John Hyrum Crofts

I never knew it could be so difficult to find a few minutes to sit down and blog! Having a baby has been the most amazing experience in the world, but it is amazing how much time one can spend nursing, changing diapers, trying to get him to sleep, and basically just trying to figure out what in the world I'm doing! And even more amazing is the fact that this little kid is already a week old. I'm starting to understand what people mean when they say they grow up so fast.John Hyrum was born last Friday at 5:38 am. I'd been having pretty regular contractions for several days prior to that and when I reached my due date on Thanksgiving I was determined to do everything in my power to get him to come (not that I had that much control over the matter!). It must have been the turkey and pie that did the trick because Thanksgiving afternoon my contractions started getting stronger and closer together. Around 7:00 pm they were coming every 5 minutes or so apart but I still wasn't sure if it was the real thing so John and I went on a walk to see if they'd change at all. We only got a block from our house before I could barely walk and they started coming every 2-3 minutes apart. Thankfully when we got home they slowed down a bit so we had time to gather our stuff and make our way to the hospital. I was still pretty worried they'd turn me away saying I wasn't even close (which would have been devestating after feeling like this was the real thing) so I tried to down play how much pain I was in, but we got to the hospital about 9:30 pm and thankfully after a little over an hour of being monitered my water broke on its own and that sealed the deal--I was having a baby!!
I couldn't believe how intense the contractions got after my water broke, it was like the pain went from intense to utterly unbearable. Thankfully the anesthesiologist was close by and just after midnight I got the epidural and the pain miraculously disappeared. For those of you who have had babies naturally I am in total awe--I don't know how you could do it! That epidural was the greatest thing in the world and even though I labored all night it was so much fun. John and I couldn't contain our excitement and sleep was the last thing on our minds so we put on a couple movies and just hung out. Around 4 am the nurse came in to check me and she couldn't believe that the baby was just about ready to come. She was surprised I'd progressed so fast since this was my first and she hadn't called the doctor yet so she told me to hang tight and not to do any pushing. The doctor got there around 5 am and by 5:38 we had our darling little guy.
The first couple days in the hospital still feel like a dream. I couldn't believe this perfect little 8 lb 2 oz, 22.5 inch baby had actually been inside me, and yet at the same time I couldn't believe I had ever lived without him. He's already brought so much joy into our lives that all the pain, sleepless nights, and new parent anxieties are more than worth it. And even though I wish he'd start to get his days and nights straight, I'm trying to enjoy the fact that I get to hang out with him pretty much 24/7.Little John is named after his dad, grandpa, great-grandpa, and great-great grandpa Crofts (though he's not John the 5th), as well as his uncle Jon and soon to be uncle-in-law Jon. And come to find out AFTER we named him that my Grandma Cannon's grandpa was named Jon Hyrum Hales so he's literally named after many great men! I know, we're crazy for having brought yet another John into the family but at least this way you can call any male in my family John and have a 50% chance of getting their name right!
Thanks for all the love and support at this exciting time in our lives, we sure have a lot to learn but we are so excited for this new adventure!