My Fifth Daughter's Birth
Birth is not just a physical event and definitely not a medical event. For humans, it was designed by the Creator as the way to bring forth those created in His image. Because He has created us eternal, spiritual beings it is first of all a spiritual event. A true miracle is taking place in the birth of an eternal person and there are no words adequate to describe the impact of being present when that person is birthed from the secret place into the world.
Birth is also the completion of a cycle of life and the beginning of another. The Creator commanded us to be fruitful and multiply and made a man and a woman to complement each other in that process. He designed them to be united as two into one and in the peace and intimacy of their union to bring forth children to be brought up to know Him. The child is conceived in intimacy and the completion of the cycle of bringing forth that fruit of love is also an intimate act. It requires peace and a trust in the One who designed it all to safeguard the whole process. There is a special work done in the parents as far as their relationship to one another and to the One who made them and brought them together, as well as in the relationship to their children when birth is seen from this viewpoint. I have been privileged to give birth to six children and to be present at many more births and to have my Father transform my thinking gradually about the whole process. This sixth birth has been the most wonderful event in my life in enjoying birth the way it was designed to be. I had two babies in hospitals, two at home with the medical system present, one unassisted at home with still too big of an audience, and this one that was just my husband and myself.
The whole pregnancy was another step of the journey in trusting my Father, as I conceived a child at 43 and about 70 lbs. overweight with borderline high blood pressure. I asked my Father that I wouldn't gain any weight with this pregnancy and I did not diet to keep from doing so. He led me to make some very simple changes in the way I eat by increasing the amount of raw food I eat and decreasing cooked foods, meat and dairy. I felt the best this pregnancy of all of them as long as I was eating this way. My blood pressure came down to normal, also. As the pregnancy progressed, I wondered if I was having twins because of how quickly my uterus was growing. I did not really desire to have twins even though every one else in the family did. One reason was knowing the complications that can arise with a twin birth and the other being I felt too old to cope with two little babies (and eventually toddlers) at once. I came to the point of really believing that I had two babies in my womb and had to come to a place of surrender and trust in my Father about it. I even got excited about the thought. My Father used this in my life in a tremendous way, even to be willing to share what I thought and be willing to be wrong and appear foolish. I asked Him for the baby's head to engage in the pelvis when I was about 36 weeks and shortly after that it happened. My first baby is the only one who dropped before labor and that was over 23 years ago so my memories of labor had a lot to do with all the pressure in the pelvis. I spent two weeks feeling like I was in labor and had to go through the process of learning to trust Father for His time for the birth. I did try nipple stimulation to try and get labor going on about three occasions and it did not keep labor going. I was tempted to try herbs, also, but decided He wanted me to trust Him about it. I got bigger than I have ever been and there was so much baby movement and I just wanted it to be over with. The waiting was getting extremely wearisome to both my husband and me and also to the rest of the family. I did begin to lose the mucous plug about two weeks before the birth and then on Friday night, September 24th, I lost a little blood tinged mucous but nothing else was going on and we had a pretty decent night's sleep.
When I got up in the morning, there was a little more blood tinged mucous and the pressure was greater than it had been. I had contractions throughout the day, but they were usually 10 - 20 minutes apart and irregular, as the rest of my contractions had been for the last two weeks. They were stronger feeling, though, and felt more like labor contractions to me. I was really hoping it would be the day. I had prayed for a quiet and peaceful house. We had all our children here and a very good friend and her daughter the first time we thought we were starting labor, and even though they were just to be present in the house and not in with us for the birth, it was too much commotion and confusion.
We wanted this to be a husband and wife event and after that experience, decided we would let everybody know right after the baby was born. We were hoping for a middle of the night birth while everyone was sleeping. My son, J, was spending the day with a friend until about 4pm. About 3:00, I had a couple of contractions that seemed to be getting closer together and longer. Right after that, my three older daughters that still lived at home took off for the library and the grocery store. As soon as the girls left, the contractions started coming sooner and harder. My husband was playing Free Cell on the computer and I told him I thought we were going to have the baby today and played a little more with him (teamwork wins more games). I was really getting uncomfortable, so convinced him to stop and went into the bathroom.
