James finally decided to arrive at 4:16am on June 22, 2011. He weighed 9 lbs 5 oz, and was 21 inches long!
On the evening of the 21st I started feeling contractions. By 10:30am they were closer together and consistent... about 4 minutes apart and lasting about 30 seconds. The intensity increased and I called the birthing center around midnight. They said to monitor it for the next 30 minutes to an hour and then call back. Mean while John cleaned, so we could come home to a clean house. The time went fairly quickly and I had not called the Center back.. and they actually called me! I told them I thought it was time to come in. Contractions were about 3 minutes apart lasting 40-50 seconds... It was about 1:30 am at this point. They were already at the Orem Birthing Center, so that is where we headed. I was planning on going to the SLC center because it's a little closer, but I told them I would go to either one. We got to the center around 2:15 am. I was 6 cm... so I figured I had about four hours to go. Lizzy was still wide awake she was so excited! We put her on the bed, and turned the lights down and she finally went to sleep around 3am. I used a yoga ball for a while, the contractions seemed to be getting closer and more intense. I wanted to get in the tub at this point... I hoped it would easy some pain, but for me didn't seem to do much. We had the midwife come check to make sure the water temp was ok, my contractions were about a minute apart and I was almost in tears. I told John to get the camera out and ready, just in case. He took a couple pictures and helped me through some rough contractions.
All of a sudden my water broke - it's hard to write the sound and feeling, but we were pretty sure that is what it was, then I also felt a stool coming, I didn't know if I should go to the toilet or what... the midwives rushed in and said stay, they had a fishing net to catch it. Then I felt what was like a huge stool... which was really JT. At this point I was on all fours in the water. I pushed about four times and he was out! The midwife directed JT between my legs and I pulled him up into my arms and sat back. What an amazing experience!! We quickly noticed the cord around his neck, and loosened that. He also has some fluid in his lungs. His breathing was a little rough, but quickly got better. I just held him for a while until everything seemed more stable. Then John got to cut the cord. John tried to wake up Lizzy, but she was so tired & went right back to sleep.
We moved to the bed. They checked me, and I tore the same as I did with Lizzy and needed two stitches. John got some bonding time with JT. They checked JT, took his measurements, etc. Then I fed him. I think it was about 6:30am by the time we got the chance to fall asleep!
Around 9am JT started to cry. Lizzy woke up at this point, looked over and her eyes got huge!! She wondered where the baby came from! She then got really excited. We were all hungry, so one of the helpers at the birthing center made us some oatmeal and croissant sausage & egg sandwiches, and brought me an Orange Juice! John said it felt like a Bed & Breakfast! The room was nice, and had a fireplace. We put a movie on for Lizzy to watch, made some phone calls, sent pictures via txt, email, and facebook. We took our time getting things packed up, we were to check out at 12:50pm. We stopped by Mikes place so he could see JT and then headed back home, with a quick stop to pickup lunch at Cafe Rio, and John's office so he could check JT.
John resting with JT
First outfit for the trip home.
right before we left - our first family photo of the four of us!
Lizzy loves TJ and wants to be right next to him, and hold him all the time.
She helps where she can.
He is so precious!
We went for the 2 day checkup and JT had dropped to 8.5 lbs. I asked about how the rest of the day went for the midwives (because there were more than usual births that day). There were 5 births and one false labor!! Wow, what a busy day. She said there was about 5 days that they didn't have any births and kinda had a feeling something like this may happen!
It's been almost a week now. We are adjusting to having two kids. Lizzy loves her brother and has done will with the transition. There are times where she acts up and wants more attention, but overall she's doing well. I try to include her in what I can, and she loves to help get things for me, like a diaper, wipes, blanket, throw the diaper away. etc. Well all love giving JT kisses on the head.
