Today I met my Auntie Gale and Cousin Courtney

My Great Auntie Gale and my second cousin Courtney drove up from Orange County to meet me and visit with my Grandma Bonnie. Here we are hanging out on the couch. Courtney is really pretty and I flirted with her the whole time she was here.

My First Play Date with the Baby Joaquin

My Mommy and Daddy met Joaquin's Mommy and Daddy when we were both still in our Mommies' bellies. Joaquin is much older than I am...3 whole weeks!

Today I met my Grandpa Stan

Every time we hear the motorcycle sound, my Mommy always tells me about my Grandpa that rides the loud motorcycle .

Today I met my Twin Cousins and my Aunt and Uncle

Here I am with Grandma Bonnie and my cousins

And here's a close up of the three of usI met my Uncle Aaron today too! He's really funny and makes baby jokes.

And here I am with my Uncle Aaron and Aunt Rachael
Aunt Rachael and Mommy used to go to yoga together and that's
where I first met my cousins when we were all still in our Mommy's bellies.

Here's a Video I Made for My Grandparents

My First Days at Home with Mommy and Daddy

My First Few Days at Home were great.

I slept a lot while cuddling with my Mommy and Daddy.

Here I am taking a nap with my kitty Destri

In case you forgot how cute I am while sleeping, here's a close up

But I didn't sleep the whole time.
Sometimes I woke up and cried to be fed;
but it's pretty amazing how I'm still so cute.

My Grandma Bonnie came by to visit too!


My Mommy Loves me very much!

Day Two on Planet Earth

Here I am in my Mommy's armsAnd here's a close up of me only 2 Days on Planet Earth

We're a happy family

My Daddy is so happy I'm finally here

My First Photo

My Grandma Bonnie took this photo of me with her cell phone at the hospital. Mommy and Daddy forgot their camera because they planned for me to be born at home but we had to go to the hospital because I pooped while I was in Mommy's belly. Grandma Bonnie knew Mommy had gone into labor but didn't see Mommy and Daddy's car at home so she went to the hospital to find out what happened.

You can't see my cone head in this photo because I've got this great yellow hat covering my head. But I had quite a cone head after my heroic birth journey.

My Birth Story as told by my Mommy

Jacob Koren’s Heroic Birth Story

Our birth plan was to have our baby at home and in the water. And the Great Spirit had a different plan.

On Wednesday, July 2^nd our midwife said, “Jesse, you better get as much work done as possible because Sharla looks like a ripe peach.”

Thursday morning, I started having more frequent Braxton-Hicks contractions and alerted my midwife so she could let my birth team know. I slept until 3pm that day.

Sometime after 7:30pm, things started to change. The contractions started getting more frequent and closer together, so we called our midwife and she said to try and get some sleep as it could be a long night and things hadn’t quite gotten going yet. Sleep was impossible at this point. By 11pm the contractions were so painful and frequent, about 2 minutes apart and 45 seconds long that we called our midwife again…still, she said I wasn’t close and to try to get some sleep. Sleep, I thought, was simply not possible with this much pain. Jesse put all of his weight into my sacrum with each contraction.

At 11:43, I was standing in the kitchen eating a snack when the warm fluid began to drip down my legs…
“Oh, sh*t!” I proclaimed, knowing this meant that because I had declined the beta-strep test we had to take extra precautions and that our precious cat, Destri, could not be in the house for the birth. I ran to the bathroom and out came my mucous plug too. As I looked at the color of the amniotic fluid I felt uneasy…”It looks light brown to me,” I said. Jesse took a look and said, “But it’s not like pea soup.” We called our midwife again.

As I moved around the house trying to breathe through the contractions I could not possible fathom that any woman could withstand this much pain for much longer. Jesse continued to give me as much pressure as he could on my sacrum.

Our midwife arrived at 2:30am on July 4^th after I begged her to come and check me. We were disappointed to hear that indeed, there was meconium. At 4:00am she checked my cervix and I was only 2 ½ cm dilated. She told me it could be another 12 – 24 hours of this…I cried in an almost hopeless collapse, thinking it was impossible for me to do this for another 12 hours. I was experiencing back labor, which is notoriously painful.

By 4:30am I was asking to go to the hospital to get an epidural to relieve the pain. My midwife knew that we planned on having our baby without the use of drugs and although she supported our wishes, she said that because of the meconium and the level of pain I was feeling, perhaps it was the best thing to go to the hospital. She called our OB who we had met with as a “back-up” in case we needed to be transported to the hospital. Our OB was in the middle of two emergencies and would call her back after I further progressed.

