Four years ago...

... I was almost two weeks overdue. Thankfully, I wasn't too miserable, just very anxious to meet my first baby and be a new mommy. My midwife told me that once I was ten days late, they would induce me. So December 19th rolled around and we called St. Joe's first thing that morning. Unfortunately, they were super busy and told us we had to wait until they called us back. It took FOREVER. What do you do when a simple phone call determines when you have your baby? You wait nervously by the phone, jumping everytime it rings. We kept double-checking to make sure everything was packed, made phone calls to relatives and close friends, and waited some more. Finally at 4:00, we got the call from St. Joe's. We screamed in excitement, jumped in the car, and away we drove to the hospital.

Once we got there, I was given a pill to start the contractions. The crazy part was that we were given permission to go for a walk (it would aid the contractions) outside of the hospital. So what did we do? We walked down to the spaghetti factory, where all of our friends and family were having dinner! Knowing it would be my last meal for quite some time, I ate bread, salad, spaghetti, the works. Then I could feel my contractions begin. Surprisingly stronger than I thought. We decided to walk back to the hospital which, if you know where the Spaghetti Factory is in relation to St. Joe's, is a steep uphill walk the entire way. So here I am, in labor, walking up this crazy big hill, stopping every few minutes to breathe through a contraction. I remember Adam giving directions his friend on the phone and I was like, "ARE YOU CRAZY? I'M IN LABOR! GET ME UP THIS FREAKING HILL!"

We made it back to the hospital and I was dilated to a four already. My midwife decided to give me another pill. After taking that pill, I was immediately thrown into incredibly intense contractions. Adam always tells me that our lamaze classes were a waste because with the pain I was in, there would be no trying ANY birthing techniques. And I most definitely was NOT getting into the jacuzzi that my midwife was trying to coax me into. All I could do was curl up in a little ball and beg for an epidural. Adam kept telling the midwife that I had no desire to make it through any part of labor naturally, but she didn't think it was time yet. Finally, after Adam told her several times that I wanted an epidural NOW, she checked me and found that I was dilated to almost a 6.

I was so happy to see the anesthesiologist come into my room. There's something about being in that much pain and slowly feeling it go away. It was the biggest sense of relief in my entire life. And after that? Well, I was ready to bring on movies, games, have everyone come in for a party! But that feeling didn't last long. The baby's heartbeat started going down. On the machine, you could see a red line that the heartbeat was not supposed to go under. When it went below that line, I completely panicked and could barely breathe. They placed me in several different positions and gave me an oxygen mask. Nothing seemed to help.

I remember seeing my midwife leave the room and come back a few minutes later in scrubs. It was horrible. I never thought I would end up having a C-section and was not prepared at all. I thought about all that food I'd eaten just hours before. I was trying to be brave and even cracked some jokes about how hot Adam looked in scrubs. But I was so scared, scared about the surgery and scared for my baby. I remember my family coming into see me before I was wheeled into surgery. My sister telling me that she was so glad I was having a C-section so we didn't have to worry about the baby. My mom trying to give me words of hope and encouragement, but I could see tears lingering in her eyes.

During the C-section, I focused on Adam and clutched onto his hand with all of my strength. I'll never forget staring into each other eyes, as if we were communicating all the love we felt for each other in a single look. Then Jacob was born and I looked into his little eyes... and I knew my heart will be filled with love for him forever. My beautiful baby, a beautiful miracle from God.