Today my sweet baby boy is one month old. So I thought it fitting that I use today to write out the story of his incredible birth.
Benjamin’s Birth Story
On Sunday, May 8, I had big plans to celebrate Mother’s Day. I was four days from my due date, and was ready for a day of being spoiled, and having yummy food that I didn’t have to cook! Early Sunday morning Joey headed off to church as usual for service prep, and Abigail and I spent the first part of the morning cuddling in bed and watching cartoons. Soon though we were getting all dressed up to go to church and celebrate Mother’s Day. I had carefully made sure the whole family was color coordinated for the special day (blues and peachesJ), and I had plans for a lovely steak dinner (which I was seriously craving!) after church that day! It was to be a perfect day!
As I was moving around getting dressed, I noticed, well, to keep it less than graphic – things kept getting wet. Honestly, I thought the baby was on top of my bladder and I was having “control” issues! HA! This went on the entire morning, and I finally determined that perhaps my water was breaking. With Abigail my water didn’t break and this was a new “issue” to figure out. So I called my sister and told her what was happening, and asked her if she thought it was my water breaking, to which she gave a resounding “YES!” and said she’d have her phone on all during church and to text or call right away with an update after I talked to Joey.
Let me rewind for a moment… on the night before, Saturday, while sitting at dinner, I was whining to Joey that I knew I was just going to end up with another c-section if this baby didn’t come on his own. I was whining, in a very “10 months and ready to pop” kind of way, that I was 4cm dilated, effaced, I had been walking, and done all I could do and I just KNEW this baby wasn’t going to come. Which, in turn, meant c-section #2. He assured me, as the kind, loving, patient husband he is that it would all be fine, and there were still a few more days for things to happen. What a good, insightful man, who was about to get the phone call to let him know that he had been right! J
OK, so back to that morning…
I hung up with my sister, and looked at the clock, and saw it was just before 10am, and Joey would soon be heading to the choir room to warm up the choir and then to start service. This was my only chance to catch him. So, I called him right away, and told him I thought my water was breaking. He was SO excited. I could just hear it in his voice! We tried to come up with an immediate plan to get Abigail where she needed to be, but just weren’t making much sense. Finally we came up with a plan, and looking back, it all makes me laugh. But, ultimately, I packed Abigail up, drove her to church (yes, with my water leaking), took her to the nursery, met up with Joey who had just finished conducting the choir, and then we came home, packed up ourselves, and off we went to the hospital – still in my dress, high heels, jewelry and all.
Upon arriving at the hospital, close to 12o’clock, my water broke completely, and we were whisked upstairs to the Labor and Delivery floor. We were on our way to have our baby boy, and it looked like our VBAC was going to be a viable option.
Once we got settled in, I was already at about 5cm, and hardly having any contractions – it was great! Joey went down to get our bags from the car, and on the way saw a teacher from the church school, and she and her husband ended up going to get Joey lunch! It was so very sweet, and I was a good little wife and let him eat his Wendy’s right in front of me while I munched on my ice chips J
A bit later, at about 6 or 7cm, I finally gave in and got the epidural. WHEW! Now, that is a miraculous thing right there! I mean, it was nearly instant pain free labor. That anesthesiologist is a good man.
Soon after the epidural, my contractions slowed down a bit, so the doctor – who was AMAZING – decided to give a bit of pitocin just to get the contractions stronger because I was already dilated so much, he wanted to get the baby moving more to avoid a c-section.
I must pause here to say that God absolutely had the perfect doctor on call for our delivery. He was positive and kind with a great bed-side manner, we saw him get very serious when needed, and he was all for a VBac if it could be done safely. It was an answer to prayer to have this doctor, and I am so grateful for him!
Around 5pm, my mom arrived from Charleston! We were so excited she was able to get to the hospital on time, and offered to let her stay in the room for the delivery. It was not only very special to have her there, but she was on camera duty and got some great pictures throughout the afternoon and night, but she also provided us with some great entertainment!
My mom started a “game” on Facebook so people could guess when the baby would be born. Well, it took off!!! At one point, we had nearly 100 posts and comments with guesses about when he would be born. As time started passing, the nurses would say “Well, whoever guessed 6 just lost.” Or “Tell people I think it will be closer to 7:30.” So, the nurses were in on it, my mom was reading the posts to us, we were all laughing, and even the doctor got in on the fun. It was great to have such a laid back labor and delivery room!!!
