My birth story

On October 18th at 35 weeks, 6 days pregnant, I woke up not feeling my baby move. I tried every trick in the book to get him to move. I drank ice water, listened to music with the speakers on my belly, drank some juice- nothing worked. I finally woke up Justin and asked him to poke him and see if he could get him to move. So he started taking and poking my belly- finally we got one kick! Ok, so we knew he was alive.

 I still couldn't shake the anxiety that something was wrong, but tried to continue on my with day since my doctor kept telling me they slow down with movement as you get further along.
It was a Sunday so I went to church as usual. As I was sitting there, I was getting more and more worried. The organ usually woke him up. There was still no movement. I finally turned to Justin and told him we needed to go to the hospital to get checked. So, we left church ran home to change and grab all my bags and we headed down. I cried the whole way there because I just knew he had passed away. We walked into Labor and delivery and informed them that I hadn't felt him move all day.
When we walked in, they took us straight into a room and hooked up the non stress test. They found a heart beat, thank goodness! We knew he was still alive. They took my vitals and my blood pressure was really high! They decided to keep me for 24 hours to watch me to make sure my blood pressure didn't do anything crazy.
They did an ultrasound, and Blood work as well. Blood work showed high glucose (undiagnosed gestational diabetes) and my ultrasound showed that he was really small and my placenta was calcified.
Once I heard that I knew I was going to be induced Monday. The doctor said he wanted to wait until my regular doctor came on, if possible but made me stop eating just in case.
As the night progressed, Jacob started to have dips in his heart rate. It started out as just a little dip, but progressed into dips that lasted a minute or longer. Every one I heard was longer and longer and I was getting worried again. Justin headed home to try and get some rest and I decided to get some rest too.

Around 11 pm the nurses came in to start and IV. While putting in the IV, he had a big dip in his heart rate and 2 more nurses came rushing in to move my positioning and try and get it to go back up. I knew that wasn't a good sign but knew I was being watched and they would take care of me. Once they got the iv in, I settled in to try and get some sleep.
At midnight the nurse came in and asked where Justin had gone. I informed her he had gone home to get sleep. She then told me I needed to call him to come back because they decided we were in too much danger to wait until morning and they were going to take him via c section. I immediately called Justin and got him on his way back. As soon as I was off the phone there was a flurry of nurses preping me for surgery. I had the on call OB discussing with me the options.
"We can try and induce, but I think your baby will die with the first contraction"
"no thanks" I said " I would rather him live- let's do a c section"
Then the anesthesiologist asking me a million questions.
"Are you allergic to any meds, any previous surgeries?"
By the time Justin had arrived I was fully prepped. They got him getting into scrubs very quickly. The second he was ready the wheeled me into the OR.
Of course me being me, I was stating how much everything looked like an OR in the veterinary field.
"We use the same suture! This looks just like a veterinary surgical suit. We even have the same kind of table!"
They do a spinal block lay me back and start prepping me. I was trying not to freak out- when a hand grabs mine. I look over and it's a woman I had never seen before. She states that she is the on call pediatrician and she was there to over see Jacob. She asks me if we knew gender, had a name, and then asked me a bunch of questions about him, trying to ease my mind. We discussed that because we knew he was small,so there was a possibility of a transfer to Odessa regional medical center to ta better NICU. the hospital we were at only had a level one NICU. She promised was going to try and keep him there. She was a wonderful doctor.
Soon Justin came in. He sat at my head and once again eased my mind chatting with me.
it seemed like they had just started when I heard Jacobs first cry. I started to cry too. He was alive! He had survived and now he was here! I look at the clock- it's 1:25 am. Justin was called over to be with him. I heard the pediatrician and nurses singing him happy birthday. All the nurses congratulate me and help me wipe away my tears. Someone slips my ID band on my wrist.
Soon the doctor hollers out, "4 pounds, 1 oz! Bigger than we thought! Mom, He is looking good!"

She brings him over and places him at my head. tells me he is 17.2 inches long and doing well. I say hi to him and he immediately turns his head to me I give him a quick kiss as the doctor remarks that he knows me and let's me know that he doing really well and Odessa is out of the picture right now. Justin goes with them and they take him to the nursery.

