Ira Benson

My due date of August 28th came and went. I was a little bummed, but tried to stay positive. It actually provided opportunities to get lots of little things done that wouldn't have otherwise. On Tuesday, the 30th, I had what I was hoping, would be my last OBGYN appointment. I had the midwife strip the membranes in hopes of getting things going. All Tuesday I anticipated going into labor. Again...nothing.

Wednesday morning I woke up...in a puddle. I hastily got showered and ready before the kids woke up, then sat in the recliner and watched my girls sleep (who had once again snuck into our room at some point) and read my patriarchal blessing, hoping to let some peace set in before knowing it was about to get crazy. I prayed and cried a little. Some tears from tender thoughts, and some from anxiety.


The kids woke up and as we got breakfast going I called Richie and the midwife. Richie came home from work in time to eat some breakfast with us. The midwife told me it was fine to stay at home and try and get the contractions going on my own, and not to worry about heading to the hospital immediately. It was wonderful to have time to prep the kids, get their bags packed for staying at Grandma and Grandpas, to get the dishes done and house all tidied, etc. A little while later, (still no contractions) we took the kids to the Garner's home, then Richie and I headed to Wal-Mart of course. ;) We walked the perimeter of the store, while picking up a few canning supplies, hoping to get some contractions started. No luck on that front. However, my water kept breaking and we had to exit the store sooner than later to avoid anything terribly embarrassing. Ha!

We got home and started canning all the beautiful peaches from our tree this year. (We ended up getting 14 quarts just from our tree!) All the while, I was up and down stairs, walking in place, doing low squats...anything that I thought would get the contractions coming. I had one or two, but nothing other than that. Around 3ish I was getting frustrated. I called the Midwives to see if I should think about going in to the hospital yet. She seemed surprised that I wasn't already there! "Your water has been broken now for more than 8 hours, of course you need to head in!" Alrighty then! So we packed our bags and took off. It always cracks me up when they show the scene in movies or TV where the woman goes into labor and it's this crazy urgent, insanely quick moment. It always seems so unrealistic. At least, it's never happened to me that way! We calmly made our way to the 3rd floor, checked in, etc. Nice and easy. They started me on the pitocin and I was ready to get things moving. We were really impatient at this point. However...it still went so slowly. My contractions came, but were small and far between. On the positive side, it gave us a chance to check out VidAngel and watch some edited movies. :)

Once the contractions started becoming more painful, I was up and about, trying to walk it off and breathe through them. After an hour or so of fairly intense contractions, I told my nurse that within the next hour or so, I'd like the epidural. Well, the anesthesiologist came in about 5 minutes later, and boy am I glad he did. The contractions got super intense, really quickly, and I started having those thoughts like, "How do women do this naturally??" and "I forgot how badly this hurts!" Then the epidural kicked in and all was right in the world. I usually have a hard time progressing without the drugs, but once I get that medication, my body relaxes and I progress fairly quickly.

Sure enough, less than an hour later, I had gone from a 5 to a 10 and needing to push. My sweet midwife, who had been out of town till that evening, came just to deliver my baby, instead of letting the on call midwife do it. I was glad about that. She has really been awesome to work with. Well, 3 pushes later and we welcomed Ira Benson Garner into the world. That moment it always so...sacred. For that moment, it's just Richie, myself, and this new baby. No other kids to worry about, no one else to share each other with, just us and this brand new person. They put him on my chest and I cried such happy tears. The official stats: Born September 1st, 2016 at 1:04 am. 9 lbs, 13 oz, 21 inches long, big head :).





They were slightly worried that since my water had been broken for so long before delivery that he could have an infection. They also were slightly worried about his blood sugar levels (as is common with all really small babies and really big babies). So they had to put an IV in him to check things out periodically. I was slightly anemic. Other than that, it was smooth sailing.


The kids slept over at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and the next day Richie brought them over to check out their new baby brother. We had been calling them throughout the day to give them updates, and they were so anxious for baby Benson to finally get here. They were overjoyed to finally come see him and hold him and bring him all the pictures they had colored for him. I guess I won't count my chickens before they hatch, but so far they've all adjusted incredibly well to having a new baby in the house. Even Lindy seems excited and not at all jealous. She is so soft with him. Major improvements from 6 months ago, when she had encounters with other babies! haha! (Crossing my fingers it keeps up!) They got to watch him have a bath, and eat some hospital snacks, and ride my bed up and down. They had a good time. :)



I love delivering in a hospital because I know if anything were to go wrong, all the available resources to help remedy the situation would be right there. However, we are becoming more and more disenchanted with everything else about the hospital stay. Any sleep you even conceive of having is always interrupted by well-meaning staff members. And you are practically held hostage until about a million people have checked off on you and baby. No need to go into detail, but suffice it to say, we were chomping at the bit to get home!!!
We are now home and working on transitioning to 4 kids. (Crazy!) So far, so good. We are beyond grateful that everything has gone so smoothly and that Benson is finally here with us. He is perfect in every way. He has a fair amount of sandy blonde hair, the longest toes, and the cutest little ears I've ever seen in my life. So far, he is my least spitty baby, and most smilely! He's only spit up maybe once or twice, but he smiles on a daily basis. Can't tell who he looks most like yet. To me, he just looks like his own littler person. We love him!