Update
(The Ebb and Flow of Life)
Leslie and I woke up on Saturday 02/01 with the heart breaking news of the crash of the space shuttle. We watched the news unfold on television and mourned with the nation. That afternoon Leslie and I decided to get out of the house for a little exercise. We ended up at the YMCA for a walk on the treadmills at around 4:30 that afternoon. We came home from the Y at around 6:00 and shortly thereafter, I began making Chicken and Dumplings for dinner. Within two hours, Leslie walked into the kitchen to tell me that she thought that she might be having contractions. She said that she was having pain in her lower back. We began to time the contractions and found that they were up to 7 minutes apart.
We stayed up all night with me giving Leslie counter-pressure for her back labor and her trying to relax through the contractions. By 5 a.m., her contractions were 5 minutes apart and lasting close to two minutes. Since it seemed like her contractions were strong, and she was serious, we left for the hospital and arrived around 6:00. Our midwife, Beverly Jacks was already there delivering another baby, so she was able to check Leslie out and found that she was only at two centimeters’ dilation. After talking to Beverly about our options, we decided to head home to wait it out a little longer. Leslie and I were discouraged and tired and started doubting our resolve about a natural birth. Though somewhere along the line, we were able to regroup and settle into the fact that this would be a long and hard labor.
By 1:00 o’clock, we had had enough of laboring at home, and we went back to the hospital at 2:00 p.m. At that time, the contractions were still four or five minutes apart but were lasting well over 2 minutes. By 2:30, Leslie had dilated to 5 or 6 centimeters. She continued to focus on relaxing and soon decided to move to the labor tub, where she stayed for about an hour. She really seemed to appreciate the weightlessness and massage of the water.
By 7:45 that night, she was just dilated to 8 centimeters, and that was only during a contraction. Beverly believed that Leslie was close though and suggested that she try pushing with the next contraction to bring the dilation to 10 centimeters. That did the trick. John David was born less than 30 minutes later at 8:17 p.m. 02/02/03, after 24 hours of hard labor. I am sooo proud of Leslie and will never look at her the same. I have a newfound respect for her.
As I write this on John David’s one week birthday, Leslie and I find ourselves very tired and emotional. At times we feel so overwhelmed with love for our new little baby boy; it is beyond words.
Our Love and God’s Best,
David, Leslie and John David Gidcumb