I had a lot of blood tinged, slimy mucous and knew that it wasn't too long until we would be having a baby. We started setting up, but Hubby still was not thinking I was really doing it yet. Then I had another contraction and felt like I needed to get into the bathroom. Even though it was difficult to walk in there during the contraction, I did so and as soon as I got there my water broke all over the floor. There was meconium in the water but I didn't feel it was cause for alarm so just committed it to my Father. The waters breaking is what convinced my husband we were going to have a baby and he started getting that adrenalin rush and was somewhat jittery while he cleaned up the mess and we finished setting up. J came home just before this, but had forgotten to bring home some of his stuff so we had to send him back over to get it so he was not here when the waters broke. He came back home and my hubby set him up watching the Prince of Egypt and asked him to not disturb us and amazingly he didn't (a feat for my 6 year-old talkative boy!) After the waters broke we had a little break with no contractions. When they started up they felt like pushing contractions. I found that the most comfortable position during them was on my knees with my legs spread apart and sometimes dropping to hands and knee.
Sometimes I would stand but usually would end up down on my knees again. My husband was so sweet and supportive. When he saw that I was sweating, he went and got a rag wet and started wiping my face and neck in between contractions. It felt so good. He started laughing during it all and would get me laughing and that would bring on another contraction. It was a really precious time for us. After pushing that way for quite a few contractions, I felt like I needed to change positions, and changed to a squatting position using the bed behind me for support for my elbows. The head started really moving down then and was soon crowning. The next contraction the head came out and Hubby told me the head was facing towards my tailbone and asked if that was okay. I told him that was the best way for it to be. Then he said "There's a hand - a little hand on the cheek!" I knew then that the baby was coming out with a nuchal hand. The next contraction I was not budging the baby, so felt like I should switch to a hands and knees position. I know it confused my hubby a little as I did that with the head hanging out but he just went with the flow and handled it very well. With the next contraction there still was a little resistance and then suddenly the baby was out and Hubby was exclaiming, "It's a girl!" He told me afterward that all of a sudden she stuck out her arm and her body came out right behind and he had fun catching her because she was so slippery. He remembered reading something that one of the ladies on the forum had written about what to do when the baby is born and put her face down to drain any fluids from her mouth and nose. He said she was moving her mouth before she was even out like she wanted to breathe and as soon as she was out she started hollering and did not quit for about 10 - 15 minutes. He wrapped her in a towel and handed her to me during this time and started crying. He was so overwhelmed by it all. I was trying to figure out if there was still another baby and what I should do next plus trying to put the baby to the breast. She did not want it right then as she still wanted to holler. Then I felt another contraction and something moving down the birth canal and coming out. I said something to my hubby and he looked and figured out it was the placenta as it dropped into his hands. It was the one thing he had felt squeemish about and Father put it right in his hands, but it was all enclosed in the membranes and a very tidy little package. It did not take me long then to figure out that there was not another baby coming. At first I was keenly disappointed, and then I was relieved for I didn't really look forward to another head coming out after the one that just did. My Honey then handed me the things to tie the cord. I offered for him to do it but he told me I knew what I was doing and let me do it.
After we all settled down a bit, my husband stuck his head out the door and told the children that they had a little sister. The girls had come home a few minutes before she was born and he had only told them that I was in labor. When he put his head out the door, everyone was waiting right out in the hall. Then they all came in to meet their sister. I thought that J would have problems with her being a girl because he wanted a brother so much. He was just excited. After a little while, he asked when the other baby was going to be born and was briefly disappointed when we told him there was only one. He is so excited about his new sister. He wanted to know all about the placenta, so I showed it to him and how the bag would be around the baby as I checked it over. Everyone else got all grossed out by it, including Hubby. Not J, though. He is our scientist. Then Hubby had the children go out and got a pad on the swivel rocker for me to sit and nurse our daughter. When I got up I had soaked the pad I was sitting on with blood. I nursed Gaelyn and after a while, they noticed the pad I was sitting on was all bloody and some of it was going down my leg. I figured I might be losing a little too much and had one of the girls get me some cayenne pepper in some juice and also some of the strong red raspberry tea I had prepared the day before. As she continued to nurse, I massaged the uterus. After that, the flow went to normal and I have had no more problems with it.
Gaelyn Elisabethe was born at about 5:45 pm(edt) on the first day of Succot on September 25, 1999. When we measured her, her head was 14.5 inches and her length was 22.5 inches. A friend brought up a good bathroom scale the next day and she weighs a little over ten pounds but we don't know the ounces. I think it would be less than half a pound. We say she is our ten-pound bag of sugar. Gaelyn is a derivative of Abigail and means "Father's joy" and Elisabethe means "God's oath" which to me means "The Lord is Faithful". We both were crying out to Him before she was born and choosing to trust Him. During the labor, we were both calling out to Him as she was being born and we testify that He is Faithful and that He has given us His joy in giving us such a sweet and precious little daughter.
Birth is also the completion of a cycle of life and the beginning of another. The Creator commanded us to be fruitful and multiply and made a man and a woman to complement each other in that process. He designed them to be united as two into one and in the peace and intimacy of their union to bring forth children to be brought up to know Him. The child is conceived in intimacy and the completion of the cycle of bringing forth that fruit of love is also an intimate act. It requires peace and a trust in the One who designed it all to safeguard the whole process. There is a special work done in the parents as far as their relationship to one another and to the One who made them and brought them together, as well as in the relationship to their children when birth is seen from this viewpoint. I have been privileged to give birth to six children and to be present at many more births and to have my Father transform my thinking gradually about the whole process. This sixth birth has been the most wonderful event in my life in enjoying birth the way it was designed to be. I had two babies in hospitals, two at home with the medical system present, one unassisted at home with still too big of an audience, and this one that was just my husband and myself.
The whole pregnancy was another step of the journey in trusting my Father, as I conceived a child at 43 and about 70 lbs. overweight with borderline high blood pressure. I asked my Father that I wouldn't gain any weight with this pregnancy and I did not diet to keep from doing so. He led me to make some very simple changes in the way I eat by increasing the amount of raw food I eat and decreasing cooked foods, meat and dairy. I felt the best this pregnancy of all of them as long as I was eating this way. My blood pressure came down to normal, also. As the pregnancy progressed, I wondered if I was having twins because of how quickly my uterus was growing. I did not really desire to have twins even though every one else in the family did. One reason was knowing the complications that can arise with a twin birth and the other being I felt too old to cope with two little babies (and eventually toddlers) at once. I came to the point of really believing that I had two babies in my womb and had to come to a place of surrender and trust in my Father about it. I even got excited about the thought. My Father used this in my life in a tremendous way, even to be willing to share what I thought and be willing to be wrong and appear foolish. I asked Him for the baby's head to engage in the pelvis when I was about 36 weeks and shortly after that it happened. My first baby is the only one who dropped before labor and that was over 23 years ago so my memories of labor had a lot to do with all the pressure in the pelvis. I spent two weeks feeling like I was in labor and had to go through the process of learning to trust Father for His time for the birth. I did try nipple stimulation to try and get labor going on about three occasions and it did not keep labor going. I was tempted to try herbs, also, but decided He wanted me to trust Him about it. I got bigger than I have ever been and there was so much baby movement and I just wanted it to be over with. The waiting was getting extremely wearisome to both my husband and me and also to the rest of the family. I did begin to lose the mucous plug about two weeks before the birth and then on Friday night, September 24th, I lost a little blood tinged mucous but nothing else was going on and we had a pretty decent night's sleep.
When I got up in the morning, there was a little more blood tinged mucous and the pressure was greater than it had been. I had contractions throughout the day, but they were usually 10 - 20 minutes apart and irregular, as the rest of my contractions had been for the last two weeks. They were stronger feeling, though, and felt more like labor contractions to me. I was really hoping it would be the day. I had prayed for a quiet and peaceful house. We had all our children here and a very good friend and her daughter the first time we thought we were starting labor, and even though they were just to be present in the house and not in with us for the birth, it was too much commotion and confusion.
We wanted this to be a husband and wife event and after that experience, decided we would let everybody know right after the baby was born. We were hoping for a middle of the night birth while everyone was sleeping. My son, J, was spending the day with a friend until about 4pm. About 3:00, I had a couple of contractions that seemed to be getting closer together and longer. Right after that, my three older daughters that still lived at home took off for the library and the grocery store. As soon as the girls left, the contractions started coming sooner and harder. My husband was playing Free Cell on the computer and I told him I thought we were going to have the baby today and played a little more with him (teamwork wins more games). I was really getting uncomfortable, so convinced him to stop and went into the bathroom.
I had a lot of blood tinged, slimy mucous and knew that it wasn't too long until we would be having a baby. We started setting up, but Hubby still was not thinking I was really doing it yet. Then I had another contraction and felt like I needed to get into the bathroom. Even though it was difficult to walk in there during the contraction, I did so and as soon as I got there my water broke all over the floor. There was meconium in the water but I didn't feel it was cause for alarm so just committed it to my Father. The waters breaking is what convinced my husband we were going to have a baby and he started getting that adrenalin rush and was somewhat jittery while he cleaned up the mess and we finished setting up. J came home just before this, but had forgotten to bring home some of his stuff so we had to send him back over to get it so he was not here when the waters broke. He came back home and my hubby set him up watching the Prince of Egypt and asked him to not disturb us and amazingly he didn't (a feat for my 6 year-old talkative boy!) After the waters broke we had a little break with no contractions. When they started up they felt like pushing contractions. I found that the most comfortable position during them was on my knees with my legs spread apart and sometimes dropping to hands and knee.
Sometimes I would stand but usually would end up down on my knees again. My husband was so sweet and supportive. When he saw that I was sweating, he went and got a rag wet and started wiping my face and neck in between contractions. It felt so good. He started laughing during it all and would get me laughing and that would bring on another contraction. It was a really precious time for us. After pushing that way for quite a few contractions, I felt like I needed to change positions, and changed to a squatting position using the bed behind me for support for my elbows. The head started really moving down then and was soon crowning. The next contraction the head came out and Hubby told me the head was facing towards my tailbone and asked if that was okay. I told him that was the best way for it to be. Then he said "There's a hand - a little hand on the cheek!" I knew then that the baby was coming out with a nuchal hand. The next contraction I was not budging the baby, so felt like I should switch to a hands and knees position. I know it confused my hubby a little as I did that with the head hanging out but he just went with the flow and handled it very well. With the next contraction there still was a little resistance and then suddenly the baby was out and Hubby was exclaiming, "It's a girl!" He told me afterward that all of a sudden she stuck out her arm and her body came out right behind and he had fun catching her because she was so slippery. He remembered reading something that one of the ladies on the forum had written about what to do when the baby is born and put her face down to drain any fluids from her mouth and nose. He said she was moving her mouth before she was even out like she wanted to breathe and as soon as she was out she started hollering and did not quit for about 10 - 15 minutes. He wrapped her in a towel and handed her to me during this time and started crying. He was so overwhelmed by it all. I was trying to figure out if there was still another baby and what I should do next plus trying to put the baby to the breast. She did not want it right then as she still wanted to holler. Then I felt another contraction and something moving down the birth canal and coming out. I said something to my hubby and he looked and figured out it was the placenta as it dropped into his hands. It was the one thing he had felt squeemish about and Father put it right in his hands, but it was all enclosed in the membranes and a very tidy little package. It did not take me long then to figure out that there was not another baby coming. At first I was keenly disappointed, and then I was relieved for I didn't really look forward to another head coming out after the one that just did. My Honey then handed me the things to tie the cord. I offered for him to do it but he told me I knew what I was doing and let me do it.
After we all settled down a bit, my husband stuck his head out the door and told the children that they had a little sister. The girls had come home a few minutes before she was born and he had only told them that I was in labor. When he put his head out the door, everyone was waiting right out in the hall. Then they all came in to meet their sister. I thought that J would have problems with her being a girl because he wanted a brother so much. He was just excited. After a little while, he asked when the other baby was going to be born and was briefly disappointed when we told him there was only one. He is so excited about his new sister. He wanted to know all about the placenta, so I showed it to him and how the bag would be around the baby as I checked it over. Everyone else got all grossed out by it, including Hubby. Not J, though. He is our scientist. Then Hubby had the children go out and got a pad on the swivel rocker for me to sit and nurse our daughter. When I got up I had soaked the pad I was sitting on with blood. I nursed Gaelyn and after a while, they noticed the pad I was sitting on was all bloody and some of it was going down my leg. I figured I might be losing a little too much and had one of the girls get me some cayenne pepper in some juice and also some of the strong red raspberry tea I had prepared the day before. As she continued to nurse, I massaged the uterus. After that, the flow went to normal and I have had no more problems with it.
Gaelyn Elisabethe was born at about 5:45 pm(edt) on the first day of Succot on September 25, 1999. When we measured her, her head was 14.5 inches and her length was 22.5 inches. A friend brought up a good bathroom scale the next day and she weighs a little over ten pounds but we don't know the ounces. I think it would be less than half a pound. We say she is our ten-pound bag of sugar. Gaelyn is a derivative of Abigail and means "Father's joy" and Elisabethe means "God's oath" which to me means "The Lord is Faithful". We both were crying out to Him before she was born and choosing to trust Him. During the labor, we were both calling out to Him as she was being born and we testify that He is Faithful and that He has given us His joy in giving us such a sweet and precious little daughter.
My Last Birth
Every birth is different and you never know what to expect. I know this after having gone through seven births. My last birth was one of my easiest, so I never expected this one to be one of my more difficult births.
This was my best pregnancy. I changed to a mostly raw, vegan diet at 17 weeks and had very little of the usual pregnancy discomforts. I do my own prenatal care (which is mainly living healthily) and pay attention to how I eat, my blood pressure, and how the uterus is growing by measuring fundal height. My blood pressure was excellent after the diet change and ranged from 124/74 to 101/66 during the last half of my pregnancy. I actually lost 20 pounds by the scale and more than that by the appearance of my body. My fundal height was ahead of how far along in the pregnancy I was by up to 10 weeks. Because of that, I went through wondering if I had more than one resident in the “secret place.”
All of my babies except Gaelyn have been born past the edd by at least 4 days and up to 22 days, but since she came early and I was measuring so big, I thought this baby would be early, too. I was wrong. He decided to stay put until two weeks past the edd and give his mommy some of the final pregnancy discomfort for the last few days. For the last week, I had some pretty strong pre-labor contractions, but they were usually spaced out every half-hour or hour or so. Once in a while there would be some closer together. By the end of the day, I would get a lot of pelvic pressure as the baby settled down more in the pelvis. Then I would go to bed for the night and by morning the head would be floating just above the pubic bone. I struggled through the same fears that all women go through in the last days of pregnancy, including the ridiculous fear that I would be pregnant forever.
On Saturday night, the 10th of November, I started having pretty close together contractions about 11:30 at night that were pretty intense but not difficult to handle. Many of them were 3-4 minutes apart and 60 seconds and longer, up to 90 seconds. I did this all night until about 5:30 in the morning when it all stopped. I never did have any bloody show. My older girls took J and Gaelyn for part of the day on Sunday so my husband and I could get some sleep because we were exhausted. I did not even have very many contractions at all that day. My real concern was that the baby’s head was not in a good position and that he was not engaged in the pelvis yet. That evening I had one really good contraction and felt the baby’s head go down into the pelvis. I also lost some thick, stringy mucous that evening. When I got up after a decent night’s sleep, the head was still in the pelvis and no longer floating above the pubic bone. That was encouraging for me. On Monday I had the usual spaced out contractions that I had been having and lots of pelvic pressure. I was 42 weeks that day and was so hoping that I would have the baby soon. Late that afternoon, we had to go get some grocery shopping done and while we were out, I noticed that the contractions were getting a little more regular and closer together. That evening they were more like 10-15 minutes apart and the pelvic pressure was greater. I thought I might be going into true labor, but Hubby was pretty skeptical after the experience of 2 nights before. I did start having to poop several times that evening. I started rushing around and getting some carrot juice made and getting J and Gaelyn to bed because I thought it would be the night. I really wanted a cup of carrot juice for after the birth for the energy it gives. I always need something right away and it was the juice of choice this time. After I got all that done and Hubby was getting Gaelyn to sleep, it was just wait and see. I did get some pink tinged mucous and that was encouraging. It was the show that I had wanted to see but it wasn’t a lot like I remembered having with Gaelyn.
Gaelyn must have sensed something because it took a long time for her daddy to get her to sleep. I phoned the people on my labor list that I wanted to be on alert to pray while he was getting her to sleep. Even after he got her to sleep, she got up about an hour later and he had to get her back to sleep. It seemed like it was just a lot of waiting for a while. I was having contractions and they were getting closer together but the question was if it was really it. They were getting more uncomfortable as time went on. About midnight, I was pretty sure it was real and posted to the forum for anyone who would see it to know. After that the contractions were getting more intense. My Honey was still skeptical and wasn’t sure he wanted to be up for another night. While he was playing a game of solitaire on the computer, I went and got things set up because I was getting surer. I was getting to the point where I wasn’t comfortable anymore and wanted to be ready if it was going fast. I started hoping about 1:00am that we would welcome a baby by 2:00am. That time came and went and the contractions were getting more difficult to ride and I needed my husband’s attention more and more, which he was giving me. I was having quite a bit of backache with this labor so suspected the head was not anterior and was probably posterior. I would do pelvic rocks in between contractions to try and get it to turn. I had a fairly lengthy transition time, probably about 2 hours, because of the head not being right. I would be up and down from my bedroom to the bathroom and couldn’t find a position that was comfortable. My husband did start seeing it was real because he could see it in my face.
I really was having a hard time at first knowing if I was having pushing contractions. I finally figured it out because they had spaced out some from the transition contractions that had come right on top of each other. At first, I didn’t actively push but started to do so, as they became stronger. My water broke and went shooting out. It had meconium in it. I had that with my last 2 births and decided that I would trust Father about it. I had been pushing through a few contractions when I started having what was like a cramp in my right upper thigh and groin. It would totally incapacitate me to push and since my body was still pushing was excruciatingly painful. I could not get in any position that would help. I felt so helpless and was crying. It was the first time that I had what I really considered pain in birth and was something I could not handle at all. My husband felt even more helpless because he could not help me. To me it felt like the baby was trying to come out the top of my right leg. For just a little, I wondered if the baby and I would make it. I was crying out to Father and so was Hubby. I thought about going to the hospital but didn’t think that would solve the problem quickly enough. My husband grabbed the phone and called our daughters and asked them to pray. He later told me he also considered phoning 911. Shortly after he phoned them, I moved around into several positions in my total discomfort and then went to hands and knees. At that point something changed and I could push again without all the incapacitating pain. I felt the head move right down to that total pressure on the rectum place just before the head goes to crowning with that push. Then the next contraction, the head started going to crowning. My Honey remembered that I had never felt the baby’s head before it was born before so he had me reach down and feel the head and be the first person to touch the baby. I would not have remembered at the time. It took 2 contractions to get through crowning and the head felt so big and hard. It was a long time for that ring of fire. Then it took one more contraction to birth the body. My husband exclaimed “we have a son!” and then he was holding him behind me and rubbing him on the back to get him to breathe. He was a little slow starting. He wanted me to take him, so we figured out how to pass him through my legs and I sat down with him and continued rubbing his back as he started to sputter and cry. I scooped mucous out of my son’s mouth with my little finger and his crying got strong. He was not interested in going to the breast but wanted to cry and protest his entrance into this world. I felt the placenta needing to be pushed out so handed Izak back to his daddy and did that. I spent a little time looking it over to make sure it was okay. There were some loose pieces at one edge but as far as I could tell, it was all there. Then I got settled down on a towel to sit and nurse my son. (My husband had gone through two packages of the “chux” pads keeping the birth area and me clean.) He was born at 4am.
The girls arrived a little while after that. I had already had my carrot juice and was just enjoying my new baby. He was so heavy that I knew he had to weigh quite a bit. He had quite a bit of hair but it was a mess with meconium in it. After I was done nursing him and got a shower, we proceeded to clean him up. Izak did not have hardly any vernix on him so really was postdates. His head molded a little during the birth but it wasn’t very long after that it looked nice and smooth and round, so that was one of the reasons it was so hard to birth it. We had bought a fish scale at Wal-Mart and I had fixed up a sling to hang baby in and had tested it in advance to know if it would weigh okay. When we weighed him, he weighed a little over 12 pounds but not up to the half-pound mark. He measured 22.5 inches long and had a 15-inch head and chest circumference. That is my biggest baby. His skin was beautiful right after birth, with no wrinkly red newborn look, just a clear, healthy pink with no blemishes. Izak spent the first hours after his birth just looking around at everything and at us. He just wanted to see it all. Jo and Ari had to leave to go to work, but R stayed so she could watch the children while we got some sleep. Hubby, Izak and I went to bed about 7:30am and got a couple of hours of sleep. R missed the morning at her job to stay and help us out.
Both of my sons have been my hardest births and Father had a purpose in it. They both were the only boy in the new generation. I had asked Father for my first son (in my first marriage) to be born by Father's Day of 1993 and He let me know that He was going to do it. J was born June 10, 1993. During my years as a single mother, I mourned that I wouldn't have any more children. My Father let me know He was going to give me an "Isaac." Izak is the first boy in my husband’s family since he was born over 49 years ago. For him it is so significant that Father trusted him with a son because of the struggles of his past. He is still in awe about it and the work Father is doing through it is precious in his life. For me, I was so dependant on my Father to even get me through the birth, but I am so grateful to be a vessel of blessing in bearing both of my sons and in giving my husband this priceless gift of a son. My Father has proven Himself Faithful again in bringing me through a trial of birth that would have been handled so differently in the medical system. I am grateful for the strength He gave to endure through it and the wonderful gift on this side of it. Izak means “laughter” and He gives us laughter in the difficult places of life and when we get to the other side of them. Elazar means “Elohim is my help.” That was so true in this birth. Elazar is my husband’s Hebrew name, thus the “ben Elazar” in Izak’s name. He is Izak, son of Elazar.
Each birth is different, but each brings its own glory to the One who designed birth. I am grateful for the loving care my husband gave me as I birthed our son, for his sensitivity to remember to have me touch his unborn head, and for his watchfulness over me and his family. I am thrilled to watch him enjoy this son he never thought he would have. I am a most blessed woman.
This was my best pregnancy. I changed to a mostly raw, vegan diet at 17 weeks and had very little of the usual pregnancy discomforts. I do my own prenatal care (which is mainly living healthily) and pay attention to how I eat, my blood pressure, and how the uterus is growing by measuring fundal height. My blood pressure was excellent after the diet change and ranged from 124/74 to 101/66 during the last half of my pregnancy. I actually lost 20 pounds by the scale and more than that by the appearance of my body. My fundal height was ahead of how far along in the pregnancy I was by up to 10 weeks. Because of that, I went through wondering if I had more than one resident in the “secret place.”
All of my babies except Gaelyn have been born past the edd by at least 4 days and up to 22 days, but since she came early and I was measuring so big, I thought this baby would be early, too. I was wrong. He decided to stay put until two weeks past the edd and give his mommy some of the final pregnancy discomfort for the last few days. For the last week, I had some pretty strong pre-labor contractions, but they were usually spaced out every half-hour or hour or so. Once in a while there would be some closer together. By the end of the day, I would get a lot of pelvic pressure as the baby settled down more in the pelvis. Then I would go to bed for the night and by morning the head would be floating just above the pubic bone. I struggled through the same fears that all women go through in the last days of pregnancy, including the ridiculous fear that I would be pregnant forever.
On Saturday night, the 10th of November, I started having pretty close together contractions about 11:30 at night that were pretty intense but not difficult to handle. Many of them were 3-4 minutes apart and 60 seconds and longer, up to 90 seconds. I did this all night until about 5:30 in the morning when it all stopped. I never did have any bloody show. My older girls took J and Gaelyn for part of the day on Sunday so my husband and I could get some sleep because we were exhausted. I did not even have very many contractions at all that day. My real concern was that the baby’s head was not in a good position and that he was not engaged in the pelvis yet. That evening I had one really good contraction and felt the baby’s head go down into the pelvis. I also lost some thick, stringy mucous that evening. When I got up after a decent night’s sleep, the head was still in the pelvis and no longer floating above the pubic bone. That was encouraging for me. On Monday I had the usual spaced out contractions that I had been having and lots of pelvic pressure. I was 42 weeks that day and was so hoping that I would have the baby soon. Late that afternoon, we had to go get some grocery shopping done and while we were out, I noticed that the contractions were getting a little more regular and closer together. That evening they were more like 10-15 minutes apart and the pelvic pressure was greater. I thought I might be going into true labor, but Hubby was pretty skeptical after the experience of 2 nights before. I did start having to poop several times that evening. I started rushing around and getting some carrot juice made and getting J and Gaelyn to bed because I thought it would be the night. I really wanted a cup of carrot juice for after the birth for the energy it gives. I always need something right away and it was the juice of choice this time. After I got all that done and Hubby was getting Gaelyn to sleep, it was just wait and see. I did get some pink tinged mucous and that was encouraging. It was the show that I had wanted to see but it wasn’t a lot like I remembered having with Gaelyn.
Gaelyn must have sensed something because it took a long time for her daddy to get her to sleep. I phoned the people on my labor list that I wanted to be on alert to pray while he was getting her to sleep. Even after he got her to sleep, she got up about an hour later and he had to get her back to sleep. It seemed like it was just a lot of waiting for a while. I was having contractions and they were getting closer together but the question was if it was really it. They were getting more uncomfortable as time went on. About midnight, I was pretty sure it was real and posted to the forum for anyone who would see it to know. After that the contractions were getting more intense. My Honey was still skeptical and wasn’t sure he wanted to be up for another night. While he was playing a game of solitaire on the computer, I went and got things set up because I was getting surer. I was getting to the point where I wasn’t comfortable anymore and wanted to be ready if it was going fast. I started hoping about 1:00am that we would welcome a baby by 2:00am. That time came and went and the contractions were getting more difficult to ride and I needed my husband’s attention more and more, which he was giving me. I was having quite a bit of backache with this labor so suspected the head was not anterior and was probably posterior. I would do pelvic rocks in between contractions to try and get it to turn. I had a fairly lengthy transition time, probably about 2 hours, because of the head not being right. I would be up and down from my bedroom to the bathroom and couldn’t find a position that was comfortable. My husband did start seeing it was real because he could see it in my face.
I really was having a hard time at first knowing if I was having pushing contractions. I finally figured it out because they had spaced out some from the transition contractions that had come right on top of each other. At first, I didn’t actively push but started to do so, as they became stronger. My water broke and went shooting out. It had meconium in it. I had that with my last 2 births and decided that I would trust Father about it. I had been pushing through a few contractions when I started having what was like a cramp in my right upper thigh and groin. It would totally incapacitate me to push and since my body was still pushing was excruciatingly painful. I could not get in any position that would help. I felt so helpless and was crying. It was the first time that I had what I really considered pain in birth and was something I could not handle at all. My husband felt even more helpless because he could not help me. To me it felt like the baby was trying to come out the top of my right leg. For just a little, I wondered if the baby and I would make it. I was crying out to Father and so was Hubby. I thought about going to the hospital but didn’t think that would solve the problem quickly enough. My husband grabbed the phone and called our daughters and asked them to pray. He later told me he also considered phoning 911. Shortly after he phoned them, I moved around into several positions in my total discomfort and then went to hands and knees. At that point something changed and I could push again without all the incapacitating pain. I felt the head move right down to that total pressure on the rectum place just before the head goes to crowning with that push. Then the next contraction, the head started going to crowning. My Honey remembered that I had never felt the baby’s head before it was born before so he had me reach down and feel the head and be the first person to touch the baby. I would not have remembered at the time. It took 2 contractions to get through crowning and the head felt so big and hard. It was a long time for that ring of fire. Then it took one more contraction to birth the body. My husband exclaimed “we have a son!” and then he was holding him behind me and rubbing him on the back to get him to breathe. He was a little slow starting. He wanted me to take him, so we figured out how to pass him through my legs and I sat down with him and continued rubbing his back as he started to sputter and cry. I scooped mucous out of my son’s mouth with my little finger and his crying got strong. He was not interested in going to the breast but wanted to cry and protest his entrance into this world. I felt the placenta needing to be pushed out so handed Izak back to his daddy and did that. I spent a little time looking it over to make sure it was okay. There were some loose pieces at one edge but as far as I could tell, it was all there. Then I got settled down on a towel to sit and nurse my son. (My husband had gone through two packages of the “chux” pads keeping the birth area and me clean.) He was born at 4am.
The girls arrived a little while after that. I had already had my carrot juice and was just enjoying my new baby. He was so heavy that I knew he had to weigh quite a bit. He had quite a bit of hair but it was a mess with meconium in it. After I was done nursing him and got a shower, we proceeded to clean him up. Izak did not have hardly any vernix on him so really was postdates. His head molded a little during the birth but it wasn’t very long after that it looked nice and smooth and round, so that was one of the reasons it was so hard to birth it. We had bought a fish scale at Wal-Mart and I had fixed up a sling to hang baby in and had tested it in advance to know if it would weigh okay. When we weighed him, he weighed a little over 12 pounds but not up to the half-pound mark. He measured 22.5 inches long and had a 15-inch head and chest circumference. That is my biggest baby. His skin was beautiful right after birth, with no wrinkly red newborn look, just a clear, healthy pink with no blemishes. Izak spent the first hours after his birth just looking around at everything and at us. He just wanted to see it all. Jo and Ari had to leave to go to work, but R stayed so she could watch the children while we got some sleep. Hubby, Izak and I went to bed about 7:30am and got a couple of hours of sleep. R missed the morning at her job to stay and help us out.
Both of my sons have been my hardest births and Father had a purpose in it. They both were the only boy in the new generation. I had asked Father for my first son (in my first marriage) to be born by Father's Day of 1993 and He let me know that He was going to do it. J was born June 10, 1993. During my years as a single mother, I mourned that I wouldn't have any more children. My Father let me know He was going to give me an "Isaac." Izak is the first boy in my husband’s family since he was born over 49 years ago. For him it is so significant that Father trusted him with a son because of the struggles of his past. He is still in awe about it and the work Father is doing through it is precious in his life. For me, I was so dependant on my Father to even get me through the birth, but I am so grateful to be a vessel of blessing in bearing both of my sons and in giving my husband this priceless gift of a son. My Father has proven Himself Faithful again in bringing me through a trial of birth that would have been handled so differently in the medical system. I am grateful for the strength He gave to endure through it and the wonderful gift on this side of it. Izak means “laughter” and He gives us laughter in the difficult places of life and when we get to the other side of them. Elazar means “Elohim is my help.” That was so true in this birth. Elazar is my husband’s Hebrew name, thus the “ben Elazar” in Izak’s name. He is Izak, son of Elazar.
Each birth is different, but each brings its own glory to the One who designed birth. I am grateful for the loving care my husband gave me as I birthed our son, for his sensitivity to remember to have me touch his unborn head, and for his watchfulness over me and his family. I am thrilled to watch him enjoy this son he never thought he would have. I am a most blessed woman.