Birth Story #3

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:4-6

What an amazing thing to experience three pregnancies and them all be so different. And the children are different. And the births are different. I've been so blessed to have had such easy quick births. You can read about Zeke's birth here and Haddie's birth here.

This whole pregnancy I anticipated (as well as let people know) having a baby by 42 weeks. I go ahead and add the extra gestation time because Zeke was almost 43 weeks and Haddie almost 42. I figured it was safe. Plus right at the 42 week marker was Thanksgiving. So it was easy to just say, "we should have a baby by Thanksgiving!" A great thing to look forward to also. As the time got closer to that holiday we had friends and family visit. Yet, no baby. And Thanksgiving came and went, as did our guests. I was not glowing anymore. Going one day over the estimated time of arrival is tough! Much less two whole weeks over! And despite my efforts to ignore it, the delay affected me. The next day I called my wonderful midwife who I can always count on to lift me up in times like these. It's funny too because you would think I would know better. On the phone I cried, "I'm not having this baby and I'm going to stay pregnant forever!" Which makes me laugh now. She knew better and said that maybe it was a boy and that would be a pattern for me to grow baby boys a little longer. Really? Neat. The human body never ceases to amaze me. (By the way, we didn't find out the gender of this one so it was fun having a surprise.) just having that reassurance helped me settle those emotions and recenter myself so i could relax and wait till this little apple was nice and ripe enough to fall off the tree on its own. That very night... my water broke. I hadn't experienced that with the other two, so it was kinda exciting. It happened while I was sleeping even! 1:30 am I got Darryl up and called the midwife. Her recommendation? Go back to sleep. Are you kidding me? But I tried. The baby however, was ready to come on out. So contractions started shortly thereafter. The two midwives come, mom comes,sister-in-law comes. We set up camp and get everything prepared and sit around and had a pajama party. Except I was experiencing contractions (Which for me, aren't that bad. Nothing at all like after pains, ouch!). After a couple of hours it wasn't going fast enough for me and so I walked around the room while we chatted. Not a big fan of labor contractions while standing. It wasn't long either and I could tell it was intensifying. So into the pool I went! Jordanwoke up. Zeke and Haddie woke up. I didn't mind the activity in the house at all this time because I actually wanted everyone to be there. After a little while I started crowning. We let it progress until the head was almost out and called everyone in. Sister-in-law was filming... and crying (so sweet!). For me i have found the best thing to do is just let my body do the work and let the baby come out on its own. I do mostly controlled breathing and very little, if at any at all, pushing. Just a minute after everyone came to see,our newest little boy came out to meet everyone too. Zeke cried out, "BABY!"as Haddie just looked on in wonder (or shock!). Zeke jumped in the pool with us for a few moments and Jordan cut the cord. It was a very special event for all of us. And just in time for breakfast! 6 hours total labor. I wish I had written this sooner. Four months is long enough to lose a lot of detail. What is it like having three under three? I'll blog about that often. 

Pallu (Pah-Loo) Gideon Russell

9lbs 2oz 20in