Jude's Birth Story 💌

I don’t know what it is about birth stories—but I love them. Especially the ones that aren’t particularly traumatic. I say that because it feels like during pregnancy people just love to come up and tell you the scariest birth story they ever heard. About babies being born on the floor of a Honda or in a parking garage because they couldn’t make it to the hospital in time. While I’m sure these are true accounts (sorry to those mamas out there who had to go through something like that!), these aren’t the average stories. My recommendation to someone who’s pregnant and maybe fearing birth—listen to as many positive birth stories as you can before you go into labor. They are out there—and it totally helped calm me down and reminded me that our bodies are created to do this and women are giving birth every day and living to tell a mundane, but beautiful story. A few of my favorite resources are “A Birthful Podcast” which features birth stories, and then just asking mamas I knew to tell me their experience.

Okay so this time around—I actually was still nervous about giving birth. Maybe more so than I was with Elle because I knew the pain and distinctly remember thinking…”I’m not doing this again ever” while I was in labor with her. So funny how three months later I was begging Jeffrey for another baby. Those newborn hormones, they’ll getcha.

Also with Jude’s pregnancy I had pretty bad false labor / Braxton Hicks contractions leading up to the birth. These contractions brought me right back to the pain I felt in the delivery room with Elle, and it freaked me out. The week or so leading up to December 9th I was really struggling with irrational fears of losing the baby in labor, of an emergency C-section or even me dying in birth. It really helped for me to voice these fears to some girlfriends and with Jeffrey, and just pray through them. I was reminded again that as much as you can prepare mentally or physically for birth—it’s one of those things in life you only have so much control over. I knew God was in control ultimately and that freed me up from over worrying.

Okay so it’s Wednesday. I’m going a little stir crazy, even though we’re still before the due date and I had gone two weeks past with Eleanor. For some reason I didn’t make plans for the first two weeks of December, you know just in case I went into labor. So I’m getting antsy and bored, feeling like I’m just sitting around waiting, hoping, yet a little afraid to feel that first contraction that sends me into labor. I went to the gym that day, walked a few miles and biked. Came home and decided to make one of my favorite spicy dishes to see if I could get things moving. Jeffrey took Elle to the park and I took a bath and read a little of Uninvited. After Elle was in bed I started having some contractions. We timed them from 9pm to 12am and they were consistently 8 minutes apart. Finally I was so annoyed I just went to sleep and decided if they got closer together and more painful, it would wake me up.

After a restless night of sleep for both Jeffrey and I, we woke on Thursday morning. I was so discouraged that it was just false labor again. I spent a lot of the day just moping around thinking it was going to be like this for another week or two.

Jeffrey on the other hand was even more excited after that night. To him it meant we were so close to meeting our baby. (This is just a snapshot of our marriage and what it’s like to marry an optimist while being a pessimist.) Before Jeffrey left for work he wanted to read the book of Jude together. This was the name we were almost certain we wanted to use for our son. My favorite part is at the end of the book, the Doxology. It was so sweet reading this and praying over our son together.

Jeffrey left and Elle and I just hung out at the house all day. I read applications for Chapman University for a few hours. I took a nap when she did in the afternoon. Jeffrey came home early and I ran up to the gym real quick to try and walk the baby out for an hour. When we got home we heated up our spicy peanut noodle leftovers then played with Eleanor in her room before bedtime. Once Elle was down we got in bed and watched an episode of the Good Wife and then fell asleep around 9pm.

At 10pm I was woken up almost yelling because of the contractions I was having. It was shocking how painful it was right from the beginning. In my first labor the contractions definitely eased in more gradually. We waited about an hour at the house until they were closer together. I laid in bed and would tell Jeffrey when the contractions started and ended, while Jeffrey was packing his bag and timing them on an app (Full Term). After an hour we called Jeffrey’s parents to come over and stay with Elle and we drove over to the hospital, which was about a 30 minute drive. Jeffrey wanted to stall us checking in because he didn't want to be at the hospital as long as we were last time (15 hours). He suggested we go to In n Out drive thru, I said "um no, I want to go to the hospital NOW." I’m sure in a very loving tone…

We parked in the Stork parking lot for women in labor and went to walk in the front doors. We realized as we got closer that after 10pm they lock those entryways and there were signs to go around to the side doors. No problem. Except that I was in labor and had to stop for contractions every few steps. Also I'm screaming through the contractions and it's 11pm at night. We passed a group of nurses coming out of the building who looked genuinely frightened by my stance and the noises I was making. 

When we got to the side entrance a nurse got me a wheelchair and took me up to labor and delivery. We checked in at triage where they take all your initial information and vitals, and check to see how far you’ve progressed. If you’re not 4cm they sometimes tell you to go for a walk and come back in an hour. I was just praying I had progressed to 5cm (I was 4cm at my last OB appt) so I could stay. To our surprise I was already 7cm dilated! I was so shocked. With Eleanor I was only 2.5cm dilated when I checked in and they kept me in triage for almost 10 hours. This time they moved me right away to my own laboring room. ALL THE PRAISE HANDS. We got to get comfortable and had space to breathe. Also our own bathroom/shower. HALLELUJAH. 

Then every hour from there I progressed pretty fast. Around 1am I was at 8cm and I was losing it. Just the worst pain in my lower back and I kept having these huge urges to push which scared the crap out of me because I knew I wasn't fully dilated yet and didn't want to put the baby into distress. The nurse phoned the midwife who came in and took one look at me and said "I think I'm going to stay in here with you from now on.” She checked me and surprised me again by saying...you’re fully dilated, it's time!

Now this was the part I feared the most. With my first labor I could not grasp the concept of pushing.  I kept telling the nurses and midwife that I was so bad at this part. I didn't understand how to do it and with Elle it took HOURS. They were so affirming and kept telling me there's no way it'll take that long with my second baby. The first ones are stubborn but the second ones are ready to go. 

They were right! Fifteen minutes later and he literally SLIPPED right out with a big push. The midwife actually missed him and he fell on the little padded table right by the bed (It’s funny now, not at the time. It's like...I’m doing the hard part. You have one job lady. Catch the baby.) 

So just like that we heard his first cry and he was on my chest. I feel like I barely had time to process what was happening before they handed him to me. It was 4 hours long from the first contraction that woke me up to him being in my arms. Not enough time to even consider meds or pain reliever.

We played the doxology after he was born and sang to him. This was the first time he opened his eyes to look at us. (cue all the tears) He barely cried those first few hours, even when he had his shots. When they put him on my chest he latched on to nurse right away and then fell asleep in my arms. He's making my heart melt all over again—I had no idea that was possible. 

Then we went to recover in postpartum. Jude slept next to me.  Jeffrey was fast asleep on the couch. I would have slept but adrenaline and contractions made that impossible. I totally forgot there were contractions AFTER you give birth. And they're painful! You think you're done once that babies out but nope. The healing process is only beginning.

But I was fine not sleeping. I was so content to just sit here and stare at my baby’s precious face. Watch him coo and breathe in and out. Birth is such a miracle. He was inside me for almost 40 weeks and now he's right here in front of me, breathing on his own and sleeping the night away. I feel so honored that I get the chance to go through labor and bring a child into the world. God designed us so perfectly and I'm in awe of what our bodies can do. Now real life starts and we try to figure out how to love and raise TWO BABIES. Currently accepting all prayers!