What felt like an eternity passed as Jesse stayed with me through each wave of contractions, now one minute on, one minute off. As I had the thought, “I can’t do this any more,” Jesse reminded me that I had been dreaming of having a baby for years and the baby was just a short time from coming or that I only had 3 more breaths to get through this wave. The promise that I would be getting pain relief soon was more soothing than having to go through this for 12 more hours. With each wave of contractions, Jesse was by my side and pressing against my sacrum with all his might. Sometimes, I was more successful in breathing through it…but if the wave took me by surprise, it took me over completely and I could only scream in pain.

Each hour, our midwife tried to reach our OB with no luck. By 7:30am, after the meconium had gotten worse, she decided it was best for us to go to Dominican and work with the doctor on call. Jesse and I agreed.

We arrived at the hospital at 8am. The midwife from the hospital checked me.

I was now 9cm dilated!

“It’s time to push your baby out!” she said. My midwife was surprised and thrilled that I had opened so quickly as I was told there was no time for any drugs, just time to have our baby naturally. I felt so grateful to push. Jesse pushed against my bottom with counter pressure through each push. I felt like a wild animal as I pushed, remembering how to breath as we learned in our Birth Ed class.

But they couldn’t get a read on our baby’s heart tones whenever I pushed. So they asked to put in an internal monitor. I didn’t want that thing put in my baby’s head, but when I looked at our midwife for guidance, she said it was a good thing so we could hear how the baby was doing. Jesse and I agreed.

Being able to hear our baby’s heart tones was a blessing. As I pushed in the most comfortable and strong position to move our baby down my birth canal, I could hear baby’s heart tones drop significantly. Even though it was more difficult and uncomfortable to push in other positions, my baby’s well being mattered more than anything, so I kept maneuvering until the pushing didn’t lower his heart rate.

One hour later, Jesse could see the top of our little one's head peeking out...
"Our baby's coming, our baby's coming, I can see its head," he exclaimed.

We had a whole cheering section of nurses and doctors. It took every last bit of energy for those last 4 pushes before I pushed our baby out. (Okay, so it’s been said that it feels like “something else” is doing the pushing. That wasn’t my experience at all…I pushed this baby out.)

Just before crowning, he took a 180 degree turn on my perineum. I got only a slight tear as I pushed his body out so quickly.

On July 4^th at 9:57am, our baby slipped out and was instantly nestled onto my belly.
We couldn't stop laughing and crying as we massaged our baby with love.
"You made it, you made it, you're safe, you're here... we love you so much!"

We sang to our baby along with our boombox, “I Love My Baby, I Love My Baby, I Love My Baby so much…”

A full minute must have passed before we thought to check. “You’re a BOY!” Even though I had always thought we were having a girl, I intuitively knew it was a boy the moment was placed on my belly.

Jacob's umbilical cord had a true knot in it.
Miraculously, this knot did not fully cut off his life support.

We are so grateful to live in Santa Cruz,
where the hospitals are as non-invasive as possible.

But, even with all of the great care, Jacob was left with some trauma after the birth.

We didn't realize how traumatic it was until the next day.
Our midwife was giving Jacob a cranio-sacral treatment
and he kept arching his back and wanting to spin around.
He finally guided our midwife to take him back through the spin he had done on my perineum,
and he started wailing...

We were spellbound, as we watched him heal his painful birth experience.

After the session, he was a new baby.
His cry was stronger and his suck was stronger.
"That might have taken his whole life to heal from," Jesse said.

We feel so blessed by his presence in our life; and he sure has a strong presence. And I am eternally grateful to my hero of a husband who never left my side except to pack for the hospital.

Here are a few miracles of Jacob’s birth:

1. My OB was preoccupied with 2 major emergency deliveries that night. Had she been available, I might have gone to the hospital earlier and ended up with Pitocin, an epidural and antibiotics for beta strep, none of which were what we desired.
2. I went from 2 ½ cm to 9 cm in 3 ½ hours. You know how long most first time mothers take to open. But the women in my family have babies fast, even their first babies. I guess I’m made of my matriarchal genes when it comes to babies. I just wish it hadn’t been combined with back labor!
3. Jacob took a 180 degree spin on my perineum to be born anteriorly. My younger brother did the same thing during his birth. My midwife says she has only seen that happen 3 times in her 21 year career.
4. Jacob had a true knot in his cord. This means he swam through his own cord at one point. This is a life-threatening issue, but I made him such a thick cord that it probably saved his life.
5. He never inhaled any meconium and didn’t have to be intubated. The pediatrician thought his nostrils were flaring after the birth, but a couple of hours later declared he was okay and we left the hospital within 4 hours of giving birth.
6. He had the opportunity to heal immediately from his birth trauma. This could have been something he dealt with his entire life and instead it was worked out on Day 2 of his life.

And now onto the next challenges…breastfeeding and parenting.