They start closing me up. As I'm no stranger to surgery, I watch the clock and listen. At around 2 am I'm wondering why they aren't done yet. I look at the anesthesiologist and he seems to be wondering the same.
He looks over the curtain, then looks at me and says, looks like they are almost done. Awesome, I thought. This was easy!
Around 2:15, they still aren't done. The anesthesiologist looks over the curtain again. This time the doctor responds.
"you seem to still be bleeding internally. I'm going to have to go back in and see if I can stop this. What is this other scar from? You have a lot of scar tissue and it's really causing a lot of problems. "
I explain to him my emergency surgery I had in 6th grade. I had my appendix out, and a cyst on my right ovary had twisted and killed it.
Apparently, it was a sloppy surgery and the scar tissue had adhered to everything making it very hard for him to clean up.
He finally gets done, and I'm cleaned up and moved into recovery. Justin joins me and shows me a bunch of pictures of how cute our son is.

 We reminisce on how lucky we are and how surreal it is. we are both completely in love. The doctor comes in to check on me. He informs me that he feels that had we waited like we were originally going to do, Jacob most likely would have died. We were very blessed and happy that Jacob was alive and well, and that I hadn't had any serious complications and side effects either, I'm moved into my room, and Justin visits Jacob one more time before heading home to get some rest.

The night was pretty uneventful. As soon as my legs were no longer numb I asked the nurse about going to see my baby. I needed to be with him and see how he was doing! 

They get me into a wheelchair and wheel me in. Since last night his oxygen had dropped a little and his glucose was giving him trouble. He was hooked up to oxygen and an IV, but they didn't think he would be in there long. He was doing well

. They let me do skin to skin and I was able to finally hold and cuddle my baby.

The rest of the day was spent with me trying to recover and loving on our newborn son. he was unable to come into our room, but we had unlimited access to him in the nursery.

the next morning, his attending physician came in and gave us some bad news. Jacob was having clotting issues, He couldn't determine the issue and didn't feel they were adequately set up for the critical care he needed, they want to transfer him to another hospital to a high NICU unit.  I ok'd the transfer and soon they picked him up. Justin was once again gone, when all of this happened, I immediately called him to come back down because I needed his support. As soon as he got to the hospital  I asked him to go and give Jacob a blessing, not only one of health but one as  father. I was not able to go to the nursery as this was being done, but I felt comforted in knowing the lord would bless us as a family and bless him as an innocent child. 

I got news they had arrived to pick him up and stopped by so I could see him and say goodbye.

It was quite traumatizing to see my newborn baby like that. Thankfully he was very alert and didn't seem stressed about the move. We signed a ton of paperwork, set up passwords to get in, etc. 

I was discharged soon after in order to be with my baby. 

When we finally got over to Odessa Regional later that day we got good news. He had stabilized, but they had found jaundice and he needed to be started on lights. We got to visit with him for a while and I feel very good about the transfer. He had wonderful nurses who were very attentive to him, he seemed a lot more relaxed here, and I knew he was getting what he needed.

I wont bore you will all the details, but he was in the NICU for about 2 weeks, he had lots of up and downs, but finally he was eating, and then breathing on his own, and he got his IV's out on 10/30, and upgraded to a crib. 

On Halloween 2015 he came home

It was a long scary process, and we he cheated death twice, but we is alive, and doing well. I know he is a blessing from our Heavenly Father and we couldn't be happier that he is part of our family. 

Well that's all for now, more to come on our new life as a family of three!

~ Jess 

Being an adult isn't all fun and games, especially when you develop anxiety.

So, its been a while since I have written in my blog, I guess its time to update Y'all. Justin and I have been living in Midland Texas for a whole year now, and we have been married for a year and a half. Its crazy how fast time flies! Justin is Finally working for chevron and LOVING every day of it. I quit my job in December to go back to school full time, and I dont like it.

Don't get me wrong, I mean, I all of a sudden have a lot of time on my hands, but I swear school is harder than I ever remembered it being, and all of a sudden, I feel lost with too much time on my hands! I recently started with chronic anxiety, also known as GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) and I'm pretty sure A LOT of it is from school. Last week, I woke up with a complete feeling of dread. I had no reason for it, that i could think of, but I couldn't shake the feeling. My heart was racing, my hands were cold, I couldn't eat and I felt like I couldn't catch my breath, I called my Doctor and couldn't get in for a few days. I spent 3 days pacing the floors of my house with no relief and finally decided a visit to the ER was worth it. I had finally found some relief! they started me on some medications and told me to follow up still with my regular doc.
Monday afternoon at my appointment, we went over vitamins/suppliments, medical history, etc and drew some blood. I was really hoping they would find something in my blood work, but it all came back normal. It really was all in my head. so I contacted my schools counseling services, and i have begun counseling for my anxiety/possible depression.

Its been a rough few weeks, but I have learned just how great my friends are. I had a lot of people contact me, letting me know they also have anxiety and giving me tips/ suggestions or even just a listening ear. And my teachers at school allowed me to reschedule tests or get notes from class, and helped me find the counseling services. I honestly don't know where I would be without having such great people to help me. My husband has been the greatest strength and support for me through this as well. I really must have done something great to deserve a guy as amazing as he is.

