Jack's Birth Story

Last pregnant picture: 6 days past our "due date"

This is the story of how Jack David Panther entered this world.

My mom came down from WA on Tuesday, August 2nd, one day before Jack's due date. I had thought it would be so great if Jack could already have arrived by the time she got here, but it was not to be had. We spent the week doing odd jobs, shopping, and enjoying each other's company. Time flew by as we waited. There were days of frustration and my confidence waxed and waned as each day passed. God's timing is always best, which is hard to remember when you are in the thick of seeing your personal plans go down the drain.

The morning of Wednesday, August 10th, I laid in bed and said to myself, "This is it. Today is the day." At 41 and 1 day pregnant, I started the day like any day. My mom and I went to the movie theater in the late morning to see "The Help". By the time we got home, I was feeling tired and went to bed for a nap. At 4:30 pm, I woke up to a strong contraction. As I got out of bed to head to the bathroom, my water broke...and did it ever! It immediately soaked through my clothes, two bathroom rugs, and left another huge puddle on the floor. Uff da! I was instantly filled with excitement and fear because this was really IT.

All of the books tell you that early first stage labor should be a time of relaxation. They tell you not to keep track of your contractions and to get plenty of food and rest in order to be ready for what lies ahead. Our plan all along was for me to watch the 6 hour BBC version of Pride and Prejudice and Dave had planned to bake a Huckleberry Pie. After getting myself and the bathroom cleaned up and a change of clothes, I found a spot on our ottoman where I could start my movie. With the very next contraction, it was as if my water broke again, causing another huge mess. Good grief!

At this point, I realized that we were really going to get moving quickly so I hopped in the shower to get cleaned up. Little did I know that only three hours later at 7:30 pm, I would be completely through with first stage labor and would be fully dilated and ready to push.

My contractions at this point were very strong and coming about 6-8 minutes apart. My favorite place to be was on the toilet. Dave sat across from me on the edge of the tub and encouraged me through each one. By 7:30 pm, the contractions were so strong that I ended up with the dry heaves. A short phone call to our midwife, Jen, confirmed that I was most likely at the end of first stage and onto the transition to second stage. She made the trip back from Disneyland (sorry Jen's family!) and was at our house in no time. A check of my cervix confirmed that I was fully dilated.

Unfortunately, our sweet boy was turned sunny side up (ROP) and his little body was still on the move. Normally, babies are face down and their bodies are pretty much up and down which causes tremendous pressure on the cervix. Jack was turned the wrong way and his body was pressing up against my left side. Jen kept asking if I felt the need to push but at this point I really didn't. I labored with my eyes closed the entire time and made it through each contraction by moaning low in my voice. Jen encouraged me into lots of different positions to try and get the baby to turn in the right direction. I tried laying on my side and on my back, being on my hands and knees on the floor, laboring on the toilet, standing and leaning on a stack of pillow on the bed, etc.

Some time during all of this, another midwife, Lisa Marie showed up. Jessica, Jen's normal assistant was on vacation, and Lisa Marie came down from Montana to house sit. I'm not quite sure how she decided to come attend our birth, but I know without a doubt that the Lord was leading her to be here. To be honest, I never even knew what Lisa Marie looked like because I was laboring with my eyes closed, but I can tell you that there has never been a time in my life when I was more blessed by a single person. Lisa Marie knew exactly the words to say to comfort me. Her gentle touch was in exactly the right places at the right times and her strong hands guided me through the hard pushes. When she would step out of the room for a break, I could feel my body tensing up and I knew that the contractions I experienced while Lisa Marie was gone would be the worst. She truly was my "angel" and the one that kept me going through the long hours.

