Baby Ben

Benjamin Robert Cutlip is here! He was born July 21, weighed 7lbs14oz and was 19 1/2" long. He is absolutely beautiful and we're all so thrilled to finally meet him.

So, here's our story: After having breakfast with Tom at the hospital (he works there, so we eat there every so often), the kids, my mom and I did a few errands and enjoyed some coffee at Starbucks. Before lunch I had a doctor's appoitment and had Dr Perrin strip my membranes (I was a couple days over-due so I was wanting to do non-invasive things to see if we could get things going naturally). The rest of the day passed without any hint of baby wanting to come.

After we put the kids to bed at 8pm that night, Tom and I went on a walk. My belly was tight the entire time, but no contractions. We sat on the couch and chatted with my mom while Tom rubbed my feet and ankles (it's supposed to help induce labor). As we sat there I started to get a couple of contractions - the no pain kind that I was convinced weren't going to lead to anything and that baby wasn't going to come out anytime soon. But, around 9pm they started to come a little more regularly so we decided to play a game or two of Rummikub to see what the night would bring.

By the end of one game (around 9:35pm) the contractions were still not really painful but I definitely had to breathe through them...you know, "hee, hee, heeee". I thought we should play one more game. Tom, on the other hand, decided we should pack the car and head to the hospital (which is 20 mins away). I'm so glad he's in charge! By the time we left for the hospital around 9:45, my contractions were definitely intensifying and getting more and more painful.

The Lord was so good to us...on the way to the hospital we got all green lights and did not encounter one police officer (we were speeding if you can imagine that). We got to the hospital and were admitted at 10:10pm. I was dilated to 7cm when we got there and was fully dilated when they checked me next around 10:35pm. I remember one of the nurses saying, "Get Dr. Perrin here now" and then another one saying, "Don't worry, nurses have delivered babies before". What! I thought, yeh, I'll go fast, but this was fast (cool!). The next couple minutes were a blur...something about "breathe deeply", "here's the head", one big push and I met our beautiful baby boy at 10:44pm. What an incredible experience!! Everything went better than I could have dreamed.

I'm still just in awe of God's goodness and, well, mercy in regards to Ben's birth. I know that the pain of childbirth was the result of sin...but there's something so incredibly amazing about the whole labor and birth experience, the oh so sweet reward of the pain, that just makes the pain almost inconsequential. Granted I was only in labor for only 1 1/2 hrs and only about 40mins of that was really painful, but...I don't know how to explain it. I'm still just in awe of the birth story that God gave us and I will treasure it for always.

Comments

Unknown said…
I like your story...very similar to my story of our 3rd child being born. God's goodness is amazing through that whole short period of time!! I definately agree!! Congrats on little Ben and our daughter was born on August 11th! We have a blogspot too that Justin keeps up www.hendershottfamily.blogspot.com if you want to check it out!!
Blessings,
Hillary Hendershott

Popular Posts

The Cutlip Family