On Saturday, May 6th, two days before my due date, Noah and I were deciding whether or not he should preach the next day because, who knows, I could be in labor. Not to mention, I had made sure to move as much furniture as possible on that day to help move things along, but as we sat in our living room that night, it had made no difference. So we decided he should preach the next day and that was that.
Then, of course, beginning at 6 am on Sunday, May 7th, I was having contractions I couldn't sleep through. All I could think was, "Really? You couldn't wait a few hours?" So as we began rushing around trying to make substitute plans, I called my parents and said I was in labor and if they wanted to head down to the cities after church that day, that would be wonderful. Then, I called the midwife on call and to much rejoicing, it was my midwife I'd seen a handful of times, her name is Valor. I told her my contractions were 7 minutes apart and didn't change if I stood or laid down or anything. She said "Great! Let's have a baby! Come in when the contractions are five minutes apart."
I started packing my hospital bag (don't judge, third baby) and about five minutes later my phone rang, it was the hospital. I answered it and Valor sounded just defeated. She proceeded to tell me that Woodwinds Hospital (where I had planned on delivering) was "in divert." Essentially that meant the hospital was understaffed and was sending all Labor & Delivery patients to different hospitals in the same system. I was pretty heartbroken, so I prayed and asked God to slow down my contractions enough to keep labor at bay until they could discharge a few patients. Then, I texted my sisters and asked them to pray for the same thing. And within 30 minutes my contractions were 12-13 minutes apart.
So, I told Noah to go to church and preach and take the boys with him. I stayed home while he preached, keeping his phone on him. I laid down on the couch an watched a movie and when the clock hit 11am and I knew that Noah could be home anytime after that, I decided to get moving. I put on some 90s hip-hop and danced like a fool while cleaning my living room, doing the dishes, sweeping the floors and wiping down countertops and tables. I could feel the contractions start to pick up. Noah brought home lunch and everyone ate and took naps, even myself. When I couldn't sleep anymore through the contractions, I called Valor and found out Woodwinds was open but I should probably get in before they went into divert again.
So, I took a shower while Noah got the boys ready and when everything was packed we headed over to our friends', the Kleinjungs, where we dropped off Soren and Jude to play with their good friends until my parents got there to pick them up. From there we headed to Woodwinds with a necessary pit stop at Starbucks because even in labor; but first, coffee.
It was all good, I was drinking an iced latte and waiting to get checked. When Katie found out that Valor wasn't going to be in anytime soon she checked me around 5 pm. She then admitted she wasn't yet very good at determining how far along laboring moms were and asked if it was OK if she had a more seasoned nurse check me. I said that was fine and the next nurse came in, Katie said she thought I was at a four. The older nurse looked at her and said, "Are you crazy? 8 and 80." Woohoo! I was well on my way. That's when I told them, my plan was to try do this with just the nitrous oxide.
So they got the nitrous set up and we met Katie #2, who introduced herself with a Tommy Boy quote and we knew she was the nurse for us. Over the next hour I attempted to get the rhythm down to make the nitrous effective against the stronger contractions and it just wasn't working. And then the fear started in. I'd had an epidural with Soren and it wasn't awesome. I didn't have any drugs with Jude and I called my sister afterward to have her remind me that it was truly awful. I didn't know what I was going to do.
So I asked Katie (#2) to step out of the room and I looked up at Noah and said "I want the epidural. Sara (a good friend who had just delivered at the same hospital) told me they gave her a really light one that just took the edge off." He, obviously, said absolutely and I told him I needed one more thing, I needed him to step up to the birth shamers who were going to tell me I failed because post-partum me would just cry in a heap without an ounce of strength to stick up for myself. He gave me an amazing smile because asking my husband to fiercely defend the people he loves is like asking a fish to swim, it's just a part of who he is.
So we were set. Nurse Katie kicked butt getting my IV in and pumped a liter of fluid into my body with astonishing rapidity. Then Dr. Wendell came in and was spectacular and talked me through everything, unlike my anesthesiologist with Soren who was apparently annoyed that I had the nerve to be in labor at 3am (I'm looking at you Craig from Great Falls, MT). He gave me an epidural that left me mostly in control of my feet and legs and took the edge off perfectly. I got the epidural at 8:15, they broke my water at 8:30, we called to say goodnight to our boys at 8:45 and at 9 I told my midwife I needed to push.
I was in a state I had never before experienced, I was alert, aware of my body and ready to go. I was completely present so when I started pushing at 9:05, I held Noah's hand and 7 or 8 pushes later, I smiled and I'm pretty sure yelled with glee "he's here!" I gazed up at Noah with total excitement as my midwife placed Aksel on my chest and I was enraptured. I had never felt anything like that before. I wasn't tired, I wasn't shaking in agony, I was simply in the moment with my new son and I was experiencing every second of it. I loved it. It was perfect. It was totally me.
Aksel started nursing right away and was a total champ. I'm sure he cried but all I can remember is just being so excited. He just stayed on my chest and after a while I handed him over to Noah while I got stitched up. Everything was lovely. He was 7lbs. 3 oz, and 19 in making him the smallest of our boys for sure. And wow, was he ever a good snuggler.
I got back into bed and she immediately hooked a bag of pitocin up to my IV and set the pump to whatever the medical term for "really fast" is. When the bag was in, she said to me, "most nurses would do one bag and wait but if you were my sister I'd want them to do two, so I'm going to do two." She was fantastic.
Eventually the bleeding stopped, I got some food in me and we got to the business of attempting sleep. Honestly, the next 36 hours in the hospital were just marked with amazing things, like having my parents bring the boys to meet Aksel, and meeting great people, and also with things I can't even remember. I don't think I could've imagined anything sweeter than when Jude got to hold Aksel for the first time and he launched into "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," a story he had told Aksel nearly 100 times while he was in my belly and now he could tell him in real life. Also, the when my dad got to hold Aksel for the first time, that was really special because my dad and Aksel share a middle name, Luther.
Eventually we were discharged by a nurse whose son is the pitcher for the UMC baseball team and we got to go home to a quiet house because my parents had taken Soren and Jude to Crookston for a few days, which was and absolutely incredible gift.
It's now nearly 8 months later and I know I have forgotten some details but somethings I will never forget and one of them will always be the amazing way God answered prayer after prayer that day and our baby boy came into the world, healthy, happy and full of love.
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