Our Adventurous Journey--Life Together: Jeremiah David McClearen=The Love of our Life

He is finally here!!! After months of feeling the most foreign kicks, flips and flutters I am able to look into the most precious face and hold him till my hearts content! The feeling is indescribable, knowing that this being is a perfect part of both Jason and I. Cliche? Yes.. Do I care? NO!

Now, would you like to hear how this little guy got here? It is quite a story. But as I've stated, it wouldn't be a "Jason and Kate" story without a little drama and white knuckles. Here it goes....

Friday March 16th: After months of discussing it, Jason and I (at the helpful push of my mother) decided it was time to get our pup Eli fixed. We wanted him to be as calm and collected as possible with a baby coming. I call C-Snip (a low priced "fix-em" place with all professional "fixers") to schedule the appt. for Monday March 19th. But "due to the overwhelming amount of calls, C-snip will get back to me on a definite date." Whatever...

Sunday March 18th: Having contractions in church. Nothing too concerning. More annoying and feeling a need to go...to...the...bathroom... Getting through it. They continue spontaneously through the day. Signs of him coming? I'm in denial...

Monday March 19th: Feeling great! No contractions what-so-ever. Maybe two little ones. Eh. He's not coming soon. Get a call from C-Snip. "Sorry we weren't able to schedule your dog for today, but we do have a space open tomorrow. Would you like to make an appt?"
"Well, sure"-- As I said, I felt great. None the wiser of what was coming. So at 8am the next morning we had to drop off Eli. Monday night though, I started getting reluctant about going through with it. I was terrified it would change my dog and he wouldn't want to snuggle with me. J and mom calmed my nerves and the decision was made. 8 am I would have to say goodbye to my "ol' young pup" and hello to a question mark of a dog. Nervous.....

Tuesday March 20th: Wake up. On to C-snip. Line out the door and around the corner with people waiting to get their pets snip-snipped. Half hour wait...

Around 12pm March 20th, I started having contractions. Nothing big at first, just little twinges. I make a couple comments to my mom about them. Asking questions about when they become the "real thing". All my mother says is "Oh, you'll know..." DUN DUN DUUUUN.

1:30ish pm, contractions start becoming more consistent, longer and more intense. Mom is noticing the difference and starts logging it. Smart woman, my mother.

2 something pm, even more than before. Mom suggests I should call my mid-wife. I follow orders. Mid-wife says to take a hot bath and see if the contractions sub-side and if after I get out, are they still as consistent. I follow orders. Off to the bath I go. Contractions subside.

It's getting closer to 4, which is when we need to pick up Eli. I wouldn't hear of not going. So me and my stubborn self get ready quickly, hop in the car with Mom and J and head to C-snip. Along the way, more....contractions... arrive....only this time.....stronger.

4:00 pm, We arrive at C-snip to see a crowd of people waiting for their dogs as well. There is a speech being given about how to manage your pet when you take them home. What to do, what not to do. My contractions are still going strong and taking numbers. I'm trying to breathe. All I can think about is getting my dog... I get the papers in my hand. Any minute and I can leave!! Mom goes and pulls up the car. "Man, the people are slow", I complain to myself, even though the people were probably quite prompt. Another contraction starts. This one is taking my breath away... I grab ahold of Jason's arm and squeeze. He turns and looks at me. "Are you alright?" he asks. Before I can even answer, I feel a big ol' POP and WOOOOOOSH and gross, slimy wet. My water had just broken.... I run to my mom who had just parked. I'm crying because I'm not sure who just witnessed this rare scene, I want my dog, and my contraction is still going strong. And I realize, this is actually happening. I am about to become a mother. My emotions start playing with me and a little demon gets in my head, filling the space with self doubt. I do my best to push it away, thinking to myself that millions of women do this every day. I surely can uphold my "womely-ness" and push out this bowling ball.

As I'm sitting on the conveniently placed dog-blanket we had in my moms car, Mom goes and tell Jason what had happened, explaining that we need to get Eli pronto and head off to the hospital. While this is happening, I make calls. I'm trying to get a hold of the dog-sitters, my sister, my mid-wife and my friends to let them know that its show-time. Contractions are coming every minute it feels. Inside the office Jason goes up to the head nurse and tells her, "my wife's water has just broken, I need my dog. His name is Eli." Her eyes bug out and she runs off in search of our pup. Everyone around Jason is stating to him "Oh my goodness! You're going to the hospital!!" --Why thank you for that obvious statement. We weren't sure where to go in this situation.....

The nurse comes out in a state of near panic and announces that they do not have an "Eli". Mom jumps in and states "How 'bout Elijah?" --"Oh yea! We have Elijah!"... Tight shift 'round them parts...

Eli bounds out of the office, not-so-gracefully jumps into the car and we are off. We decide we have enough time to drop Eli off at home and grab our bag (that I had just packed about 3 hours before hand). I am feeling that I am the worst mother at this time, dropping my recently neutered canine off at home and basically saying "Sayonara! Good luck with the stitches!"

