Almost from the day we were given Jake's due date (26 December), Ryan and I went back and forth between wanting him to be born on that day because it's my dad's birthday and wanting him to be born as close after the 18th (the last day of school before Christmas break) as possible because that would allow me more time at home with him. The closer it got to Christmas break for school, the more real everything became. I had pretty much convinced myself that he was definitely coming soon after school got out for the holidays and made plans accordingly.
At my doctor's appointment on 8 December, about 3 weeks before my due date, I was measured at 1 dilated and 75% effaced. I figured that was fine since I needed to make it another week and a half or so before I could have the baby without having to miss school prior to Christmas break.
The next week I went back to the doctor on the 15th, about 2 weeks before my due date, and got what I thought was a huge dose of reality. I was only 1.5 cm dilated and still 75% effaced. I had hoped I would be a little farther along than that since it was a week later and we wanted him to come a week early. I'd also been measured-belly size-wise- a week ahead at each appointment. I know that isn't a true indicator of when the baby will come but it had continued to fuel my hopes. My doctor told me I'd most likely make it to Christmas break and I went ahead and got scheduled for my next appointment (22 December).
I left that appointment feeling largely disappointed. Then I started thinking "what if he comes late? I guess I'd better prepare for that possibility as well. Let's just hope he comes before the end of the year!" (Hello tax deduction!)
The last week of school was filled with sub preparations and a ton of work at home. It was exhausting. By the time Friday rolled around, I was pooped! The last thing I had to do at school was attend the annual Christmas assembly. Let's just say 1 day shy of 39 weeks pregnant does not make for a fun time at the North Cache Christmas assembly. I was tired, didn't feel all that awesome, and just wanted to go home. I'm really glad that we were let off early and I got to go home at about 1:30 instead of 3:00.
Friday afternoon I finished up some Christmas presents and then as soon as Ryan got home we went to run some errands. We were eating dinner at Wendy's and got a call from his brother Bryce. His car had died and needed to be towed so we finished up and went to meet him. We towed him to the car place and got home sometime between 9 and 10. I worked on a couple more baby-prep projects, finished them up, and then we went to bed.
Early Saturday morning, around 3:00 or 3:30, I woke up to go to the bathroom. I was completely uncomfortable as I got back into bed, which wasn't out of the ordinary because I'd been feeling that way for the a month or so. Then I began to notice that I was having pain in my lower back that kept coming and going. I thought for sure it couldn't be contractions so I tried to go back to sleep. That didn't work very well so I got up to take a shower, hoping that'd make me feel better. Poor Ryan was trying to sleep because he had to work at 8 and I was making that more and more difficult for him.
I got out of the shower and went back to bed. I was able to sleep for a little while until I was awoken by the pains, which were starting to come quicker. BUT, I was still in denial that I could actually be in labor.
Ryan got up and headed to work. I told him to stay in close to his phone but that I really didn't think anything would happen that day.
I didn't stay in bed much past Ryan leaving for work because I was so uncomfortable. I decided to get up and take care of the usual Saturday things, wanting to get as much done as I could because I knew Jake could be coming at any time. I was still having pains but I didn't think they were consistent enough and figured they were probably Braxton-Hicks contractions. I just kept cleaning through the discomfort and. I also decided to get some more packing done for the hospital, just in case!
Around 10:00 I went to the bathroom and found that I was losing my mucus plug. I'd been watching for this for weeks now. I knew that once that happened, labor could happen anytime. I texted Ryan about this new development but continued to think that I'd probably have the baby within a couple of days.
My substitute stopped by to pick up some binders from me so that he could get ready over the break. He asked how I was doing and when I was due. I told him in a week and thought the baby would come pretty close to his due date.
Then, since it was the last Saturday before Christmas, I had to finish up some things for the holiday so I ran to Smith's Marketplace to do some last-minute shopping. I wandered around the store, still having somewhat consistent pain in my back, but not believing it was anything serious.
I came back home and sat on the couch to rest up a bit. I began to notice the pains were now more consistent so I decided to hang out until Ryan got off work.
Ryan came home around noon and immediately wanted an update. I told him what was going on an we decided to do the time test, to see if they were contractions, etc. At the next wave of pain he began timing and we found I was having contractions that were 4.5-5 minutes apart. I was pretty much in denial but Ryan convinced me that this was real. I was still only having pain in my back so I had a hard time believing him. We got the last of the stuff packed for the hospital and decided it was probably go time. After taking some last-minute pictures of us as a family of 2, we headed out the door. Before we could go to the hospital though, we had to make a quick stop at my parents'.
