"A Graham Story"

On October 8 at 4:21 am, little Graham Benjamin entered our world weighing in at 7 pounds even and was 19 1/4 in. long. He is awesome! We know that our lives will never be the same, and we wouldn't want to go back. God knows what is best...He gives us 9 months to prepare to be parents (as prepared as us sinners can be)...but then we have this little human that we love more than words can express!

This is us at Forest Park the Sunday before he was born.

I just love that little mouth!

 

How can I love someone sooo much!

All buckled in and ready to go home.

This is the story of Graham...it might *seem* graphic, so read on at your own risk. But many people have been praying for us and knew the work and prayers that we put into preparing for Graham's arrival. The thing is, no matter how much preparation we put into things, only God knows how things are going to come about, and He had an interesting plan for us in Graham's delivery.

Matt and I had been preparing to labor at home for most of the early labor and had hired a doula to help us (a doula is a labor coach) both at our house and then at the hospital.  We found a doctor that was very supportive of our "natural delivery" plan and while she did want us to call her when labor began, she didn't want me to come to the hospital before I was ready (she knew we were planning to wait until around 7 cm).  Soooooo, we think labor began Sunday morning.  Matt and I were able to have a wonderful weekend together with a visit to the zoo on Saturday and a trip to the art museum and Forest Park on Sunday afternoon.  I was having contractions, very mild, and not regularly....this went on all day, and all day Monday as well.  We already had our weekly doctor appointment on Tuesday morning and when we got there, she confirmed that I was probably in very early labor and that I was a little more than 2 cm.  She sent me on my way to try and speed things up and said she hoped to hear from me later that day or evening.  I went to the mall with my mom and Matt's mom to do some shopping and walking - all the while still having mild contractions.  This whole "mild contractions" thing was getting really old as the evening went on....we talked to our doula at around 10 and she said that she hoped things picked up and maybe we'd have a baby the next day, little did we know!  My contractions were maybe 10 minutes apart, and still very mild.  I had no trouble going about our regularly planned evening of TV watching, haha.  Then we went to bed at our regular time, 11:30, and set the alarm for Matt to get up and go to work unless we ABSOLUTELY knew I was in labor at that time so that he didn't miss another day of work.  Ha.

I woke up at 1 am with the real-deal contractions.  They were still around 6-7 minutes apart, but I was needing to really breathe through them, so I knew it was real stuff.  We called the doula and let her know what was going on and she said to time them and call her back in like 20 minutes.  We did, called her, and she arrived around 2:30.  As soon as she said she was on her way, we kicked it into high gear....it was truly a hilarious team effort.  Matt made some coffee while I finished packing our hospital gear and getting things organized.  We were each going about our business, then when I felt a contraction coming, I would yell and we'd meet and he'd help me breathe through it...then when it passed, we'd go back to what we were doing.  When the doula arrived, she watched us go through a few contractions, timed them, asked me how I was feeling emotionally etc....then said that it was time to go!  We called our doctor to let her know what was going on.  The contractions went from 6-7 mins apart at 1 am to about 3 minutes apart at 2:30ish, so things were moving way more quickly than anyone had thought.  While Matt was packing the car, she asked me to lay on the couch so she could help me through the contractions and feel the baby.  Something happened though and I totally lost control.  I began to get disoriented and wasn't able to respond to her coaching me...then I started pushing.  There is a part in the labor process when pushing becomes an uncontrollable urge...by aiming to get to the hospital at 7 cm, we were hoping to be to the hospital in PLENTY of time before getting to that point!  When this happened....she told Matt to call an ambulance, because we couldn't make it to our hospital in our car (20 minute drive).  The ambulance arrived a little after 3.  Gosh, what a circus they created!  Not only an ambulance, but a fire truck came - and all of these guys tromped into our house and as my water was breaking (around 3:15ish), they were just staring.  Apparently, none of them could examine me to see how far along in labor I was, they were just there to "verify" that I was in fact, in labor.  Obviously.  So they verified that I was in labor (not really rocket science since I was moaning/pushing on the couch, and then the water breaking...).  Then came the fun news: they couldn't  take me to my hospital.  This was terrible because my doctor can ONLY deliver at that one hospital, and it was out of their range.  They had to take me to the one 10 minutes away.  So....I was really worried about not having our doctor who was supportive of our birth plan...we were going to get a doctor we didn't know and who may/may not respect our wishes!  But it was either, go to this hospital, or have him at home...so we left.  Matt had already loaded the car, so he threw everything into the ambulance, and the doula was right behind us.  The whole evening had gone so quickly, that we had not even had a chance to call our families to let them know that labor was upon us!  From the ambulance, Matt had to call and say not only that Graham was coming, but that we'd had a "change of plans" and that we were in an ambulance on our way to this closer hospital.  I know that the parents must have been sooo worried after that phone call!

