Meet Jonah Brooks

If you haven't guessed it (or seen my Instagram posts), Jon and I had our baby!

Meet Jonah Brooks!

Preparing for labor

Because a "due date" is such a guess, it was hard to ever feel prepared for labor...especially since this was my first delivery experience! There was no way to predict when he would actually come, and that was tricky!
But in the last few weeks of pregnancy, I continually felt the Lord impress on my heart that He had already prepared the day, the way, and the moment for our son to arrive. Every detail was already planned. Not only that, but the Lord prepared all of these things with full love and knowledge for me, my son, and my family. God knew exactly how He wanted Jonah's life to begin! And I could trust Him with that.

Physically, I could definitely feel a difference in the way my body was carrying him. He felt really low and my stomach sorta felt like it "dropped" instead sticking straight out like it had before. While I knew it was pretty common for pregnant women to feel "done" in the last few weeks of pregnancy, my body really did start to feel like it was at capacity.

Not sure if it contributed to my early labor, but I was drinking lots of red raspberry leaf tea, and continuing to walk at least a mile as often as I could in the summer heat.

How it started...

8 days before Jonah's due date, my water broke at around 8:30 a.m. Jon had left for work about an hour before, and my 10-, 8-, 6-, and 4-year-old sibling had just come over to my house (I live next door to my parents).

With a rush of emotion and adrenaline I had to find a way to send my siblings home unalarmed and call Jon without crying. I accomplished the first successfully, and the second unsuccessfully.

My hospital bag wasn't backed, and once my siblings had left, I had no idea what to do with myself. It's like my emotions and adrenaline had wiped away all logical thought! While Jon drove home from work, I hopped in the shower, took a deep breath. I let the Lord's peace flood my heart and remind me that every detail of this day - whatever it held - was already shaped, and that He wasn't going to leave me without what I needed every step of the way.

Labor details

Jon and I headed to the hospital as soon as we threw a few things in a bag even though my contractions hadn't started yet. They admitted me, called my midwife, and we waited to see what would happen.

Jon and I were expectant and anxious, thinking that something would start happening at any moment... but after a few hours of waiting, it was apparent that my body wasn't in a hurry.

By 2:30 they started an IV of the lowest dose of Pitocin to start contractions. A huge downside to Pitocin, however, is that the baby's heart rate has to be constantly monitored. This means no walking, no showering, no out-of-bed labor positions. I was mostly confined to the bed and the yoga ball.
So I sat on a yoga ball, listened to my audiobook from the library  (At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider), and played cookie jam on my phone while Jon watched movies.

The contractions grew slowly, but I dilated even slower. By 12:30 a.m., I was too tired and too hungry to keep going. I had gone all day with no food and no sleep, and I was still only 2ish cm. After I got an epidural around 12:30, I was finally able to sleep for a few hours.

I woke up around 4 a.m. because I was starting to feel contractions again. I told my nurse that I could feel contractions and feel my feet, but she wasn't worried. After an hour of decreasing numbness, the nurse was finally convinced something was wrong. My epidural had fallen out!!!
My contractions were extremely painful at this point (they had increased my Pitocin without telling me) and they were taking all of my concentration to get through them. Mr. Anesthesiologist was in a C-section, though, so it was another hour and a half before another epidural came.

Oddly enough, while those 2.5 hours before my second epidural were full of horrible pain, it was also a sweet time with my husband. Sharing an experience like that with Jon was kind of cool. He was with me the whole time and talked me through every contraction.

The epidural situation was resolved around 6:30. They didn't check me again until 10:00, and I was finally fully dilated! But since the baby was still high up, my midwife put me in positions to help him fall a little, opposed to starting to push him down. I stayed this way until around noon, when it looked like things were starting to move along.

My midwife was incredible. My body reacted to my nerves and adrenaline by shaking and my teeth chattering, but she was super calm and casual. She's a short, spunky, curly-haired mom of three who had to sit her hip on the delivery table to be at the right angle. She chatted and joked with me and the nurses in between pushes.
After about 30 hours of labor and an hour of pushing, a week before his due, Jon helped the midwife deliver the baby and bring him onto my stomach. He was finally here!

Jonah Brooks

Jonah Brooks Capra was born July 26, at 1:13 p.m., 21 inches and 7 lbs 10 oz. 

That moment of having a wiggly, slimy, naked baby on my stomach was one of the best moments of my life. He screamed and swatted all his limbs, and he was absolutely amazing. Immediately I was overwhelmed with a desire to hold him in my arms for the rest of my life, never wanting anyone to take him. 

The hour that we had him to ourselves before they took him to the nursery to be examined was the fastest hour of my life. It felt like 10 minutes!

But as soon as Jon and Jonah left for the nursery and I was left alone, I was finally able to realize what just happened. "I had just delivered a baby. I'm a mom!" Those were the thoughts that raced around my brain as I sat there all alone.

The rest of the hospital stay was a blur of visitors, cat naps, and looking at each other in bewilderment that we were actually parents.

 His going home outfit;)

Being home

Our "going home" family selfie:)

Jon and I are so in love with our little Jones. There really is nothing like watching a little one grow and learn and develop, flourishing on the love you give him. We are both learning so much about the heart of the Father God as we become parents, and we feel beyond blessed to take on the privilege of taking care of him. It is a sleepless and demanding assignment, but there is nothing else more worth it.

We're still finding a "new normal" as a little family of three, and it's taking some time to feel like we have anything resembling a routine... but it's fun learning what life looks like with a little one!

One-week photos by Danielle Blevins Photography