Banzai's Birth Story

We had a baby. No one is more surprised than me.

Last Sunday I started having little contractions. I knew it wasn't labor, but it was something. And then I started leaking. A LOT. I got nervous that it was amniotic fluid and my baby was slowly suffocating (turns out that's not even a thing) so I went to Labor and Delivery at the hospital just to clarify there was no amniotic fluid. The good news, there wasn't. Not only that. I was definitely not in labor. I wasn't dilated at all. They sent me home saying Friday was a big long shot and we even talked about induction the following Wednesday.

I had mild contractions every 10 minutes all night long but still felt good enough to go to work. I worked a full day on Monday and then went to a doctor's appointment that afternoon. Turns out my body had been busy! I was dilated to a 3.5. My midwife thought MAAAAAYYYBEEE I would go Wednesday but Friday was more likely. That night Giz and I went to dinner at a friend's house while Matthew kept an appointment in town. When we got there my contractions were still coming every 10 minutes but were fairly easy to ignore. At 5:30 we sat down for dinner and then, halfway through I burst into tears. That contraction was intense! My girlfriend looked at me and said, "You're gonna have this baby tonight." She downloaded a contraction app on my phone and we started tracking their frequency. They escalated quickly to about every 3 minutes apart and we decided that if they lasted that long for an hour we would go into the hospital. In the meantime though, we went for a walk.

We didn't make it very far. This is me on our walk. Please ignore the screwdriver, I found it on our walk and you just never pass up a good philips screwdriver. The entire time my friend was texting my mom who, very wisely said, it's time to go in.

We called Matthew and he came and got me. Thankfully my girlfriend was able to take Giz home to the farm to put her to bed and my brother in law was able to stay with her while she slept.

Matthew and I showed up to the hospital around 8 pm. They told us they needed to monitor my contractions for an hour to make sure that I was making progress (to prove that I was indeed in labor). At 9 pm we confirmed that this was real labor, I had dilated to a 4.5.

Here I am, moved from the exam room to the room we would give birth in. At this point they asked me what my pain plan was and I shared that I wanted to get an epidural (I wouldn't get a root canal without pain management, why would I have a baby?)

And then we waited.

We were so lucky to have our family and my girlfriend in the room with us (not that I was paying attention to anyone at that point) but it was nice to know we were surrounded by love. When the anesthesiologist finally arrived everyone but Matthew had to get booted out of the room. As I sat on the edge of the bed one of my contractions felt different. I said, "Wait, my water is breaking." And it did.

Then, not more than 30 seconds later I said, "I need to push."

And I did. But then I realized, NO!! All the people who came here to be part of the birth were in the waiting room. I told my midwife that I wasn't going to have my baby until they were back in the room. She told me that no one in the room was leaving because I was too close to having the baby. I just looked at her and said, "I'm not pushing anymore." And she said, "You need to push." And I said, "No."

And we stared at each other.

Then a nurse volunteered to call the front desk and tell them. This made me happy so I waited. I also asked when my epidural would kick in. I was informed that likely I wouldn't have time. As my family and girlfriend walked into the room I resumed my labor and not more than five minutes later we were holding our son.

Side note: Later my midwife shared with me that I was one of the most stubborn people she had ever met. Ha! She has no idea ;)

After my pitocin induced labor with Giz this birth was such an amazing and delightful gift. And, of course, our son. He is perfect in every way.

His middle name is Banzai, which is how you'll see him at The Farmstead. My father, one of the most amazing men I will ever have the privilege of knowing, was an Air Force Fighter Pilot. He flew F-15 Eagles and, like all fighter pilots, had a call sign. His was Banzai. If our son gets 1/10th of the integrity, loyalty and commitment to excellence that his Grandfather has shown the world he will be set for life.

Because my labor was so easy and I had no complications (also unlike my labor with Giz) we were able to spend less than a day in the hospital before coming home to our farm and our family.

Which is lucky, because while we were gone Matthew's brother watched the farm for us and had to deal with preemie goat triplets on top of watching all the pigs, goats, dogs, cats, chickens, guinea hens, turkeys and oh yeah, our mama peacock and her babies she hatched all on her own without telling anyone :) Needless to say we were anxious to get home.

Most importantly to see our sweet baby girl (who will always be my baby thankyouverymuch.) Gizmo has been the most amazing big sister already. She is fiercely protective of him, tells everyone she is a big sister, and is very concerned when he cries. It's true what they say. Your heart grows exponentially when you have more children.

Our cup runneth over.