Jonah Wright Clyde

Jonah Wright Clyde was born on May 2nd, 2012 at 7:07 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs 0 oz. and 19 1/2 in. long.  He is just a joy to have in our family and we love him.  He is now 6 weeks old and is smiling up a storm and is such a happy little guy.  He is easy going and rolls with the punches (almost literally since Evie likes to try and take care of him and seems to loose coordination the closer she gets to someone's face.)  He likes to coo at you and talk back when talked to.  It seems that some times he even does the initiating of the conversations.  All in all, we love him and can't wait to see his little personality bloom and grow.
But the reason why I needed to write is because I need to record his birth story- so... if you dislike birth stories please discontinue reading because this is not for you.  This is for me and my little guy.  As time goes by, I am forgetting more and more and it scares me.  So... here it is...
Jonah was due on the 4th of May.  With this pregnancy I was much more patient and was willing to wait as long as it took for Jonah to be ready.  Which in part was kind of a bad thing.  I tested positive for Group B Strep and would need at least 4 hours in the hospital before giving birth.  For most, this is not such a big deal but for me, it tends to be.  Evie was born in 4 hours with one push so I guess I should have been more worried than I was.
I had been having contractions through the weekend but nothing seemed to hurt so I just ignored them because I didn't want to get myself anxious.  The doctor said that if I had contractions that started getting stronger and closer together for more than an hour, I should go in.  Easy enough- right? Well, Tuesday night Joseph asked me if I was feeling the baby kick and I told him that I was.  But he reminded me that Jonah doesn't move as much as Evie did in the womb and so I was determined to watch Jonah more carefully to prevent any neglect on my part.  Wednesday morning I woke up and started out the day doing kick counts.  But there were no kicks.  Joseph had left for school to take his last finals and I was home alone with Evie.  I told myself not to panic but as the hours passed I began to get more and more worried. My dad came over to visit and by that time, I was in tears.  I had poked and prodded that little guy but he just wouldn't move.  I asked my dad to give me a blessing.  He mentioned that my life would soon change and my body would be able to do what it needed.  He mentioned that my Father in Heaven loved me, Joseph and little Evie but nothing of the new baby.  Lets be honest, that blessing was not very comforting.  So I called the doctors office and they told me to come in and do a stress test.  When I got in the chair and they got me all strapped up, I started having contractions again.  They didn't hurt but they were about 5 min. apart.  Towards the end of being hooked up to the monitor Jonah began to move again and my anxiety was relieved.  The nurse advised me that I could probably go in to the hospital if they were persistent.  And persistent they were.
Joseph came home around 1:30 after taking his last final, took a shower, we ate some lunch, and then we decided that we had better go in even though they weren't painful.  So we packed our bags, dropped Evie off at Grandma's house and headed off to the hospital.
Once situated, the nurse asked me when I thought I was in labor.  I didn't really think that I was, but I told her I had been having contractions 5 min. apart since 9 in the morning.  She looked at me funny, as to say, "if you don't think you are in labor... then why are you here?"  She rephrased the question to say something like, well when did you say, "I think these contractions are significant and I should go in." I still didn't think they were... So we stuck with the 9 o'clock answer.  Ironic thing was that as soon as that question was asked, the contractions began to pick up and never slowed down.
I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced so obviously the contractions weren't doing a whole lot. But because the contractions were regular the nurse said that it was okay to keep me.  Okay? okay? By that time, I was convinced I was in true labor.  She began to find a good vein to poke and get the IV started but there were non.  I lost track of time but I'm pretty sure we sat there for a good 45 min. with her poking me, and fishing around for a vein.  Because I was in true labor, my veins had retracted and there was non to be found.  They had to call in the anesthesiologist and he confirmed that it would be impossible to to get a lower vein and he would have to put the IV in the crook of my elbow.  By this time I was getting worried.  We were loosing time and every min spent getting the IV in meant less time that the antibiotic was running through my system and closer to when Jonah would be here.
The contractions continued to escalate but I was convinced that I wanted to hold off the epidural as long as possible ( I go completely numb and can't feel a thing everytime).  I was checked- now I was a three and a half.  So they figured that the doctor could come and break my water and we would still have plenty of time for the 4 hours the antibiotic needed.  The doc came, checked me and in a half hour I had gone from a 3 to a 6.  There was no way with 2 hours left and that much change that they were breaking my water.  It was shortly after, that I decided I could go for an epidural.  I should say, Joseph begged me to get the epidural and I agreed.  The nurse said, "Congratulations you are now in active labor!"
I went completely numb again but I could still feel slight pressure.  My IV had run out and I called the nurse in so she could give me some more fluids.  I told her that I felt an increase of pressure as if the contractions had picked up again.  She asked if I wanted to be checked. I said that I kind of wanted to but she said that checking could increase the speed of labor so it might not be a good idea.  It this point Jonah kicked (probably fed up with sitting in the birth canal for so long) and I felt something give and touch my leg.  Because I was so numb, I immediately blurt out, "oh no! I think my water just broke!" The nurse rushed over and strangely enough it hadn't.  The bag was still intact but had prolapsed to the outside.  I was complete and hadn't even known it.  So I sat there trying not to breath wrong, sneeze or laugh too hard out of fear that any wrong movement could break that bag open and expose Jonah to the bacteria.  The crazy thing is that Jonah's head was clearly visible and he was hanging there oh so patiently as if to say, "You know guys, I've sat here for a really long time and would like to get out but I guess I can wait a little bit longer."
The nurses ran around getting everything ready for delivery.  They strung the second bag of antibiotics even though it hadn't quite been 4 hours and called the doctor up.  The bag finally broke about 5 minutes before Jonah was born.  We were literally counting down the seconds to the 4 hours.  They said I could get ready to push if I wanted to.  (I thought, if I wanted to? I get to choose to push or not?) As I breathed in and began to , Dr. Noorda said, "Woah, You can ease up."  One of the nurses standing there said, "Do you even count that as a push?"  So Jonah was born and came into this world and we are so happy to have him!