four years ago (jesiah's birth story)...

in honor of jesiah's fourth birthday tomorow, i thought i would rewind in time and write a post on the events and happenings of the day jesiah was born!! my friend, stephanie did this the other day on her blog for her little girl who just turned two. loved reading it!!! i have been thinking that i wanted to post the birth stories of each of my babies on my blog. the perfect opportunity would be to do it on their birthday!!! so i will start it off with jesiah's birth...


some background info...

on july 19, 2004 - jordyn turned one year old exactly a week before and i took a pregnancy and it was positive. just the day before we were coming home from the beach and jamil and i had "the talk", we had decided to wait a few years before adding baby #3. i had been feeling a little different (bloated, moody, very hungry) but didn't think i would be pregnant. i woke up sick that day and knew i had to take a test - just in case. jamil was shocked when i told him that night before dinner.

i decided because of my easy births with josha and jordyn that i would switch and see the midwives in my ob/gyn practice. becauase i was still nursing jordyn, and before that being prego with her... i hadn't had a period since october of 2003!! we had to do an u/s to find out my due date. it was set as march 17, 2005.

i was nauseaus throughout the first trimester. i really thought we were having another girl. to my surprise on october 6, 2004. we saw our little baby BOY on the u/s. we thought he was a she and had a girl's name picked out (jaelyn!) but had to work on a boy's name.

we had two boy names picked out; jackson or jesiah. i continually went back and forth between the two. we even took a poll of our friends and family to get their opinions. jamil was set on jesiah. i was the one who went back and forth. i love jackson but it is so popular. and i love jesiah too.

i had a very healthy and "normal" pregnancy! praise God. i enjoyed every second of being pregnant for the third time! i was really uncomfortable at the end and could not wait to see our baby boy!!

fast forward...

thursday march 3, 2005 ... 38 week midwife appt with hallie! i had gained 29 pounds and measuring at 38.5 weeks. i was 3-4 cm. dilated and 70-80% effaced. the baby was in a -1/-2 station. i was making great progress!!!

saturday march 5, 2005 (the day before his birth)...

jamil had to work that day, i took josh and jordyn to eat at dunkin donuts before we headed off to babies r us for a last minute shopping trip to get some things for the baby. i bought his sweet coming home outfit amongst some other things. that afternoon, i installed the infant seat in our van (a 1998 toyota sienna - sage color). i had been having contractions on and off all day. that evening we had our babysitter, amanda was keeping our kids so we could go out to a church gathering. we joked with her about us not coming home and going straight to the hospital if i was in labor. went to sleep around 11:00pm

sunday, march 6, 2005 (the big day - taken from my journal!)...

~ woke up at 3:15 am feeling really uncomfortable and having heartburn.
~ started feeling really sick @ 4am - contractions started and i was shaking a lot. the contractions were 10 min. apart.
~ called the midwives at 5:00 am and they told me to come in (because of my past history with quick labors)
~ we called my mother in law to come and watch the kids, she couldn't come because she had to go into work unexpectedly. really stressed out about this. so we made arrangements for our babysitter, amanda and her mom to come and keep the kids. my father in law came over until they could get here! it was sunday - church day - and almost everyone was participating in some way at church!!!
~ we left for the hospital around 6:00 am, contractions were 5 min . apart
~ we called my family and my friend amy - she was going to be at the birth with us. she met us at the hospital later!
~ by the time we got into a l&d room and i was hooked up to monitors and filled out the paper work, my contractions stopped (they always do this!!!) and small ones started again around 8:00 am
~ i was checked at 8:30 and still only 3 -4 cm. amy arrived during this time.
~ my midwife, hallie was on call and she arrived after 9:00 and checked me again, i was at 5-6 cm.
~ we decided for her to break my water at about 9:45. my contractions picked up quickly and were really really strong.
~ i labored for a little while in bed, only hooked up to the fetal monitors (monitoring the baby's heart rate and my contractions) i did not want to get out of bed.
~ when the contractions were on top of each other i really wished i would have opted for some drugs or an epidural, too late for that.
~ amy and jamil were really supportive as a was in so much pain and just breathing through the intense contracions. hallie and our nurse, arden were great too. they were so encouraging and supportive. they all worked to get me through the pain.
~ at around 10:30 am i knew it was getting time for me to push, he was really low and i was feeling a lot of pressure. i was checked and indeed fully dilated and totally effaced.
~ i pushed two times and on the third push, at 10:56 am our little jesiah was born!!
~ he weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19 & 3/4 inches long! he was such a beautiful and sweet baby.