Benaiah’s Birth Story (Part 1)
It’s been only four days since Benaiah was born and I’m still amazed that he is ours. Every little cry, coo, and snuggle is a reminder that life is such a miracle.
Bringing Benaiah into the world was not easy, but is was so worth it. Last night, while I was holding Benaiah’s sleepy body Landon asked me, “was it worth all the pain?” And yes, yes he was and is.
Let’s rewind back to the day before I went into labor, Wednesday, August 31. Wednesday morning I woke up feeling really tired and uncomfortable. Looking back, Benaiah had probably moved lower into my pelvis which made me more uncomfortable. Since I was uncomfortable and tired, I almost talked myself out of a run. Instead, I tricked my mind into running by promising myself to go only .5 mile or so. Once I started running, I felt pretty good and ran one mile before calling it quits.
The rest of Wednesday I worked on home stuff and Wednesday evening Landon and I went for a long walk.
Right before bed, I noticed I started having the phenomon known as “lightening crotch” (It feels just as good as it sounds) but I didn’t think anything of it, since I had experienced this pregnancy symptom before.
Landon and I got in bed around eleven, but my body was pretty restless. Again, I didn’t think too much of my restless and slight backache since I had had these symptoms before and no labor came. After a couple hours of bathroom trips and tossing and turning, I woke up to a mildly painful contraction. (This was around 3:15am.) At this time, my mind starting wondering if this really was labor, but I tried not to get too excited.
I layed in bed for about an hour, until I decided to get up and walk around. By this time, Landon noticed that I was waking up frequently and asked what was happening. I told that I thought things may be happening and we shared that moment of “Oh my goodness, is this really happening?!”
We stayed up for an hour together and then decided in case this really was labor, getting some rest may be a good thing to do.
After resting for another hour, Landon and I got up around seven and by this time my contractions were coming every 7 minutes and lasting around 1 minute long. Landon was a champ and he spent hours massaging my back through each contraction. As each contraction seemed to intensify, Landon and I tried to decide when to alert family/ my doula/ and the hospital. I wanted to stay at home as long as possible, but I didn’t want to accidentally stay too long. 😉 My dream birth did not include a vision of me delivery on my kitchen floor.
After a couple more hours of uncomfortably painful contractions, 2 smoothies, and devotions, Landon and I looked over our hospital bags and called my midwife.
After explaining to her what I was feeling and that my contractions were regularly coming at 6-7 min apart 1 minute long, she told us to come in.
While I showered, Landon packed up the rest of the bags, my awesome doula (and sister in law!) Hannah met us at our place, and we drove to the hospital!!
Stayed tuned for Part 2…