The Story of Zeke: Son of Jungleboy and FarmPrincess

Zeke has already been here almost 4 weeks, so I decided I would share the story of how he came to be born in to this world!
Zeke was due on January 18. We loved that due date. It was exactly in between my birthday and Jungleboys birthday. Perfect. We also liked January 17, my moms birthday. We felt either of those days would be good days for Zeke to be born. However, Zeke felt those days were too early for him. I had a  doctor appointment on January 18. My Dr said she thought I would have him by the 27th, but just in case we set it up for me to be induced.  All week long I hoped Zeke would make an appearance, but lo and behold we found ourselves headed to the hospital Sunday (the 27th) morning.  They hooked me up to the fetal monitors and checked that baby was doing good.  All looked well so at 10:30 my Dr came and inserted Cervidil to hopefully help kick start labor. They monitored me until 12:30 and then I was sent home to wait things out.  I was staying at my brothers house in town, since we are currently living about an hour out of town.  It didn't take long for me to start cramping.  Around 4:00 I took a bath, and that helped ease a bit of the pain but by 5:30 I was starting to cramp pretty bad. I still wasn't sure I was in labor, but I was definitely in pain, so we decided to go ahead and go to the hospital.  They checked me and I was dilated to a 4, which was better than the morning when I was only dilated to a 1.5.  I was beginning to rethink my choice of going without any pain medication/epidural, but the nurse there suggested a shower and being in the hot shower definitely helped my pain.  My parents came to visit around 7:00 and I was feeling a bit better then.  I decided to use laughing gas since my Dr had suggested it to help with my breathing.  The nurse brought that to me and while it didn't to anything to lessen the pain, it definitely helped me concentrate on breathing during the contractions.  My stepdad left around 7:30 or 8:00 and at 9:00 they took me back to an actual delivery room.  They checked me when I got to my room and I was dilated to a 6.  Good, I was making progress!  My waters still hadn't broke, so the nurse (Diane) suggested I bounce on a birthing ball.  I tried that in and out of the shower, but no luck. My waters did not want to break. Finally a nurse examined me during a contraction and managed to break my waters.  

Ha, not the most attractive picture, but I was in labor so its ok! Also, Jungleboy looks sweet so I'm putting it up even though I look rather  rough!!

At around 1:45am Diane told me it was time for me to start pushing. I was sad to say goodbye to the laughing gas, it had definitely helped me along my journey.  She had my mom and Jungleboy each take a leg and hold them back to help me get even better pushes in.  Thank goodness for my mom and Jungleboy, they were both a huge support to me during labor!  My Dr was there but for the first bit of pushing, she just watched. Diane would have me push for 10 seconds and I would do two long pushes each contraction.  Then she decided my contractions were lasting long enough that I could do 3 long pushes.  I was so tired since I had hardly slept on Saturday night and pushing was way harder than I thought it would be. My head also felt like it was going to explode each time I pushed.  I was a bit delirious from lack of sleep and laughing gas and it is possible that at one point I asked Diane in all seriousness if it were possible for my head to explode!
Finally my Dr decided that she should take over.  She was a bit rougher than Diane and also failed to count for me, which made pushing harder, but then Diane came back and counted for me again. Pushing was easier when I knew how much longer I had to push before I could rest.  My contractions were a few minutes apart and at one point my Dr suggested doing a pitocin IV so that it would speed them up, but I didn't think I'd be able to manage them any closer together, so I declined.  Finally, when I was pretty sure that I couldn't push any longer, I was told to do short pushes and then.... out came Zeke at 3:08am on January 28, 2013.

The look on my face is how I look when I'm crying tears of joy apparently, cause thats what I was doing!

 He was immediately placed on my chest and an overwhelming feeling of love and awe and relief ran through my body.  After trying for 5 years to get pregnant I could hardly believe I was finally a mom.  Zeke weighed 8 pounds and was 20 3/4 inches long.  Giving birth was the hardest thing I've ever done, but also the most rewarding.  I'm so glad that we finally have Zeke here.  He was definitely worth the wait!

One of the first pics of Zeke!

Definitely worth it!!!

LOVE!