Dear friends & family,
Tuesday evening, after Christy had been experiencing relatively mild but steady contractions all day long, we decided to take Sammy & Riley over to Dan and Deanne's house for the night. It was a good decision. Christy woke me up at 2 a.m., which seems to be her body's scheduled time to get the "real" labor underway. She had pretty steady contractions for a couple of hours before we decided to call and let our midwife know, not wanting to leave anything to chance what with morning rush hour traffic, etc.
I guess you could call her labor experience a "normal" one, although there's really nothing normal about the birth experience. Each one is unique and wonderful. I can't speak for Christy's experience of course, which was FAR more intense than what I went through. All I can say is that it's humbling to watch the woman you love go through intense physical trauma in order to give birth to our child. The actual experience of watching your son make his entrance into the world is tremendouly emotional and even spiritual -- mixed with relief and gratitude that everything went well. It's amazing to watch that instant connection between mother and son, as the previous hours of discomfort and pain are almost all forgotten right away.
Our little guy was born at 9:20 a.m., weighing in at 7 lbs, 13 oz and 21 inches long and with an extra big head. He came exactly one week before the official due date of Dec. 12. (It's interesting that all three of our sons came at roughly the same time of morning after starting labor at about the same time during the night. I guess Sammy left a blueprint behind for the other two to follow.)
Well, you all know how we are with names. Sammy went nameless for three days and Riley for almost one. We had a short list of names we liked and wanted to see which one "fit." Well, this time it happened a little sooner, which is a first for us. We have decided his name will be Ezekiel Leo Jacobs, but we'll call him Zeke. Before the birth, Zeke was alternating between my first and second choice but was probably third or fourth for Christy, yet when I told her which name I liked best for our new little guy she surprised me by saying that she was thinking the same thing. So there you have it.
Thanks to all of you for your love and friendship. We hope you'll get to meet our little Zeke before long.
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