The Delivery

For those of you who like details, this post is for you!  Jonathan was scheduled for delivery by C-Section on Monday, September 12 at 8am.  We went to bed on Sunday night, hoping to get a little rest.  (But, I wasn't really expecting to rest that much because of nerves.)  Let's just say that Jonathan had different plans too!

Sometime in the middle of the night, I started experiencing some cramping.  I thought that most of it was a nervous stomach, so I headed to the bathroom.  Got back to bed and tried to rest some more, but my stomach turned again some time later.  After going to the bathroom a second time, I decided I should wake Jeremy up soon and tell him I wasn't really sure what was going on.

Laying in bed, I prayed and asked God to make things abundantly clear to me because I was really struggling to understand what was going on inside me.  It didn't feel like labor, but something was going on.  Within ten minutes, my water broke!!  I immediately told Jeremy and he, quite literally, hopped out of bed.  He said, "We have to get in the van and go right now!"  And started running all over the house, waking people up and gathering our bags.  Meanwhile, I went to the bathroom to clean up some.  This all happened at 2:30 in the morning!

So, we live at least 30 minutes from the hospital.  And we needed to be at the hospital for Jonathan's delivery because natural childbirth would put a lot of extra stress on his body and would be very difficult for me because the fluid has increased the overall size of his head.

We got in the car and headed for the hospital.  I gotta tell you, we were going as fast as we felt comfortable driving, praying out loud THE WHOLE TIME.  My contractions definitely started up and kept coming, what felt like closer and closer together.

We made it to the hospital in record time (I know it was right at or a little less than 20 minutes!).  We parked at the front door and headed up to delivery.  Meanwhile, Jeremy's mom had called ahead of time and let them know that we were on our way and our special circumstances.  They got me checked in and monitored me for just a few minutes while everyone was getting things in place for an emergency C-Section.  They were all a little concerned about the timing as well, this being my fourth delivery.

Within less than an hour from entering the hospital, we were in the OR, spinal tap given, and getting ready to begin.  Less than ten minutes after the operation began, we heard Jonathan's first cries.  They brought him around for us to see and he was beautiful and tiny.  No, we didn't get to hold him.  But it sure was good to see him after waiting so long to meet him.

We are incredibly grateful to the nurses and doctors working at the hospital the wee hours of Monday morning.  They were very helpful, concerned, yet reassuring.  In the end, God took care of everything, though a little differently than we had all planned!  He gave us an incredible peace and helped us rest in His strong arms the whole time.