Joseph Hank enters the World!

At 10:45pm, my water broke. Honestly it was such a small amount I thought I had peed my pants, and told Nate, "ummm I have to tell you something. Either I just peed my pants or...."

"Your water broke," he said. I didn't think it did because it happened when I laughed a little and pregnant woman can't control their bladders sometimes! :) But sure enough, when more came out I knew it was the real thing!

Our first thought was, "Claire won't be here," because she was coming in only 2 days. :( My next reaction was shaking like crazy because I was so nervous to go into labor again. It was like the memory of everything last time came back!
I called my Midwife to let her know, ( there are 2 Dr's and 3 midwives in my practice and she's my favorite one out of all of them--I was so glad she was on call!) and she said to try to go to bed and get some sleep and come in to the hospital when labor started. We packed for the hospital, got everything ready and then tried to go to bed around 12am. I would have a random contraction or cramping here and there, but other than that nothing was happening.
I tried to sleep but couldn't (of course) and that's when I started to post my last blog post. :) So it was around 1:15 and contractions started picking up a little. They were about every 4 minutes apart and not each one was bad, but most were pretty strong.
At 1:30 I woke up Nate and we called his Mom to have her come to stay with Brookie. I also called my midwife to let her know I was coming in.
As we were getting ready to go, the contractions were picking up, probably 2 minutes apart and I couldn't walk or talk through them.
At 2am we left for the hospital and I was in very active labor.
At 2:20am we arrived, got checked in. My midwife said I was 7 cm which made me very happy! She sat with me the whole time and said as soon as I started to feel pressure I could push with the contractions.
Within a few minutes, I did, but had some sharp pain when I would let myself bare down, so I knew I wasn't complete yet.
With each contraction she let me push a little, allowing my body to move the baby lower.
Around 3, I was really pushing. They brought me a mirror so I could see, and at 3:07 am my little man was born, weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 21 inches long.
They put him on my chest immediately and I think I was still in shock that I had just gotten to the hospital 40 minutes before and that he was already in my arms!
Something that was so amazing was when my MW told me to feel the cord and squeeze it a little. "He's still attached to you and his heart is beating through you." It was such an awesome feeling to feel that cord pulsing and have the baby in my arms and know he was such a part of me.
So, I was in labor for an hour and a half before he was born. Pretty amazing! God is so good to me!

My nurse told me that I was her inspiration for when she has kids and that was the kind of labor and delivery she loved to be a part of--non dramatic. That's always encouraging to hear after you've been in the worst pain of your life. :)

Also, In the same 12 hour shift that Joey was born, 15 babies were too! That night the weather changed drastically--when I walked out to go to the hospital, it was at least 90 degrees and extremely muggy. When we got to the hospital 20 minutes later, it was 70 and raining. She said because of the barometric pressure, every one's water was breaking! :)

I only had to have 1 stitch and I'm feeling great! I'm trying to take it easy because I overdid it after the last birth and want to be feeling good and active for when my family gets here later in October. Brookie LOVES her little brother and Nate and I are so blessed to have 2 healthy children!