From Both Sides of the White Picket Fence: His-Story

I'm over a week late in posting, but Jacob's birth story needs to be documented, as it was as different from his sister's arrival as you could possibly get.

2:00am
Woke up and used the bathroom, feeling cranky because the back pain and general discomfort of the night before had subsided and so once again, there were no signs that this baby was coming anytime soon. Got back into bed and the first contraction hit a few minutes later. Not painful, but uncomfortable.

2:10am
Another contraction, and I thought maybe I should get up and pay attention. Came downstairs and played on the computer. Contractions continued, moving anywhere from 4-6 minutes apart, but I could still talk, and move through them, so they were lacking in the intensity needed for a trip to the hospital, and I wanted to labor as home as long as possible.

2:45am
Woke Kevin up, and called my mom, 2 hours away, to tell her that I thought things might be getting started, and that maybe she should drive in our general direction. The plan was to stay at home and monitor things until she got here to stay with Mia, and if things continued moving forward, we would head towards the hospital at that time. Kevin got up and began doing a few last minute things around the house while I decided to take a shower, thinking it would be the last time I had the chance to really get clean for awhile.

3:15am
By the time I got out of the shower, contractions were spaced just a few minutes apart and increasing in intensity. We called the triage nurse to let her know of my "symptoms" and she passed the message along to the doctor on call to give them a heads-up that we might be coming in. I had another contraction while on the phone with her, and this time had to stop talking until it passed.

3:45am
Despite my attempts to distract myself with a movie, I was becoming concerned that I would not be able to hold out until my mom arrived at 4:45. Despite my concerns about "waking somebody else up," Kevin convinced me that the right thing to do was to call a neighbor to come sit at the house so that we could leave.

4:03am
Left the house for the 20 minute drive to the hospital. I don't remember much about this trip, other than the fact that we passed a sobriety checkpoint at one point, and I thought how inconvenient it would be if they stopped us now. I also remember feeling incredibly relieved when we pulled into the hospital parking lot because I knew that I would soon be in a bed and I could get something to help with the pain.

4:25am
Checked into the ER, since it was after-hours, and signed a couple papers before the nurse realized that I needed to be moved, as my contractions were now one on top of the other with no break between. She put my ID on as Kevin was wheeling me down the hall to the L&D wing. I started to feel very lightheaded and sick, and asked Kevin to slow down, a request I'm pretty sure he ignored.

Arrived at L&D, and was taken to a room, where a nurse asked if I needed anything, and I kept repeating that I felt like I was going to be sick. 3 other nurses arrived, and when I said that I couldn't get out of the chair to move to the bed, one of them took charge and lifted me. I was feeling totally out of control and starting to get a little hysterical, so she gave me a "tough love"attitude while she performed her check, and then asked me if my last birth was medicated. When I said that it was, she told me, "Well, this one is going to be a little different." Kevin says that she then turned and had one of the other nurses run out to the hall and grab the nearest doctor. A literal 3 "effortless" (read: uncontrolled) pushes later, and Jacob was here at 4:35am , just in time to be caught by the rushed in doctor.

If you're keeping track, that's 2 hours and 35 minutes, start to finish.

No time for medication, no time to get frustrated or tired, no time even to sign the required forms (I signed them AFTER delivery). He was 3 days overdue, but when he was ready, he was ready.

There are not many pictures of his first few minutes, because we rushed into the hospital with just my wallet, leaving everything else in the car, including the camera. After the delivery and some recovery time, Kevin went out and brought everything in. I was in shock at what had just happened, and then the adrenaline hit my system and I had a good 45 minutes of severe shaking, so Kevin got in lots of cuddle time until I felt safe holding Jacob.

So in all the excitement, we did get at least one good picture: