The Story of Jack Allen Sharpe...

It was October 3rd, and this is what our board looked like...

Randi and Steve had come in town to stay with us and Randi was making me try everything we could to get Jack to come while she was here.  We walked, squatted, bounced, and even galloped around the driveway.  I was having lots of Braxton-Hicks in a row throughout the day, but not much more than that.  After exhausting our options, we gave up and dedicated the rest of the day to Lifetime movies.  Pretty non-eventful until I went to turn the faucet on and there was NO WATER.  Considering it was a Sunday and it was going to be an extra $500 to have them come out and fix it, Randi and Steve left and Ryan and I headed to my parents to spend the night.  I went to bed around 11pm, Ryan came in about 11:30pm, then my water broke at midnight!  Without going into a lot of detail, the water breaking was much more dramatic than I thought it would be.  Good thing Mom is scared of bed bugs and had two waterproof mattress covers on the bed.  We ran around in circles a little bit, then called the doctor and our doula, Jacqueline.  I took a shower and we headed home to get some stuff together and wait for the contractions to get closer together.  By 3:30am, the contractions were sporadic... 3 minutes apart, then 9, then 6 then 4, then 4, then 4.... so we decided to go ahead and go. We were settled in our room about 5am and waiting through the contractions for me to get past 2 centimeters.  Around 9am, I was at about 5-6 centimeters, the contractions were extremely intense, and I was getting very tired.  All I could think about was how completely exhausting the pushing was with Allie.  I knew I didn't have the energy to do that again.  So in talking with Ryan, the doctor and Jacqueline, we/I decided to go with the epidural (that I really did not want to get).  But HALLELUJAH that epidural was sent straight from God!  I did have a big blood pressure plummet and some vomiting (figured that would happen) but it did let me rest a little.    It still left me with some feeling in my right side, which was actually good because it helped me feel to push.  I pushed through about 5-6 contractions and then we could see that precious little head!  I was in a good seated position so I could totally see what was going on.  Then the doctor looked at me and said "Go ahead, pull him out" (I had made a joke earlier about it, referring to Courtney Kardashian).  But I did actually grab him right under his little head/neck and pulled him right on my belly at 1:14pm!  He wasn't at all slimy and bloody like I thought he would be.  It was absolutely amazing.  He was completely perfect, and we give all the credit to God.  He was 6 lbs. 4 oz, 20.5 inches... just a tiny little thing!  Ryan, Jacqueline, Dr.Kaplan, Jenny, Jane and Meghan were all so wonderful and supportive... I was so fortunate.  I was able to hold and feed him for about an hour before they took him for his bath.  It was wonderful!

Right when I layed eyes on him I knew he looked exactly like Ryan.  But I'll let you be the judge....

Daddy

Jack

More to come!...