When all was said and done, I had been in the pushing phase from 7:30 pm until 5:30 am, 10 hours of my most athletic and focused time of my life. After trying everything to get the baby to turn, Jen told Dave and I that we should consider heading to the hospital. My contractions were starting to space out a bit and become less strong because my uterus had just spent 10 hours contracting and like any muscle in the body, it was tired. I was so completely in the zone and didn't realize how much time had passed so I was a bit surprised that Jen would even suggest such a thing. I told Dave it was up to him and he told me he thought it would be a good idea. By this point, I didn't care one lick about the hospital itself, I was just worried about making it to the car. Dave put the seat down in the Prius and made a little nest of blankets and towels. I made it to the car ok and took my place on my hands and knees in the back. Dave drove slowly but didn't stop at any of the stop signs. Luckily, we only live a few blocks from the hospital so we were there in no time.

Dave knows the hospital like the back of his hand so he knew the fastest way to get up to labor and delivery. I had labored the entire time with my eyes closed and only remember opening my eyes a few times during the whole ordeal. One of those times was at the receptionist desk. I open my eyes to see doctors and nurses standing around chatting with each other not even looking in our direction. The receptionist hands Dave this massive stack of paperwork to fill out before anyone can assist us. I just kept saying, "Dave, are you kidding me?" Just when I thought I could wait another minute, I got a contraction and proceeded to moan and groan as per usual. What do you know? That did the trick.

Before we could say, "oh baby" we were whisked into a delivery room and had doctors and nurses swarming around us. I heard little snippets here and there like, "What do you mean her water broke 13 hours ago?" "What do you mean she's been pushing for 10 hours?" "Why didn't you get here sooner?" Dave would later tell me that this part of Jack's story was the worst part for him. Usually, Dave is on the other side, assisting during medical emergencies. Now here he was on the patient side and all of this frantic moving around was for his wife and baby. He told me later that he was really scared.

As soon as they hooked up a monitor and saw that the baby was doing really well, everything calmed down and before long it was just Dave, myself, and our trusty nurse, Cheryl Cleveland. Cheryl was another angel during this time. She was tough, pushed me past my limits, and knew just how to support me. Turns out the attending on call was the same one who I had an appointment with just a week before, the same one who I told Dave I would NEVER see again. At one point, to encourage me, Cheryl said, "Cami, if you don't want him to deliver your baby, just give me a good push right now and we'll get this done." :)

After about an hour of trying to get the baby to turn, they started a little Pitocin. This was just what my uterus needed to feel motivated to get the baby out. With all my might and a big push, Jack's head came out. The attending quickly saw that his cord was wrapped tightly around his neck so he grabbed his little head and pulled him out which caused a pretty hefty third degree tear.

Jack was born at 7:35 am and let out a healthy cry right away. He weighed 7 lb. 8 oz., and was 20 1/2 inches long. His apgars were 9 and 9. The nurses put him on my chest right away (something we would later find out was not common). After a few minutes, he pooped in my hand. :) After they got a diaper on him, he nursed for two hours straight, wide awake the whole time. This was a huge blessing because I needed a distraction as the attending quickly stitched me up. My placenta didn't want to be delivered and it took over 30 minutes of "aggressive" massage plus pitocin plus the attending yanking on the cord. And then, it was all over. Everyone cleared out of the room except for our last Godsend nurse, Brittany who gently and carefully cared for both myself and Jack. She was incredibly encouraging and told me how impressed she was with my paid med free delivery and how much fun her job is when the babies are healthy.

Jack's first visitors were our midwife Jen and his Grammy. I spent two full days in the hospital being pampered and waited on while bonding with our beautiful son. I feel overwhelming grateful for the entire experience. I got to labor at home with people I knew and trusted while allowing my body to do the work it was made to do. The atmosphere was calm, quiet, dark, and confident. The frantic, fear-inducing, sterile world of the hospital didn't come into the picture until the point that I no longer cared about such things and I got all the benefits of the post-partum hospital stay (lactation consultants, birth certificate people, medications, 24 nurses call buttons, the works!).

Jack is stunningly beautiful, funny (as evidenced by his pristine timing of inappropriately timed bowl movements), smart, and wonderful. We just can't believe how lucky we are to be his parents. These last few weeks of getting to know each other have been amazing and when he stares into my eyes, I can't believe that I am his person, the one he will go to when he scrapes his knee. We just praise God for his incredible life and can't wait to see all that is in store for him.

A family of three

Jack David Panther