I continued to have heavy contractions, trying not to push all the way there.  Matt was great.  He seemed so calm, holding my hand and trying to keep me from pushing and helping me breathe.  He says now that he's NEVER been more scared in his life...but I thought he was wonderful.  They had to take me in through the ER entrance to, again, "verify" that I was in labor....they took me into a room and examined me....then LITERALLY ran through the halls to get me up to the labor and delivery floor.  I have no memory of this except looking for Matt in between contractions...but looking back on it, it's like a movie.  We were running through the halls....entered the elevator to go up slowly with the elevator music....then more running into the room.  They got me on to the table....then let us know that I was a full 10 cm dialated plus 2.  It was around 4 am at this point.  This meant that Graham had already began descending into the birth canal!  Even though we were not able to be with our doctor who knew our wishes, the doctor and nurses that we got were great.  They were very respectful of our plan and didn't question anything (though Matt said we did get some raised eyebrows).  Our doula and Matt were on each side and Matt was again, a wonderful husband.  He was able to watch the whole thing and I was so glad to be able to hold his hand.  I pushed 6 or 7 times and little Graham was born at 4:21.  It was such a surreal moment....he was all slimy and blue...but simply beautiful!  They put him on my chest and we were able to talk to him and rub him while he adjusted to this whole "breathing" thing.  Several minutes later, Matt was able to cut his umbilical cord, such a "proud daddy" moment!  Little Graham was a champ, he was able to nurse immediately for about 30 minutes before all of the family arrived.  They got there around 5 I guess....they were all so sweet!  Graham was all bundled and weighed so they were all able to hold him.

We were moved up to the recovery room on a different floor around 7 I think.  Time sort of became irrelavent with holding my little baby the only thing that mattered.  We asked the nurses to leave Graham with us until his turn for a bath so that he didn't have to spend any more time apart from us than necessary.  He just slept and kept warm on me while Matt and I *sort of* rested.  There are so many stinking things to sign and agree to when checking into a hospital!  But by having no medication or IV's, I felt fairly well, just a little tired, haha.  Our nurses were perfect, they left us alone unless we called them (they responded quickly) and were so helpful with our "amateur" questions.  It's amazing though how many other UNnecessary people thought it would be great to bother us pretty much hourly.  

We had so many wonderful visitors, it is so much fun to be able to show little Graham off.  God is so good to us.  Matt and I have been absolutely overwhelmed with how much we already love him!  We pray that God gives us His grace as we explore our new roles.  We find ourselves just staring at him and watching him sleep...watching him eat....watching him cry....good thing Matt gets 2 weeks off of work!

So even though we had made all of these plans, and so many things changed in the midst of things, we have a beautiful healthy baby boy, and we could not be more thankful.  We feel blessed to have had him naturally given the circumstances and are so thankful for the supportive staff that were assigned to us.  Thank you all for your prayers, we definitely felt them!

Click here for an album that Matt created with more pictures!