Baby Jack

Jack Robert

Jack: means "God is Gracious"

Robert: after my grandfather

Born Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 9:24 am

9 lbs. 7 ozs. - 22" long

I can't believe our little Jack is 5 weeks old tomorrow. These precious first weeks sure go by in a flash. And now that life is settling into a new normal, I finally am going to share our little guy's story!

It all happened quite differently than I expected. Having had Sam at 36 weeks, I wasn'tcounting on going early, but I certainly did NOT foresee going all the way to 41 weeks! I don't think I was particularly pleasant company in those last few weeks and days. :) Kris could probably vouch for me on that one!

The day before Jack was born, Kris came with me to my 41 week appointment. Sam was napping, so Kris' mom was here with him while we were gone. The doctor checked me all out, and then informed us that he really thought they should induce me in the next day or two. I had two opposing thoughts rolling through my head at this point: 1) "Oh, dear Lord, I could kiss this man!"; and 2) "I realllllly don't want to be induced!" I had been so tired and extremely uncomfortable, and having terrible nights, but yet I imagined induction to mean I had to be hooked up to things while they pumped me full of Pitocin to make my baby come out. I expressed my concern to the doctor, who said they wouldn't be doing any of that, just trying a bit of Cervidil (a gel that helps to ripen the cervix). He said that I was so ready to have this baby that just a little bit of help would get things going. I breathed a sigh of relief, and even though I know inductions can (in extreme cases) escalate to the point of having a C-Section, I also knew that we were ready and wanted to get the show on the road. (Besides, Cervidil does does the same thing to the body as another form of natural induction that involves the husband...)

He went to phone the hospital, came back, and asked us if we could head over to the hospital right after our appointment. HUH?! Kris and I looked at each other, and couldn't really believe that it was now. It was go-time. The doctor left and gave us some time to chat, and we both felt like it was right to just go in. I felt pretty emotional and overwhelmed by it all, just knowing that our baby would be here anytime now. It was just hard to believe that we would meet our little person so soon! The doctor came back and we told him we were ready to go. He said he thought it would be later that night, or early the next day, and that because my body was so prepared already, he didn't want us discharged (usually they send you home after they give you the Cervidil).

So, Kris phoned him mom, and she was totally fine with having Sam for the next few days. It worked out great since she was on a run of 10 days off of work. I was a bit emotional about the fact that I hadn't said bye to Sam, and how I had had no idea that the next time I'd see him, we'd be a family of four. (Which, in hindsight was maybe for the best. The last thing Sam needed was an emotional mama saying goodbye to him, and making him feel like something was happening.)

We got to the hospital around 4 and we started the process. We spent the evening walking around the hospital, playing Wii Sports, and watching cable (video games and TV are quite the treat for us!). Night came, and I was surprised that nothing had started yet. So we decided to try and catch some rest while we could, which ended up to be wishful thinking - Kris had a vinyl Lazy Boy to recline on for the night, and my back was killing me, making it hard to get comfortable (the story of my life the past few weeks). We slept for a bit, until about 2am, when my back started becoming really painful. I made Kris rub my back (back rubs at 2am were being commonplace around here!), but the pain didn't really seem to subside. We tried going back to bed. I rested on and off until around 330, when the pain in my back made it impossible to lay down. I had a bit of a meltdown about how, if I was going to be up all night, I wanted it to be because I was in labour, not just having more back aches. I stressed about the sleep we were losing, knowing how tired delivery can make you. I wanted to go into it as rested as possible. But right after my outburst, I realized that I was getting some really intense cramping with it, that would come and go. Contractions! After about 20 minutes of making sure they were regular, Kris called the nurse.

When the nurse came a few minutes later, the contractions were already 3-4 minutes apart, and getting pretty intense. She checked me, and I was 6cm dilated already. I had kind of thought at some point about putting off the epidural, because it really slowed my labour with Sam, and I felt like I could maybe do it if I was already that far, and things were going pretty quick. I laboured in the shower until around 6am, when things were getting pretty intense. I felt like I was doing well and had found my "happy place", but when the pain went up a notch, I didn't know if I could handle it. As per my previous instructions, Kris gently tried to discourage me from the epidural for a bit. The nurse was also in the "no epidural" camp, and kept trying to tell me of my other pain options. But, having previously experienced the beauty of an epidural, and hearing from friends about the ineffectiveness of the other options, I was pretty set on just going straight for the epidural. Plus, what did these 2 know about labour? There's nothing worse than having 2 people who have never experienced labour tell you how well you're doing and how you could probably do the whole thing on your own. Whatever.

I decided to at least see how far along I was. The nurse checked me, and I wasn't quite 7cm. Ugh. I would definitely get the epidural, I decided. I needed some relief. I had all back labour again this time, which is notorious for not letting up between contractions. The nurse called the doctor in, and within 15 minutes (the blessing of the rural hospital!), I was feeling the bliss of the epidural.

Just before 9am, the doctor came in to check me, and said I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. I pushed for a while, but was having a hard time feeling any contractions. The doctor said to stop the epidural, which was great motivation to push - get that kid out before the epidural runs out! I pushed a bit more, and started to feel the baby's head moving. What a crazy, miraculous feeling. A little bit more, and out came our beautiful son. They put him right up on me, and I was totally in awe as I held his slippery little body. I had no words. He cried with his powerful little lungs.

We had totally thought that we were having a girl (which is a story I will probably write about some time). Although I definitely experienced shock at seeing a little set of male parts, there was not one ounce of disappointment in me when I saw my little boy. It's amazing how much you can love a slimy little person you've only just met!

After a few minutes of letting me hold Jack, the nurse took him over to the little table to assess him. He layed there, calm as ever, looking around and starting to search for something to eat. Soon after, they brought him to me to try to nurse for the first time. Jack knew exactly what he was doing, and it went great. I was very thankful for that!

When we were finished, they wanted to take him to weigh him. Kris went along, while I stayed so the nurse could finish up looking after me. A little bit later, our doctor came in and asked me what my guess on Jack's weight was - I guessed 8 lbs. 6 ozs., the nurse's guess was 8 lbs. 2 ozs. Nope. A whopping 9 lbs. 7 ozs.! I couldn't believe it! (That is, until I remembered how I felt him down so low in my pelvis AND up in my ribs, how huge I felt, and the silly stretch marks that didn't make their unwelcome appearance until 38 weeks.)

Jack is just perfect. It was fun showing him off to family and friends. It worked out perfectly that Sam was able to be the very first person to meet Jack, and we got to have some time with just the four of us. Sam thought that the baby's name should have been "Helmet". While that was a nice option, we decided to go with Jack instead. :)

Life has been going well. And we're not too tired. Either way, it's a small price to pay for enjoying such a wonderful blessing.

And thanks to Avey for the beautiful photos of our little guy!