We are so excited to welcome Jonathan William Parker to our family! It took him a while to decided when to make his appearance but once he decided he did not hesitate to show up. He weighed in at 8lbs, 4ozs and 20.5 inches long.
In Hebrew, Jonathan means God has given. In the old testament Jonathan was a heroic and courageous warrior, a faithful son, and a devoted and loyal friend to his brother-in-law King David. We love that Jonathan and Nathan where both great friends to King David. Bill and I have been blessed over the years with great friendships and it is our prayer that Nathan and Jonathan will grow to be great friends to each other and will be blessed with deep friendships through out their lives. We also think it is fun that Nathan's name is a part of Jonathan's. :)
Here is the high level time line of labor and delivery. After the pictures are the nitty gritty details of the evening.
Sunday November 10th
6pm: Light contractions started
8pm: Contractions started to get intense enough that I had to stop and manage them
10pm: We called Tara, our doula, she told me to go to bed and call her if things got more intense
Monday November 11th
12:10am: I told Bill to call Tara
12:30am: Tara arrives and tells Bill it would be good to get the grandparents in route
1:30am: We leave for the hospital
2:09am: Jonathan arrives
For most of October I had irregular contractions and on several occasions I told Bill that I thought labor was imminent. Well, Halloween and my due date, November 1, came and went. On Friday, November 8th, I went in for my 41 week appointment and my doctor striped my membranes. That night and the following night I had more irregular contractions and cramping. Sunday morning I woke up with an achy back but I did my best to ignore it so as not to get my hopes up again that labor was going to start. We headed to church, had lunch, and ran a few errands.
Earlier in the week, to help with the distraction of anticipating labor, I invited our friends, Scott and Karyn, over for dinner that night. After my afternoon nap I started cleaning the house and preparing for dinner. In that time I lost my mucus plug and around 6pm I started feeling some very light contractions. I ignored them and focused on enjoying our friends.
Around 8pm, as we were cleaning up from dinner, I had three contractions in a row that made me stop and catch my breath. Karyn noticed and asked if I was ok. I said "if this keeps up we are going to have a baby soon". Well as we continued with our evening the contractions came on stronger and with each one I had to stop what I was doing and really focus on managing the pain.
By 10pm we decided that it was time to call Tara, our doula. After having a couple of contractions while talking to her, she encouraged me to go to bed and rest. The contractions would either stop or get more intense. By 10:30pm I was in bed and as she predicted the contractions came on stronger and stronger. By midnight I was having a hard time managing the contractions on my own so we called Tara and told her to come over.
Tara arrived at the house by 12:30am and put me in a side lying position in bed. Almost immediately the contractions came on even stronger and I started feeling Jonathan moving down my birth canal. Tara said she did not think we were going to be laboring all night and all day like I did with Nathan. Bill told Tara he needed about an hour's notice to get his parents to the house to watch Nathan. Tara told him to call them right away. Hearing that was sweet relief to me!
Over the course of the next hour Tara had me in several different positions and kept telling me that we were not going to be laboring for much longer. By 1:15am or so I was starting to feel a tremendous amount of pressure and could tell that we needed to get to the hospital soon. Bill's parents were still a little ways out so we ended up calling Scott and Karyn (who live 2 blocks from us) and asking them to come until Tom and Katharine arrived.
By 1:30am we were in the car and headed to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital I was feeling like I needed to push. Tara put me in a wheelchair and she sprinted through the hospital to Labor and Delivery. (A little side note: L&D at Kaiser Santa Clara is on the 3rd floor. Who puts L&D on the third floor? I had visions of having my baby in the elevator!) We got to L&D and Tara told the receptionist my name and that I wanted to push. The receptionist said she did not know we were coming and asked me what my medical record ID was. I told her I had no idea and that my husband who was parking the car had my card. Another contraction hit and the lady pointed us to a delivery room and said "we'll figure it out later. The important thing is that we don't have a baby in front of my desk."
Tara immediately took me into the bathroom. I had two contractions on the toilet. During the second one I gave a tentative push (I was a little nervous about having a baby on the toilet). Than I moved to the bed and pushed once. The doctor checked my dilation. I pushed a second time. My water broke. I pushed a third time and Jonathan was born at 2:09am.
A number of people have asked me if labor was more painful this time around since it was so fast. I don't remember it being more painful but it was definitely more intense and maybe a bit scary. I remember the flurry of activity as Bill was getting the grandparents and Karyn lined up to come stay with Nathan which left me a bit anxious. Numerous times Tara said to me that everything was going to be ok and that we had plenty of time to make it to the hospital. I hung on to those words and repeated them to myself as we drove to the hospital and navigated to L&D. In the end I am incredibly grateful that labor went quickly. I think it left me in a much better disposition emotionally and physically than with Nathan's 23.5 hour labor. Although 6 hours of labor with baby #2 does make me a bit nervous what labor would be like IF we try for baby #3. Maybe I'll entertain a home birth IF there is a third. And right now that is a BIG if!
1 comment:
congrats, he's beautiful!!!
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