It hasn't been all bad these last few weeks though. Justin and I flew to Utah and finally got to meet my cute nephew, baby G. we went to the Aquarium in Utah and we all LOVED it. I especially loved just being around his sweet spirit. He is one of those babys that you cant help but be happy around because he is always happy and smiling. Every morning I was there I was greeted with a Huge smile from him, and sometimes I would catch him looking at me and he would laugh. I already miss him.
While we were at the aquarium, he caught a bad cold, and is in the hospital right now with RSV. please keep him in your prayers.  He is improving every day.

baby G and Justin had a lot of bonding time as well. I cant wait for the day that I am able to make Justin a father. He is going to be such a good one.

We also got to take family photos while we were, since it has been a few years. we went to Utah lake and took photos out there. it was fun and crazy as always. Mike was climbing up trees, we were interrupting dates, and it would take us forever to take a picture (typical for my family) it was fun, and it will be fun looking back.

Well... that's my life in a nutshell right now.  ta ta for now

1 year of marriage

Its been one year since the love of my life and I got married. Time flies! In that 1 year we have moved 3 times and lived in 2 states. It is a little crazy. 

We recently moved to Midland College married housing. Its awesome, but, I had the opportunity of learning about cockroaches. The apartment was infested with German roaches when we moved in. Let me tell you from experience, they are disgusting and horrible. Its taken about a month, but we were able to get them under control. We had to have them spray and place out traps and poison for them. It seemed to have worked so far. 

Its nice living on campus since we have prime workout space, and lots of safety. There is a one mile loop around campus which makes working out very easy. There is also a awesome workout park across the street. Its very quiet here too.

We have started volunteering at a therapeutic riding center called Horses, Hearts, And Hands. It's an awesome christian based therapeutic center. I have been asked to be on the board and on the fundraising committee. Justin has been learning a lot about horses from them too. He actually know how to halter a horse and is not afraid to walk next to them. I'm hoping that one day he will be as comfortable around them as I am. For now though, I am just happy to be doing something with Justin and teaching him about why I love horses.

Phase 2 of the move. Hello Texas!

On Tuesday Morning,  Justin and I  got up at 4 am and headed to Midland, Texas. At first it started out great, other then the fact that I only had a few hours of sleep.  We Drove in the Dark to Thatcher Arizona, and stopped for a potty break/ light breakfast at burger king. We ordered as usual, but noticed it was taking a while for her to put in. then she starts asking me about my day and acting like we knew each other.  I somewhat questioned her, and stated we were driving through from Mesa, and She stops and asks me if I was from here. I informed her I wasn’t and she kept asking. She then Informed me that I had a twin in Thatcher, that looked just like me.

After that we took off again and headed over to New Mexico. The Next stop for us was Las cruces. As we went through town I had two cops follow me through town. luckily they never pulled me over for anything. After Las Cruces we headed into Alamogordo and White Sands. A long stretch of nothing, Although the history is cool. Right as we were leaving White sands we went through a border patrol station. I didn’t think anything of it, as I have never had any issues at border patrol as a white, blonde, hundreds of years back American. As we pulled up, Justin got waved right through, as I was used to. Then when I got up there, They asked if I was an American citizen and I stated that I was. They then asked me Where I was going. I stated that I was moving with my husband, who was in front of me from Mesa Arizona to Midland Texas. Then, They asked me if I was hiding someone in my car. I told them I wasn’t, and that it was all just stuff for the move. They asked me again as 4 people came out from the building and they got a dog to smell my car. I once again stated that I was not. They then asked to search my car. I was getting frustrated as we were on a time constraint and My husband was up on the road waiting for me. But I had nothing to Hide so I agreed. I told them how to open the trunk, and they opened it. They let the dog jump into my car and smell around for a minute, as they lightly looked through it. They finally realized I wasn’t Lying about what was in my car and they let me go along.

I was not happy about the situation. I understand they were doing their job, but I seriously felt like I were accusing me and totally violated my stuff. FINALLY we moved on from that and continued. Our next mission was to find some Cherry Cider that is a favorite of Justins Family. WE stopped off in a place called Cloud croft. It was very pretty up there ans here was snow, but there was not cider.

 As we continued we stopped off at every store we came across in search of this Cider, with no avail. Finally we found a little roadside place that carried it. We had succeeded!

