Jude's Amazing Timing

After my due date passed, February 6th, with no real signs of labor on the horizon, I began wondering what day Baby Jude would actually join our family. I actually needed the extra time because I hadn't yet felt a real nesting urge, or the little I had felt had seemed too overwhelming to embark on the list of projects. Preparing a 740 sq foot house for a SECOND child felt like a bit more than I could chew at 39 and 40 weeks pregnant. :-)

It occurred to me as Valentine's Day approached that we were at the one year mark of the miscarriage that had ended a pregnancy right before this. It made me realize that although at the time it felt like forever, we had actually been blessed with a healthy pregnancy quite quickly following the miscarriage. Then, I looked at the calendar and thought, Jude might make his entrance on the 18th--that would be the exact one year mark of the actual passing. I didn't feel necessarily that the 18th was significant, just in general that the Lord was blessing us with a beautiful healthy baby exactly one year from our loss. My dad, who my mom says accurately predicted the birthdays of most their kids, guessed Jude would be here on Monday the 16th. Being 41 weeks and feeling swollen and uncomfortable, I hoped he was right.

But again, the extra time really was a blessing. The house felt more ready than I thought it could. My parents took Corbin for a long Presidents' Day weekend visit which gave Dustin and I some much needed rest and time together. An extra Sunday at church hearing so many people wonder when I would be induced strengthened my resolve to resist medical norms and allow nature to take its course. I felt it confirmed to me that Jude's arrival was between me, Jude, and Heavenly Father. And the best part, I finally recognized and expressed some fears I had about labor, birth, and becoming a mom of two. It was a conversation I needed to have with Dustin and it didn't happen till the night before Jude was born.

So Dad was right, but we didn't think he would be. I went to my prenatal appointment on Monday morning, not a sign of labor. My midwife stripped my membranes (don't look that up if you don't want to get TMI--my mom described it to my dad as something like breaking your water to get labor going to which he said, maybe I don't want to know...) It did get some contractions going, and she said I was dilated close to a 4. This was great news to me because it took about 8 hours of labor with Corbin to get to a 4. I was hoping that meant labor would be cut in half this time. (Corbin was 16 hours). Anyway, a few small contractions got going, but nothing significant and my midwife said it's about a 50/50 chance that it will develop into actual labor. At 12:30 I went home with those small contractions and assumed that even if they developed, I was likely to labor into the night. Jude might be born early Tuesday, I thought.

Mom thought the same thing when I told her I was getting some small consistent contractions. She offered to keep Corbin one more night just in case I kept progressing. Then things started rolling so quickly. Dustin and I decided to go for a walk to the store to try to encourage the contractions. By the time I was done going to the bathroom in preparation for our walk, I noticed I didn't want to put pants on. I started pacing the house and breathing through contractions that were coming about two minutes apart. I told Dustin a walk didn't sound good anymore. But I did notice that I felt very excited. I told Dustin, I'm excited to have this baby. I'm not scared like I was when labor started with Corbin. I was so pleased to enter it with this enthusiasm. It probably helped that I was truly hoping not to be pregnant for one more day!

I texted my midwife that contractions were getting stronger but they weren't quite a minute long yet so I figured they weren't hard enough even though they were coming 1-2 minutes apart. Dustin and I set about preparing the house. We got the crockpot going for hot towels. I suggested we make the bed. When I had to drop to my hands and knees every couple minutes to get through the contractions, I said, sorry I can't help with the bed, and wondered if I should call my midwife. The extent of our "birth plan" this time was to ignore labor as long as possible so it wouldn't feel like an all day event of timing contractions and feeling exhausted by the end. So I decided to hold off on calling her.

Fortunately, she called me at about 3:30. She asked if I could get in a hot shower or bath to see if the contractions would stop. I said, ya I was just thinking a hot shower sounded good. Then a contraction came and she heard me breathing through it. She said," Oh, you are breathing through those. I'll just come over." I showered while she came and heard Dustin vacuuming the living room. I thought it was sweet that he wanted to get the house all ready. But by the time I got out of the shower, and still heard the vacuum, I was so annoyed that he was vacuuming. That's when I decided this was real labor. I thought, he's totally focusing on the wrong thing! But I just said, "I need you now" and dropped to my hands and knees. I was on all 4's most of this labor.

The contractions weren't giving me very long breaks--they were definitely coming a minute apart. When Cyndi (midwife) got to our house and saw me get two right in a row, she said, I'm not going to do the IV because you don't have four hours. (I was Group B Strep positive this time so I was supposed to get an IV of antibiotics during labor, but the antibiotics have to be in your system for at least four hours to take effect.) I of course was celebrating in my head that she thought this would go that quickly, but Dustin and I were both prepared for it to go much longer. I didn't want to get my hopes up.

