A Cry of Rejoicing

Jaron David Swick entere the world at 3:05 this morning. We choose the name Jaron because it means "a cry of rejoicing." After all the events we have been through to during Jaron's labor and delivery you will understand why is birth into the world has left us much to rejoice about.

Thursday at 3am I woke up with my first contractions. For the next 20 hours I would labor through contractions ranging between 3-10 mintues apart only to have them stall at 10pm that night. Even though they weren't as close, I would still be awaken every 20 minutes with painful contractions all through that night into the Friday. By Friday afternoon I was exhausted and discouraged.

At 6pm the contractions that finally told us it was time to head to the hospital started. By 7:20 we had Josiah off to the babysitters and we were headed into Corvallis to the hospital. The problem was that we were driving in freezing rain and the roads were like an ice skating rink. The two main roads we would normally take to Corvallis were blocked by major car wrecks. We had to take back roads. The blessing is that we were able to get behind a sand truck and follow it into Corvallis where the main roads had already be salted and sanded. There was much thanksgiving and rejoicing over that provision even though it took us an hour to get to the hospital.

Once a the hospital I labored for another 4 hours before my body just couldn't handed labor anymore. The 40 hours of contractions before true labor began had taken their toll and I found it difficult to find the energy to breath through my contractions anymore. At midnight I received an epideral and was able to rest for 2 hours, the longest I had been able to rest in 2 days.

Shortly after I received my epideral my nurse informed me my doctor had arrived but it took him a long time to come and check in on me. We found out he was defrosting because while he was trying to get to the hospital his car slid to the side of the road near his house so he decided to walk 4.2 miles, in freezing rain, at midnight to deliver our son. We rejoiced at having such a committed, compassionate doctor.

At 3:05am Jaron entered the world, but he was struggling to breath. Instead of big bolsterous cry all he could do was grunt. they took him to the nursey and did a chest xray and found out he had inhaled a lot of amniotic fluid making it difficult for him to breath. He has been doing better, but he still isn't ready to be taken off the monitors. But we rejoice that he was able to eat and that he doing better.

Here are the pictures.