James 1:17 (NIV)
"Every
good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the
heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
The
birth of Mr. James was quite the whirlwind! I was due January 16th but
he had other plans! Thursday January 15 was like any other day. I took
Kate to school and Benny and I stopped at pick-n-save to grab a few
things. We came home and I noticed I was having some "beginning signs"
of labor but they didn't for sure mean labor was coming soon. We went
about our merry day. I picked Kate up, made lunch and got Ben down for a
nap and Kate "resting". I laid down on the couch to take my usual
afternoon nap (yes, my usual nap, I was that tired every.single.day the
last few weeks of this pregnancy). I woke up shortly after 3 and was
having some mild cramping. I wasn't even sure if they were contractions.
Within the next hour or 2 I knew they were contractions but I did not
know if they were real labor or braxton hicks. By dinner time I had a
strong feeling that they weren't going to calm down and it was on- I
started timing them now. They started around 7-11 min apart I think. I
quickly finished packing my bag (yep, packing my bag at 39 weeks and 6
days pregnant lol) and I hopped in to take a quick shower while Brad ran
around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to clean up and what
not. He must have known this was the real deal! By now my contractions
were coming closer together but I wasn't having to breath through them a
lot. While I was in the shower the contractions took on a life of their
own and I was soon doubling over to breath through them. I told Brad I
think it was time for his mom to come over to stay with the kids. Now my
contractions were roughly 4-7 minutes apart. Shelle quickly got on her
way to our house. About 10-15 minutes after we told her to head over I
said to Brad "We need to go, right now". We scrambled around gathering
our bags and the big kids and got on the road. The contractions were
very intense and I was your stereotypical pregnant lady on the way to
the hospital. I kept telling Brad not to speed. We pulled up to the
hospital and Shelle was there waiting to scoop up the kids. Brad grabbed
me a wheel chair, I kissed the kids and we headed up. I was moaning and
groaning in pain wondering how people do this with no meds lol. I had
really really wanted an all natural birth this time. It was my dream
lol. I wanted one with the other two but i chickened out and got the
drugs. We got up to L&D and they were there waiting for us. I hopped
up on the bed. My midwife asked if i was having any pressure and I said
"No, not really". She then checked be and asked if I felt the urge to
push.... "um no". I thought the look on her face meant I wasn't very far
dilated. WRONG. She said my water was about to go and Brad knew by the
look on her face I was far more dilated than I thought. I was a good 9.
One more contraction came and my water broke. Then I had the intense
urge to push. Within 3-4 pushes tops my sweet little James joined us!
There wasn't even time to get an IV in before I had him. He was born NO
MORE than 15 minutes after we arrived!!! Had we waited for Shelle to
come to our house he may have been born at home or in the car! I
definitely got my all natural birth this time!! I had really bad
bleeding after he was born. I am thankful we made it to the hospital.
They had to give me pitocin to get my uterus to start contracting back
down. They were pushing on my stomach to get it back down. It wasn't
working and they had to call in a dr to help. Man was that painful! I
would gladly birth 10 kids all natural before having that again!!
But, we are both healthy and well now and I am thankful for that. James
does have a dilated kidney that we are monitoring. He just had an
ultrasound on it last week. We hoped it was clearing up but its not. We
are waiting to hear from our dr what the game plan is. I'd like to just
monitor it for a while and see if it goes away. But, we'll see what the
doc thinks. He's out of town this week so i dont think we'll hear
anything until next week. All prayers for little James are appreciated.
I cant believe tomorrow he'll
be 3 weeks! The kids are adjusting to him ok. Ben doesn't seem phased
by him and Kate is getting used to him too. Both kiddos are acting up a
bit more but that's kind of expected. They are watching enough tv to
melt their brains and mom and dad are low on energy to play and
entertain. Its an adjustment but were making it :) We all love James to
bits. We look forward to watching him grow and getting into a routine.
Brad goes back to work monday so that should be interesting getting them
up and kate to school on time lol! wish me luck! Pardon any spelling
and grammatical errors. I am holding James and typing with one hand :D
