Four and one...make five

Our family has increased in size from 4 to 5. Josie Sue was born on Monday, August 1st at 4:50 P.M. She weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces, and she was 21 1/2 inches long.

The delivery went very well. Jennifer had been having contractions sporadically beginning Sunday night after church (spaced between 10 and 20 minutes apart). She did get a little sleep at 3:30 A.M. (Monday morning), so she assumed that labor was not as imminent as she had thought. When she woke up at 5:30 that morning, the contractions began coming harder and still irregularly spaced apart. So we waited around the house, since she had a scheduled doctor's appointment at 11:15. Jessica, who is Jennifer's Physician's Assistant, came in to see if Jennifer had progressed any further from the 1 that she had been dialated to 5 days before. It turns out that Jennifer was dialated to a 5, but Jessica wanted to make sure, since she thought it may be as much as an 8. So the doctor came in, and as we later found out, she was a "5, going on 9" in the words of the doctor, meaning it was time to have a baby.

Even though the doctor said that she would have a baby by supper time, we thought he was crazy, because of Jennifer's previous deliveries happened as follows:

* With Jonathan, Jennifer was in labor for about 10 hours after her water had broken, and she never dilated past a 3 (Jonathan was born C-section).

* With Julia, Jennifer was in labor for over 12 hours. She was born naturally.

It turns out, however, that the doctor was correct. Josie was very cooperative.
The doctor sent us to the hospital, and he said that we would not have to go to the ER nor to the triage. We were able to go directly to labor and delivery. So we told the receptionist our situation, and she said that a room would be ready shortly. After 30 minutes of waiting in the waiting room (with about 15 other people crammed in there watching Jennifer labor through her contractions that were getting stronger, longer, and closer together--4 minutes apart at this point), I decided I should push the receptionist a little. She was very apologetic. There was a miscommunication between the doctor's office and the hospital. The hospital thought that Jennifer was going to be induced, so they were taking their sweet old time getting a room ready for us.

By the way, at this point I was doing fine...In case you were wondering...Despite only having 7 hours of sleep.

So we got set up in the room, and from here it went really fast. It was around 12:45 P.M., and the nurse began asking 100 questions (literally)...what is your name? what is your birthdate? when did you last eat? when was your last b.m.? do you have any family history of diabetes? cancer? chronic diaherrea? large moles on the posterior gludius maximus?

After getting hooked up to about 4 or 5 different monitors, it was time for a nap. Jennifer thought that if she could get an epideril, and a little of grandma's whiskey (just kidding), she could rest despite the contractions. After all, we planned on being there until late that night. So the anistheoligist came by and relieved her pain (I didn't faint this time when he gave her the epideril). She was able to rest for a few minutes. Shortly thereafter, one of the doctors came in and checked her to see how far dialated she was, and immediately the water broke (along with the amniotic fluid, a green mucousy substance called maconium--a b.m. by the baby inside the placenta) came out. Since her water broke, and she was dialated to a 6, the doctor called Jennifer's doctor, and told him that he needed to come over right away. He frantically appeared in the room, and immediately scrubbed down and checked her progress. She had progressed to an 8. The doctor had to go down and park his car, since he rushed up to the delivery room in a hurry. It was about 4:00 P.M...

...and we were still deciding on names. Weird huh? We had Jonathan's name decided before we even knew he was a boy, and we both liked the name Julia from when Jennifer was pregnant with Jonathan, so waiting until the last minute was not our pattern. Part of the problem stemmed from not knowing whether we were going to have a girl or a boy. Before going to the hospital, we had the first name narrowed down to 4 names for a girl: Josie, Joella, Jane, and Jillian, and the middle named decided upon--Sue (named after Jennifer's mom...We had decided on this very early in the pregnancy). We had the name for a boy narrowed down to 4 as well: Jude, Jonas, Joseph, and Jeremy. However, we had no idea what the middle name would be. We thought about Michael and Robert, but were not settled on anything. After several discussions throughout the labor, we finally agreed on Josie Sue for a girl, and we could not settle on a boy's first or middle name.

My sisters, Sher and Joy, showed up unannounced around this time. It was a nice surprise. They had just finished working and decided to drop by for a visit. They were kicked out soon after.

When the doctor came back, it was time to push. He was talking away to an intern who was there, and the nurse said "Doc, don't dilly dally around too much, the baby is coming NOW", and within 10 minutes, out came our baby girl.

Watching the birth of a baby is the most incredible thing I have ever seen. I am not a very emotional guy...There are only 3 times that I have cried in my life: 1) when Annakin Skywalker changed over to the dark side (and kill all of those children); 2) when the Pistons lost to the Spurs in the 2005 NBA Finals; 3) and when my two little girls were born (watching Jonathan be born via C-section was not as emotional).

Not only was the labor and delivery shorter than the previous two, it was much easier (almost makes you want to have a 3 or 4 more...huh, Jennifer? Maybe not the most sensitive question to ask someone who just unloaded an 8 pound bomb).

We were released from the pris...er...hospital today, and Josie seems to be very comfortable in her surroundings (sleeping and pooping all the time...I mean, when else do you feel as comfortable as when you are sleeping or pooping?).

After reflecting on the labor and delivery, Jennifer and I concluded that the Lord's hand was kind to us in allowing Jennifer and Josie to be so healthy, and for the delivery to go smoother than we could imagine. May He be praised for His wonderful love to us.