How it all went down

Well I won’t tell you how it ALL went down but I know some of you are wanting to know the story, the birth story that is. I used to hate these "birth stories" until I got pregnant now I love 'em, feel free to skip over this post if you hate birth stories. 

On Wednesday Kyle decided to go out to dinner thinking that it would be the last time we could go out with such ease. We went to a Mexican food restaurant, which I regretted later, but the food was great and we enjoyed our time talking about all that was ahead of us, not knowing how soon it would be. We even managed to get a picture before we went out.

That night as I headed to bed at about 10 I knew something was happening cause I had some cramping/pain and I kept asking myself “Is this a contraction?” At 1am I woke up knowing that I was for sure experiencing contractions. I hesitantly woke Kyle up and our conversation went something like this:

“Hey, I think I am having contractions, but I think we should go back to sleep and see where they are in the morning.”

“How far apart are they?”

“Don’t know”

“Well maybe we should probably figure that out first…”

Once we determined contractions were about 9 min apart, Kyle convinced me to pack my own hospital bag. We had stuff for Obie packed and snacks for us I just did not have my own clothes ready. After packing and showering my contractions were about 4-5 min apart and our midwife said to wait to go to the hospital till they were 3 min apart. A little after 4am contractions were getting consistently close to 3 min apart.  Things were moving quickly and we left home a little before 5am.

After getting checked in at the hospital our midwife arrived and said that I was 6 cm dilated. Of the two delivery rooms at the hospital one of them that we were to use was not fully set up so we waited a bit for that then got settled in there. We were probably in the delivery room by 6:45am. First thing I wanted was the fan to be turned on but was told that it was not working which is when Kyle busted out our battery powered fans that we take with us whenever we are staying away from home. They were a lifesaver for me. I remember still being able to make jokes at this point with Kyle as we kept finding bugs in the room that we were killing. Did I ever think I would be smashing bugs in the delivery room about to give birth to our first child? No.

The permanent tank of laughing gas in the delivery room was unusable so our midwife had to run around the hospital trying to find a portable one that we could use. She was none too pleased about this fact and I was looking forward to having more than tylenol to cope with the pain. Finally the laughing gas arrived, and it was definitely helpful to have. Things were still very painful, but the gas “took the edge off” and was better than nothing. Around 7:15 am, I got to the point where I felt like I could not do this any more, and I had just begun to push. I kept thinking to myself that going through all this pain is not worth being able to say that I labored without an epidural. I later told Kyle that he needs to remind me that stronger painkillers are worth it, going “all-natural” has no perks, in my opinion. All I wanted to know was how much further I had to go but our midwife was reluctant to give me that info because she herself did not know how fast things would go from that point. About this time I started yelling at the top of my lungs through contractions, it seemed to me the only way to cope... and yes, the entire labor and delivery ward could hear me. The Allens, who were in the waiting room, could get a good idea of what was happening because of what they were hearing. I knew I could be heard but I still have no feelings of regret, I would be just as loud if I had to do it again. When I finally realized that we were close to having this baby out, I was not wanting to wait anymore. Kyle was able to get a glimpse of his head but before he could really say anything to encourage me to keep going, the rest of Obadiah was out as well! We were all surprised that he came out in one push at 8:10am but no one was as relieved as I was. 

Obadiah started feeding right in the delivery room and we were all encouraged by that. Kyle was an incredible support throughout the delivery, there is no way I could have done that without him. A few weeks ago he asked if he could tell jokes during labor, I told him that he could but if they were not funny I had the freedom to let him know in whatever means I felt appropriate. Kyle had the midwife and I laughing several times during the process, and I was very glad for this distraction.

We are very grateful that there were no complications and labor and delivery went so smoothly. We know that many of you were praying for us during this time and even as we were approaching Obie’s birth. Thank you so much for standing with us in prayer, and praise Yahweh for his protection and care of us during this time.