The Birth Story

Let me just say thank you so much to everyone who prayed he would come on his own! It is sooo much easier than being induced. I was so sure that I would have to be induced yesterday I signed up to bring food for a church outreach, told Brad to let scheduling know it would be Wednesday, didn't have the baby room completely set up, etc. My mom had me walking 2 miles a day, bouncing on an exercise ball and telling us to do other things that are supposed to bring on labor (wink, wink). Well it worked! Friday night we went to see Soul Surfer for date night. I was pretty uncomfortable going to bed that night (as I had been the past couple nights) and I noticed by 1am that I might be having some minor contractions. I walked around the house, sat on the ball but they kept coming. I finally woke Brad up at 2:30am telling him that I was pretty uncomfortable and we started timing. They were about 2 to 3 minutes apart. We timed for a while, went on a walk outside and installed the carseat. We called and they were on the fence about whether we should come in so we decided to wait another hour or so. I took a bath and finished packing our bags and then we headed in around 5am. I was so paranoid that we would be sent home that we left the bags and stuff in the car when we checked in. But as we were checking in my contractions must have seemed real to them and I got wheeled up to L&D and hooked up to everything. When she finally checked me and I was about a 5cm I was so relieved to know that we were staying. I asked for the epidural and it took forever for the guy to get there - that was the hardest part of the labor. The doctor broke my water at one point and by 8:30am I was fully dilated. But the doctor said that the head was still pretty high and since I was on the epidural asked if I wanted to see if the contractions would push his head lower so he would be easier to push out. He implied he would check back in a couple hours. Well I took a nap, we looked at baby names again, played tetris etc. Finally around 11am I was getting hungry (epidurals are amazing) so I started asking when the doctor was going to come back to see if I could start pushing. With Chase they let the epidural wear off because they wanted me to be able to feel how I was pushing because I guess I was doing it wrong so I wanted to have time for that. It took forever for the doctor to come back (around 1pm - I was getting a little annoyed). He told the nurse to go ahead and let me start pushing to see what happens. After one push the nurse said to hold up because this baby was coming! They got the doctor back and they got everything ready. At the next contraction - 2 pushes got the head out and on the 3rd push he was out! I couldn't feel a thing and there he was! They put him on my chest right away before taking him away to clean him up. I was amazed it was that easy! The recovery has been so much easier too! I could even say the day after he as born that we want more kids. I think it took forever to say that after Chase!

I loved the hospital experience here too. So much different than a military hospital. The nursery took the baby at night, except for feedings, so I could actually get some sleep and they were just more relaxed about stuff. I also liked having my own room for recovery. Ok, that wasn't exactly Lakenheath's fault - the rooms were under construction when Chase was born.

Things are going good at home. So thankful grandmom is here. I am usually out and about with just Chase so it can be hard keeping him busy here at home. It is good I guess to just have some slower days. He might have to get used to that! I have enjoyed looking back at the blog to see Chase when he was just born. I think Jacob looks a little more like my side but comparing baby pictures I think you can definitely tell they are brothers.

Jacob

Chase

These were the best pictures I could find to compare. We actually haven't taken many pictures since we got home. Poor second child!