Our new precious bundle, Isaac William

9-13-2011 birth story written by Greg (aka the hero of the day~)

approx. 2:00am

Rachel wakes me up to say that she has been having mild contractions since 12:01am. I figure if they’re only “mild” then there isn’t any reason for me to be awake. I roll over hoping for a little bit more sleep before the action starts. That feeling only gets to live for about 20 seconds. I get up and help Rachel through the next contraction. They surely don’t seem too severe at this point. At 2:17 we call the midwife to let her know what is happening. Rachel tells her that it doesn’t seem that she is into active labor yet. The midwife asks what time we feel the baby may come, how far along do we feel we are. Rachel is thinking that we shouldn’t expect a baby before 8 or 9 that morning. With that, the midwife recommends that we call her when things seem to be proceeding to second stage labor. So we go along as we had been. Contractions are lasting less than a minute and spaced between 5-7 minutes apart.

At about 3:45 the contractions go from moderate to the light side of severe. Spacing is still about 5 minutes apart, but the severity prompts us to call the midwife at 4:00. Rachel desires that she comes to help with the pain. We still don’t think that there is a way the baby would come before 8 or 9 o’clock. The midwife recommends Rachel get into the bathtub as the water would take the edge off the contractions. At about 4:15 Rachel gets into the bathtub. The first contraction in the tub is quite severe. I believe it was now that we took the time to say a prayer asking for God’s protection over all involved. Two more contractions and on the third she jumps and exclaims, “I feel like pushing!!” At which I reply, “No, no, nooo.” She tells me to get our midwife’s cell phone number dialed into the cordless phone, so in case we need it all we’ll have to do is hit redial. I decide we better just call her cell phone to see how close she is. While I’m dialing the number Rachel hits another contraction with the urge to push. “Sweetie,” she says. “The baby is here!”

I detect a sense of urgency in her voice. Not panic, but extreme urgency.

The midwife answers her cell phone the same time I see that the baby is crowning. I ask her where she is because the baby is being born.

I detect a sense of panic in my voice. Not urgency, but extreme panic.

She’s still 30 minutes away. One push and the head is out. One more push and “Whoosh”, there he is. Our baby boy. I pick him up out of the water, unwrap the cord from around his neck and put him on Rachel’s chest. The midwife tells me not to worry. The baby is crying and by my account, there is no sign of distress. She comments on how fast this baby came. Even though she is the one with all the experience, we were actually able to figure that out on our own. The whole sequence had a dreamlike quality. I was literally “buzzing” from head to toe. I certainly needed to sit down and take a deep breath. It was such a blessing to witness that miracle first hand. Isaac William had been born at 4:30. If this would have been a planned hospital birth, we would never have made it in time. The first feeling we had that would have gotten us going to the hospital was the contraction with the desire to push. This would have put us about three miles down the road when the baby came, if we made it that far.

All in all, I wouldn’t want to go through it again. Although having been through it once, I might have a cooler head if the situation repeated itself. God answered our prayer and like I said before, the whole experience was a true blessing.

Isaac William Somero

8 lb 8 oz

22 inches long

Mommy's version: Since all my other labors were much longer, I was totally taken aback by the speed of this one (21 hours (induced after 18), 16 and 10 hours respectively). Although the pain level in this one was incredibly worse, I figured it was because it was the middle of the night and I was just "being a wimp" because of not much sleep/energy. The contractions confused me too, as I was still getting 5-7 minute breaks between them all, and they only lasted 30-45 sec. I was waiting for the increments to get closer together or the contraction lengths to increase, which never happened until about 5 minutes before he was born. The whole day before baby was born though, I felt weird (unexplainably) and figured our time was getting close. I rested alot and went for a few walks, hoping to move things along. When I went to bed, I just prayed for a good night's rest before I went into labor, as starting out tired is not very fun (been there with baby #1). But, other things were in order and I thank God that He orchestrated things like he did, because I don't know how I would have made it very much longer with the intensity of the contractions. When baby was born, I was amazed at the perfect working of a woman. He was born so smoothly, and without my interference much at all. I just let my body do what it was supposed to be doing, and I think that is what made things run so smoothly. As our midwife reminded me, "a birth will not be pain-free, but it can go smooth". A major change of view from the hospital scene. I wouldn't have known it could go like it did, but am still in awe at the workings of a woman's body without the interference of IV's, type and screens, epidurals, fetal monitors, uncomfortable hard beds, bedpans, episiotomies and all those other things that us women are subject to while laboring in the hospital. I won't recommend a home birth for everyone, but feel a woman should do her research and weigh the options in their own life. Many complications are caused by (unnecessary) interventions, and if a woman was left to herself (and a competent caregiver) in a relaxed, comfortable environment, it is an amazing process that God has perfected and how He made our bodies so perfect to bring children into this world.

