Josiah is HERE!

I woke up Sunday morning, June 3rd, and was expecting a totally normal day. The day before, I went to an awesome kickboxing class and was feeling great so I had NO reason to expect anything out of the ordinary. My alarm went off at 8am, giving me just enough time to get up, dressed and drive to my regular Sunday morning step class. I wanted 5 more minutes of sleep, so I pushed snooze and stayed in bed until the alarm went off again. By the time I got out of bed and put my gym clothes on, I was running about 10 minutes behind. Not wanting to miss class, I ran towards the door, reached for the door knob and then…my water broke! I froze, standing wide-eyed at the door and thought “did THAT really just happen?!” This liquid seriously just soaked my gym pants. Needless to say, I never actually made it to step class that morning. I called my doula and labored at home until about 7pm that evening. By 7:30pm, we had checked into the hospital. I got in my cool hospital gown (so NOT cool haha) and it was officially game time.

The next 12 hours were full of moderate to intense contractions, more water coming out whenever it felt like it and a few screams when the contractions got really strong. By 12 midnight, I began to experience the intensity of labor. With each contraction, I prayed (sometimes VERY loudly) and thanked God for the amazing people that surrounded me in these moments. As the intensity increased, I knew I was that much closer to meeting my baby boy.

The final hour of labor was the most challenging thing I have experienced to date. I chose to go without pain medication and while I felt the heck out of each contraction, I am glad that I did it that way. People talk about forgetting the feelings of labor as soon as they see the face of their little baby. Well, I didn’t forget anything, but as soon as I saw my little boy, I asked myself if I would go through all this again for another child. I laughed out loud because once I was holding my child, it was all worth it and I would gladly go through another 9 months of pregnancy, 24 hours of labor and all those darn contractions again!

I stared at my little boy’s face and was so thankful. God is so amazing! I praised Him and thanked Him for a healthy pregnancy, a successful delivery and for this amazing miracle that I was holding in my arms.