My dad was the only one home. We walked in and told him all plans for that day were off and we were most likely having a baby instead! I gave him some instructions for final Jake projects that my mom would have to finish and Ryan called up to the hospital to find out for sure if we should come in. The hospital said to come up and get checked and so off we went. On the way there I sent a text to Ryan's mom that we were headed up to the hospital and we'd let her know what was happening as soon as we could. She immediately responded with a phone call where I told her what was going on and we'd update her when we could.
Pulling in to the hospital was a bit surreal. The parking lot was pretty empty, as was the building as we walked in. We headed up to labor and delivery and immediately got sent to a room with a technician. As we followed her into the room I thought, "she looks really familiar". She started to take my info and I figured out why she was so familiar. Her parents live in our ward and she'd grown up down the street from my family. Small world!
I got changed into a hospital gown, had the rest of my information put into the computer, and then we were introduced to our first nurse, Lexie. She got the monitors all hooked up and gave me a quick check. I was 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced. She told me I'd be monitored for a while to see how things progressed and that they'd also put a call in to the on-call doctor (unfortunately mine was off that day) to see if I should stay. A bit later she came back to my room and told me that I was going to stay and that she'd be back every hour or so to check on my progress. Ryan then updated our parents with what was happening and got himself settled in.
I contracted-all in my back- for the next couple hours. My contractions steadily got harder and with each hourly check we found that I was progressing nicely.
The goal I had coming into all this was to labor without pain medication for as long as I could, then try Fentanyl first, and finally go to an epidural if needed. I found that I didn't need any medication for the first 3 or so hours that I was at the hospital but once I got to 5 cm, I was ready to try the Fentanyl. I had my first dose and was able to relax a little more and even doze. This was nice since my contractions had been getting harder and I was getting more and more uncomfortable. After about 45 minutes, the Fentanyl was wearing off and I was ready for more. My second dose came during shift change for the nurses. Lexie left us and Mandy came to take care of me. She gave me medication and told me the efficacy would lessen with each dose and maybe I should start thinking about an epidural. During contractions, Ryan and I talked about what we wanted to do. I didn't really want an epidural if I could avoid it. We decided we'd go with one more dose of the Fentanyl and then see. I got that final dose of at about 7 pm. I was about 7 cm dilated. A half hour or so later, the Fentanyl was not working at all and I was feeling like I needed to push. I was also starting to feel like I was losing control of my body. Mandy came in to check me and I was about a 7 1/2 at 7:30. And then the next twenty minutes flew by. I went from a 7 1/2 to a 10, did a practice push, and a nurse called for the doctor. But before she got there, Jake came! As soon as they had made the call for the doctor I knew I needed to push again and push I did. He came rushing out after only 2 pushes and landed almost completely on the bed. One of the nurses only had time to get one glove on before rushing over to grab Jake. It was quite an exciting few minutes!!
He didn't cry right away and I remember asking if he was ok. Everyone assured me he was just fine and then Jake let out a cry to tell momma that he was in fact, OK!
Our little guy weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20 inches long. He made his official entrance into the world at 7:51 p.m.
Ryan got to watch the nurses poke, prod, and check Jake out for the first few minutes of his life. Then he got to hold him! In the meantime, the doctor, who had arrived just as Jake was born, was taking care of me and stitching me up. I'd gotten a pretty nasty tear from Jake being born so quickly. Once all that was over, they handed me my sweet boy.
Holding Jake for the first time was pretty amazing! I can't believe how much love I had for him in the first moments of his life. You hear all the time about how much moms love their kids right from the start and it is so true!
We hung out in the labor and delivery for a couple more hours, just the three of us. It was perfect. I fed Jake and held him and just absorbed everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. We also had to update the family with our news and Ryan went to chat with his family for a few minutes. They'd been in the waiting room for who knows how long.
At around 10:30 the nurses loaded me and Jake into a wheelchair and took us to the mother and baby floor. Ryan followed closely behind with all our stuff.
We got set up on our new room. The nurses checked me and Jake out again, and then we invited Ryan's family to come in and meet Jake. My parents had decided that they'd wait until Sunday to come visit since it was late. Allan, Kristie, Bryce, Mollie, and Kira took turns greeting our little man and soaking in his newness. While they were there, Jake got his footprints done.
They left us somewhere around midnight and we settled in for our first night as parents!
I love this beautiful story! He's such an amazing little boy! I love you all!
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