Here Come’s Baby

When Jon asked me to write a blog about Benaiah’s birth, I said “Sure!” His birth was such an amazing experience and I love sharing the story with others!

Benaiah’s due date was June 9^th, but we thought for sure since it was our first baby that he would go two weeks late. So as you can imagine, we were not prepared at all for when he was born on June 8^th, a day early!

It was a beautiful summer morning that day. I woke feeling a little strange and thought to myself, “maybe today could be the day.” I called my midwife just to give her a heads up and said I would let her know if anything progressed. I even texted my family and told them not to make any plans just in case. I started having some cramps, but didn’t think they were contractions (what did I know contractions would feel like, I had never had one before). I made myself a hot bubble bath and soaked in the tub for over an hour. It felt great and the pain subsided. I got out of the tub and continued getting ready for the day, I even started putting my hair in hot rollers.

I gave Jon a heads up about the “cramps” I was feeling. He asked if we should go to the hospital but I told him even if they were contractions, labor for the first baby would probably last 24 hours or so, and we wanted to labor at home as long as possible, so no rush to go to the hospital. Jon continued on with what he was doing and so did I.

Well within about the next ten minutes, my pain became significantly more intolerable. I would take a few hot rollers out of my hair and then get on my hands and knees to breathe through a major contraction. I did this for a few minutes before yelling downstairs to Jon, “Jon, get your stuff ready, we gotta go!” Of course, this caught Jon a little off guard. He called my midwife and explained to her that I was in a lot of pain, and she gave us the cue to come to the hospital. While Jon threw his stuff together, I made my way to the car, still getting down on my hands and knees about every 30 seconds now to breathe through contractions. Once, Ruby, our dog, started jumping all over me during a contraction, but I couldn’t do anything about it. It’s only funny now looking back at it.

The car ride to the hospital was the fastest yet longest car ride of my life. I remember repeatedly saying over and over again how scared I was. I kept telling Jon to take the turns really carefully. I must have been afraid that one sharp turn would possible squeeze the baby right out of me. At this point I still wasn’t quite sure what was going, but we would soon learn that the baby was coming, and coming fast.

By the time we got to the hospital I could no longer walk. Jon got me a wheelchair and it was just like a movie scene: Jon was pushing me in the wheelchair while at the same time he was running with his bag, my purse, my suitcase and some other things all slung over his shoulder. I am bawling at this point. People are staring. We get into our room and I somehow hobble onto the delivery bed. A nurse checks me to confirm that I am in labor and I hear her announce to the rest of the nurses in the room that I am already dilated to an 8 and that baby is coming soon!

I couldn’t believe it! We hadn’t even called our parents yet or made arrangements for our dog we left at home. Luckily we had a wonderful midwife who helped me through the whole thing. We arrived at the hospital at 11am and Benaiah was born at 12:33pm. When he came out at a whopping 8lb. 15oz. none of the nurses could believe how fast and easy his delivery was. I spared you some details, but overall it was a wonderful experience Jon and I had together and we love to look back and smile on that day when we met our son!