Oh, Baby!

After five LONG weeks in hospital, our precious baby is finally here!!! Jacob Westin Golz was born on July 9th, 2009 at 2:10pm. He weighed 6 lbs 5 oz and was 19.5 inches long...very healthy for a baby who was still considered to be preterm (just over 36 weeks gestation).

On the morning of his birth, I sat in the hospital just hoping that day would be the day. The few days prior had been such an emotional rollercoaster as I'd been told I would be discharged from the hospital for the remainder of the pregnancy, then went into labor, then had labor stopped and told I'd have to stay in the hospital after all. Not a nice thing to do to a weepy, hormonal pregnant woman. The morning of his birth, however, I had had some more bleeding and when Dr. New checked me, he discovered that I was a good 5cm dialated. At that point, he decided that he had gotten me about as far as he could with this pregnancy and that labor was now inevitable. Over to Labor and Delivery I went.

As soon as I got to Labor and Delivery and was taken off my terbuteline pump (the medicine used to keep my contractions under control) I immediately started having contractions about 2-3 minutes apart. Although I didn't feel contractions when I had Abby, I was definitely beginning to feel these contractions especially in my back and asked for the epidural (I know, I'm a wimp). After the epidural, I was feeling pretty good and was able to relax a bit. I went from 5cm to 8cm within a short period of time, but then I kind of sat at 8 for while. Finally, the nurse asked me to lay on my side to see if that different position would help move things a long a bit more quickly. As soon as I was on my side however, I began to feel awful pain with every contraction. I thought that the epidural had stopped working and got a little scared (there was no way I wanted to do this without pain medication). She immediately checked me and said, " No wonder you are in pain...the head's right there." I had gone from 8cm to 10 cm just like that! She quickly called Dr. New and he rushed in, broke down the bed and got ready to catch. With two contractions, Jacob came flying out and I heard, "It's a boy!" Such an awesome moment, made even more awesome by the fact that my little boy had a strong, healthy cry and looked great! He had some bruising on his face because he came out so quickly, but after being examined by the NICU doctors, they declared that they "didn't want him" and that he would not need to spend any time in the NICU. Praise God! After quite a lenghthy ordeal getting him here, I was so happy to hold him in my arms.

Abby came to see us later that afternoon, and she was instantly curious about the "baby". She sat there next to me just checking him out and was pretty gentle with him. The cutest part of their meeting was when she said "beebee budder" (baby brother). I think they will be best friends!

I am just so thankful that things turned out the way that they did. As crappy as things were getting him here, it was worth every second once I held him in my arms. We are so incredibly blessed with two perfect children, and I thank God for the blessings that they are. God is good...ALL THE TIME!!