Jonah's Birth

Jonah Hawke Bastian

7lbs 4oz, 20"

Dark Brown Hair, Grey Eyes

Born @ 6:48pm on Hallow's Eve

October 30, 2013

A few weeks before I was to deliver Jonah we scheduled a flight for my mom to come out and stay with us for a week around his birth. The only problem was that we didn't know exactly the day he was going to be born and I'd never gone into labor on my own, (Induced every time).  At Blanchfield Army Community Hospital (BACH), unless you have a high risk pregnancy, you deal with a board of midwives. Mine were pretty cool with anything I wanted to do, except for getting induced. :) When I approached them with the idea of getting induced if the baby hadn't come a few days after my due date they weren't really thrilled about it, but they said if my body was ready and was showing progression then they'd be willing. So then time went on... and my body didn't progress one bit. I started to get stressed because a friend's mother flew out and stayed two weeks and her baby was delivered 3 days after the mother left. Three days after my due date my mother was scheduled to fly in at 9:30pm. I had an appointment with the midwife at 3:00 that afternoon, and let her know that I hadn't felt the baby move since the evening before. She tried to get him to move around and couldn't. I was sent to a room where they hooked me up to a baby monitor and began tracking movements. They couldn't track any. They called Midwife Lindsay back in and we all watched for a while. I began to grow nervous, having another friend whose baby passed away hours before he was born. Finally, after a few minutes the monitor started showing major movements and we all let out a sigh of relief. The midwives ordered an ultrasound and decided that I had too much amniotic fluid (polyhydramnios) and needed to be induced. They scheduled the induction for the next morning and I was supposed to go home and rest. Ha! Nick drove to Nashville that night and brought my mom home. It was such a comfort to have her near on the last night I had before my life became even more chaotic!

Ok, 11am rolled around and my mom and I were dropped off at the hospital while Nick went to drop the boys off at the Weaver's. I'd hardly progressed in the last three weeks so they gave me the IVs, (I gave permission for students to practice on me and OUCH! I probably won't consent to students next time), and started the Pitocin. Things started off at a very slow pace. We watched some television where Heads of the IRS were attempting to defend themselves against targeting conservative groups around the 2012 elections. My mom made us turn it off so that our scoffing comments didn't offend our nurses. After seeing my mother and husband eat I started to feel hungry for something, and after talking to the nurses who denied me popsicles, but hinted that I could suck on small candies, I sent my sweet husband to find me some Jolly Ranchers and Wint-O-Mint Lifesavers. When he left things started to pick up a bit. In about 3 hours I'd dilated from a 3 to a 6 and I really started to feel the pain. I mentioned this to my mom who went to pass it on to our nurses, so we could start preparing for the epidural. After the anesthesiologist came to check on us the second time, my mother called Nick to see how close he was. I didn't want to get the epidural without him and I was really hurting. Mom looked out the window and laughed because as soon as she mention my pain he started booking it across the hospital lawn. I thought it was sweet that he cared. :)

I'd dilated to a 7 by the time the anesthesiologist administered the medicine, but by the time I'd reached 8 cm he had to turn the drip down because it was making my heart rate drop too low and I would throw up. By this point the pain felt unbearable! I asked for the back of the bed to be raised so I could sit up and gravity could work for me, not against me. That didn't help. At this point I tried to be calm and still, but I rocked my upper body back and forth and quietly sighed, moaned and cried, trying to keep positive, because the more intense the pain the closer I was to meeting my precious baby.

Eventually the monitors were going off so frequently and I was vomiting so much that they turned off my epidural drip. I soon felt ready to push and when the midwife came in to check my progress we were a go. Oh, it hurt. It was bad. The midwife found that Jonah's cord was wrapped around his neck three times and at every push his heart rate plummeted, so we rushed things a little more and he was quickly delivered, untangled and placed in my arms.
Be still my heart.
He was the first newborn I was able to hear cry immediately. He was so angry, but it was such a quiet, sweet little cry. Jonah was very healthy and they let me hold him as long as I wanted. I never wanted to let him go. As I looked on him the first thing that stood out to me was the precious little freckle on his left eyelid. I never took my eyes off him as he was passed first to Nick, then to my mom, then to the nurses who cleaned and weighed him. And like that, my sweet Jonah was born.

After a few hours with our precious new baby Nick went to get the boys so they could meet their newest brother. Zeke and Eli were both excited... but most excited about a bucket of candy a nurse had given me. ;) Soon enough, though, they were both asking to hold the baby and trying to stick their little fingers into his little baby eyes and mouth. Jonah and I stayed in the hospital overnight and my mother stayed with us. She was a LIFESAVER! I have difficult recoveries every time I have babies, but this was the worst initial recovery. Just existing was extremely painful through the first night and I was fully medicated. I got up to feed Jonah twice, but the third time my mom got up with him, changed his diaper, sang to him, and walked around the room bouncing for a while, until he was inconsolable. She and Nick were so selfless through my whole recovery. They both always took the initiative in caring for the house, meals and taking care of the boys. With both my other sons I felt I had to be strong, I couldn't just rest, I needed to be up, visiting people, trying to clean house and make meals, but my mom and Nick took care of all of it and although this was my worst initial recovery, it proved to be my fastest overall recovery from labor.

My mom stayed for 5 or 6 days. She was just wonderful. The boys were happy. I was happy. Lover was happy. The day we dropped her off at the airport I was a mess. I wasn't a mess when we moved away, or any other time anyone has visited, but she had done so much for me while she was here, she'd shown so much selfless love that I cried like a baby when it was time for her to leave me. I'm so happy she was able to come.