... as I build my house of bricks.: August 2010

Baby Jacob has come to our home at last. We love him so much and we feel totally blessed and protected as we look back on how he came into this world.

Last Friday, the 3oth I talked to my doctor on the phone and he and I decided that between his scheduled vacation on Monday and the fact that Labor and Delivery was understaffed on Sunday, he coudn't be my delivery doctor for my 38 week induction. After I hung up the phone, with the name of my new doctor and an amniocentisis scheduled for Monday night I felt a little unsettled. There were so many more variables now. My doctor was so good. He had experience and knew more about paraplegics than any doctor I've ever worked with. Plus, my other deliveries were assissted with forcepts and he was the only one in the practice who was good at them.

So Friday evening we packed up the kids and went to a concert in the park, had a great time, everything was normal and when I got home I smelt some weird smelling fluid leaking out of me. Aha! My water must have broken! There was no other way to explain the weird fluid so I drove down to the hosptial at 10 pm and got admitted to Triage. They tested the fluid and the tests came up inconclusive, but I was dilated to a 3-4 and after watching my contractions for a couple hours, the on call doctor said that I was in labor.

I labored all night and at 6:00 am I got the best news ever. The on-call doctor said that she called my doctor and told him that I was there. He arrived in the next 30 minutes, Chris got there in the next 30 minutes and by 7 am, the show was on the road. He broke my water, they monitored me for a couple hours. They put me on Pitocin at 9 and by 11, I was dilated to a 10 and ready to push.

The amazing thing about this part was that even though I was having contractions from 7-11 am, they weren't making me dilate anywhere beyond a 6 or 7. Then at 11 two huge contractions happened, my legs went really spastic, Jacobs heart rate fell really low, and then I was to a 10 and ready to push. I pushed 5 or 6 times and within 5 minutes the baby was out.

Afterwards, the doctor said that the delivery couldn't have been done vaginally with a vacuum assisst. Things would have gotten very scary if we had gone through the same process, but with a doctor who didn't feel comfortable on forcepts.

Jacob is super healthy and has no sign of immature lungs now. He is tiny though. He weighed 6 lb. 6 oz and measured 19.5 inches long. He is so sweet, and expressive, and when he is awake - he looks every one right in the eyes.

This morning the boys took Jacob's 20 minutes of awake time and filled it with showing him how to use their favorite toys, playing him songs on their instruments, and whispering little messages in his ear. They love him so much and we can feel his love for us already.

After they broke my water