Jonas Jack Birch

This morning Sara went up to the hospital for her pre-op visit. She wasn't feeling great to begin with and to top it off she had to park at the bottom of the hill and walk all the way up. When she got into the hospital, and was doing her pre-op interiew,the nurse noticed that she didn't look all that great. The nurse told Sara that if her contractions got to be five minutes apart to hurry back in. So down to the bottom of the hill walked Sara. Then she had to climb into my truck, because I had taken the car to Yellowstone at 4am. Sara went over to our friends the Tietjens to pick up Carson. Alisha told Sara she didn't look that great either and she should stay there for awhile and not try to climb the three flights of stairs back to our apartment.

Just before going to lunch I got a call from Sara. She said that I should head for home because the contractions had started and were already timeable at five minutes apart. So good-bye Yellowstone and hello Memorial day traffic. (I managed to keep it under 100 for most of the trip.)

Sara also had called her mom and she was enroute to Rexburg. When Sara got to the Hospital with her mother they checked her and she was already at a four and 85% effaced. Because she had started dilating and her contractions continued to increase, Sara was hoping she might be able to VBAC. However, after talking to Dr. Barton she learned that her chances of having a successful VBAC were less than 50%. When I arrived at the hospital Sara was close to going into surgery. I was able to give her a blessing with Anthony just before the anesthesiologist came in to talk to her about the spinal block they were going to give her.

Off to surgery we went. They had a hard time trying to get the spinal block in. I think it took them around 30 minutes. I remember when Carson was born waiting outside the operating room before they let me go in to see Sara, and that seemed like an eternity. This time was longer. The nurses kept coming out saying they are just doing the spinal block. Even Dr. Barton came out for a bit and said the same thing to me. Finally they got it in. They might have punctured the dura which might give Sara a spinal headache (we are hoping it won't)!

When Carson was born they wouldn't let me anywhere near the operating table. I remember there was a line or something on the floor and they told me to say on the one side of it. This time wasn't like that. I was able to get right up close as they did the Cesarean and pulled Jonas out. I even got some amazing video footage of it happening.

Jonas was born at 3:15 pm. He weighs 8lbs 6 oz. and measures 20 1/2 inches long. As these pictures depict Carson and Jonas could be twins.

Jonas (left) and Carson (right)