John 16:21
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

Closing in on September

Well, we are now into September, and I'm pretty much ready to give up my pregnancy shoes for some Mom-of-4 shoes. When I said it to a friend the other day, it sounded weird, but I have to admit that with each child born, it's taken a few months to get used to the idea. With Elise it was even longer, as I'd been the mom of just boys for 4 years, and then had to get used to having a girl in the mix. Now it's going to be getting used to juggling even more. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and also thankful my oldest is 6 rather than 4 (which he was when we had our last baby), and will be a great help to me. I'm also VERY thankful we're not sending him off to school, as my fragile nerves likely couldn't handle the adjustment, as you likely read from my previous post about just letting him into the locker room by himself.

Luke is anxious to keep learning, so I know it's going to be a challenge to keep him challenged for these first few months with a new baby as well as structuring our home school. He's such an avid learner (but doesn't like to stick with anything too long), so therein the challenge lies. Keeping him busy and active while taking care of a (likely) fussy baby. I'm sure I can come up with lots of chores to keep him busy, I do know that!

James is right on his footsteps, and likes to guess at words and sound them out. I'm hoping that he'll be easier to teach, since he'll have such a base from listening to all Luke has heard from me. I think that is one of the greatest blessings of homeschool, is that the older kids can teach the younger. Just today at breakfast Luke was teaching James what camouflage is. James knows what the fabric looks like, but Luke was explaining that anything can be camouflage when it blends in and you can't see everything there. (he put a yellow fork put on a yellow plate to be used for an example) I love how they work together and seek out answers to their questions. But...trust me, I get plenty of questions myself from the 3 of them. Luke usually asks knowledge based ones, James "what if _____?" and quizzes us about all these impossible feats, and Elise likes to ask, "what _____ mean?" (she picks some word she's heard and then never even listens to the answer because her little mind is off on some new topic already)

Elise also likes to talk, talk, talk (not so good at the listening end of things!) I do have a new appreciation for moms of girls, because I never knew they could talk so much. All day, every day, every where about everything. And she's only 2 1/2! Does it get better? Or worse as the years go by?

So, the countdown is on until our new baby decides to show up. I haven't been ready for the changes up until last weekend. It's definitely a emotional, spiritual and physical surrendering to get to that place where you're ready for labor and baby and all, but I'm there now. Praying for strength and patience until the big day (and especially on the big day) as there always seems to be so many unknowns in the waiting game. My Mom is showing up this week, so that'll be nice to have her here for emotional support and also to visit with if we do have some days to wait until baby's birth. Sometimes the days before the birth are more draining than those after just due to the discomfort and anticipation. Feeling good overall, but ready to give up the big kicking belly. Very ready!!

Been rereading my birthing books though, and hopefully they'll work as well as last time. I wish I'd known about them with kid #1 and #2, but that's water under the bridge. They are "Husband Coached Childbirth" by Dr. Robert Bradley and "Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way" by Susan McCutcheon. They are very different from the Lamaze classes offered at the hospital (which I had assumed they were similar before I knew much), and work amazingly better. The relaxation techniques and exercises as well as emotional signposts of labor progress are priceless for a birthing mother or husband (who likely isn't sure what his role is/should be, but this book totally guides step by step). We haven't taken the classes, but likely for first-time parents, that would be very beneficial. http://www.bradleybirth.com/