A Family of Three

The story of how Benjamin James Decker came into the world:

On Friday (December 19), I had my regular weekly doctor's appt. The midwife checked my cervix to see if I was starting to dialate, and sure enough I was about 1 centimeter dialted and 40% effaced (which I had to look up on-line when I got home to see what that meant). Basically, my body was getting ready to deliver, but the midwife let me know that I still could be a week or more away. I asked if it might be sooner, and she said it was a possibility, but not too likely. I walked away thinking I had a while left.

Friday after the appointment, Jason and I went Christmas shopping for a few hours. Later that day, Jason went to work and I tried to get some things done at home. That night, I decided to take some photos of my belly, so I had a little photo shoot with myself. Here I am at about 8:00 Friday night:

Six hours later, I was in labor. At 2:00 am on Saturday I woke up with contractions about 10 minutes apart. I wasn't even sure if they were real contractions or not, but as the night went on, they would got closer together and stronger. By about 7:00 am I was pretty sure I was in labor, but thought I had a while left still. Jason was still asleep and had been all night. I took a shower and got ready, then I woke him up at about 7:30 and said I thought I was in labor and we should get ready to go to the hospital. I don't think he was really aware of what was happening. He started the dishwasher and slowly started getting ready - until I got a little impatient and said we needed to go to the hospital NOW! My contractions were quickly getting closer and stronger. At this point, they were about 5 minutes or less apart. But, my doctor had told me that I should labor at home as long as possible and not come in until they were 3-5 minutes apart, so I though I was in good shape still.

On the way to the hospital, which because of the snow was about a half hour drive, my contractions were getting even closer and stronger. We checked into the hospital at about 8:45 am and the nurse checked my cervix. I was about 8-9 centimeters dialated and my cervix was soft and ready to go. The nurse informed me that I was ready to deliver, and, the words I was dreading to hear, it was too late for pain medication. This is the point I started to freak out a little bit. Everything was happening so quickly and I was going to have to do it all without pain relief. Yikes! Jason called our parents and let them know what was happening and they took me into a delivery room to get ready for the main event.

Less than an hour later, I was starting to push. After about 45 minutes of pushing and 20 minutes of the worst pain ever, our baby boy was here! Delivery without meds was the most difficult experience of my life. But when the doctor placed him on my stomach, it was one of the happiest moments of my life. He was perfect.

Jason did such a great job helping me through all of it. He stood by my bed, held my hand, held my legs and feet as I pushed, encouraged me, told me what was happening, and was surprisingly calm. I couldn't have done it without him.

At 10:30 a.m., less than two hours after we arrived a the hospital, Benjamin was born. He weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long. I think he is pretty perfect.

My recovery is going okay. I never really read the parts of the pregnancy books that talked about what happens to your body after delivery. I am in much worse shape than I anticipated, with lots of soreness from where I had to have stitches, but I am doing okay. I was able to go shopping on Christmas Eve with Jason and also took Ben to the Christmas Eve service at church. My parents and brother have been here the last few days, and my mom has been especially helpful.

Here we are getting ready to go home from the hospital:

And this is the sweet little angel I took home: