With his sister's birth there was an obvious beginning to labor. Silas, on the other hand, had a mind of his own. Throughout the week before he was born, I kept getting Braxton Hix contractions. I'd break out my trusty ancient phone's timer, and then after I realized how sporadic they were, I'd shut it down and go on with my day.
At my midwife appointment at 40 weeks 1 day, I had a feeling she should check to see if I'd progressed at all. I knew I wasn't in active labor, but with all of the sets of long contractions, I thought to myself, "Surely SOMETHING must have happened?!". So she checked me. Man it's funny the things that just get normalized with birth, right? Anyways, I was dilated to a SIX, and 100% effaced. To those of you who have not birthed, these numbers probably don't mean a lot, but basically, this is not normal to be walking around that close to birthing a child. My mid-wife almost didn't want me to send me home, but since I wasn't in active labor off to home I went.
As the snowflakes slowly fell from the sky, I drove our Subaru the 40 minute drive back to Nampa. This appointment was around noon. Our bags were packed and we had our toddler-drop off plan in place. That evening around 6pm contractions started. Kristi, our mid-wife, had warned me that if I felt ANY hard contractions, at all, to head to the hospital.
Pain is such a relative thing. Well I wasn't THAT uncomfortable, I thought. The Brian Regan "Emergency Room" skit always flits through my mind during labor... "A nine?! That's like a broken femur..or a woman giving birth!! What about a woman giving birth WITH a broken femur?!" Anyways, I digress. Since I figured labor was obviously going somewhere at this point, it'd be smart to take Isla over to our friend's house. This way she could get tucked into bed in case baby boy was coming that night. The thought of being in hard labor and then waking up a toddler to cart across town just sounded dreadful right?!
When we got to our friend's house, the contractions definitely began to get harder. We had planned on pulling into the mall and doing some lap walking. So as we pulled into the mall in Boise, we got out of the car and as soon as we got into the brightly lit area, I realized walking was a no-go. "Sorry babe, back in the car, we need to get to the hospital".
As we checked into St. Luke's downtown at 9:15pm, we sat in triage. I sipped on some cranberry juice as they monitored my vitals and checked for progress. "Well, you are still a 6...and still 100% effaced". Great, I thought. It was about 9:35pm at this time. They checked us into our room and said to let us know when we go into "active" labor. I started second guessing if I'd made the right choice into even coming into the hospital.
So we put on the tennis shoes and both headed for the long set of cement stairs in the hospital. We are going to cardio this baby out! First of all, I am wildly out of shape, so laboring or not, the stairs were kicking my butt. Once the contractions were rough enough, I was scared of freaking out the poor by-standers in the hallway, so we headed back to home base.
A little back-story with our last birth. I gave birth laying on my back on the hospital bed. While this was all well & good and how they portray it in the movies, I wanted to do it different this time. My amazing mid-wife Kristi explained how the pelvis opens up a ton while you are squatting (think like 20%), so that sounded helpful right? So my birth plan going into this was... 1. Natural 2. Squatting 3. Using motion and sound during labor.
Let's talk about #3 for a moment. This terrified me. With Isla's birth I was like the silent birther. It felt safe, and I didn't want to freak anyone (including myself! out). This worked for the last time until the pushing part, I was all calm and collected until the real work began. Then I felt kind of panicky. So anyways, I'd chatted with Kristi and she recommended sounds like Oooos and Aaaaahs (vowel sounds) to open up the birth canal and relax me. Still freaked out by this, but completely trusting her method I decided to get over myself and try it. I also did lots of hula-swaying back and forth. So back to birth..
After the stair master method, we were back in our room and things got real...real fast. At 11:30pm contractions were so painful that after each one I kept looking at Matthew and saying things like... "WOW, that hurts so incredibly bad!" Then laughing with him. All while Oooooing like a lost, dying cow. "It's time to call Kristi," I told him. She had told me she lived close to the hospital and she could be there whenever I needed her. So within 10 minutes she arrived in the room.
She arrived, dimmed the lights, and quietly assessed everything and talked me through a contraction. As soon as that contraction ended she said, "Why don't you go to the bathroom and empty your bladder?" Not wasting a minute I headed into the bathroom and did as I was told. My brain was on auto-drive at that point and I would have done just about anything she suggested to get that baby out!!
So get this. As I stood up off the toilet a contraction started and I braced myself against Matthew. "He's coming!!!" I hollered. Then literally in one push, and in one split second, my water broke and Silas landed in Matthew and Kristi's hands. What. In. The. World. I leaned again the wall and just sat there in shock. You have got to be kidding me. This kid basically just arrived on a water-slide, landing in his daddy's arms.
As I held him and looked into his sweet little face, we just laughed. It was so unreal. It was so FAST! He was perfect. And he wailed, straight up yelling, announcing his arrival. 12:05am, only 20 minutes after our mid-wife arrived. He had the cutest little scowl lines, he was giving us the stink face already.
Looking back, all of it was just perfect. I'm so thankful for Kristi, for her encouragement and for helping me to look past my fears of the unknown in doing this birth completely different than the first time. I was empowered and felt so supported by her. Matthew was the absolute perfect teammate once again. He never left my side, and he oooo'd and breathed with me through each and every contraction. God's presence was so strong with us as well. He gave me the strength I needed to birth this little miracle and created him in the first place.
We are so blessed and are so thankful for this handsome, healthy little boy. Silas Dee we love you to the moon sweet boy. Welcome to our adventure, so glad you are here!
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