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Making some time to get some pictures up and thoughts out before going to bed. It’s been a full few days! So, as Jed posted, we have another son! We decided on Quincy, meaning 5th, because he’s the fifth Culbertson of our family including the little one we lost last May. His middle name, Ivan, “God is gracious” reminds us of the gift that he is.
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I woke up Tuesday morning feeling ready to have a baby. I took notice and sure enough at breakfast was having regularly spaced contractions. By mid-morning I called Jed at work to make sure he could come home by noon to take care of Kaelem while I rested. I also called my mom to say that things were starting and she quickly moved her flight up to Wednesday morning. We decided after lunch he should go ahead and take Kaelem to Greta’s for the evening. I was guessing we’d be heading to the hospital around 5pm and having a baby by 10pm. Dumb thing to do. Needless to say, it was depressing when those times came and went and still no baby!
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I mentioned before that we had read Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way. In that book, labor is described in three emotional stages as 1) Excitement 2) Seriousness 3) Self-Doubt. For the first twelve hours, I was in the excitement phase. I was in bed for eight of those twelve trying to rest through the contractions. Jed was with me for some of that time coaching by reminding me to listen to my breathing, pointing out areas I needed to relax, rubbing my back, and giving me water. I had the stopwatch going on my phone timing each one. We put on a movie to help pass the time, Jed turning the sound down every six minutes or so to help me relax through the contractions. Mentally, I was out on the ocean in an inner tube riding the waves and hoping for another one. Wheee!
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Little by little, the waves got bigger and came more frequently. I’d gotten dumped out of my tube so was left to float and flail out in the middle of the ocean, no site of land. No longer was I saying “whee” but “oh me.”  This is the serious phase, a lot of hard monotonous work. Our goal was to wait until contractions lasted one minute and came every four minutes. We’d time some at six minutes, then five, then seven, then five then the magic number four, only to go back up to eight the next time. I didn’t think Jed would ever let me go to the hospital.
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Finally, by 2ish a.m. he said it was time to go. Then it seemed I waited an eternity for him to round up the last of the things before we actually got in the car. We live five minutes away from our hospital, so I only had to deal with a couple contractions in route. Another couple hours of hard work left to do, now also having to deal with hospital routine questions and protocols. I was 5 to 6 cm dilated when we got there, my water still hadn’t broken and we were progressing, although slowly to me.
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The last hour I was drowning. It was no longer possible to relax. At this point I was looking for Jesus to scoop me out of the sea. Between vomiting  several times, I was telling Jed I couldn’t do it anymore. All of a sudden, I had an incredible undeniable urge to push. I was told “no, only 9 cm, you can’t push.” What?! My life boat is here and you’re keeping me out?! You’ve got to be kidding. It really is impossible to not push. Regardless, about five pushes later a little baby boy was placed in my arms (peeing on me too, btw).
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This was such a better birthing experience than the first one, although, I’m not ready to do it again tomorrow. We prayed a lot about all our worries before going in and just about everything we prayed about was answered, particularly, the hospital staff was very supportive and accommodating, my water did not break, and there were no complications. I’m really glad we waited it out at home. It would have been miserable for twelve hours in a hospital. As it was, we were only there for three before Quincy was born.
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We’ll be adjusting for some time I suppose. Kaelem still has to move to his big boy bed. Quincy still needs to figure out that night is for sleeping. We go back for his one week appointment on Wednesday. He’s been great at eating, so I think he’ll pass with flying colors. Two boys. Now where’s the drugs?

Related posts:

1. Announcing: Quincy Ivan
2. Natural Childbirth- take 2
3. Culbertson 2008 Year in Review
4. My Wife's Having a Baby! Pt. 1
5. Boy/Girl?