Baby Jack Henry Summers made his arrival Friday August 13, 2010 at 2:36 a.m. He weighed in at 9 POUNDS and 22 inches long. He is our biggest baby by far! He is well and wonderful and we are immensely grateful!
Birth story:
8 days past my due date. YUCK! It is so hard to be over due! I had not had any contractions to speak of the entire day. At 10pm I went to bed. Then, I had a couple of contractions, maybe 5 in that hour. At 11 pm my water broke. It wasn't a real obvious water break, just a trickle and I thought, "I think my water broke." At 11:15 pm I called my mom and told her to come on. I also called Ruth our midwife and told her. She arrived at 12:30 am. I was 8 cm dilated. I was feeling pretty good about my progress and felt as if the contractions were manageable at this point. All of the kids were sleeping, so we decided to let them stay. My friends Laura Robertson and Dalene Fisher came over and agreed to take the children in the case that they awakened. At 2:15 my mom arrived. I was then 9 cm. I decided to get into the birthing tub. I got about a 3 minute break from the tough contractions and then they really hit hard. I began pushing. I could tell it was more difficult than in the past. I wasn't feeling strong. Finally, his head came out, but then I was still have trouble with the shoulders. Turns out he had moderate shoulder dystocia and was stuck. He did come out after 3-4 pushes, but wasn't ready to breathe. He gave us a bit of a scare, but began to breathe and "pink up" after about a minute. There is nothing so wonderful as the cry of a newborn baby. Thank you Jesus!
The past 4 days have been perfectly dreamy. I am so in love with this little baby. I have held him and slept with him as much as possible. All of the siblings are as thrilled with him as we are. We woke Chandler and RandiKate up about 4 am to meet baby Jack Henry. At 7 am Lily, George, John David, and Charlie came in to see him. Lily was amazed that he was no longer in my belly, but announced, "I fink ders anudder one in der." They all want to hold him and love and kiss on him. I don't think he will be lacking for attention.
He is a great nurser. He had one night of upset tummy, but I think mommy ate something too strong. He is sleeping like a charm. Doing all of his jobs well. My mom has been here ever since but went home today. She is a great help and I am a little overwhelmed with the idea of doing all of this alone. Some one said, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." That is how I must approach my job each day. I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for this I have been given.