By 7pm, I was almost fully dilated after being in the hospital for 7 hours. Once again though, my contractions weren’t strong enough to move the baby, so the doctor upped the pitocin. And sure enough, by 8pm I was fully dilated and ready to push (but not before my mom posted this on Facebook so people could update their guesses in the “birth time game”) J
And so we began pushing. I naively thought it would be a few pushes and out would come my beautiful baby. Was I wrong! Half an hour in, I thought I had made little progress, and was getting discouraged, despite the encouragement and kind words from the nurses and my sweet Joey. An hour in to pushing, still no baby, and I was getting exhausted. The doctor gave me a 15 minute break to relax – I took it!
Before we started up again, the doctor offered to use a vacuum, but I said not unless it was absolutely totally necessary. So, we started pushing again. At this point, I could really start to feel pain – significant amounts of pain. My epidural was wearing off. They tried to make adjustments, but at the end, this would turn out to be a blessing in disguise because actually feeling the pain of the labor allowed me to push better and finally get my baby boy out!
Well, during the second hour of pushing, that room got ridiculously hot, I was eating ice chips left and right, and was getting more exhausted by the moment. But, we still managed to keep the overall mood in the room was still rather laid back and I was candidly honest with them about how I was feeling - so much so, that it was quite out of character and looking back now I just laugh at some of the things I said! My mom was in the corner, texting a play by play of the events to my sisters, including all of the comical and straightforward remarks I was making. Joey was ever steady, and didn’t leave my side. We were all taking bets on if our newest addition would come out with blonde hair like his big sister had done, or surprise us all and come out with dark hair. The doctor was rocking in the rocking chair at one point with his eyes closed, just letting the nurses guide me along, then he would sit up, take a peak, and slightly holler “push Cynthia!” then go back to his rocking chair or his Android phone.
Following a check, the doctor said “how big was your other baby’s head?” I said “in the 90th percentile – thanks for bringing that up right about now.” And everyone laughed, and the doctor said “well, I think we’ve got another big head here.” To which I mumbled something, laughed, and kept pushing.
While we were in the second hour of pushing, we found out that because I was a VBAC, the entire operating room staff had to stay on the floor until the baby was born! So, they weren’t going home until I had that baby. One of the operating room nurses came in and said “ok, let’s get this baby out!” and yelled at him to “come towards the light”. Again, it was just a comfortable atmosphere where we were all trying to stay calm and use laughter to break up the seriousness and exhaustion of how long I had been pushing. Fortunately, this particular nurse from the operating staff stayed the rest of the time, and ended up being a great help to me, and a good source of distraction with her very calming demeanor.
About 2 full hours of pushing, I was beyond hot, exhausted, and I started actually started apologizing to Joey and the nurses! But Joey’s reply was reassuring and encouraging, soft spoken and loving, telling me I was doing great, and our son would be here soon. Looking back, it makes me chuckle now to think that I apologized, but at the time I felt like I wasn’t doing my “job” well enough and that’s why our baby still hadn’t joined us.
One of the nurses had told me that once the doctor started getting “dressed” that it was close. First, he put on his shoe covers, and I noticed right away, and honestly, that spurred me on to keep going. Then, I saw his hat go on, so I kept pushing. Then he was fully dressed, and I knew, after over two hours of pushing, my sweet boy was about to arrive. My mom was furiously texting my sisters, letting them know it was close, Joey was grinning from ear to ear, and coaching his little heart out with absolute excitement in his voice, our doctor was exclaiming “Push Cynthia!”, and those amazing nurses just kept counting to five J
Then finally, after nearly 2.5 hours of pushing, I saw my sweet baby boy miraculously arrive into this world. And all was perfect.
Our little Benjamin Harper Colson had arrived at 10:15pm, 8 pounds and 20 ¼ inches long, with a head full of dark hair and a tender cry that stopped the instant I held him.
What a magnificent Mother’s Day gift. I hope I can always remember each smell, moment, sound, and emotion from those hours, and that one most incredible instant that ultimately gave us Benjamin’s Birth Story.
