The Story

Thanks, Jim, for taking over our blog these past few days (and doing a fine job posting plenty of pictures, too)! Here I find myself nursing at the computer once again. We've almost got this nursing thing down (without me curling my toes every 2 hours or so...) And for anyone interested, here is how Joseph Kempton Hawkes entered this world:
Thursday I was at a 4 and 80% effaced and was contracting a lot on Saturday and Sunday. So I knew when consistent contractions started, labor would be brief. When I woke up at 1:00 am Monday I waited 30 minutes, deemed the contractions strong and we called our neighbors to come sit with the kids (THANKS Tonya!!!). At 1:52 we left our driveway.
2:04 my water broke and we arrived at the hospital about 10 minutes and 2 strong contractions later. (Nothing like driving down the freeway in labor to notice just how bumpy that road is...)
We raced up to L&D where I was checked at a 9 1/2 and a doctor was frantically being located. I was wheeled to the delivery room (again- nice bumps along the way) when I realized this boy was coming now and I was the only one who could get him out. A quick, sincere prayer later I was grateful for the confidence I had that I would be able to handle the intensity (read: pain) of pushing our son out. The pain was still there, but I felt empowered to take on the situation.
About 3 pushes later, at 2:35 I was holding our healthy 9.2 pound boy as a resident sewed me up...
A nurse commented it was a good thing he was so big (with a head size of 14.25") or he may have slipped out before arriving in the delivery room. I'll try to keep that in mind every time I get up and sit down over the next week or so...