Zeke's birth story

Here I am the night before Ezekiel arrived!

May 30th, about 8 oclock pm I started having bad contractions. They were pretty sporadic throughout the night and the next morning. Jared and I spent most of the day walking around the neighborhood, trying to get the contractions closer together. Brandy, my wonderful birth photographer/step-sister-in-law, came over sometime in the late morning. Here are some pics from that time.

We started out laboring inside with the birth ball

(Thank you, Michelle for letting me borrow it! It was a life saver!!)

Then we started walking outside to try to get things moving a little more

(Jared is not texting, he is keeping track of contractions on our cool contraction timer app)

Here is a closer look

Contractions! Contractions! Contractions!

This is when we still had a few minutes in between contractions to relax


check out my amazing cankles
AAAAAND more contractions!

I think this was about the time we decided to go to the hospital...

The contractions finally reached a consistant 5 minute apart, and were getting really painful, so we started making our way back home. The normally 2 minute walk across the street took about 15 minutes, as the contractions quickly got even closer together. By the time we got to the car they were probably 3 minutes apart and we were in a bit of a hurry!

We drove to Wesley Birth Care Center, where my mom met us. Here I am checking in...

...and having a contraction in the lobby.

They moved us into the room and checked me. I was already at a 6! This was a huge relief, because when I was in labor with Nancy Lu, I was not dilating at all. They made me lay in the bed for about 20 minutes so they could monitor me and the baby, but after that I was pretty much on my feet for the rest of the labor, because it was too painful to sit or lay down.

Goals for today!

Things started getting really painful really fast. I wanted to start pushing pretty much right away, but I had to wait. As a sort of hilarious side note, during the 2 or 3 hours at the hospital, I managed to pee, poop, vomit, & bleed on the floor. Not to mention all the amniotic fluid. Good times.

I had to lay down again for Dr. Katie to check me. As you can see, it hurt really bad!

I reached 10 centimeters pretty quickly. And it was about this point, standing by the side of the bed, when I felt the head coming out.

At this point Dr. Katie made me get on the bed so she could deliver the baby. I climbed on the bed and stayed on my hands and knees. After some horrible contractions, pushing, and pain, his head eventually came out. As terrible as it all was, I was clinging on to the hope that, since his head was out, it wouldn't be long now that this whole thing would be over. Unfortunately, he was stuck! No matter how hard I pushed he would not come out. I was in so much pain I can't even describe it. At this point, it was apparent something was going wrong and Dr. Katie told me I had to flip over. So, with a huge baby head sticking out of me, I had to flip over onto my back, which was not fun at all. Then things got kind of crazy. I think there were people holding each of my legs back, and two more people pushing on my stomach, and Dr. Katie was telling me to put my chin to my chest and push push push. Earlier, during the pushing, I got to push, then rest, take a big breath, and push again when I felt like it. Now, I did not have time to take a breath or rest. I just had to keep pushing and pushing and I was running out of air, and I had all these people pushing and pulling on me and I didn't think I could do it. I was pretty delirious with pain at this point. All I remember is just wanting him out so bad. I kept thinking, soon he will be out, soon he will be out and this will all be over.

Eventually he did come out. I had been very clear with Dr. Katie that I wanted Zeke to come to me right away, but I saw them carrying him to the baby bed. It took me a while to notice that he wasn't crying. Then I noticed some commotion and began asking what was wrong and of course no one answered. I had to keep pushing, and there were still people pushing on my stomach and eventually I felt the placenta come out. I remember Jared standing by me. I asked him what was going on, and he probably said something about them taking care of the baby, but I don't really remember. I do remember praying and praying for God to make him OK. And after 3 minutes we heard him cry. That was one of the best moments in my life: hearing him cry. Then they brought him to me and he was so beautiful. When I look at the pictures of that moment, he is all blue and looks terrible, but I don't have real memories of that. I just remember him being so precious and perfect. I was in so much pain that I couldn't really hold him. I had Jared sit next to the bed and hold him where I could see him. After a while they gave me some medicine and soon I was holding him and breastfeeding him and all of it was worth it.

Here is my beautiful baby boy!

Daddy loving on his new son!

It wasn't until an hour or so later that they weighed him. I was asleep, when I heard a big commotion. I woke up and there was Brandy showing me a picture she just took of my baby on the scale and the scale read 10 lbs 6.1 oz!

No one had guessed he was going to be that big. And if I had any idea he was going to be that big, I probably would not have chosen to have a natural birth. But as God was in control of things, we didn't know. And I praise him, because most likely having an epidural would have really slowed down my labor and would have made it really hard to push. And if it had taken any longer to get baby Zeke out of me, he may not have made it, or at least may have been a lot worse off. Praise Jesus for being in control!

My beautiful family!

The proud big brothers!

And the super happy, thankful, & tired parents!