The Delivery(s)

cute little man, eh?

As promised, and before I forget, I will tell my story of my delivery...or two. The first delivery, actually, came just hours before Landis came...our new refrigerator. So in case I'm ever wondering how old my frig. is, just remind me that it was born the same day Landis was....thanks to the help of my parents.

So on Tuesday, Sept 22, my due date, I had a Dr's appointment and she went ahead and swept my membranes. So as to not get toooo graffic on the web, this is just a simple process that helps to get the hormones moving that help further contractions...I was already having tons of contractions and was dilated to a 4, but still nothing going anywhere. So that night, after eating at our favorite nacho and hamburger joint where I stuffed my body with jalapenos in hopes that the spicey wives-tale would do wonders, my contractions did come along. But we went to bed, and I just had really strange dreams all night long, and back pain and cramping. Finally I woke up to Amaleah giving me a back rub at 4 am (completely out of the blue, this NEVER happens), and from then on my labor kicked in. I woke Luke up at 6:30 and told him he would not be going to work that day. I was in real pain at this point, mostly with back labor. So I finished packing, and Luke unloaded the refrigerator, because of course, the new one was scheduled to arrive that morning. We went up and told the girls, and waited for my mom to arrive to watch them. We then headed to the hospital in the middle of a.m. traffic, and I was feeling like crying from the pain (which for me is a sign of being really close).

When I got checked in at 8 a.m., my Dr. examined me (no, Luke is not my Dr., and doesn't do any exams on me, for those of you who wondered but couldn't bring yourself to ask), and I was dilated to a 6. I wanted to try without meds this time (I did it without meds with Amaleah, my first, but not with Julia), and so I went for it. About an hour later my Dr. broke my water to get things moving along, and then when I was finally to an 8, I started pushing. I couldn't help it...without the epidural it was the only thing I could do to help with the pain (not that it helped, it just gave me an avenue to be embarassingly loud and screamy, upon hindsight). All along, Luke was pushing on my lower back with every contraction, because that's where the pain was up until the very end. Finally, at about 10:30 came the real pushing, after probably 30 minutes of the pre-pushing, and then it seemed to take forever to get this little man out! And at this point, I was seriously thinking, "What have I done? I'm insane! Why didn't I get an epidural? I'm soooo stupid!" along with a few accusations towards Eve who made this all happen. But nonetheless, out came that big guy, all 8 lbs. 13 0z. of him, and his wet, blue body was placed on mine (which, believe it or not, was a first for me; I've always asked them to clean the baby up first; and I quickly did the same again...:).

Man, that was hard. My hardest labor yet. But labor is gratifying, whether your drugged up or not, because of that little life that comes from it. And now, 3 weeks later, it seems a mere thought. All that anticipation, and here we are on the other side of it. And all the stories on this side of labor will have to wait for another blog.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

P.S. sorry for the paragraph spacing issues, I can't figure this blogger out!