So for any of you who don't know we finally had our newest son and it ended up being quite an adventure. We were attempting a water birth at home and to top it off it was going to be a VBAC (google it). It was risky, but Jen and I had done extensive praying and fasting to know this was the right decision for us. So on the Tuesday night before he was born Jen's water broke. We were very worried about this because the last two times it happened meant Jen had a C-section, but we proceeded with faith. I (Chris) had a song constantly going through my head once I had administered to Jen:
Be Still My Soul
The Lord is on Thy Side
With Patience bear thy cross of grief and pain
Leave to your God to Order and Provide
In ev'ry change he faithful will remain
Be still my soul: Thy best, thy Heavnly friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end
This was kind of unusual because I didn't really know the words to the song because I had only sung it a few times, but I recognized the tune and the first few words, but it just kept replaying in my mind. I also had a vision from the church video Zion's camp where the members of Zion's Camp just heard that the Missouri mob was going to cross the river soon and slaughter the whole group. All of people in Zion's Camp were ready to fight, but then the prophet turns around and sees clouds suddenly gathering on the horizon and he declares something like, "Be still and see the hand of the Lord." For those of you who know a huge storm suddenly appears causing the river to flood and protecting the members of Zion's Camp from the oncoming mob. So I had this last part going through my head which made me feel two things: be patient (they only saw the storm at the last moment) and we would "see the hand of the Lord" in all of this.
So after the blessing we contacted the midwife to inform her what might be happening. When Cathy arrived she told us she had suddenly woke up that night (about 1 am) thinking about Jen and had been praying about her when we called her. She had also been reading in the scriptures and shared with us the impression she had about the birth. To summarize she felt like this birth would be different than our experiences before. It was neat to share spiritual experiences with someone of a different religion and we could feel the Spirit when she told us her impression.
Jen was having mild contractions, but they were not regular or strong yet. We continued to try and encourage them and be prayerful about what we were doing. It was a good time for Jen and I to feel close and also feel the Spirit strongly. I shared my impressions and Jen had the same feelings that I did. The midwife came over twice but the contractions were not going anywhere and we were starting to cross into the window where infection was a possibility (we had to be especially careful because it was a VBAC).
Our midwife Cathy and her assistant Connie were so patient with us through the whole thing (if someone needs a midwife in the area just let us know - we would definitely recommend her) and it just emphasized we had picked the right midwife and we were doing the right thing. She tried many things like acupressure, herbs, and other techniques to try and encourage labor to really get going. We finally decided that we needed to go to LBJ hospital for some Petocin (for those of you that don't know they can use Petocin to induce labor and Jen felt she just needed a little something to help - LBJ was the only hospital in the area that would attempt induction on a VBAC in the region). Cathy and Connie inspected Jen one last time to make sure more hadn't happened than we thought. After being checked the contractions suddenly picked up on the way but not enough to be concerned about (no increase in intensity) and we got in the van to head to the hospital. We had tried everything we could to do things when on the way to hospital Jen's contractions suddenly started regularly and building in intensity (see the Zion's Camp feeling above). We called the midwife because we were only midway and we preferred the home birth and we all decided to head back home. We got home and did some walking and as we did the contractions continued and picked up some more. Once they seemed to get frequent and strong enough we called back the midwife.
Jen labored for several more hours but Jen's contractions had one last problem: they weren't getting long enough even though they were very intense. She had only dilated half way and she was still thick but she had an strong urge to push. Because of the everything internally she couldn't push because her body wasn't ready to have the baby. Cathy checked her several times and began to get concerned that there was something wrong. We decided to head back to LBJ and our great midwifes drove us all the way there and talked to the doctor to let her know what was going on. Jen was admitted and the head doctor approved trying the Petocin (she had dilated to 7 on the trip to the hospital). It worked and soon afterward Jen was able to deliver Charlie into this world.
Charlie had a small grunt (a small breathing abnormality where they take a shark intake of breath that sounds like a grunt) but was completely healthy besides that. Everything appeared to be great with Jen (she had only torn some) and I began to let everyone know. That is where the last part of our adventure began. We had already had a very spiritual experience up to this point and it seemed like we had been able to accomplish our dream, but for me it was on this last part that we truly saw the "hand of the Lord." I won't reveal exactly what happened but Jen more than likely would have died if we were not at the hospital. Once Jen feels better she will fill in people on exactly what happened.
Thankfully Jen and Charlie have returned home and are now on the mend. The recovery will be long (at least for Jen), but we have been constantly supported through this by our family, friends, neighbors, and fellow church members. I cannot say enough about the people who have helped us. They are truly great!
I wanted to share some of the things I learned/reaffirmed through this experience:
1) Trust the feelings you have from the Spirit - they will never lead you astray. If you have a strong feeling about something just trust because you will see it fulfilled
2) The Lord fulfills all his promises but not always the way you expected, but they are always the path that will lead you to grow the most ("Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end")
3) The Power of Priesthood is a wondrous thing! I am so glad that we have it in our house.
4) PRAYER IS AWESOME! Through the latter part of our experience I can honestly say I felt like it was the prayers of other people that upheld me when I thought I could not go on.
5) Ask for help - the Lord provides people to help you when you need it. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it (Jen and I don't like to ask for help).
6) Hymns have an awesome calming power in even the most difficult of situations. The hymn above had a great calming effect for us during the labor
7) Fasting works!
8) It is by suffering that we can sometimes grow closer to the Lord than at any other time in our life. When we learn to depend entirely on the Lord we find his reassuring arm there to uphold and strengthen us (second time in the last few years that I have had this feeling)
9) We can't do it alone - we honestly and completely need our Heavenly Father
10) The Relief Society is a great thing, especially when the Relief Society is not just made up of other church members but also great friends.
11) Kids are amazing sensitive to the Spirit
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