The Allisons

Welcome Jonas Andrew!!



After a mere 18 hours of labor instead of 3 days, baby Jonas arrived. I had been having contractions 5-7 minutes apart starting about 1pm on Wednesday. By Wednesday evening they were beginning to get very painful, so I called the labor and delivery ward. They told me with my past labor and delivery history, it would probably go slowly again, but to let them know if my water broke, the baby stopped moving, or I was bleeding bright red blood. About an hour later as I was sitting on the couch having a contraction I felt what I believed to be my water breaking. However, when I went to the bathroom it was bright red blood. So I kind of went into panic mode and we headed off to the hospital pretty quickly. As Ezra had already been put down for the night, we had a friend that lives here in town come stay with him while he slept.

Upon arrival, they hooked me up and made sure Jonas was ok--which he was. They monitored me for a while and then checked my dilation. I was a 4-5 so they admitted me. The blood was from my cervix opening.






They administered the epidural pretty quickly. At about 6 cm as opposed to 8 like with Ezra. They had a little trouble numbing my left side and had to give me more than they had expected for my size.

Things were moving along, but between about 3 and 5 am my contraction began to get less consitent and more irregular. They had to turn down the epidural and give me Pitocin to speed things back up. I was beginning to have quite a bit of pain again when the nurse checked me. She said that there was still a little piece of cervix in the way, but that I might be able to push the baby's head past it. So after 2 or 3 pushes, he was clear of the cervix and I began to push with the midwife present.

It only took about 6 or 7 pushes before his head was out. However, as he came out, the umbilical chord tightened around his neck. The midwife told me to stop pushing as she unwrapped the chord twice. I pushed once more, and they had to whisk him away because he was rather pale and limp. It took only moments to revive him though. The midwife thought it was only at the very end that the chord tightened, because he wasn't in very bad shape and they had no indication of distress during labor. He was born at 7:09 am on June 12, 2008, weighing 7 lbs 9 oz, and 20 inches long.


Jonas came into the world in front of quite an audience. Daddy, of course, was close by throughout it all. Nana and Grandpa were also there. My friends Elisa and Elizabeth were also there for moral support and to take pictures. All of those were in addition to the midwife and about 4 or 5 nurses. Thank goodness it was a big room.

They discharged us both the next day and we came home. The first night was a little rough, but I have lots of help so no complaints so far. Thanks for the prayers. Everything went very well.

(The dates on some of the pictures are wrong...)