It’s now been two weeks since Benjamin was born. We are so grateful to have him in our family and that he arrived safe and sound, even though we were worried for a bit about him. He was born at 10:48 pm on Friday, December 16th. He weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Here are some pictures of Benjamin:

Benjamin after getting all cleaned up. He had way more vernix than any other of my kids.




Alisa and Hyrum loved playing on the chair that turns into a bed.

They also loved the curtain by the door.

While Alisa didn’t want to hold Benjamin, Hyrum couldn’t get enough of it. Although whenever he held him, he got this serious look on his face.

My mom got to come just after Benjamin was born! This is the first time I got her so soon and for so long to help me out afterwards. What a blessing!!!



I caught him mid-sneeze. It made me laugh.

This is my favorite picture of Benjamin. I love the dark contrast of his eyes.

Here he is in his going-home outfit. He won’t wear the hat again. It is already too small.

Ready for the ride home.
And now to document Benjamin’s birth story. After I wrote it, I decided I had made it way too detailed. So I also included a much abridged timeline.
Abridged version
- 3:00-4:00 pm. Non-stress test indicated that my placenta was failing and we decided to break my water at the birth center. Contractions started about 7-8 minutes apart.
- 6:00 pm. Midwives broke my water and monitored Benjamin’s heart rate
- 8:30 pm. Midwives decided that it would be better for the baby if we were transferred to a hospital.
- 9:00 pm. We were admitted to UVRMC. (Contractions were stronger and closer together)
- 10:00 pm. Dr. B* had an internal monitor placed and wanted me to be given Pitocin to make the contractions stronger. I told him I would wait (I felt like my body could do it all on it’s own).
- 10:48 pm. Benjamin was born!
And here is the very detailed version:
I was fairly certain that Benjamin would be born after his due date of November 28th. I told most people that my due date was sometime in the first week of December; however, I never thought I would go so far over my due date. Because I anticipated a “late” baby, I choose to go with a group of Midwives called Better Birth. They would let me go 3 weeks over, which I felt like was plenty of time. I had to plead with my previous OB’s to let me go even 1 week over. I loved my prenatal care that I got with my midwives. I never had any wait time in a crowded waiting area. Because I chose to go with the student option, I also always had at least 2 people involved in my prenatal care: a student and a midwife. I chose to give birth at their birthing suite and even though the midwives weren’t covered by our insurance–their price for prenatal care and a birth package was extremely reasonable. I felt comfortable with the midwives’ care and knew that I could trust them to do the best for our baby.
At my 42 week midwife appointment (Tuesday), we discussed our natural induction options. I wanted to do whatever we could to avoid a Pitocin and hospital birth. In addition, Benjamin was still posterior and the midwives wanted to give him time to turn to the anterior position before hard labor began. So we first tried stripping my membranes. It brought on a little bit of cramping, but nothing to get excited about. I was basically dilated to 1 cm and only 40% effaced. When nothing changed in the next 2 days, we did a sweep and stretch (which means a repeat of stripping membranes and stretching the opening of the cervix as far as they could). We also placed a Foley catheter inside my cervix. It’s like a little balloon the midwives fill with water that acts like a little baby head and puts pressure on the cervix. You can read about it here. The uterus is supposed to cramp it out, thus opening the cervix even wider and hopefully creating strong contractions. It was placed around 3 pm and did create some rather strong cramping. It even started some contractions. I was getting excited … until it fell out about 11:00 pm that night and all contractions and cramping stopped.
When I woke up the next morning (Friday), I was willing to do almost anything to have a baby (except go to the hospital and get hooked up to Pitocin). Cynthia G*, (my sister-in-law) was a big advocate of Black and Blue Cohosh, so Joe stopped by the natural food store and bought me some. It tastes horrible! I’m sure it was better than drinking Castor Oil (which I thankfully never did) because there are no side effects, but it sure did taste nasty. It was supposed to bring on contractions for a few hours, but nothing happened. So I went in to see the midwives again that afternoon. The good news is that the Foley catheter had helped my cervix open up to 4 cm. I was still only about 40% effaced and wasn’t really experiencing contractions. The midwives did another sweep and stretch which caused a lot of cramping and started some more contractions. They also were able to stretch me to 7 cm. They told me that it was a “fake” 7 cm and that when my body went in to labor it would take some time to realize that I was open to a 7. But they did advise me not to wait too long to come in, or I might not get to the birth center on time. They also mentioned that there was really only one other method to try-breaking my water. So we decided to break my water on Sunday morning if nothing else happened before then, and if all went well on my NST (non stress test),
My NST didn’t go well. I was hooked up to the monitors for about an hour and the midwives became concerned about my placenta deteriorating. During contractions (which were about every 7 minutes or so) Benjamin’s heart rate would stay the same. It was good that his heart rate didn’t drop, but it also didn’t accelerate either. They tried giving me juice and jiggling my belly, which resulting in Benjamin moving around a lot, but his heart rate continued without any increase. So after much deliberation, they gave me two choices. They could either break my water, monitor baby for a while (and possibly turn me over to the hospital if we still didn’t get accelerations) or else just turn me over the the hospital and do a Pitocin induction. I chose to have them break my water. They gave me 2 hours to go home, feed kids, and make the necessary preparations to come back and have a baby.
