Rebekah Ruth Jones

Rebekah Ruth was born at 11:04pm on Saturday 7/9/11. She weighed 8lbs 12oz and was 20 inches long.


Rebekah Ruth was born at 11:04pm on Saturday 7/9/11. She weighed 8lbs 12oz and was 20 inches long.

The birth story:

I began to have contractions on the Tuesday morning before she arrived, but they stopped. Then Friday morning, I began very slight contractions that got stronger around 9pm. They were about 10-15 minutes apart and I was able to sleep through them for a little while. The long slow process continued throughout Saturday until 4pm. I was about to give up hope and expected them to go away, so I went to take a nap. I woke up from the nap with a much stronger contraction. For about two hours I had strong, regular contractions about every 4 minutes. Nathan and my doula (Kristi) helped me through each one and got us prepared to go to the hospital in between. At 7:15pm we left for the hospital.

Houston's roads are terrible and I was not very nice to Nathan on the car ride over. The contractions and the roller coaster like ride were not fun, but we eventually got there. At the hospital I labored in water and with the birthing ball until about 10pm. The contractions were so close together, strong and long, that I was sure I was in transition. However, the midwife checked me and said I was only 6-7cm dilated. At that point, my panic set in and I looked at Nathan and told him that I wanted to get an epidural. Our original plan was a natural birth, but this really had been a long ordeal and I needed some help. **

Epidural in, I relaxed for the first time in a long while. It was only 45 minutes later that I was ready to push. She came out (all nearly 9lbs of he little self) in about 5-10 minutes. I hardly tore and was able to push efficiently since I could still feel a bit. It was so wonderful to have her. They put her on me, Nathan cut the cord, and she began to nurse for the next 45 minutes. She also lifted up her head right away just as Luke had done.

She is a beautiful, healthy little girl and we just want to look at her all day long. Luke has had a very positive reaction to his little sister and likes to say that she is "my chubby baby." He also says, "We ate the shirt and the baby popped out!" That one is confusing.

**Note: Not that this is a debate, but I wanted to explain why I did what I did. This time I was ready to take an epidural if I ran into a similar situation to Luke's birth. Since I had so much postpartum anxiety troubles from the traumatic birth experience with him, I decided that it was the right thing for me to do. I have to take care of Luke and Rebekah this time and I felt it more important for me to do all that was possible to be the most functional mother that I can be. I don't regret the decision.