Within seconds I was sitting up in bed with both my legs thrown behind my ears. Okay, so not that bad but I remember thinking “good thing I used to be a gymnast” at this time. Nurse Juanita was at one side and Jon at the other, and with the next contraction she had me practice pushing while we waited for the doctor to arrive. Pushing was the BEST thing ever! I didn’t feel the pain of each contraction while pushing against it, not to mention the pure elation of knowing the end is almost here! And that whole “ring of fire” thing, well if it’s true I don’t remember it at all. I’ve also heard that your body releases memory hormones after you have a baby so that you don’t remember the pain of labor. I don’t know about the validity of this, but I would say it was true for me. It’s only been a week and a half since Jack was born and although Jon and I aren’t planning on having another baby anytime soon, I feel like I could do it all again. I should’ve wrote this up sooner while the experience was still fresh in my mind! Jon and I still “discuss” how many kids we’ll have (he wants 2-3, I want 4-5) I think he was secretly hoping I’d have a miserable childbirth experience and side with him. Well, not this time buddy!
Anyway, back to Jack’s birthday … it wasn’t long before the doctor (another young guy, I have no idea who he was), another doctor who was observing, and a corman (who I think was my little brother’s age) were at my feet. The end of the bed disappeared, the stirrups came up and they brought in a mirror so I could see what was going on (sorry if this is TMI for those of you who haven’t experience a childbirth). Apparently, I’m not such a great pusher. Nurse Juanita said I was too tense in my legs and neck and shoulders, and that I’d be sore tomorrow. Really. At this point, I could not care less about how sore my shoulders would be the next day, I had bigger things on my mind. So while I’m busy trying to relax and push at the same time, the doctor is trying to point out the head. My only concern was whether he had hair. I really wanted a baby with hair. The doctor said yes so I figured we could keep pushing. By the way, Dr. I-forget-his-name was fantastic! He may not have been my ideal, grandfatherly-like doctor, but he handled everything like he'd been doing it for the past 40 years, and he was a great coach too. Less than 15 minutes after he arrived, he told me Jack would be here with the next contraction. And 3 pushes later, at 1:39am, he was.
Jon got to watch the whole thing. I was a little jealous that I missed it (I think I had my eyes closed or something). I was pretty impressed with my husband. He’s the kind of guy who starts gagging and has to walk out of the room when I’m watching “A Baby Story” but he was completely enraptured with his son’s birth. He even had tears in his eyes.
As soon as Jack was born they laid him on my stomach and Jon cut the cord. I just remember thinking how warm he was, and heavy! Then they weighed him and everyone in the room was shocked to hear that he was 8 lbs., 14 oz. I don’t think anyone expected him to be that big, especially me! The room soon cleared out and it was just the three of us. It’s such an incredible feeling, holding your baby for the first time. He’s so beautiful, and not a day goes by when I don’t look at him and think what an amazing miracle and awesome blessing he is. Both Jon and I are so in love, our lives will never be the same!
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