Jacob's Birth Story

The other day as I was blogging about Jacob's birthday, I looked back at last year's post and realized that I had mentioned Jacob's birth story and how I could write a whole blog post about it, but then I never did. So, here I am. I'll start with what I wrote last year...

When [Jacob] was born, Jake was deployed halfway across the world - from Hawaii to Africa. God had His hand so evidently in Jacob's birth that whenever I recall the story I still feel immense gratitude at His provisions. 

There are a handful of times in my life when I look back and say, "this was clearly by the grace of God," and Jacob's birth is near the top of that list. When I was seven months pregnant, Jake left for a 7 month deployment to Africa. He had actually volunteered for this assignment, because at that time, it looked like if he didn't step up for this deployment, it would have been highly likely for him to end up in Iraq or Afghanistan. Given those alternatives, we were both okay with the situation; however, that didn't mean that I wasn't scared to give birth without my husband. We had planned for my mother to fly over from Florida, and going off my birth history we planned her flight 6 days before I was due.

As my due date neared, I found myself repeating several prayers:

1. For a healthy baby boy.  
2. That my labor and delivery would be free of complications. 
3. That my mom would make it to Hawaii in time.
4. That I would be sure when labor started and that I wouldn't have too many (or any) false starts. 
5. That I would have a short labor. 
6. That I would be able to have (my third) natural birth.  
7. That the traffic would work in my favor. We lived a good 30 minutes from the Army hospital, and traffic in Hawaii can be very bad on the highways at times. 

I'm sure there were other prayers in there, but these are the ones I remember the most. My mom arrived in Hawaii as planned, and from that day on I felt I was ready to go. Three days after my mom's arrival, there was a huge traffic incident on the highways that caused a 3-hour jam. I remember thinking that I was glad I wasn't trying to make it to the hospital in that mess. That night, my water broke right around 1 A.M. This was the first time my water had broken with a huge gush, and I was so surprised. I woke my mom up and called a dear friend (waking her up, too!) and got ready to head to the hospital. We were able to hit the road by 1:30, and 30 minutes later we were pulling up to the hospital with no traffic problems. 

We made it up to the labor & delivery triage station, and I told the ladies that I needed to be admitted. They asked me how I knew, and I told them my water broke and I was sure. I asked if I could have the midwife on duty and (fortunately) she didn't have any patients that night, so she was all mine! They set me up in the triage room to check me and I was dilated to a 4/5. The midwife started to ask me some questions for the forms, and my contractions kept coming harder and harder. She finally looked at me and said, "Maybe we should get you into a room first." I whimpered and said that I didn't think I could walk, and she kind of chuckled and said that she would push me in a wheelchair. 

Fifteen minutes after arriving, they helped me onto the delivery bed and hooked me up to the monitors. She checked me again and I was at 8cm. She started to enter some information into the computer and I informed her that the baby was coming. The midwife was so surprised, and she quickly got ready and kept telling me not to push yet because she needed to make sure I was fully dilated. I (not so gently) informed her that I didn't care, that my baby was coming! 

Sure enough, at 2:20 A.M., I gave birth to my beautiful, healthy baby boy - Jacob Charles. I had only been hooked up to the machines for 4 minutes, and then there he was, all 9 pounds of him!

Every last one of my prayers had been answered beyond my expectations. I knew right away that God clearly had his hand in that whole journey. I felt positive that He knew what I could handle, and that He answered my prayers. He knew that I didn't want a long labor because I didn't think I could lay in pain for hours thinking about how Jake wasn't there to see his first son being born. He had orchestrated every detail of Jacob's birth and it still amazes me to this day. 

Two years later when Will was born, it was even more evident. All three of my other labors lasted 9, 7, and 8 hours. They were slow and steady, and gave me ample time to revel in pain and thoughts. Jacob's birth was the only one where my water broke with a gush, it was my shortest labor ever (1.5 hours), and I recovered very quickly. I didn't even have time to have drugs if I had wanted to! Honestly, it was such an amazing experience that I am still in awe... the only thing that would have made it absolutely perfect was if Jake was with me. But then again, I'm pretty sure it would never have gone as it did if Jake had been with me... by the grace of God alone! 

My beautiful blessing on day 1:

Thank you, Lord!