Welcome to the World Jack!

Jack David Root was born at 2:44 am on Friday May 23rd. He weighed 7lbs 7oz, was 19.5 inches long, and was perfect in every way!

The delivery was a truly incredible experience. Thanks to the unwavering support of my wonderful husband, my amazing friend Clarity, and the best OB/GYN & labor and delivery nurse in the world, the entire process was exactly what we had hoped for.

On Wednesday evening I started having contractions that felt different than the Braxton-Hicks contractions I had been having. I was hoping it might be the beginnings of labor, but I didn't want to get my hopes up yet because I wasn't sure. So, I puttered around the house and tried to relax. I took a bath, tried to snooze on the couch, and pestered the dog since I had told Josh to get some sleep (after all, it could have been a false alarm, and I didn't want to keep him up all night since he had to work the next day). Around 2:00 I woke him up and told him that we should start making sure we had everything ready to leave for the hospital...just in case. We finally left the house around 4:30. We got down to Anacortes, and made ourselves at home at the Kozy Kottage (Josh's grandmother's house). I didn't want to go to the hospital until I absolutely had to, but this being my first baby I really had no idea when I should go. So, eventually I decided to go in so that they could check to see how far along I was. I was a mere 2cm dilated, so we went back to the house to wait it out.

Visits from friends & family helped to pass the time, but by around 6:00 I thought it might be time to head back to the hospital again. The contractions were starting to get more intense, and I thought it might be easier to get settled into a room at this point rather than later on. After I was admitted, the nurse gave me the news that I was still only 2cm dilated. I wasn't too disappointed, because I knew that things could progress slowly at this point, but I was just hoping I had made the right decision to go to the hospital. At this point, I got a phone call from my doctor, who apparently had been trying to reach us all afternoon, but only had our home number back in Bellingham. She told me that she was leaving the next day at 2 in the afternoon to take her daughter's Girl Scout troop camping. She wanted to offer me the option of having her break my water to help speed things along. This was the hardest decision I had to make throughout my entire labor. I had decided early on that I wasn't going to do anything to speed up the process, and that I would be content to let things progress at their own pace. I was dead set against taking Pitocin, since it can make the contractions more intense and harder to deal with, but I hadn't put much thought into having my water broken. I just assumed that I wouldn't do it. I REALLY wanted my doctor to deliver the baby though, and I didn't feel like the experience would be the same with a different doctor who I didn't feel as comfortable with. So, I told her to come on down to the hospital and break that sucker open.

It turned out to the the right decision in so many ways. First of all, I can't imagine having had anyone else do the delivery. She was amazing and incredibly supportive. In fact, she bent over backwards to make sure that Josh and I got to have the birth experience that we wanted. Second of all, she didn't really even have to "break" my water, but who knows how long things would have taken if she hadn't come then. As soon as she arrived, she checked me to see if I had dilated any farther. Just by taking the measurement, she broke through a little bit of skin on my cervix that had remained attached, and I "popped" open to 5cm. She didn't even have to use the crochet hook thingy to break my water, just touching the sac with her finger caused it to rupture. After that, it was on.

I spent the next several hours working through contractions with Josh and Clarity at my side. Mom, Dad, Gramma, Alicia, and Kathleen were in the waiting room, receiving regular updates from Josh via text messages. At some point it was determined, based on my back labor and the pattern of my contractions, that Jack was posterior. This means that the baby's is head down in the birth canal, but facing forward (instead of towards mom's backbone). An ultrasound showed that he was only half-way posterior, facing directly towards my left side. So, I spent the next couple of hours laboring alternately on my side and my hands and knees to try to encourage him to turn. This was the most difficult part of the labor for me, because the positions just didn't feel right, and I was starting to get exhausted. I decided to take a couple of low doses of fentanyl through an IV. I wasn't sure I wanted to take anything, since I had gone this far "naturally" and really wanted to go the rest of the way. I was glad after I did it though. It didn't make me feel funny or drugged. It felt exactly like drinking one beer - you aren't drunk, and you certainly aren't numb to pain, but you feel just a little more relaxed - which turned out to be exactly what I needed to get him to turn (good job, Jack!).

After he turned, the pain in my back stopped, and I was able to breathe through the contractions much more easily. I knew my baby was coming soon, and when I needed support I could look to Clarity on one side and Josh on the other. I had been so deep inside myself during the part of the labor when we were trying to get him to reposition himself that I had barely been aware of anyone or anything else. So, to come out of the fog and have both of them there felt amazing to me. They talked me through the last few hours of contractions when I was dilating from 8cm to 10cm. Dr. Garde arrived, and Susan (my fantastic labor & delivery nurse) told me that it was just about "time." In my birth plan, I had asked for a mirror to look at Jack's head as he crowned. I assumed that someone would hold up a hand mirror at the moment his head popped out, but boy was I wrong. They set up a full length mirror at the end of the bed, and I got to watch the entire thing. During the final few contractions I just focused on his little head as is inched its way out a little more each time. I knew he was so close. I reached down and felt his warm little scalp covered in hair, and I knew I could do anything to get him out and into my arms.

We took the end part slowly so that I wouldn't tear, and Dr. Garde worked with me to ease him out a little at a time. By this point, Josh had suited up in scrubs and was standing by to "catch" the baby. To be honest, neither one of us fully understood what this meant when we put it in our birth plan. I thought that the doctor would probably deliver the baby and then hand him to his dad to bring up to my chest. Instead, she literally let Josh deliver our son. As soon as the head was out, Josh stepped in and guided out one shoulder then the other, "catching" the baby. I had my eyes closed for this part, so I'm really glad that Josh got to be there to experience it. He brought Jack up to my chest, and I cried and laughed and just felt generally overwhelmed. He squirmed up to my breast and tried to nurse, and was eating his first little meal within 2 minutes of being born. He was perfect. It was perfect. I was in complete and total awe of the life that we had created.

Three days later I am still in awe. We got to go home from the hospital 17 hours after he was born (which is pretty amazing - but everyone was healthy and we were anxious to get home to our comfy bed). Since then we have had lots of visits from friends and family, and lots of help with meals since we've been a little too distracted for grocery shopping or cooking. Other than that, we are just working on figuring out what works for our family. Everything requires a bit of trial and error at this point, but I have faith in all three of us.

Lots of love to all of our friends & family for their support and help in welcoming Jack to the world!

Early labor

Grif was a little worried

The love of my life
Thank God for Clarity

Jack is almost here!
Seconds after birth

Jack meets his grandpa
Home safe and sound