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January 02, 2008
Boy oh Boy oh Boy!
It has taken me a while to finally sit down and write about my youngest son, Jonah. I feel bad about not updating my faithful readers sooner about the birth and first days of Jonah, but honestly, I AIN'T GOT THAT KINDA TIME! Well, actually, I have had the free time, but I haven't had the free HANDS! So while Jonah is napping in his carseat, I am going to try to quickly fill you in on the birth of baby Jonah. But you will have to wait another 4 weeks to read about how life has actually been since Jonah joined the family!
It was a strange labor experience for me. I began having contractions at around 10pm on Dec. 4th. They were not strong or consistent, so I went to bed not sure if I was really in labor or not. I woke up around 1:30pm with contractions that were closer together, so I got out of bed and went upstairs so that I could move around and try to relax some. The contractions were still not very strong, but they were about 3-6 minutes apart. So after an hour I called my midwife and she told me that I should probably head to the hospital. The only reason I called her was because I needed to get 2 doses of penicillin before I delivered the baby because I had tested positive for Group B Strep. But I was not feeling like the baby was coming anytime soon. Even though the contractions were close together, they were not intense at all and I just didn't have the "feeling" of being close to delivering my baby. But I called my sister and sister-in-law to come on over to watch the boys, and got ready to leave.
Right before we were about to leave, my water broke on our couch. This was a a bit of a shock to me because my water had never broken before. With Jaron, they broke my water in the hospital to speed up labor, but even then, nothing really came out. With Elias, my water never broke and he was actually born in his sac. So to have my water break was a new experience for me. I must say that it is not the greatest feeling, especially when you do it in your living room! So we piled the towels in the car and headed over to the hospital.
My contractions at this point were still not too bad and I was able to walk reasonably well into the hospital and to my room. When the nurse checked me to see how far along I was, she said that I was about 6 cm dilated. At around 3:30pm, my midwife got to the hospital and checked me and said that I was 9cm! This was quite a surprise to me because I did not feel like I was in Transition at all. My contractions were still bearable, and were very inconsistent. I would have a contraction a few minutes apart and then I wouldn't have another one for 20 minutes! It was very strange. And because I would have such long and frequent breaks in between contractions, I was able to talk and laugh and even at one point I fell asleep! So this continued for 4 hours! Four hours of`1 thinking that at any point I would get the urge to push and my baby would make his grand appearance.
Finally, at around 7:00am or so, my contractions became more intense and I could sense that it wouldn't be long. My mom, who was falling asleep in a chair, got up and said she was going to go find some coffee, thinking that we still had a long stretch ahead. But I told her not to go anywhere or she would miss her grandchild being born. So she sat back down and a couple of contractions later I was starting to push. After pushing through maybe 3 contractions, Jonah Kondwani was born! And what a relief it was to finally have it over with! There is probably no greater sense of relief and peace than there is right after giving birth to a baby.
I was not surprised that he was a boy - that is what I thought I was having. I'm not disappointed either, cuz I love my little boys and have always seen myself more as a boy mom. In terms of his name, we came up with Jonah 2 days before he was born and Kondwani is from Malawi and means "joy or happiness". All of our boys have names that have meanings that have to do with joy, so we were limited in name choices in order to meet that criteria.
By the way, God answered our prayers concerning the boys. They did great while I was in the hospital and Elias was fine being away from mom and dad. Thanks for your help, Aunt Jasiri and Aunt Katie! And thank you all for your prayers and encouragement.
Family and friends meet Jonah
Jonah at 3 weeks
The Brothers
Posted by laini at January 2, 2008 04:19 PM
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Comments
Wow, Laini. I can't believe how much he looks like YOU in the pictures. I didn't notice that so much before.
Posted by: sara at January 2, 2008 04:58 PM
congratulations! he has such a sweet face! i hope that the adjustment of having a newborn in the house is going as smooth as possible.
Posted by: amber at January 2, 2008 05:05 PM
So great to hear about his birth! I was just thinking about you today and wondering how you were doing. I am ashamed I never made a meal and even more ashamed I haven't met him. (seeing you across the sanctuary doesn't count) I will be in touch soon.
What lovely pictures!!
Posted by: Jenn at January 2, 2008 05:26 PM
Wow, Laini! I can't believe Jonah is four weeks old or that I haven't seen you in four weeks, since we usually share our Sunday afternoons. I've missed a lot of church and Huffine time from family visits to Christmas to illness to wretched insomnia. I will look forward to see you and Jonah (and the rest of the family, I guess) this Sunday. Make people wash their hands before they touch that baby, though. Sick babies are no fun!
Posted by: martha at January 4, 2008 07:37 PM