Our Home Birth


    Our home birth was an amazing experience. I think my husband put it so well when he mentioned that he wished he had taken pictures of the "set-up" in the kitchen the night Ben was born. I asked why would you want that? He said well...here we are giving birth---this miracle taking place right in our kitchen....in front of a sink full of dirty dishes. I thought ...yah. That is amazing....the juxtapostion of the ordinary and the extrodinary taking place in the same location. This birth did not happen in a medical bubble removed from God's trusting hands...It happened in our cozy little kitchen with all our faith and trust in God to make it go smoothly. Labor began or should I say continued from where it had left off the previous weekend. Saturday I was crampy and had random contractions. Sunday followed suit the only change being the frequency and intensity of the contractions. I did manage to make it through my niece's birthday party and Thanksgiving at my parent's house. As Sunday wore on I became more and more and more concerned. At 7 p.m. the contractions became consistent--7 minutes apart; by 10 p.m. I called the midwives. They decided to come up. They arrived at about 11 or so. We chatted and hung out watching Season 2 of The Office. Nothing more exciting seemed to be happening. I was still pretty sure that it was THE night though. So by 12:30 the gals decided to go get some rest. Out they went to their nifty little hotel van. I laid on the couch ...I think thats what did it. The contractions HIT. I mean HIT. The first one left my brain scrambling for what I was going to do--panic rising as I realized that maybe I wouldn't be able to even get off the couch to get help. Then my brain realized I had the cell phone (thanks to my hubbie) I called our house waking him up (he was sleeping upstairs --I had told him to go get some rest in preparation for the long night). Then the second one HIT. I felt a pop and thought oh no. There goes the water. I semi crawled-hobbled to the kitchen and grabbed the phone calling the midwives in from the van. The rest happened so fast it seems like it was a dream. Somehow I waded through the contractions and manged to get in the tub. The water was awesome. It felt to good and I felt my body ease up a bit. Now to take note of the time---I called the midwives at 1:05 a.m., Ben was born at 1:49 a.m. That is fast. Faster than Ean (Ean was 1 hour 50 minutes total) I went from 7 minutes apart to push in one contraction. It was crazy and beautiful all at the same time. 
    After the little man came out we sat and snuggled quietly in the water till the cord stopped pulsing. It was so easy and laid back. No pressure to hurry up. No stress about anything. Brian cut the cord then I handed off Ben so I could get out of the tub. The girls wrapped me in warm blankets and snuggled me on the couch with my baby who immediately began to nurse. I felt so relaxed and loved. They cleaned up the whole kitchen --so Ben and I relaxed for close to an hour just snuggling, and gazing into each other's eyes. It was ....incredible. Later Brian came and got more baby time while I cleaned up. 
    The beauty of this birth was in the simplicity--the incredible right here. The miracle God gave us and finished in us...as we allowed Him to carve our path for this experience....Many of you know we are also adopting a little boy from Haiti--Wisler. God has really taken me down a new road of trust. He has stretched us in every aspect of our lives with this adoption....and in doing so has shown us where we need to trust Him more. This was very apparent to me when my best laid plans for giving birth went awry. MY plan was that the perfect weekend for giving birth was the previous weekend. There were no events to miss. Brian would have plenty of time off. It was perfect. I tried everything to make him come that weekend. It didn't work. Then the thought of well what will you do if you are late? What if this? What if that? The list went on. Then it hit me. How was this birth any different than the adoption process? Here God was showing me patience and trust in His timing for when our Wisler will join us...and here I am trying to thwart His plan for the birth of our baby. I needed to butt out. This was just another step in the process of trusting Him...He called us away from a hospital birth. He called us to adopt form a country with many unknowns. He called us to give birth on His time. Trust. 



Morning of course came rather quickly. The first one down the stairs was Jaden (boy #2)...he made his way down groggily rubbing his eyes a morning whine on his lips. The whine fizzled when he saw me on  the couch with his new brother. He raced up the stairs squealing with excitement. His brothers came tumbling out, dashing the sleep form their eyes they had the joy of Christmas morning on their faces. The miracle was here. It was an incredible family moment. I felt our life pause...it was precious. 




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