Samuel's birth

Finally, the 40 weeks of my third pregnancy are up - though it was more like 41 weeks.

Samuel Jonathon was born at 4:58am on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011. He weighed in at 8 pounds, 8 ounces and was 21 inches long. I was right, our kids keep getting bigger.

When Terry and I went to bed on Monday, January 31, I was feeling quite restless and nervous...

I had been to the OB that morning and was declared 4cm dilated. My doctor encouraged us to schedule an induction since I was already almost a week overdue. So we allowed him to schedule the torturous pitocin drip for 6am Thursday February 3rd, praying that we wouldn't have to show up for it (I was induced with Noah and did not want to experience that again).

That night we watched the weather and learned that it was going to be like -40 degrees outside with blowing snow and the barometric pressure rising. I had a bad feeling that that night was the night. We put the kids to bed and I thought we might not be there in the morning to get their breakfast (my parents were already here). Turns out, I was right.

I couldn't sleep. And when I finally did drop off, I was awoken at just before 2am with a serious contraction. It was like a dream. It woke me and I groaned and woke Terry. I had another contraction soon after and knew they were the real deal, much different from the false labor contractions I had the week before. I was immediately nervous. Months before this I had continually been so full of fear of the pain I was going to be going through. We had prayed about it quite a bit and I was learning about trusting God to care for me. But I started out nervous.

Terry jumped into action while I lay in bed. He dressed, woke my parents, put in his contacts and started his Blazer. While he was busy, I was already having to breath through the contractions - they were quite strong since I was already dilated so far. Terry came back for me and we said good bye to my parents and drove to the Gburg hospital - there was no way we were driving to NP with the coldest weather of the year.

We arrived at the hospital at 230am and they wheeled me down to the Labor and Delivery Suite. They already had my birth plan and were most willing to oblige me, thankfully. They monitored the baby for 20 minutes and then let me get up and be free, which I was so ready to do (with Evie they made me stay in bed, this time I wanted to move).

Here is Terry after an hour and a half of labor (love that the clock is in the background). He is quite excited, though I don't even remember this shot being taken!

So I sat in the rocking chair and worked through the contractions. With my other births I never took seriously the laboring options I had studied. With Samuel, I mostly did deep breathing. I also tried to relax all the muscles in my body. The contractions were intense and pretty darn close together at 1-3 minutes. Terry recorded all of them in his phone. Pretty amazing of him.

Here is Terry praying for me between one of the contractions. I felt like God was being so kind to me and said so, like He was giving me good breaks - actually, I think they just felt like long breaks b/c they weren't actually.

I started out feeling nervous but pretty soon had to concentrate so much that I didn't have time for anything else. All the fear left me. God really gave me a great labor - only 3 hours! I just found myself able to deal with the pain, get through it and rest in between contractions. Actually, I felt a lot like Bella from Twilight as she was becoming a vampire (totally lame I know) - that if I started to freak out I wouldn't be able to cope with the pain. I felt like I handled it pretty well. Doctor Hult said I was very stoic. The nurses said I was a rock star. Terry was continually encouraging. So I kinda just dealt with it and that worked well for me. No epidural and surprisingly, compared to Noah and Evie's birth, I didn't even feel like I needed one.

I asked my mom to come with - she has a very calming presence. I was so glad she was there. In between contractions she read to me (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - I don't care if you think I'm a heathen b/c I LOVE those books!).

Soon, I had been laboring for nearly 3 hours and the nurse requested I move back to the bed to be monitored again. Then things really picked up. I was in transition and there was nothing I could do to cope. I wasn't stoic anymore. Pushing was very different than it was for Noah or Evie. But it was over pretty quickly and Samuel was born. After they mopped him up, they handed him right to me. I was a little emotional...

It's so overwhelming to meet your child for the first time. It's hard to believe that you were carrying that little person around inside of you. They never existed before and here they are, brand new, complete and perfect.

The nurses were asking me how much I thought he weighed. I thought he looked so small that I was just so surprised when they said 8 pounds and 8 ounces! He was also 21 inches long.

With lots of dark hair, as you can see.

Proud papa Terry almost a half hour after Samuel was born.