Jack's Birth Story

I'm not sure where to even start with Jack's birth story.

But here goes nothin.

"They" say that your second baby comes sooner than the first. Technically, "they" were right. Abigail was a week late, so yeah, I was bound to have this little guy sooner. My last two appointments I was told my body was moving right along and I'd most likely have a baby by the weekend of my due date. I don't know about you, but the two words false + hope have never been so real in my life. What mattered the most to me was that my mama would be here for it all--hoping she'd be here a few days prior to the birth so Abs could get settled in. So after my last appointment, we decided it'd be best if she flew in ASAP.

The next day (Wednesday) my mom was here and I was as happy as a clam [but really, what does that phrase even mean?] Of course we went to Target immediately. There's never a reason not to. Heck, I'd give birth in Target if it was sanitary. That place is dabomb.com. We used the excuse of "needing to walk the mall" to get labor started. Did it work? Absolutely not. Was I ready to go back to the mall the next day to try again? YUP.

So day by day, I grew even more pregnant. I walked into the grocery store to grab a few things and the man at the register looks to me while shaking his pointer and says, "Now don't think I'm not gonna charge you for that watermelon you're hiding under your shirt. HAHAHAHA" I responded with a shakey laugh. Okay, let's just go ahead and talk about some of the AWESOME things that people said to me while pregnant:

• Someone asked me how far along I was. I told her 27 weeks. She replied with, "No offense but...I was that big at 9 months when I gave birth!! Did your mom gain that much when she was pregnant?" #supportive #butnotreally
• A man greeted me and then said, my goodness you're getting HUGE!! ....And then he smiled. As if the smile made the statement sweeter.
• When I was about 24 weeks someone said, "There's NO WAY you're making it to April with that belly." I still had 16 more weeks of pregnancy...16. That's 4 more months. 1/3 of a year.
• And then there's... Abigail... I asked her to go find her ball. She walks up to me and lifts my shirt up. I forgave her. 

None of it actually got to me, I laughed at every one of them, mainly in disbelief. DON'T PEOPLE KNOW PREGNANT WOMEN HAVE CRAZY HORMONES??? Yeesh, I'm sweating just writing this. 

Anyway, we tried planning something every day to keep my mind off of this whole "labor thing." We had a family picnic on Saturday because it was FINALLY beautiful outside! Sunday we walked for miles and miles, no seriously.

Sunday was my due date. Yeah people, I know. It's just an estimated date. I get that. But where in the world was my little Jack? My friend said my babies come out late because they're probably scared for their dear life from all of the "labor starters" I tried. :) Maybe so, but my patience was running on a very thiiiiiiin line. Ya'll. I. tried. it. all. Josh and I would run up hills together. I baked labor cookies. I bounced on a yoga ball for 6 weeks. I ate dinner on that thing. I put my makeup on while bouncing. (Don't try this at home, kids.) I crawled around like a cat to get him to drop more. I walked around Walmart with my mama and did 4 sets of 10 squats. I chased a toddler around. I walked miles and miles. Josh made me jump after every third step..1..2..3..JUMP. #lifecoachyall No worries, we looked like fools together. He jumped with me. :) I scarfed pineapple down like it was the last thing on the planet. I ate scoops and scoops of hot sauce from Chipotle. I drank red raspberry leaf tea. And last, but surely not least, Castor Oil. That's right. I gave in. I became a hypocrite that day.  I took it the day after my due date. I didn't even take the bare minimum. I was scared...like...shaking-in-my-boots-scared. Nothing happened...So I took a little more later that night...Yep. I was scared to go to bed that night. As much as I wanted to go into labor, I did NOT want to be in pain the way I was with Abigail after taking that. Uh-UH. Woke up the next morning in NO pain. Whaaaaat?? Fine. So I took more. Did it do anything? No. Why? Because my baby was scared to come into the world.  So I gave up on that junk.

I had an ultrasound that Monday. "Baby looks perfect! Based on measurements, He's weighing about 8 pounds, 9 ounces." Oh, Lord, please no. Abigail was only 7 pounds, 7 ounces. The next day I had an appointment...and this is where the week got crazy. I won't go into too much detail, but my doctor wasn't available, so I had to see a different doctor. I knew this was going to happen...but I tried staying positive anyway. The doctor came in and said, "Let's get labor started so you'll have this baby today!" After checking me, she said it wasn't possible and I wasn't dilated at all. MKAY. How in the world was I the past two weeks, but not anymore? #theperksofadifferentdoctor #psyche Anyway, as she told us we just needed to wait it out, I burst into tears. My mom had already been here for a week, and she only had one week left. If I had to wait it out, It was likely that she wouldn't even be here for the birth. I was completely overwhelmed in the split of a second. So she decided to have me go back to the hospital later that day and take a pill to get things started. Long story short (#thisisthelongestshortstoryever #andthelongesthashtag), the midwife said there was no need to take it and I could be induced tomorrow. She agreed with my original doctor that I WAS dilated that same amount she had said. So Josh & I were feeling a lot more confident that Jack would be here SOON. So we went home, rested, and then my mom watched Abs while Josh took me out on our last date. #littledidweknow... Our waitress was surprised to find out I was being induced the next day. She encouraged us by saying she has two children and the second came in 4 pushes. Whew, what a relief. Maybe the process would go quick and we'd have our baby in our arms sooner than we think!....And Wednesday happened. We woke up, showered, went to the hospital, began the induction process, and stayed from 7 AM- 7:30 PM. It was really awesome. #sarcasm. My IV was put in and it was entirely too uncomfortable. I told ole' Gail it hurt and she said it shouldn't be. I have a massive bruise on my forearm right now...Gail. More like Fail.

