Karissa's Birth Story

I know there are many of you who have been eager to hear about Karissa’s birth story. Well, I am only three weeks late, but I am finally getting back to my blogging.

Karissa was originally due on August 1st, 2009. Well, apparently she had other plans. On July 14th, I was awakened at around 4:00 AM by contractions. I didn’t think too much of them since they were about 10 minutes apart and not very strong. Most of the morning continued with no real changes and by about 10:30 that morning the contractions had stopped. Of course I hadn’t got to washing all the baby clothes yet, I thought I still had two and a half weeks to get that done. That was my first task to get done that day just in case. By 3:00 PM the contractions had started back up but they were still 10 minutes apart. By that time I really got into the “nesting” mode and cleaned almost everything. It was a good thing too!

The rest of the evening continued with no changes. I kept my midwife, Chris informed throughout the day and by 9:30 PM I decided to try and get some sleep. Well, that didn’t happen. I honestly don’t see how anyone can sleep through contractions. Anyway, by 11:00 PM the contractions were getting somewhat stronger and by 11:30 they suddenly accelerated to 2 minutes apart and were very intense! At that point I had Ben call Chris to let her know of the change. She immediately called her partner, Melissa, who lives in Sandy, and asked her to head over to our house. (Chris lives in North Ogden and was on call with another laboring mother not too far from her). I did my best to try to see if I could slow things down a bit, but honestly when you feel the urge to push there is no stopping it! I was moving between the bathroom and bedroom when at 11:56 PM a major contraction hit and my water broke, right on the bedroom floor. Not the most ideal place in the world, but when you’re in labor you don’t care too much. I couldn’t make onto the bed. I reached down shortly there after and felt the baby’s head and at that moment I have to say I was a little worried since Melissa hadn’t arrived yet. Ben was on the phone to Chris reporting all that was happening. He was by my side when he was instructed to tell me to push, and with little effort at all Karissa was born with Ben catching her. It was exactly two minutes from the time my water broke to having her in Ben’s arms. He handed her to me; grabbed some clean towels and we wrapped her up. Ben’s latest nicknames have been “catcher” Ben or “doctor” Ben, but through all that happened he stayed totally calm and collected. What a guy! Not too many dads have bragging rights to delivering their own baby. She was absolutely perfect! The whole experience was amazing! I had no idea that I would have such a quick laboring period, but you won’t here me complaining! Exactly four minutes after Karissa’s birth is when Melissa arrived. She took over everything from there and did a great job! I even got to cut the cord since Ben delivered Karissa.

Once the baby and I got situated we wanted Tyson to be the first to meet his new sister. Ben brought him in but he was pretty groggy and was more interested in going back to sleep. Needless to say their official, coherent introduction waited until later that morning. He was pretty surprised to see the baby. He turned to me pointing at Karissa and said; “baby” then patted my tummy and said, “another baby”. Kids can be brutally honest, but then again he was just calling it like he saw it.

With all the commotion here in the basement, Ben’s parents and his sister and brother-in-law, who were all upstairs, didn’t have a clue as to what just took place. When Ben woke up his mom at 1:00 AM to give her the news she thought he was joking. Ben does like to joke around at times but doesn’t usually make a habit of it in the middle of the night, thank goodness!

By the time Karissa and I were taken care of and tucked into bed it was about 3:00AM when Melissa left. I didn’t sleep much the rest of the night due to the excitement to have our little girl here, not to mention the recovering process but what a night it had been! I honestly didn’t think I was going to have her that night…boy was I wrong!

Looking back I honestly couldn’t have asked for more amazing and spiritual experiences than those of the births of my children! I know there are those out there who may think that I am crazy, but there was never any doubt in my mind that having my children at home was the best decision I could have made for me and my kids!