night nothing really had changed. She was still only dialated to a 4. Paula and Johnny had stayed the night before in a hotel to be close, but tonight they would just sleep downstairs on couches. I brought them pillows and blankets so they wouldn't be too bad off.

Also, Amy hadn't been able to eat anything for around 8 hours at this point. I was enjoying the hospital food quite a lot.

At 9:00 she was 100% effacted, but still wasn't dialting too much. Logan and Ashley had called to see if they should come out, but I told them to wait, it looked like it was going to be a long night. Oh boy was it.

The night was not a good one. Amy's blood pressure was kind of low and every 15 minutes a machine would kick on, loudly, check her, then set off an alarm that she had low blood pressure. Then I would get up, turn it off, and Amy would call the nurse. This was a 15 minute tradition till about 1:30 when the nurse just turned off the alarm

10/5 (Jackson's Birthday) - Just before 3:30 in the morning the nurse came in the check Amy. She said she was dialated to a 5 but wanted a second opinion. A second nurse walked in and check Amy, who up to now had been tired, but not in any pain. Suddenly I saw Amy tense up and knew something had happened. As the nurse was taking off her gloves she informed us that she had just manually dialated Amy from a 5 to a 7. And Amy felt it.

They called in the anesthesiologist who came and gave Amy and extra dose of something. After a while the pain calmed down.

Around 4:00-5:00 Paula came up to check on things. The nurse said Amy was now dialated to a 9-10 and it was about time to start pushing. My mom called and Amy said she could come to the delivery room also.

At 6:00ish we began pushing. It was hard for Amy to get in the right position because she was so numb she couldn't feel much. The nurse advised her to turn the epidural off to push him out and it would help speed up the process. We listened to her....big mistake.

After 20 minutes Amy felt the contractions and knew when to push. After 10 minutes more Amy felt EVERYTHING. The pitocin was making the contractions unnaturally strong and fast and Amy could feel every one. Every time a conraction came I coached her to push and counted out to 10 before she could take a break. Amy was miserable at this point with both future grandmothers on either side helping her out.

The pain got way too intense for Amy. Three times they called in the anethesiologist to give her shots of stuff to take the pain away, but it couldn't catch up to how bad the pain was. All it did was numb some of the burning between contractions. Still Amy pushed on, between contractions she would close her eyes and tears would come down her face as she quietly tried to rest. Then it would be time to push again.

This went on hour after hour. The new doctor came in to see how things were. Amy said she was so tired she didn't think she could push any more. He said it looked good, but if it took too long and he wouldn't come by pushing she would need a C-section. That was the motivation Amy needed. She started pushing twice as hard. We asked him a good guess on how big the baby would be, and he said an 8 lbs plus baby....WRONG!

We continued pushing till 8:30 and his little head was right there at the end. The doctor came back in and we started getting ready for the last of it. But Jackson's head was too big and Amy had to get a 3rd degree epesiotomy. As soon as the doctor cut her it was only 1 or 2 more pushes and Jackson came into the world. The doctor was shocked and said, "The head alone must weigh 3 lbs." He said he thought it was a 9 lbs baby....close.

They started cleaning him off and announced he was 10 lbs 3 oz. 21.5 inches long.

Amy thought she could finally rest, but the doctor started sewing her up. She could still feel all the stiches as the doctor put her together. She again squeezed my hand and cried for him to stop the pain, but they said there was nothing they could do. Finally after what seemed like an eternity he was done.

Jackson was doing great. He looked huge, but cute. They told us that he needed to be fed, but Amy was curled up in a ball on her bed and said she didn't think she could start breast feeding yet. So I gave him his first bottle on the couch, which he drained.

The next 30 minutes or so was a bit of a mad rush. The two new grandpas came in to see the baby while he got all cleaned up. Then they helped Amy get cleaned up and medicated. They then moved us up to the 5th floor for our postpartum room.

That night friends and family came by. Jackson was good as gold letting everyone hold him and talk as he slept. He was such a cute baby, and everyone fell in love with him. Especially his grandmas.

Finally when everyone had left we were so tired. It was late and we sent the baby to the nursery telling the nurses to bring him back every couple of hours to feed. Then I slept for about 6 hours. Amy tried to sleep but had a hard time. She was so cut up and in so much pain. It still wasn't a great night for her.

10/6 - The next day was pretty uneventful The grandma's came by and nurses came in to run tests on Amy and Jackson. He slept and was still just the best baby in the world. His breast feeding was not going great, but he was eating.

That night they made Amy and I go to a lame discharge class at 8:30 when Amy was already so tired and worn out. They didn't tell us anything important and wasted 45 minutes of our time, but they said we had to do it.

They told us he had a little jaundice and that feeding on some formula might help him. So that night we let the nurses completly take care of him. They gave him formula and gave Amy a chance to really rest.

10/7 - I was so eager to leave the hospital at this point it was crazy. We had to get his hearing checked again because he didn't pass on both ears the day before, but they tested him and he was fine.

Once he was all checked up on and signed out we left. It still took a lot longer than we had hoped. We didn't make it home till about 3:00 in the afternoon and we were tired.


So, there is our experiences, no deep personal thoughts on this entry, I just wanted to lay down the facts for posterity's sake.

Heartburn & Hair - Who knew?

Yesterday our niece Peyton Ann Young was born weighing 7 lb 14 oz, and 19 inches long! She's a beautiful healthy baby girl! We are so excited for them!

