Jack's Birth Story Part 1

I'm FINALLY posting Jack's birth story, and it's only been 4 months since his birth!

I found Page One of the pages I wrote down….but I can't find any of the other pages! I guess I'll have to wing it strictly from memory!

It's kind of a long story, so I'll try to make it shorter as I go, but if you love Birth Stories, this one is pretty good, if I do say so myself! HA!

As I had posted before in this post, we had found out that Jack was indeed head down and engaged on January 2nd! We were so so SO incredibly relieved, and I spent that 45 minute ride home from my midwife's office thanking the Lord for answering our prayers.

We got home from the midwife's at 7:30 PM.  She had told us that we could probably expect to have him in three days or so, and I was fine with that.  I really felt like I was ready and in that mindset which we who are about to have a baby get into!

The kids ate dinner and then we started Family Time, and we started singing. We like to sing together as a family, so we started signing that night at about 9:30 or so, because my husband is a Night Owl and loves to do things late! I didn't really feel like singing, and I noticed that I felt like I was really turning inward, listening to my body, because I had started having cramps by this point, and they were pretty good ones too! I didn't think I was in labor until I realized about 30 minutes later that these cramps were only three minutes apart and they felt like that familiar tighten-crescendo-ease off rhythm that real labor contractions have! I knew by then that we were going to meet Jack soon!! Dave asked me why I wasn't singing, and I shot him a look and said, between clenched teeth…

"Because I'm in LABOR, that's why!!!"

Like I said, I was really turned inward, concentrating on what my body was telling me, and so I got up from the chair and began to walk around and do some light cleaning. By now, I was really feeling the contractions! It was about 10:45 now, and Dave put the kids to bed.  I was walking around, and at 11:00 I noticed I was really tired, so I decided to try to take a nap, because even though the contractions were only three minutes apart, they were very manageable for me.

I went into our room and I opened the window above our bed, and I could hear that there was a soft rain pattering on the concrete outside, and it was very peaceful and relaxing.  Our bed didn't have any sheets or blankets on it because they were waiting on being washed, so I just got into the bed and laid on my side.  This was comfortable at this point, although laying on my side hadn't been at all comfortable previously in my pregnancy, and I put a pillow between my knees and drifted off to sleep.

I was awakened by a serious, pretty long contraction at 12:30 AM, and I immediately began to shiver uncontrollably.  Now, when I start to shiver, this usually means that Baby is coming very quickly! However, at this point I didn't feel like pushing or anything, but I was freezing cold and I wondered where Dave was! I also noticed that the contractions were now two minutes apart!  I started softly calling for Dave, as a soft voice was all I could manage at this point.  He was in the older girls' room talking with them, and he finally heard me calling.  He knew I was in labor earlier, but now he knew it was Serious Time! He later said that, as soon as he saw my face, he knew it was Go Time!

I usually get very hot and sweaty when I reach transition during labor, but with Jack I got really cold, so I put on a sweatshirt of Dave's, and I took some liquid calcium/magnesium to help ease the contractions, and as always, the calcium made them very manageable! I started methodically pacing at this point.  I looked at the clock and it was about 1:15 AM by then.

You know, while I was in labor with Jack, I noticed that I couldn't stop pacing, just a methodical pace, the same route through the kitchen, down the hall, back up the hall and through the kitchen, over and over and over again.  And, I was breathing really, really methodically as well, and I found that the pacing was helping me to concentrate on my breathing.  By now, the contractions were getting pretty intense, and I tried leaning over the counter in the kitchen or leaning over the bed, but my body just wanted to pace! So, pace I did, around and around and around………

Stay tuned for Part Two, and I promise I'll have it up within the next couple of days!!