Jerusha's Birth Story

April 27th 6:02AM.   7 lb. 2 oz. 19 inches

I had a midwife for Jerusha. I knew from the beginning that it was what I wanted for her. I had been feeling contractions since I was 6 months along with her. The entire ninth month was pretty much one long series of broken up contractions. The thing is, there was never a pattern. I’d have 2 contractions only ten minutes apart and the next one wouldn’t come for another 3 hours. Then I’d have one every 30 minutes for 2 hours straight… followed up with not even a twinge for 5 hours… It was crazy, long, arduous, tedious, etc. etc., etc.  

I remember the day we decided to “get things going”. We had eaten dinner and decided to go out for a family walk. It was a nice evening so I brought my phone to take pictures.

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We walked, I contracted. I sat... and contracted but never really was getting THE contraction. Jeshua asked me if I thought we should call Jen to come over to watch Hadassah and Havilah. I told him that I figured if the baby wasn’t coming tonight, it would come tomorrow since at this point it had been about 5 hours of semi steady contractions. So, we decided to call Jen and just go in to labor and delivery around 7 or 8 at night. I remember the lady at check in asking what my due date was and I paused and then said “yesterday”. I went in fully expecting them to break my waters and a baby to come within 3-4 hours.  To my disappointment, that is definitely not what happened. They did check me and said I was a 4 I believe so I was admitted. Then we were pretty much left alone for the ENTIRE night. And I tried to sleep while laboring on and off. I told them that the baby should come quickly once my water broke, was told that Vicki (midwife) would be in first thing in the morning to check on me and then we’d break my water in the morning if I still wanted to. So around 5 in the morning Vicki came in and I FINALLY got my water broken. I was VERY shocked with this labor because I was prepared for intense contractions piling one on top of the other. However, I found that I had a contraction and then ALL pain would disappear for about 1-3 minutes. I’d take a breath, be able to get my bearings, and I remember watching Vicki V E R Y slowly putting on her gloves, organizing her tray just so, pulling on her plastic doctor shoe thing over her tennis shoes... it was all kind of slow motion.  Jeshua and Vicki started talked back and forth, Jeshua had Scripture lullabies playing. And suddenly it was close to 6 and my body started pushing. It only took a couple of pushes and out came a very loud Jerusha Joy at 6:02 AM with shrill little cries and absolutely gorgeous. She was 7lb 2 oz. And 19 and a half inches long. I was smitten immediately by her little nose and scrunchy face.