The Labor Story

I finally got a few minutes to type out the story of Hunter's arrival. Here is the abridged labor story. For the full novel to to www.jaredandjaninaskids.blogspot.com. If you aren't a reader send me your email and I will officially send you an invitation.

We got to the hospital around 11:00 pm on Tuesday July 26^th. By this time I had been having contractions since Monday morning and was ready to pop out a baby. My contractions were about four minutes apart and about 2 minutes long. I was exhausted, but glad my body was apparently ready for the adventure of childbirth. As I had researched childbirth I had planned on and prepared for a complete natural childbirth with minimal interventions.

As they showed us to our birthing room, the contractions suddenly became less intense and at longer intervals apart. At first I was disappointed but was also glad for the welcomed relief. In order to get the contractions to pick up we paced the halls of the hospital and bounced on the labor ball. Nothing worked. I soaked in the whirlpool bath for a long time hoping that would help but again, to no avail, nothing seemed to work. The contractions still were happening inconsistently at random intervals at time.

About nine the next morning the doctor came in and we discussed breaking my water to hopefully start things rolling again. This was an intervention that I was okay with doing because I knew I was too exhausted to continue for days longer of contractions. After they broke my water they expected my contractions to pick up, but again after hours of walking the boring hospital halls, bouncing on the labor ball and some more walking nothing worked. By three in the afternoon contractions were still at five minutes apart, no changes from when I was initially admitted to the hospital. We were quickly becoming disheartened. After much deliberation we decided to accelerate the contractions by using some pitocin. Initially I wanted no drug interventions but, upon analyzing our already exhausted selves, I still would have a natural childbirth, minus the synthetic speedup of the process.

The nurse plugged in the pitocin and almost immediately I began to feel the intensity progress. Before I knew it contractions were three minutes apart and I could hardly catch my breath. Somehow the nurse thought it would be better to speed things up even more and gave me an even higher dose of pitocin because she thought my breathing techniques were working wonderfully. The intensity of the contractions increased exponentially which was a great sign. By 6:00 pm I was dilated to 9 centimeters and by 6:15 pm I was starting to push and finally dilated to 10 centimeters. During the actual pushing Jared was able to hold my legs and coach me through every contraction. At this point the nurses were switching shifts and our nurse (who we actually hated) decided that Jared could hold both legs by himself and coach me through childbirth. She then left us alone for a while. I was trying to push while Jared was quickly learning how deal with a wife who was about to have a baby by himself. We were so glad when the new nurse came on shift and actually wanted to help talk us through what was happening and help Jared hold my legs.

After two long exhausting hours of pushing Hunter Thomas Jones was born at 8:24 pm weighing 8 pounds 13 ounces and was 21 inches long. I was happy to have had a natural childbirth even though several times, in the middle of the contractions, I questioned my sanity in that decision. Jared cut the umbilical cord and they immediately lay him on my chest. Hunter stopped crying almost instantaneously and fell asleep. I was so overwhelmed with tiredness and love for our perfect baby boy. I feel so blessed in being a mother and having Jared to begin this adventure of parenthood with.