On the way to the hospital, the contractions and the feeling of desperately needing to visit the little girls room continues to grow. Along with the ever leaking water-breakage. Yes girls, this stuff doesn't just break politely and leave you alone. It is there for you, making you feel on a whole other level highly and involuntarily uncomfortable... Lovely, right? I tell my mom that I really feel like I need to go to the bathroom. A look of desperation sweeps across my mothers face and she shouts "DON'T PUSH! Whatever you do, don't push!!"

At 5:15 pm I am admitted and transported upstairs to labor and delivery triage. I tell them eagerly that I will be wanting the drugs A.S.A.P. I am fearing that I might have missed my window.

With a sigh of relief I am told that I am only dilated to 4. Even though I was in pain, I did enjoy the fact that all I had to do was lay on a gurney as people did all the work transporting me. Too bad my contractions got in the way of feeling the bliss fully.

In the delivery room they hooked me up to all sorts of machines, making me look like a high tech stereo system. I was still having heavy contractions back to back. Mom and Jason saw that they were I guess "off the charts". Have to be honest... Made me feel a little better that I was handling the pain as well as I was with "off the chart" contractions. It gave me strength to endure more, knowing that this was as bad as it was going to get.

To get an epidural, you have to have a liter of fluid pumped into you. To a woman in labor, this takes roughly about.. oh....eternity. By the time it took to get that fluid in me, the nurse was stating that she might need to check me again, due to how many and how intense my contractions were. I looked at her and said "Ignorance is bliss. I would like my drugs before you check me, thank you. I've heard of people missing their chances and that's not happening to me." A few minutes later, my legs felt heavy and my uterus was singing praises. Halle-friggen-lujah.

Everyone is familiar with the phrase "time flies when you're having fun", time also flies when you're about to become a mother. I could've sworn that it was only a minute or two after the drugs kicked in that they were pulling the huge, intimidating lamp from the ceiling. "We're getting you ready to push!" they told me. Ummm... Hold on... Don't I have a couple more weeks of this? Nope, I was 10 cm...

My mid-wife arrived, all smiles and bright eyed. As soon as she got there, the action happened. Jason and Mom hadn't left my side. My sister arrived about an hour before hand. Everyone was here. We had talked about who I wanted in the room. Jason, of course, and I had asked my sister to be there to help coach me. She had already done this 3 times, the ol' pro! I also decided to have my mom in there. She had been with me through this whole thing, and I felt like she more than deserved to watch the birth of her first grandson. I am beyond happy that I made that last minute decision. Plus, she had never watched a birth, just went through it twice. I figured it would be a cool learning experience. (Side note, even I decided to watch it with the help of a mirror. Way cool! For all you girls who don't get queasy, I totally recommend it. It helps you see what you need to do while witnessing the birth of your kid. Might as well see it to the end right?? I also have watched two births so I knew what was coming...)

I don't know the exact time that I started pushing but it went by pretty fast. I might have been pushing for maybe 20 minutes when my mid-wife told me I needed to stop because they had to call neo-natal up. (There was meconium in the water, meaning Jeremiah had pooed.) Neo-natal had to come make sure he was cleared of all of it when he popped out. Well, the call to neo-natal decided not to go through for about 5 min. And then it took another couple minutes for them to get there. I'm just chilling with a head about to emerge and forced not to push.. Awesome.

9:30 pm March 20th 2012, Neo-natal arrives. They stepped in announced "we're here", Brenda (my mid-wife) says "ok you can push!" and voila! In one more forceful push, he vaulted out. Literally... Brenda had to play catcher as the fast-ball catapulted at her, with all the slitheryness that comes on a newborn. I then heard the most beautiful noise. My baby boy shrieking. I was told this was a good sign and he probably didn't get any meconium in his system. Praise the Lord!

Jeremiah David McClearen was born at 9:32 pm on Tuesday, March 20th 2012. He was 19 1/2 in long and weighed 7 lbs 10 oz. He scored an 8 and 9 on his APGAR test. The picture of health :) We have been completely blessed through this entire pregnancy. I couldn't have asked for a smoother, faster delivery. God is so good to us! We had so many people praying for us. We are so appreciative and thankful for each and everyone of them. You all know who you are :) We couldn't have done it without you.

I know people always say that you are filled with this overwhelming sense of love when you have a child. Totally true and totally indescribable. All I know is that we have a perfect little boy that makes our hearts burst and swell.

We are happily adjusting to our new life. We are learning his signals and what his different cries are. For the past two nights he has only woken up once through the night. Yes, this might be a fluke, or short lived. But I am simply thankful that I have had those two lovely nights of fulfilled sleep. God is also blessing us with this since Jason has to wake up at 5 am. We are praying that it continues. No negative comments please about how this will most likely not happen. Like I said "Ignorance is bliss" and I am willing to learn and sacrifice. God is in control.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this "book" of how our little bundle graced us with his presence. I apologize if some of you find this outspoken. But I'm not that sorry because there are several of issues of pregnancy that are taboo. So depending on if you wanted to know it or not, above is the blunt truth. It was your choice to finish it :)

I wish I would've blogged more during the pregnancy because I'm afraid I'm going to forget a lot. This was primarily created so that I could go back and remember. I guess I should start a notebook before the memories fade...

Here are some pictures taken by my sister Sarah Davis, myself and even a couple from Jason

He came out practically smiling