Introducing...

Jakob Andrew Richnavsky! Born Friday, March 6, 2009 at 3:52am. He weighed 8lbs, 6oz and was almost 21 inches long.

Jakob really threw us for a loop, deciding to arrive three weeks early. Very early, around 1am on Thursday, March 5th, I started having contractions about 4 minutes apart. However, after about an hour the contractions started to die down so I went back to bed. No sooner had I lay down when the contractions picked up again. This went on until 5:30am when I decided to wake up Paul and see about heading to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 7am and were seen in triage in Labor and Delivery. At that point I was about 3cm along so they had us walk the halls to see if I would progress. About an hour later I was at 4cm, so they decided to admit us to L&D.

The next several hours were very frustrating as my contractions would pick up and slow down and space out. Several times I was checked and was stalled at 4cm. I was so tired and hungry and was prepared for them to send me home. Finally around 7pm (around 18 hours in) my OB checked me and I was at 5cm. She said she couldn't send me home at this point as she was afraid that things could get going and I wouldn't have time to get back to the hospital. So the plan was to let me eat a little, then start me on Pitocin to get my contractions in a regular pattern then break my water around 3am.

Once they started the Pitocin, my contractions picked up and became more consistent and more intense. Around 2:30, my OB came in and broke my water. Immediately I dilated to 6cm and the baby came down a bit. This is when things got really intense! It's still a bit of a blur, but for the next hour the contractions came fast and furious, almost on top of one another. The nurse checked me and I was at 7cm, then about half an hour later I felt like I had to push. I started pushing around 3:30am and at 3:52am on Friday, March 6th, Jakob made his debut after 27 exhausting hours of labor!

We are all home now and doing well. Jakob is feeding well and sleeping a ton (although nights are a bit of a challenge, but that's to be expected). We're looking forward to Poppa arriving on Wednesday.

I also want to take the opportunity to thank those who helped out with taking care of Sarah and Michael while I was laboring and in the hospital: Ronnie Brown (a.k.a. Grandma Ronnie), Mary Kerfs, and Jen Vanya. We are so blessed to have you in our lives and Paul and I are so grateful to be able to trust our babies with you! I also want to thank all of you who prayed for me during my pregnancy...it was much appreciated!