The birth assistant Lisa came. She agreed with Cyndi that I was progressing quickly. Dustin and I just sort of hoped they were right. In the meantime, mom was wondering if I was progressing. She sent a text to check on me, to which she received no response until two hours later when we sent her a pic of me happily holding Jude. I was shocked it had gone that quickly and knew she would be too. It was pretty fun to send her that surprise.

When labor goes that quickly, even though I had different pain management techniques that worked with Corbin and planned to use again, I just didn't have time to even think of them. Fortunately, my birth team started doing some things for me. At one point someone placed a hot towel on my back, and I said, oh ya, thank you. I forgot how good those feel. Dustin started pushing on my back, and it came back to me--oh ya, he did that for every contraction all day when I was in labor with Corbin. Yes, that helps. The contractions were coming so fast that mostly all I could think to do was survive--breathe through that one and then rest in between.

At one point, Lisa was telling me she would try doing a hip compression on the next contraction. I felt this urge to run away. I knew that meant transition, but I couldn't believe I was actually there already. I thought, you can't just "decide" you are in transition Jennie. You probably just want to run away because you know what is coming now. But I knew it was a definite rush of adrenaline like I felt like I could and should run away. I went back in the bedroom and said I was feeling hot and cold flashes, which I also remembered were part of transition and pushing with Corbin. Soon, I started grunting and groaning a bit with the contractions. Lisa said that I sounded "pushy" and asked if I felt like pushing. I was kind of floored by the question as I hadn't felt like my body directed the pushing necessarily with Corbin. I didn't feel like I would know to push until Cyndi told me I was at a 10. Boy was I wrong. Your body definitely tells you to push, and you really can't not push at that point.

So Lisa said to try pushing a little with one and if it hurts, I'm not ready. I went back to lay down on the bed and try to rest from hands and knees. There were one or two contractions that seemed long and had double peaks. I felt like Dustin couldn't push hard enough on my back in that position, but I didn't have time between contractions to change positions. Cyndi said I sounded "pushy" again, and I definitely felt the need to put a little pressure around the contractions. Dustin put his hand on my hip to give a little leverage for pressing on my back and I felt like my legs were being squeezed together. My whole body went into panic mode--I was like I've got to get my legs open! So I finally believed that he might be coming. I hurried and sat up to the position I had used to push Corbin. One contraction there and I was like heck no, we are not pushing like that. Cyndi said, yes, that's a nice position for the movies. Get back on your hands and knees--haha.

I didn't love hands and knees because I was tired, but I felt like I had much more control over my body that way. It was pretty amazing to curl my back during a contraction and see my stomach muscles pushing the baby down. It was almost involuntary and yet, I felt like I was working. Cyndi started to prepare me for delivery with oils and hot towels, and that was really helpful to get me to trust that indeed, this is the time to push. She did finally tell me there was just a small lip that needed to open before I was at a 10. She figured one more contraction. I felt renewed, even though I think I was still yelling, "I can't do this!" One more contraction and my water broke. I could feel baby right there, but it still was hard to trust that I could get him out. I was so much more aware of my body and how it was working this time, which was really cool, but at the same time, a bit lacking confidence that I could do it. Finally I felt that ring of fire, and was pretty sure baby was going to be stuck there. Cyndi told me to hold back and just breathe while he crowned. It took a lot to calm down but I knew I needed to. I was getting hysteric and she was probably trying to help me not tear (which was unsuccessful, but still a bit better than with Corbin).

Jude seemed to come out all in one push. She told me he had tons of hair, but I hadn't felt the relief of his head coming out like I had felt so significantly with Corbin. And yet, the next thing I knew, she was passing my baby to me under my legs. I was in total shock. He was beautiful. He felt like such a gift. And I just sat back on my feet and held him and felt amazed. I felt the empowerment this time that many natural birth moms had told me about. I felt totally energized and in the best mood ever. It was like one extreme to another in 2 seconds.

We decided to count labor as starting at 3:30 because that was the time I saw on the clock when I felt like I couldn't ignore the contractions. So when they said he was born at 5:30, I was like, it's only been 2 hours?!?! Probably the most intense two hours of my life, but really, so amazing that we went through that whole process in just two hours! I felt like Heavenly Father had more than answered my prayers with a daytime labor and shorter than I ever thought possible. And I was amazed that Dad was right and Jude arrived on Monday the 16th--in just the time that he was supposed to.

In the end, we think my dates may have been off because Jude's gestational age was 40 weeks. So the lesson I learned there is to just add two weeks to your estimated due date and not get your hopes up that you are close until you are closer to the 2 week post-date time frame. That extra week and some is pretty killer.

So happy to have our Jude here. Can't wait to see him learn and grow and especially become good friends with his big brother, Corbin--who I can't complain one bit about his sweet love for his new Baby Jude. Love my boys and feel so blessed to have them.