The day Joanne Clark Astle was born:

warning: this is a long post, but I wanted to get everything down while I still remembered it.

The morning of August 25th (the day Jody was due), Lance woke me up at about 3:00 asking if I was ok.  I couldn't believe he woke me up because I don't sleep that well pregnant, but apparently I was whimpering in my sleep from contractions. They weren't bad enough to wake me up so I went back to sleep.  At 3:45 I woke up for real with more painful contractions.  I had had braxton hicks for weeks, but they weren't painful and they weren't able to be timed, so I knew this was the real thing when they actually hurt and I could time them.  I woke Lance up at 4:00 when the contractions were four minutes apart.  We moved pretty slow, because I knew they weren't that bad, and we live only 5 minutes away from the hospital.  We made the bed, grabbed what we needed, then headed to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital, they checked me and I was dilated to 5 cm.  I was thrilled that I was actually in labor - on my due date and everything! Because I was having a natural labor, I was able to spend the first hour of labor in the jetted tub.  It was so comfortable - I wish I could have spent the whole labor in there! But they made me get out to check the heart rates and make sure everything was ok with Jody.

While I was still in the bath, our dear friend Julie showed up.  She is wonderful and her family deserve their own blog post really, but she is a pseudo-mom for me in Hermiston.  She came and was such a calm presence, and so helpful! She also helped us skype my mom! Thank you Julie!!

I progressed about 1 cm an hour, and all was going well.  In the first few hours, another friend from Hermiston, Camille, came to take pictures of the whole event.  I have made such wonderful friends in Hermiston!

The contractions were pretty good actually.  Painful, yes - but I was totally in control.  I had read about Hypnobirthing, and I practiced what I learned in that book, and I was able to breath through each contraction.   Lance was the PERFECT husband throughout the whole day.  He was by my side every second, holding my hand, breathing with me, keeping everyone quiet, and helping me sway back and forth to be more comfortable.

The many positions of labor - trying to get comfortable and not really working



When I reached 8 cm and stayed there for two hours, my doctor came in wanting to break my water to hurry along the process.  I said no, wanting to progress on my own.  The next hour, she came back in wanting to break my water, and I finally said yes.  I wish I hadn't, but it did speed it up! Labor then kicked into high gear, and I progressed much faster, with much more painful contractions.  I was still able to breath through them, but I needed much more help from Lance to focus than before.


At 11:20 a.m., I was dilated to a ten, and started pushing.  H 0 L Y  C O W! I have never had that much pain in my life! I had to push for 45 minutes, and the contractions were pretty much on top of each other.  Every time I had a break between contractions, my doctor told me to tell her when I had my next set of contractions, but I was so scared to push I didn't want to tell her.  I thought it would never end, and I kept yelling for her to just GET THE BABY OUT!!! Finally they could see her head, and they kept telling me how much hair she had! I thought I would be more excited about that, but I was so overwhelmed and exhausted from pushing, I barely noticed. It burned so bad! At one point I could see her head coming out, and the doctor had me touch her head.  It was really an amazing experience, even with the pain! Finally she came out, and all the pain was gone!

I love this picture of Lance the first time he saw our baby girl:

our first family picture

                        

 

She wasn't small! 9 pounds, 22 1/4 in long!

I love this girl!!

Joanne was the most beautiful newborn I have ever seen (I may be biased...)! She was perfect and so so sweet!! We had the best day with her, just holding her and loving her!

Finally, that night, we decided on her name - Joanne Clark Astle.  She was named after my mom's mom - Joanne. It's fun that she also has the same initials as my grandma JCA (Joanne Cowley Austin). It's fun because Lance's Grandma Astle's name is Johanna, and so she was named after her as well.  It was exciting that she was born on the 25th because that's Cowley day.  Cowley day is a big deal for my moms side of the family.  Matthias Cowley - my great great great grandfather - was an important man in my family, and August 25th was his birthday.