I wish I had written this down right after Jack was born, but better late than never! Jack's 1st Birthday is today!
Jack was 9 days early: he was due on October 22. I was supposed to work up until his due date. I didn't expect an early baby since Dash was late. But my official "Order of Protection" from Court started on October 15, just in case. I had a normal Friday at work, and fully expected to return the following Monday for my last week before "Maternity Leave." However, I had kept my case notes continually updated in case the baby came early.
Friday night, I went to bed expecting to wake up a few times to go to the bathroom. The first time I got up, around 2am, I felt a pop and water broke. It was more like a trickle, not the gush that most people talk about. Since it was so little, I came back out of the bathroom and said, "Matt?" When he asked what was wrong, I said, "I think my water broke." Matt immediately went from groggy to alert. "You think your water broke? What happened?"
Since I hadn't started contracting, we decided to call the doctor and to see what we should do. After getting the answering service and being transferred to the doctor, she said we could come in or wait until the contractions were regular. I wanted to stay in the hospital as little as possible, so we opted to stay home. However, 20 minutes later I was having regular contractions and we called the answering service who transferred us to the doctor who said we could go to the hospital. We also called our friends, the Frosts, to come over and stay with Dash. The wait time to get a hold of the doctor and for our friends to come over seemed like an eternity, but it was really only 10 minutes. I was using my exercise ball to get in different positions to handle the pain.
The hospital was 20 minutes away, and at one point I was punching the ceiling and loudly counting to try to handle each contraction. I didn't really practice breathing exercises or plan on pain management because I fully expected to get an epidural when we got to the hospital. Once Matt parked, I ran ahead into the hospital before the next contraction hit. After doubling over in the entryway, we made it to the elevator. Once we got to the fourth floor another contraction hit and I was doubled over in pain again. In the haze of pain, I took the wrong turn down the hall and ended up in some random room calling out for Matt and/or any nurse to come help me.
After begging for an epidural, the nurses said they needed to check my dilation. That's when everyone realized Jack was crowning. There would be no time for an epidural and I panicked. I was not ready for this. It was supposed to be like last time where I had no feeling in my lower half and was doing great. Instead, I was screaming in pain until the nurses told me to calm down (ha!) because the screaming was not helping. They told me that birth was an "out of body" experience and that I should try to focus on a calming place in my mind. There were palm leaves painted on the ceiling, so I tried to imagine the beach but my concentration wasn't very good. The Doctor didn't show up until right at this point. Matt was holding both of my hands that I squeezed with each push. I was shaking so bad two nurses had to hold my legs because I couldn't keep them in the braces. I also had another nurse talking me through each contraction, which I was very grateful for. They told me with each push I was closer to not feeling pain, which was great motivation.
A half hour after we got the hospital, Jack was born early on Saturday morning, October 13. It's hard to describe the release of pressure I felt when he came out. I was soaked in sweat, and they immediately put him on my belly. When I asked to have him higher (because my belly hurt from all the pushing), they said they couldn't because the umbilical cord was extremely short. When they asked me his name, I said "Jackson" which is the name Matt and I had agreed upon only a few weeks earlier.
Jack had so much hair!! It was blonde and beautiful. It was so nice to have him on my chest once they cut him loose. I stayed in the delivery room for an extra two hours while they stitched me up and got the shaking and bleeding under control.
It's hard to believe how incredibly fast Jack came. By early morning we were calling family, friends, and coworkers to let them know. We stayed in the hospital for one night (Saturday night) and were released Sunday afternoon. Our only visitors were the Bishop and his family. Matt's dad came down from NC on Saturday to stay with Dash. Our sweet neighbors bought us dinner when we came home on Sunday.
My mom flew out less than a week later to help us with Jack. We were so glad she could rearrange her flights to come out earlier, because we really needed the support!
Rhetorically,
Rebekah
