Ever since I found out my official due date of November 28th, I have been praying that I would be able to go full-term, at least until November 7th. On the very morning of November 7th, Josh and I were sitting in early church, and I started noticing pretty frequent contractions. They were not painful, but I was having a lot of them. However, I had a busy morning, teaching Sunday School at 9:30 and Beginner Worship at 10:30, and musical practice at 12:00, followed by lunch at my parents' house. I continued to notice lots of contractions but was not uncomfortable and was also pretty distracted by everything I had to do. After lunch, I decided to call the doctor because they were very frequent, about every 5 minutes or less but they still were not painful at all. The doctor said to drink water and lay down to see if they slow up. I did that, and I really couldn't feel as many, so I wasn't sure if it was anything or not. I decided to take a shower "just in case." I was really tired and went to bed early.
I woke up around 1:15 to somewhat painful contractions. After a few minutes, I told Josh maybe this was it. I finally decided to call my parents, and mom came to stay with Hannah. I still wasn't totally sure until we were about to go out the door, and I thought I felt my water break. So at that point, I thought the chances where high that we were having a baby. We left the house a little after 2 a.m. My contractions were every 4 minutes in the car and were really starting to hurt. I called the hospital to tell them we were on the way. The Champaign hospital is about 45 minutes away, so it was after 3 a.m. when I made it up to labor and delivery. I gladly took the wheelchair ride. My legs felt really weak every time I had a contraction.
I had preregistered to "avoid paperwork while in labor." However, there seemed to be a lot of paperwork and medical history questions once I got to my room. I don't think the nurse had any idea how much pain I was in or far into labor I was. I didn't know how far along I was either, but I knew I was in a lot of pain, and I knew Hannah had come quickly once the pain started! She finally checked, and I was 6 cm. I thought I was at least that far, but I also was afraid she was going to tell me 2 or 3 cm. I would have died. She continued to ask a million questions, and it was getting more and more difficult to respond. I started to get sick, and then I think she realized the doctor needed to get there quickly. She went and called and said the on call doctor was on her way. It had been about an hour, so she checked again, and I was at 10 cm, but we still had to wait for a doctor to get there. Just like with Hannah, I did not get any pain medicine because it all happened so fast. I hadn't made a decision on that issue, so I was fine with it. The thought of an epidural still makes me queasy, but I was open to it if I was in enough pain for enough time! While waiting for the doctor, I heard the nurse tell another nurse that I was further along (had more head compression) than the girl down the hall who was already pushing! If the doctor had been about 3 minutes longer, I probably would have said I didn't care who delivered the baby, it was coming! Once the doctor walked in the room, it was minutes until Jacob was born, at 4:48 a.m. What a feeling of joy and relief! Everything went as I hoped and prayed it would.
It really seemed like we were "on our own" after he was born. The three of us got to spend several hours in the delivery room alone. We waited a few hours to call family since it was so early. Since it was a Monday, most people were working so it was pretty quiet. Mom, Dad, Betsy, and Hannah came around noon and stayed a few hours.
Hannah was SO EXCITED! She kept yelling "baby, baby, baby!" She was smiling about as big as I've ever seen her smile. She wanted to be as close to him as possible. Once when my dad was looking at him, she tried to push him away and said "no, my baby!"
After I thought we had told all of our family, I got online because I was excited to put it on my facebook and e-mail the church, but I knew when I saw 30 new messages in my inbox that the word had already leaked! Even my sister Emily found out through a random text message! What a world of technology we live in!
We had a few more hours to ourselves, and then Josh's Dad, Grandma, and Mom came to meet Jacob. Shortly after they left, Josh went home to be with Hannah overnight. Jacob and I had a pretty good night, but I was really tired since I hadn't slept much the night before. Jacob did really well on sleeping, but we were interupted lots by the nurses. In the middle of the night, he had to do his hearing test, 24 hour assessment, blood work, and pediatrician check-all at different times. And of course I had to feed him several times aside from all of that. I was really ready to go home by morning, so they started our discharge, and we left around noon!
There was construction going on at the time of our discharge, so nothing was going smoothly. Everything was taking a long time, so I opted out of doing the hospital pictures. I took a few shots of him on my bed instead:
After our experience with Hannah, it was great to have such a short hospital stay. With her, I was in the hospital four nights (two nights in labor and two in recovery). Then Hannah was there for six nights. This time, we got there early Monday morning and were home early Tuesday afternoon! I am so thankful to God for answering my prayers about carrying Jacob to term and that he is so healthy. I remember that as soon as I had Hannah, I was excited about having another, and I feel exactly the same this time. Just look at his face. He makes me want ten more; he is so precious!
