Introducing the newest edition: Jack Tobias Tucker

Jack was born on the 26th of April at 7:30 in the morning – he was 38 weeks on the nose!

I started to feel a bit uncomfortable around 9:30pm the night before.  I tried to go to sleep but kept getting up.  Finally, around 11:30pm, I made myself a cup of herbal tea and decided that I was either in labor – in which case I needed to relax and try to get some sleep – or was having more Braxton-Hicks contractions – in which case I needed to relax and try to get some sleep!

Sleep kept evading me, though I did try.  It was around 2:30am that I decided, “OK – this is the real thing.  We’re going to meet this baby today!”

I woke Chris up around 5:15am.  He said that he’d noticed I was up and kept wondering, “What is she doing?  Why does she have a light on out there?” but apparently never woke up enough to realize I might be in labor.  I was fine with that.  I prefer to deal with pain on my own, so I didn’t want Chris hovering around me.  I kept telling myself that I could wait just a bit longer before waking him, and thought that maybe I could go a few more hours before needing to head into Birthcare.

We woke up Joe at 6am and called my friend to pick him up.  She arrived just a short while later and again, I kept telling myself that I could go awhile before needing to head in, maybe another hour or two.  Ha!

When 6:30am rolled around, I started to feel nauseous and thought, “That’s enough – dealing with contractions is one thing.  Dealing with them while throwing up is something else.”  I called my midwife, told her what was going on and that I was feeling a lot of pain, nausea, and pressure, and that I would like to come in.  Was that OK?  She laughed and said that when a second-time mum said she was feeling pressure then, yes, definitely okay to come in!

Chris called a taxi (I briefly felt like I was in some kind of movie, having contractions in a taxi) and we got to Birthcare around 7am.  I actually apologized to the staff midwives for probably coming in too soon (again, ha!) and they assured me it was fine, that my midwife was on her way and to do whatever I needed to get comfortable.

Well, my midwife arrived and at 7:30am, thirty minutes after getting to Birthcare and after about 15 minutes of pushing, Jack was born!

He is a precious, precious little bundle of joy.  He surprised me by coming 2 weeks before his due date.  He weighed in at 3.61kgs (just under 8lbs) and measured 52cms (20 1/2 inches).  Everything is going really well.  We’re so excited that he’s here and I can’t wait to watch him grow.  He’s already changing so much every day!  It’s been especially neat to watch Joe’s reactions to him.  He absolutely loves Jack and will ask, “Jack?  Jack?!” in an increasingly worried tone of voice if he can’t see him.  It’s pretty sweet 🙂