I was really nervous to let the midwives break my water. I knew that there was a possibility that something could go wrong and I would end up being taken by ambulance to the hospital. It was scary not knowing what would happen. But I really felt that the midwives were capable of handling an emergency and there was still a large possibility that everything would be fine. We were so grateful for Sherie E* who came over and watched our kids for us for the entire evening and put them to bed.
We got back to the birth center at 6:00 pm and they broke my water at 6:08. I then sat in a comfy chair by an electric fireplace while we monitored Benjamin’s heart rate. I think I was monitored for almost 2 hours. We still didn’t see any decelerations, and there were 3 accelerations, but that wasn’t enough. The midwives had even tried hooking me up to an IV and filling me with fluids to see if it would help. Nothing seemed to produce the results they needed to feel good about continuing with an out-of-hospital birth. So we made the decision to go to the hospital. I was grateful that they didn’t think the situation was an emergency, so Joe could just drive me over in our own van. I had pretty steady contractions after getting my water broken. They were about every 5 minutes, and I could tell they were becoming stronger-especially when I was standing.
We got to the hospital about 9:00 pm. I told Joe on the way over that I was really sad about ending up in the hospital. Not only would our bill be a lot higher than we were planning on paying, but I was worried about our baby. I was also worried about having to have a C-section. I told him that I really wanted to continue to give birth naturally if I could, but that I might not be emotionally prepared enough to continue without intervention. Joe dropped me off at the front desk of UVRMC, parked, and then pushed me in a wheel chair up to Labor and Delivery. I probably didn’t need a wheel chair, but I was really grateful for the wheelchair during contractions. I tried to keep a positive attitude and even joked about the student midwife, Dina, needing a drivers license for the wheel chair as we almost bumped into things a few times. The midwives had already called ahead to let them know I was coming and was in labor, so the L&D nurse at the front desk just led us to my room and then had Joe fill out the paper work from there. I was so glad that the midwives were able to answer all the normal questions and I could just focus on the contractions. They seemed to me to be stronger and more frequent, but I wasn’t really timing them. It was really frustrating when the nurse had to get some blood drawn and ended up needed to poke me in 3 places during 3 different contractions. I had a hard time stopping tears from coming.
The Dr. on call-Dr. B*-came in to ask some questions and access the situation. He didn’t understand that I had been a “fake” 7 cm and got worried that I had been at 7 cm for 4 hours without progress. He also wanted an exact readout of Benjamin’s heart rate, so an internal monitor was placed on Benjamin’s head. The internal monitor also let Dr. B* see just how strong each contraction was. After a contraction that I felt was the strongest one so far, he said something like “That one wasn’t very strong. I think she needs some Pit.” Fortunately, he was satisfied with the heart rate readout and didn’t think a C-Section was necessary. He didn’t feel there was currently any danger for Benjamin, but he continued to suggest that I should have some Pitocin. I was feeling like my contractions were progressing just fine, and wanted to give them an opportunity to get stronger on their own, so I tried to politely decline. Although I didn’t say it, I really just wanted him to leave so I could labor in peace. He also kept suggesting pain killers for me. I was glad when he finally left. I was determined that I would not let the nurse check me until I felt the urge to push-I didn’t want Dr. B* to tell me again that I needed Pit. The nurse also finally left to watch my monitors from the nursing station.I think it was about 10:10 pm at this point.
With just Joe and the midwives, I felt much more in control of the situation. I knew that if I wanted to avoid Pit, I needed to get the contractions to be stronger. And to do that I needed to be off my hospital bed. I asked the midwives to find me a birth ball, which they did. The contractions were stronger while I was on the ball. It was a relief to have Joe and both midwives taking care of me, getting me ice chips, giving me massages, finding me pillows to better relax as I leaned forward onto the bed, etc. Finally, I thought I felt the urge to push, but it wasn’t the “I need to push now” push, so I wondered if I had imagined it. I knew I needed to push on the next one, so we called in the nurse and the Dr. I was indeed complete, but we needed to wait for Dr. B* to come. Joe asked if I wanted to wait for a little over an hour so that Benjamin could share a birthday with his Uncle Scott. I replied with a very emphatic “No!”
Dr. B* came quickly, even though I felt like it wasn’t quick enough. We got ready to push right away. Benjamin was born on the first contraction at 10:48 pm. His head came out on my first push and his shoulders came out with the next. Mind you they were very hard pushes. I am certain that I would have gone slower without Dr. B* and nurses telling me to hold my breath and push with all my might, but maybe I needed that coaching, because I knew what was coming. I was so grateful that Benjamin was healthy and that we could stop worrying about when he would come. He was finally here.