After that we started another long boring drive into Hobbs New Mexico. When I say long and boring, I mean LOOONG and BORING. I am pretty sure I lost my mind completely on that drive. It’s a 2 lane road, and all you see if Semis, Pumpjack, and miles of nothing. I was singing songs on the top of my mind, questioning life and everything in it ( its 42) and playing I spy with Justin, which usually consisted of seeing a pumpjack, a truck, or a cow.

 When we finally reached Hobbs we realized we were Very much behind schedule. We had planned to arrive in Midland at around 5 pm, and it was 5 pm in Hobbs, with another hour and a half drive into town.We did a quick drive by instead of stopping for Food, and headed back on the road into town. When we Finally arrived in town, it was to late to sign into apartment so we checked into the Hotel.

Now, in Midland/Odessa, Hotels and apartments are hard to come by and VERY expensive. My dad had found a cheap(ish) hotel. We checked in and went up to the room. At first it looked nice. There is a fridge and a microwave and nice looking room. Then, we went into the bathroom. It was not good. The tub was leaking, the door was broken. We thought oh well, we have a place so that’s what will happen. I went to take a shower and found out that the handle was broken, the shower head was broken and there was no stopper. So we went Ghetto and found a cup and used a cup and a rag to shower. It was awesome. Its actually a very good time to count my blessings. I found an apartment, we have a real shower and we only have to spend one night at this place.

The next day we check into our apartment, This problem with moving from another state and not looking at the apartment first is that we never realized that our apartment was so small. after check in, we went over to Uhaul, the check in at Uhaul went very smooth, then we went to ABF to pick up our stuff.

that ended up going very smoothly. It only took the two of us about 45 mins to unload the ABF trailer and load up the Uhaul. We headed to our new apartment and unloaded, We were able to meet a few people from the new ward cause they came and helped us. We FINALLY were in our new home!

Well that is everything for now!

Over and out-

Jess

New year new life, hello 2014! It's good to finally meet you!

This year has definitely been a very busy year for me. I got engaged, went through the temple, got married, moved into a new apartment, decided to move to Texas, got pregnant, had a miscarriage, got a second job, moved out of apartment and quit my jobs. After a year like this, I am excited to see what happens to year. Since I didn't make resolutions last year, I am going to write out all my resolutions for this year.

1. Try to always be happy
2. Work out everyday that I can
3. Go back on my intolerance diet
4. Loose weight
5. Run in at least a 5k with my hubby
6. Get a good job or get into school again.
7. Get back into riding horses or volunteer at a therapeutic riding center
8. Go to Disneyland with my hubby
9. Go to the temple once a month
10. Read my scriptures every night
11. Have more patience

I love New Years since it a time to analyze where you are in life and decide what you want to change.   Change is something that is good for everyone to do, and once a year is better than never. I hope everyone had a good New Years!

Ttfn
Jess

Christmas and Phase one of the move

Christmas is over and now I have to act like an adult again. Drats! :) I love christmas and I'm sad to see it already over. This christmas was me and Justins first christmas together. It was also my first Christmas in Arizona. It ended up being a nice quiet day that we spent together, just the two of us. :) we opened presents and just spent the day being lazy.

Earlier in December my parents came down to see us and to spend time with us. We went to a house here in mesa with model trains through the whole backyard. It was very cool to see. The people living there must have spent a long time building up the collection.

After seeing that we went on a drive to see Christmas lights. We aw a house that has lights that go along with music playing, and we also went and saw the Mesa LDS temple lights. They were very cool. My parents were unable to stay real long and we were sad to see them go. Today is New Years Eve and Justin and I are officially moved out of our apartment. Yesterday was our moving day. It ended up taking longer than expected, but went fairly smoothly. We rented a uhaul and hauled our stuff to the middle of Phoenix to ABF to fill a trailer with our stuff. They are shipping it over to us. Filling the Uhaul was a little crazy. We found out very quickly that a King sized bed doesn't fit into a 10 foot truck. It took us a while to figure out how we were going to haul it and we were finally able to squeeze it into the very top. We were able to fit all of our stuff that we wanted to and headed over.

It took us a while to find the location but we found it. We pulled in and found out that instead of having a pod, we actually got a full trailer. We measured off 7 feet (since that was what we ordered) put the loading ramp up to the trailer and started to unload. It was actually very easy.

After we had finished we had to figure out how to put in the bulkhead and how to lock it up. We figured out the bulkhead very quickly but our locks we had brought didn't fit! Luckily the nice people inside told us where the nearest Walmart was. We rushed over and got some locks and finished up.

It was a very long day. I have figured out today we went up and down the flight of stairs at our apartment (36 stairs) at least 25 times. Today we cleaned to apartment and turned in our keys. I am kind of sad to say goodbye, but excited for our new adventure. I really hope our new apartment is ok. If its even half as nice as the one we were in I think I will be ok.

