Jacob's Birth Story

It has been just over a week since Matthew's and my life changed forever.

Our son, Jacob Matthew Cabe, was born on November 24, 2010 at 4:48 am.  He weighed in at 8 lbs 6 oz and was 19.7 inches long.

 This is his birth story.

Last Tuesday, I started having very mild contractions about every 20 minutes.  Around 11:00am, the intensity of the contractions increased, but they were still only every 20 minutes.  By the time Matthew came home from work, the contractions were every 15 minutes, then every 10, then 8...  Around 6:30 pm, they had been coming every 5 minutes for an hour, so we headed to the hospital. 

My plan had been to see how long I could last before getting an epidural.  Perhaps I could make it without...  Nope!  When Matthew dropped my mom and I off in front of the hospital, I was hit with another contraction and could barely walk to cross the street.  The pain was like nothing I have ever experienced, and it is so hard to describe what it feels like.  We checked in, and they hooked me up to the monitors.  I was only 3 cm dilated, so the midwife suggested I walk around the hospital for about an hour, then I could come back and soak in the bathtub.  That one hour of walking was a roller coaster.  A contraction would hit and all I wanted to do was start crying and head back to the delivery room and beg for the epidural.  Then the contraction would pass and I would think, "ok, the pain only lasts a short time...you can do this, Kim!".  But, about 2 minutes later, another one would hit and all I could think about was the epidural.  After an hour, we headed back, and just as we were passing through the waiting room, my water broke.  There was a guy sitting in the waiting room and I just happened to look in his direction as my water broke.  I can't even imagine the look on my face as we made eye contact.  I felt like I had just peed in my pants, but because of my big belly, I couldn't see how wet my pants looked.  I was so embarrassed, so I took off at the top waddling speed possible by a pregnant woman down the hall towards my delivery room.

Now, I have to admit- this whole pregnancy has been a little surreal to me.  We weren't trying to get pregnant, and no matter how many times I have heard his heartbeat, or seen the ultrasounds, in the back of my mind I kept thinking that somehow this was a big mistake... the doctors were wrong... I wasn't really pregnant...  I know it sounds crazy, but throughout the pregnancy, I had to remind myself I was pregnant.  And even lying in the delivery room, contractions coming, water broken- I still thought to myself, "This is going to be really embarrassing when they realize there isn't a baby in there..."

After all of the walking and the water breaking, I was still only 4 cm.  And I was definitely ready for the epidural.  Unfortunately, they made Matthew go out into the hallway during the procedure.  The anesthesiologist had a really hard time finding my epidural space.  It is such a scary thing having someone poke around near your spinal cord, and for it to take so long, and hurt so bad (all while having very painful contractions, and being barked at- in French- by a very rude nurse), it was horrible!  And poor Matthew was on the other side of the door, pacing the hallways, hearing me screaming, and not exactly sure what they were doing to me.  Finally, the epidural was in place and within about 30 minutes, I was loving life!  I had control over the amount of medicine, but was able to keep it pretty low.  I could still feel all of my contractions, and they were still even a little uncomfortable, but the pain was definitely manageable.

From there, it was just a waiting game.  My mom and Matthew switched places a few times (only one person was allowed in the delivery room at a time), and the hospital was nice enough to let my mom go ahead and move into my future room, so she was a little more comfortable than sitting in a waiting room chair.  I dilated about a centimeter an hour, and around 4:00am, the midwife said it was almost time to push.  By 4:15 am, our little team of a midwife, a midwife student, and a nurse were assembled and I started pushing.  After about 20 minutes of pushing, the doctor came into check on our progress, and told us that Jacob's heart rate kept dropping more than she liked, so she decided to use the vacuum to help him come out.  I felt like a failure, and tried pushing with all my might.  At 4:48 am, a little miracle was plopped on my chest.

I can't begin to describe that moment.  I don't even think I want to try.  There is no way to express in words those feelings, and the tremendous amount of love I felt as Matthew and I cuddled our newborn.  Simply amazing.

We stayed in the delivery room for about two hours.  Jacob was dried off, checked out, weighed, and measured.  I was able to breastfeed, and he ate like a champ!  Then I was wheeled to my room where a very anxious 'Maudy' was waiting to hold her grandson. 



The rest of the hospital stay was a blur.  Normally in France, you stay 5 days, but because this is a brand new hospital, they have had a flood of births (a lot of which would have gone to a private hospital before this amazing, new public hospital opened).  Because of the over-crowding, they offered to let me go home after 3 days and would send a midwife to my house and set-up an additional pediatrician appointment.  I was more than happy to go home.  The hospital was great, and I really liked all of the nurses, midwives, and students (it is a teaching hospital), but it was impossible to get any rest with the endless parade of hospital staff in and out of my room all day long.

Since coming home, we have just been trying to get on some sort of schedule.  Incredibly, within the first week, Jacob has fallen into a fairly predictable eating pattern- right at every 3 hours.  Except at night, where he has been going 5-6 hours between feedings.  I only have had to get up once every night to feed him (usually around 3:30am)!  I was really worried that he was sleeping too long, and wasn't getting enough.  Both my midwife and pediatrician assured me that he is gaining weight steadily, and it isn't unusual for a baby his size to be able to go 6 hours between feedings during the night.  Having my mom here has been a huge help!  By the time I finish feeding him around 7am, she is ready to take over the burping and diaper changing and I get to go back to bed!  What on earth am I going to do when she goes home???

There are lots more pictures to come, but I know this post has gotten really long as it is!  Thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful emails, comments on Matthew's 'guest blog post', and messages on Facebook.  We just wish we were closer to all of our friends and family in the US so we could share this precious baby with everyone.