Meet Zeke

Yeah, he's here! Our precious beautiful baby boy. I can't believe how much I am already in love with him. I think I can now fully appreciate how fast they grow, and I am enjoying every minute of this tiny newborn baby.

For those of you interested in his "birth story" keep reading. If that's TMI for you, stop here!



So I went into labor 12 days early on Tues June 26th. Contractions started mild at about 11:00am, and were about 12 minutes apart. Luke was working in town, so I told him that it looked like it might be happening and to stay close by. My friend Bev came by for lunch at about noon, and the contractions were still consistent. Luke came home and Bev stayed and helped me labor through the contractions that were getting more intense and closer together. We decided to head for the hospital (Kaiser Walnut Creek) at about 5:00pm (right in the middle of rush hour!), but still got there in decent time. I felt like I was pretty far along and was pleased when they skipped triage and took me to a labor/delivery room. I was checked and told I was 7-8 cm, 90 % effaced, but the baby was still high at -3 station. I really wanted that epidural, but was afraid I would need to walk to help get the baby lower, and wouldn’t be able to “help” if I was confined to a bed. I continued to labor for a couple hours, and the contractions became more than I could handle. I started asking for the epidural, then was told the anesthesiologist had just gone to help another patient and it would be another 30-45 minutes before she could get to me. It started to feel like the baby was coming, so the midwife checked me and told me I was still at 8 cm! I actually started to cry at this point. The thought that I wasn’t progressing AND I wasn’t getting the epidural AND the contractions were getting worse, was more than I could handle. After about an hour more of intense laboring I finally got the epidural, and felt like it was the best decision I had ever made. Unfortunately my progress then became sooooooo slow. My contractions before the epidural were REALLY strong and hard, and then decreased intensity after the epidural (from what we could tell by watching the monitor). The midwife broke my water at 9:00pm, and we thought that would finally kick things into gear. Still we just kept waiting and waiting. I was getting impatient, and second-guessing my epidural decision as my cervix still had a tiny lip, and the baby was still somewhat high. I started having Luke and my sister help me sit-up in bed to get the weight of the baby on the cervix to help open it up. Immediately the contractions intensified and got closer together. This did seem to help. Finally at 1:10am the midwife had me do a “practice push” with a contraction. The next thing I know I am full on pushing and our baby was born 3 contractions, or 12 minutes later.
At the time I felt like I had made the right decision about the epidural, I felt like I HAD to have it. But I just know that if I had been able to hold off that the baby would have come a lot sooner. I am convinced that my body just doesn’t labor well on my back. Still, no regrets.



Oh, and the prediction was confirmed that I had a TON of amniotic fluid, so that was probably why I was measuring so huge, and why my belly was so round even at the end of the pregnancy. And I mean A TON of fluid, can you say "open the floodgates..."


So my first baby was 36 hours of labor with epidural (although it didn’t work very well) and 45 min of pushing, second baby was 2 hours of labor without any pain meds and 2 min of pushing, and third baby was 14 hours with epidural and 12 min of pushing.


We STILL hadn't decided on a name when he was born. I think sometime the next day we decided on Zakayo which is the name of a friend in Kenya, and is the Swahili version of the name Zaccheus from the Bible. We thought it was a nice unique name, and has special meaning to us as part of our hearts are in Kenya and the work God is doing there.


It took us another 5 days to decide on a middle name, which is Reed. Yesterday we had to go back to the hospital to finish his birth certificate paperwork. So our sweet little Zakayo Reed Taylor is here. If it's too much for you, you can call him Zeke!