7 days from today and we leave for our new home in Midland Texas. I hope I'll survive!

Happy New Years! -The Whatcotts

~The Married life: 4 months of Marriage~

Back in March of 2013, while on a vacation in Utah, I got engaged. He proposed in St. George Utah, on a cliff overlooking the valley. It was soo amazing! I had been hoping it would happen on the trip, but was completely oblivious to it happening then.:)

In July 2013, I got married. My husband and I were married in Manti, Utah at the LDS Temple. It was the happiest day of my life!

On the day we got married, My husbands uncle offered us a job opportunity in Texas. Of course he wanted to move right away and look into this, but we decided to wait, as we had just signed a lease on our apartment, and I really didnt want to jump immediately into a move after getting married. We decided to wait until January to move so we would both have more time to prepare.
 In October I got a second job working part time at Petsmart to help pay for the move. Having a second job made me really appreciate my husband more, and realize how precious my time with him was. I am on average working 50-60 hours a week. I am lucky enough to have a husband that helps with the house chores!
The week of Halloween I had been feeling a little off, and decided to take a pregnancy test. It was positive!
We were going to parents! We had it confirmed by a doctor and started the process of making doctors appointments and changing my diet.

Later that week, I ended up miscarrying. It was a very hard time for my husband and I, but in the end, we knew it was a blessing in disguise, Since moving at the beginning of the second trimester would be very stressful, and would increase the risk of loosing it then.

It is now December and we have less than 30 days until we move! we have been packing and sorting all week. Its been a little crazy. We got our first tree and have it up in our slowly emptying apartment. This time next month and we will be in a new state, with new jobs, exploring our new start. I am excited to move with my hubby and excited to see what comes from the move! :)

Hopefully it all turns out well!

Merry Christmas from The Whatcotts!

Over and out

Jess

Life, and the world we live in.

It's been a while since I have written. A lot of that is due to the many changes that have gone on in my life the last few months. I have been in and out of jobs since losing my job in Oncology in November and started dating a wonderful man. For those of you that knew, I got offered a job working in Utah as a wrangler at a horse ranch for the summer, and had plans to go to China or the Ukraine to teach english to the kids this fall. However, due to some certain curcumstances, I decided to turn down the job as wrangler, and put of taching english in a foregn country for a little longer.



Back in Febuary I started a job working as a nanny for a 4 year old boy. It was the most wonderful, yet time consuming and exhausting job. I loved going to work, and I loved that little boy. Most days were filled with happiness, frustration, tears and love. It definately started to prepare me for motherhood, and definately opened my eyes to motherhood. At about the same time I started that job, I started dating my current boyfriend. He supported me fully with that job, and would do what he could to help me.



After about a month of nannying I got a call from a store that I had filled out a application for a while ago. It was Lane Bryant and they called me in for an interview. I decided to go in for the interview and I was hired the same day. It was very bitter sweet leaving my little 4 year old that I had grown to love so much, but I knew it was what I needed in my life at the time. LAne bryant had promised me enough hours to pay my bills, but as time progressed I was still not making enough, so I started looking for another job. I came across an ad for Banfield; the pet hospital, and decided to apply. I went in for an interview and ended up being late due to traffic and understimating the distance I had to drive. I did the interview anyway and appologized greatly for being late, but as I left the interview I was sure I didnt have the job. I called and talked to my mom about who reassured me that it wasnt as bad as I thought and that she was praying for me but I just knew I didnt get it.

2 days later I recieve a call from an unknown number and (as usual) I dont answer and let it go to voicemail. It was a call from banfield, and they wanted me to come back for a second interview. I just about died. I didnt think there any way I would have made it passed the first interview, but I was determined to show them that I wasn't a slacker. I went to my second interview and showed up a half hour early. That same day I was called and offered the job! :)




So as of now, I work at Banfield, Lane Bryant, and AVS. As well as volunteer on Friday nights to help a non-profit organization called Hoofbeats with Heart with a Gymkhana to raise money. As busy as it sounds ( and is) I couldnt be happier. I love all my jobs, and I love the people I work with. I also have the best boyfriend ever who puts up with constant change in plans due to long hours at work, moodiness due to the same thing, and some days not seeing me. I dont know how I got so lucky to have him, but I sure am lucky and blessed.



Another thing I have started doing recently is Swing Dancing. My dear friend Keith is slightly obsessed with it, and got me going. I go with Justin almost weekly to learn and dance. It is sooo much fun! I think everyone should learn how to swing. Its a good way to meet new people, and a fun thing to do on the weekends.


Well I think that is enough for now. sorry for boring you. :p