Jane Allen arrived two weeks early on August 8th at around 2:10 am in our upstairs bathroom with Jake stepping in to deliver her. Needless to say, her birth did not go as planned! My water broke Friday evening and I decided to stay home, rest a little, and then get my contractions going before going to the hospital.
The general rule of thumb on going to the hospital is when your contractions are around 5 minutes apart consistently for about an hour. So, we were waiting for my contractions to get in a good pattern and then we would drive the short distance to the hospital. By 2 am my contractions were intense, but were only around 6 minutes apart. All of a sudden I felt like I needed to push and could tell the baby was coming. Jake called 911 and they talked him through the process to help little Jane into the world. The 911 operator came to visit me at the hospital and said that Jake deserves an award because he was so calm and did such a great job (especially considering that a few weeks before I asked him if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord and he wasn't sure he was that interested!).
We are so blessed that Jane was in perfect health with no complications. Paramedics arrived less than 5 minutes after she was born and then we were rushed to the hospital. She weighed in at 5 lbs 14 ounces and 19 inches long. We are now "back" home and trying to adjust to life with our special little delivery.
Proud big sister Claire with mom and baby.
By the way, Jake's shirt is not wet from the delivery but from a wet towel someone put around his neck.