Bejamin's Birth Story: It all began with Pub Trivia

On Monday night (July 2), Richard and I decided to go on a date to pub trivia.  Why not?  The baby hadn't come yet, we had a live-in babysitter, and time on our hands.  Our team name was "40 weeks" and we came in 4th place :)  While we were playing, I started feeling the occasional strange cramp.  I told Richard that I could be going into labor which probably put him into labor...or maybe it brought out his genius, because he very soon won one of the beer challenges (which only means he won a bottle cap redeemable for a beer-- which he decided to keep for story telling purposes).
Anyway, I was NOT in labor, but I knew something was happening ("something is different, and anything different is good!"-- Groundhogs Day).

The next day I woke up and I knew it was going to be THE DAY.  I willed it.  My midwife was going to be on-call that day.  It was my stepfather's birthday.  The stars were aligning.  So, I brushed and flossed my teeth (thats a big deal for me), made sure my feet were adequately groomed, made a couple of church visits, took a 4 mile walk with Richard to get things stirring, had a good lunch to keep up my energy, and waited.  Sure enough, around 2 pm I started having consistent crampings (I had always wondered what real contractions felt like without the joy of pitocin, and my mom was right, they felt like menstrual cramps).  I immediately alerted Richard and instructed him to put on my relaxtion playlist (think spa music, ohmmm music, trickling streams with monks singing in the background music) and close the curtains.  I spent the next couple of hours pretty comfortably relaxing on my bed.  Every once in awhile Richard would come in and time a contraction or two.  Eventually I took a bath.  The contractions were uncomfortable but not necessarily memorable...some of them were even weak sauce-- I called them ghost contractions.   But they were getting closer together.  A little after 6:00 pm Richard came in to check on me and I informed him that I had 3 contractions that seemed to be really close together.  Richard made the executive decision-- GET THIS WOMAN TO A HOSPITAL NOW (especially since our hospital was 25 minutes away!).

We got to the hospital around 7 pm, and by this point, the contractions were really uncomfortable.  I would have to stop and sway and lean against something for a minute or two before I was ready to move again.  We got to our room and I crawled on the bed in the fetal position on my side and just kept my eyes closed.  We continued the relaxation music and I just kept breathing and riding the wave of each contraction (I actually pictured myself on a tiny boat going up and down with each wave).  At this point, I started getting a little funny.  I started calling Richard "buddy" as in "hey buddy, I need you to work WITH my contractions," and "hey buddy, the least you can do is hold my hand." After the first "buddy" statement I overheard the nurse say "she is sounding a little transitional, I am going to go get Shana (my midwife).  I wanted to tell her "you're sounding a little transitional" but that would have been juvenile.  Richard later informed the nurses that my sarcasm and humor would increase in direct relation to the intensity of labor.  One of the nurses kept telling me how good my breathing was, and I couldn't help but respond "well, I have been breathing my whole life, so..."

I kept expecting the medical people there to tell me what to do and give me instructions, but my midwife just told me to keep doing what I was doing and just inform them when I felt ready to push.  When I did feel ready to push (only 40 minutes after arriving at the hospital), the nurse didn't believe me because she said I didn't sound like most mothers who were at that point, but when my midwife checked me, I was fully ready.  Again, I asked if there was a specific position they wanted me in, and I was told that I could just continue on my side, as I was and to just push when I felt the need to push.  I was flabbergasted-- no stirrups, no counting, no holding my breath...what kind of a hospital was this-- what was I paying for but to be told what to do?  They just trusted me and my body's instincts.  So I started pushing, gripping Richard's hand the whole time (he later told me he had to take his wedding ring off because I was squeezing so hard it was cutting into his skin). Now, while I had been just silently breathing through all my contractions during labor to this point,  during the pushing stage, I decided to unleash my inner amazon woman and issue a few guttural yells.  I think it helps-- like grunting while you lift weights!  20 minutes later, our son was born with the amneotic sack completely intact, which meant-- no squished head.  Our midwife said that is really rare and is a sign of good luck.

So, just an hour after arriving at the hospital, Benjamin Richard Rose made his grand, memorable entrance!

Here is a short list of the my specific prayers that were answered.

1. I prayed that this birth would be more comfortable than my last one.
2. I prayed that the car ride to the hospital would be comfortable
3. I prayed that when I got to the hospital I would be at least 8 cm dilated
4. Near the end of pushing, I prayed that the next push would be the last push.

Needless to say, all my prayers were answered.  If I could give one piece of advice to any woman feeling anxious about an upcoming birth, it would be to pray specifically!  Tell God what your concerns are and what you need-- specifically.  And then just exercise some faith and trust that God can give you what you need when you need it!