As we were about to leave the hospital (because my body wasn't progressing the way it should), my nurse from when I delivered Abigail was there. She came in the room and was so apologetic to us and said to just relax and come in Friday. The nurses gave us an option to come in on Thursday, but the week was so draining, we needed a day off.

So Friday came. Good Friday. My alarm went off at 5:45 to take a shower and start getting ready before needing to go in at 7:30. I got a call at 6 AM saying there was no room in the Inn for us. Are ya kidding me. This gave me more time to reflect on what the day really was about. It wasn't about me. It was about Jesus Christ.

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed." -1 Peter 2:24. 

Josh and I went in to the hospital at 1:00...and of course we get in and they said there was an emergency and we needed to come back in 30 minutes. So we walked to the cafeteria and played 20 questions. Call us lame. Go ahead, dare ya.

We went back to check in, and the process began. And guess WHAT. The nurse who delivered Abigail was on staff and put in my room!

I was not allowed to eat anything from this point on until after I had a baby in my arms. Thankfully I was able to come to the hospital later in the day, so you betta BELIEVE I ate til I couldn't move. For breakfast I had a cinnamon roll (okay...two), juice, and potato salad. Not a typo. When you're pregnant and you're hungry, it just doesn't matter. It just doesn't. I was SO hungry just sitting there waiting. I looked down to find the brand name of my contraction monitor was TOCO. For real? I'm starving over here and now all I can't think of is tacos. Mean. So, so mean. So While I'm drooling over my monitor, Josh comes back in the room with food for Abigail. I asked where his was, and he said he felt bad eating in front of me, so he shoved a PHILLY CHEESE STEAK down on his way from the cafeteria to the delivery room. It was really...thoughtful...but I still had to watch Abigail eat. Sighhhh. I got to order clear liquids: Chicken broth, popsicles, italian ice, water, and cranberry juice. I mean, seriously, LUCKY ME. I think Josh was pretty jealous of my food selection. I mean, this was like hunger games. I would KILL for some Chipotle right now. Or Mcdonalds. Or Panera Bread. Or anything except onions.

So time went by, and I started to get a little more uncomfortable from the contractions. I hadn't had my epidural yet, but I wasn't in any pain. I got to roll around on the yoga ball, as if I hadn't done THAT enough over the past 6 weeks.

As Josh & I waited for things to progress, he studied for finals and I took advantage of the quiet time (before my world was about to get rocked with 2 not-so-quiet children) to write in my journal. I flipped open to the last page I had written in. Clearly my life has been busy because the last entry I wrote was August 6th of last year. And then the coolest thing happened. I read over what I wrote that day, and I wrote about how we had just found out I was pregnant and in complete desperation for God to provide. I wrote a list of 5 things we needed as a family of 4, and literally every thing listed we were given. I found this verse written down next to it, "May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners. May the Lord fill all your petitions." Psalm 20:5

It was incredible to have my last journal entry written the day I found out I was pregnant and now reading it my last day of pregnancy. Seeing the Lord's provision just in 40 weeks made me so grateful--to know I serve a God who cares to provide for His children--who is FAITHFUL. And what a day for me to recognize it--on Good Friday!

I was still waiting to be checked because the new shift change came and a different doctor was on staff. They decided to let me get the epidural before checking me because my contractions on the monitor were consistent. The anesthesiologist was something else, that one. He had some dry humor. It was the kind of humor where you don't know if you should laugh or if he's actually serious. Anyway, I cried like a baby. Josh warned him how ticklish I am, but I'm not sure he knew how serious Josh was...until his finger touched my back and I jumped so high, Jack about fell out.

Five minutes later, I was feelin' G-double o-D, good. My legs were like jello. So now things were getting real. All that was left was to break my water and welcome my sweet boy into the world. The doc came in and I was only at 5 cm. Yikes. He broke my water and there was a loud POP! Two hours went by, they checked me, and said it was time to push. Whattttt?? I wasn't ready for that! Oh my gosh. I'm not exactly sure what Josh was feeling at this point, but I got butterflies in my stomach immediately....or maybe it was just hunger pains. My doctor and nurses were SO great. It was such a good experience. We laughed our way through pushing. The doctor and nurses were having normal conversations during it...talking about cheesecake and cookies...my goodness. They knew I was hungry! My nurse let me order food before I even started pushing. And yeah, I did order 2 turkey sandwiches, okay? One for me and the other for...me. :) Anyway, this was the quickest 25 minutes ever. Watching Josh during this time was so special too. It made me tear up. He held my hand and coached me on breathing. And then he said, "I can see him! He's almost here!"

Next thing you know, the doctor is saying, "good, good, GOOD! One more push!!" And that's when our lives changed (again). 9:55 our sweet Jack graced us with his linebacker 9 lb 7 oz body.

Text from my mama

Dreaming of Chipotle.

WOWZA. Big boy! 

Daddy cutting the chord! 

                         

LOVE.

My handsome little Jack.

Wittle Baby Wegs

So sweet. So special. 

Opening her Big Sister gifts :)

And then this happened. 

April 18, 2014, Jack Abel Pool came into the world. One of the most special days ever--a day we celebrate the death of Jesus Christ and the birth of Jack Pool. I love the significance of this day. 

How sweet it is to be loved by you. :)