Jack Everett North

Baby Jack is here! It has been a long time coming, but he is here! At times the nine months seemed to be more like nine years, and it seems that no matter how much you prepare for it, you still have to make some real life adjustments. For instance we went from not changing diapers back to changing diapers. We went from getting 6 hours of sleep a night to being at the mercy of a baby's hunger (luckily at the hospital we have the nursery that we can utilize).

But let me tell you a bit about how we got here. Last week Kristen had an appointment with her midwife, and at that time she was only dilated to a one, with no end in sight. Then at our appointment just this past Wednesday, we were only at a two, and still there was no end in sight. We were told that we could induce at anytime to start the process, but Kristen was unsure about how she felt about getting an induction. After a night of thinking things over, on Thursday she had decided to schedule an induction for April 20, 2009 a day after his due date.


Well, we believe that scheduling that induction was all that needed to happen to get her system going. Thursday night she had her first real contraction around 9:00 pm and another at 9: 13. The contractions were hard and would take her breath away. They went from 13 minutes apart to 10, and then 8. At this time we had decided that perhaps it would be best to get to the hospital. We called Papa and Grandma, and asked if Luke could go sleep over. Papa came and got Luke around 11:45. Luke was looking forward to a sleep over, but was really tired. When he got to Papa & Grandma's house he was so excited, and was telling them that tomorrow would be Jack’s birthday. He was so wired that he couldn’t sleep; instead he stayed up with Papa singing his ABC’s.

Kristen and I got to the hospital around 12:30 am Friday morning. We checked in, and found she was dilated to a 4. They found her a room, and started going through all of the paper work and such. The anesthesiologist came in and gave her the world’s most uncomfortable epidural. But once that epidural took, it was far better. Kristen and I tried to get some rest, but between the nurses and other staff coming in to check one thing or another, we probably only got an hour of rest between the two of us. At 5:30 am our midwife got there and asked us if we were ready to begin. Kristen was so excited. The staff brought everything into the room, and at 6:15 we began the process of delivery.


Eight strong contractions, and 55 minutes later we had a 21 inch, 9 lbs 7.5 oz beautiful baby boy with inch long brown hair and big hands and feet. Jack is a rather calm baby, curious about the world around him. He loves to open his eyes and look around. He is relatively quiet and eats a lot (which could explain why he is so big).


Luke was the first, other than his Mom and Dad to hold him. Luke was so excited to meet him, and you could tell that there was a Big Brother built into Luke. He held him close, stroking Jack’s face with his fingers. Luke just sat there and smiled while holding his little brother. It was fun to see them interact and build a connection with each other.




Kristen and Jack are both doing well. Kristen has a sore back and tailbone, but has a perm-a-grin. She is so happy to have Jack that it far outweighs any of the soreness’s associated with delivering a 9.5 lb baby.