Jeremiah's Story

My Story 

Hi, my name is Jeremiah David Schneider. Wanna know how I was born? Well...sit back and listen up to this great story told by Mommy and Daddy:

It was Sunday night September the 28^th and we were about enter our Church for the Unity Celebration at 6pm when Amanda felt what seemed like a small gush. She wasn't sure if this was the water breaking or not. After calling Deidre and talking with Danielle, more liquid began gushing out. We decided to head home and test to see if this was actually the water breaking. The test was positive, but there were still no contractions. Deidre encouraged us to rest and relax and prepare for a nice long labor...little did we know. About 8pm Amanda began to feel what she thought were small contractions. We decided to watch a movie to take our minds off of the labor. Around 10pm, after the movie, Amanda began to feel stronger, more regular contractions, but we tried ignoring it by going to bed. However, no sleeping was to be had because Amanda's contractions quickly escalated. They were already about 3-5 minutes apart lasting about 60 seconds and very intense. It was 11pm and Joshua noticed behavioral, physical, and contractional signs that seem to point to late first stage labor, which was when we were taught to move to the birth place. So Joshua called Deidre and told her what they were experiencing. Deidre told him to relax and that most first time moms have very long labors. The best thing was for Amanda to get a full night's sleep, and that she would most likely see us the next day around this same time. We continued to try and relax through them, which Amanda did a fantastic job at, until it became impossible to relax. She was unable to keep from moving during the peak and the only place that helped was sitting on the toilet. She was shaking, telling Josh it hurt and felt like she needed to push. It was 3:30am and Joshua called Deidre again and told her we were pretty sure we needed to get moving to the Birth Inn. So we met her there at 4:15am. We got settled in, and Deidre assumed we probably still had a good ways to go so she wasn't in much of a hurry. She checked Amanda to see where she was at, and was very surprised to find her already at 9cm. So she quickly called Cynthia for help and got Amanda ready to start pushing. The next 2 hours flew by as they coached Amanda in pushing. It's true what they say, pushing feels like having a large bowel movement. His head was beginning to crown, but his heart rate was getting a little too low and not coming back up very well. We all began praying for his strength, encouraging him and speaking truth over him. Slowly his heart rate picked back up to normal and he stayed strong. As his head began to crown, it was difficult for Amanda to get him 'over the hump' because of his posterior positioning. Amanda pushed as hard as she could and eventually his head popped out and with one more push his body came along right about 6:29am. Joshua caught him and placed him on Amanda's chest. He was overwhelmed with tears of joy (he literally balled his eyes out). Amanda couldn't believe he was already here and the hard part was over. There he lay, our beautiful baby boy, Jeremiah, with a head full of hair. We had a difficult time getting the placenta delivered, and once it came out Amanda began to lose a lot of blood. Again we all began to pray as they worked on getting Amanda stabilized. But soon enough all was well. Once again God blessed us with strength and took care of us. Amanda had a pretty good 2^nd degree tear that had to be stitched up, but otherwise everything went very smoothly. Around 9am all three of us were able to lay down for the next 4 hours and get some much needed sleep.

 There you have it. That is my story my name is Jeremiah David Schneider. I was 6lbs 7ozs, and 18in long. I'm definitely 100% boy!