Caleb's Birth Story

First off, I just want to say that we are praising God for such a wonderful pregnancy, labor and beautiful baby.  He is wonderfully perfect and everything we dreamed he would be. We're in love.

Last week I had two days of actual labor that went no where.  I labored Monday night for about 5 hours and Wednesday night for 7 hours.  The contractions would just stop for no reason and refuse to pick back up no matter how much walking or resting I did. I went in to see my midwife on Thursday to see if there was anything wrong, or if he just wasn't ready yet. She checked me and I was at a 3 and 75% effaced and the baby (who had spend most of the pregnancy on his side) was now face up. Optimal delivery position is the "humble" position where baby's head is down and chin tucked in.  She was hoping that he would be able to correct himself during labor.

I woke Friday morning at 4:30 am with contractions. I told Drew to go ahead and go to work because I was afraid that they would stop again.  I went about my day as normal and ran a few errands with my mom. The contractions continued and got increasingly more painful.  I was starting to get pretty excited knowing that this was finally it. But, much to my disappointment, my contractions stopped at about 11 am.  I was so upset.  I went on another walk and came home heartbroken. Nothing. I decided I would try to rest and took a short nap. I woke around 1:00 and the contractions had started again. I was ecstatic! I told Drew (who was equally thrilled) and we decided he should finish his day at work since he would be home around 4:00.

By the time he arrived at home, I was unable to talk through the contractions and they were about 10-12 minutes apart. We decided to leave Judah at my mom's and go back home so we could get things set up for the birth.  We hung out at home and played a few board games while my contractions remained pretty erratic getting to 6-7 minutes apart and then back to 15-20 minutes apart. We decided to call our midwife at 8:00pm to give her a heads up that something may be happening tonight. Afterward, we decided to take a walk to see if we could get the contractions more consistent. Once we got home, they really picked up in both time and intensity. This is when "active" labor began. We called my midwife again at 1:00 am to let her know I was contracting every 5 minutes and she decided it was time to come over. We held off on calling her because in between contractions I was perfectly fine. I was joking, eating, cleaning and then a contraction would come. I would lean against the wall and Drew would come to put counter pressure on my back and then we were back to whatever we were doing before. It was the weirdest thing. Not at all like my labor with Judah.

Things really got moving when Kathy (my midwife) arrived.  I continued to labor while they got everything ready.  She checked me and I was at a 5 and by the end of the check I was at an 8. She decided that through my next few contractions she was going to try to turn the baby face down.  This was not pleasant in the least, but she was able to get him on his side.  She asked me to labor in different positions to encourage the baby to turn on his own while Drew filled up the pool. While in the pool, the baby moved back to his face up position. She allowed me to labor in there until I started feeling the urge to push. She was going to need to try to turn him during the delivery and wouldn't be able to do that in to pool so she gave me the option of delivering on the bed or in a birthing chair. I hated being on the bed, so I chose the chair.  The chair is essentially a high backed seat that reclines on the floor and helps you to the squatting position while you are pushing. 

Up until this point, my labor had been very easy.  I told Drew that I felt like I was cheating because it had been so manageable. The delivery was not so.  I pushed for 45 minutes all while Kathy tried to turn the baby to the right position. It was really painful and I was so exhausted. The baby was stuck under my pubic bone and wasn't budging. I was getting really discouraged and wanted to quit.  Kathy decided everyone just needed to pray the baby out because he just wasn't moving. Drew began to pray out loud and Kathy and my doula followed and agreed with him in prayer.  I got a rush of strength and just pushed with everything I had left and then he was in my arms...less than a minute after they had begun praying. (Thank you, Lord)

Beautiful, perfect and finally here.

It was an amazing experience and I am so thankful that I was able to do it the way I had been hoping for. I am not going to say that it didn't hurt and it wasn't that bad because the last few minutes were rough. But there was something amazing about being in my own home and having my birthing crew double as my prayer team. His labor and delivery was just a blessing in every aspect.

About his name:
We both really wanted Drew to be able to name this baby; it was really important to us. Randomly one evening, he asked, "what do you think about Caleb?" I loved it. It was nothing like the other "out there" names we had considered, but it just seemed like it fit perfectly. It means "bold" and it follows the Old Testament theme for all the boys on my side of the family.  We love it.
Zachary is my brother's name. My brother and I have always been really close and Drew and I both really love and admire who my brother is and who he has become. He was the first person to know the baby's full name (minus my slip up) and it means a lot to us to carry on his namesake in our little family.