Peyton came out with dark hair! It even was a bit curly!Now we are really curious what Jackson will look like. Will he have curly, strait, dark, blonde, brown, strawberry, or red hair or....will he be bald? We are hoping Jackson has hair when he's born, but we aren't so sure, so too keep up with his new cousin we have had to resort to a serious back-up plan and quick!

It all started when I was reading an article about newborns. I discovered that we did have hair options! Even though most newborns loose their hair in the first 3 to 4 months, (mainly due to the loss of their mothers hormone levels), that there were things parents could do to prevent a their baby from having a SERIOUS hair complex.

No matter how their hair is when they are born, they still can be the KING or QUEEN of the nursery and gather the most attention by simply being the only kid in there with the most AMAZING hair! The first thing you do is to visit this amazing website; babytoupee.com (yes, it's a real website). It offers babies all sorts of options! The second is to choose the right toupee for your child, choose carefully though, it has been known to change their personalities (I liked the Bob - see upper right)! I think it adds character! My second favorite is the Samuel and the Donald, the Samuel because it's perfectly adorable, perhaps a little too over the top and the Donald so he could practice being CEO of the nursery!

Seriously though, I just couldn't stop laughing, and thought it was too hysterical that there was ACTUALLY a baby toupee website and so I couldn't resist blogging about it!

I have high hopes that Jackson will have hair and lots of it too because the article I was reading also said that women who are pregnant and have heartburn (I have lots and lots of wonderful, blissful heartburn - got to love it!) typically have babies with above-average to average hair when they are born! The reason for this phenomenon is simply because the hormones which cause the the baby's hair to grow also causes their mothers to have heartburn! Once again a blissful bit of news that will hopefully pay off in the end so that we won't have to visit said above website! For more info. on the article I was reading see www.wondertime.go.com/learning/article


Just in case (LOL) which hair piece is YOUR fav?

Any guesses on what kind of hair, if any Jackson will have?

CHILD BIRTHING CLASS

Knowledge is Power ..or is it?

Andrew and I went to our first of three (three hour) classes last night. We opted to take the class in Casa Grande so that it would be closer to home. There were several people there with Sept. due dates and a few Oct. and Nov. ones.

The instructor had our coaches introduce us and tell our due dates, doctors and gender of the baby. There was a mother there who said she was there to make sure her daughter had a better experience than she did, because she was on bed rest for the last 3 months and it was such a terrible experience that she only had one child. The instructor also said that with her 3rd child that she too was on bedrest for 2 months and that was her last child as well. Very motivating! There was another mother with her daughter who was pregnant who said she had twins and was shipped out to a better facility to handle the delivery.

Then the teacher did a good job of explaining every part of the birth in great detail. We watched a movie of the 3-d inside-version of the birth and then an actual childbirth. It was very ....interesting. My favorite line in the movie was when the mother was going through lots and lots of pain, in active labor, during her delivery and said inbetween contractions, that she is going to quit! I had to laugh, is that an option! A girl from my old singles ward was there with her husband as well, aparently the Chandler classes were full and so they had to drive to Casa Grande for class. The movie ended and the instrutor asked asked a stone silent class if they had any questions, the girl I know piped up for humors sake and broke the deadly silence with something like "How can we undo this?" The class laughed. The instructor said "There's only one way out of this from here girls." Dads in the room made some comments that they were sure glad they weren't women, I think at that point every women in the room would have eagery chipped in for scientific research to have their husbands roll in the delivery and their roll in it irrevocably reversed!

Andrew was great through the whole thing, we even went through the drive-through and got some Sonic soda's before going. He joked that this would be the best 3 hours of our marriage as I'm sure he was just excited about going as I was, but we both thought it would be benifical and informative and he was really being positive about the whole thing. However, during the first half of class the room became very stuffy for me, I got really warm and felt claustrophobic, soon my random nausia set in and that combined with viewing an actual birth about did me in. I glanced over at my devoted birth coach to discover that Andrew was happily re-writing my delivery manual - adding what he later refered to as "his own expert advice" like "give father massages" and "bring _____ for father." He looked up at me expecting a chuckle, but all I could do not to loose it was stare stone-faced back and turn my head trying not to loose dinner... Poor guy, he was trying to make it all enjoyable and I was so out of it. Not to mension that the instructor had acronyms like T.A.C.O. and was nibbling on dinner during the movie which I could smell a mile away, all of which didn't help with the nausia. Finally we got a break and I made it to the restroom just in time...

Andrew was awesome, he did the breathing techniques better than everyone in the class and even reminded the instructor what she was doing a few times during class. I made another fun discovery during the exercise and relaxation portion of class, aparently I'm really out of shape. The relaxation exercises were uncomfortable for the most part and I kept thinking that if these uncomfortable exercisees were to make the pain easier to handle, that I must be having to go through a LOT of pain for it to actually help! Yikes! I did however really enjoy the hypnotic-like mental relaxation exercises. I was surprised how relaxed I became and actually had a hard time standing up, I was numb all over. Overall I'm glad I went, I got a text from Andrew this morning saying that it wasn't the best 3 hours of our marriage as afore hoped, LOL for but we are hoping the next class is more empowering! Overall I was hoping to leave this class with more confidence, and to feel more in control of what was going to happen as the saying goes, "knowledge is power," but I find that I left feeling more apprehensive than before I went. I'm leaning towards another saying, "ignorance is bliss!" The class got out 5 minutes after it was said to end, we sleepily got our things and prepared to leave. "Our next class" the instructor announced before we left, "is on c-sections!"