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Escaping from the womb this time, with no less cunning and dexterity, was Ruuben Levi Eelis. This story begins a couple months earlier,  when I awoke from a dream that our baby would be born early. The date in the dream was June 28th. I don’t just believe in every dream that comes along, but I couldn’t  get the date out of my head, as it was the only detail I remembered from the dream. I felt like God was giving me a heads up since He knows I like planning and being ready. And geez June 28th is 4 weeks before our little man’s due date so we needed to get things ready quite a bit ahead of time. I shared this date with Jonathan (and some of our friends, especially the ones who were going to watch James for us so they could check their schedule) and we finished up with all our work projects and baby preparations by Saturday the 26th.

On Sunday I decided that I wanted to get my body back in shape for the hard work ahead of it. We walked into town, something I hadn’t done in weeks, to buy the last few items we needed for the new baby’s arrival. The most exciting purchase we made was a bike seat and helmet for James so he could zip around easily with Jonathan while I was in the hospital.  (James now LOVES bike rides!) After not walking hardly anywhere for 2-3 weeks, I was pretty proud of myself for the 6 hours spent on my feet. We returned home that night feeling tired, but with our mission accomplished. On the walk home, Jonathan felt the Holy Spirit say that the baby would indeed come the following day. We did our best to hold onto this in faith, though we knew in the natural it likely didn’t really matter if the baby came that day or later.

That night we decided we wanted to make our little son feel special and spent time welcoming him into the world and telling him we loved him. We encouraged our son to be brave, to be at peace and happy to come out and meet us. We kept telling him we loved him and that we’d take care of him in the outside world. We have read that birth can be a traumatizing event for babies, so we felt this was important to do. Then we spent time praying over my body and the work it had ahead of it. Finally Jonathan prayed that the right hormones would begin to be released to prepare my body for labour and that I would sleep the night thru without any pains or weird feelings. – I did wake up several times for my usual pee schedule through the night, and found  finding myself thinking “Omigosh, I’m probably having a baby tomorrow!”

Monday morning I woke up not feeling anything particular, but I do remember feeling quite well. No pain or anything, and I remember noticing the little babe wasn’t doing his usually morning stretches inside me but was quiet and still. Jonathan and James left on their first bike ride together to the park. After about 20 minutes I called Jonathan to tell him I was having strange cramps but I didn’t  identify them as contractions. A few minutes later I called him back to say maybe they were contractions because of their regular intervals, and that we should notify our friends Marcus and Jacoba to head over to our house to watch James. Then I told Jonathan I didn’t want to talk to him because I was having one at the moment and hung up the phone. – Well my lovely concerned supportive husband notified our friends and headed straight home because he thought my contractions were so strong that I couldn’t speak when I was having one. The truth was I just didn’t feel like chit chatting to him on the phone.

I set about cleaning the house and doing dishes, not getting very far, pausing every 10 minutes to clutch my stomach, not so much from pain as from the strange feeling. Jonathan returned home and finished packing the last minute items into my hospital bag and tried to keep James occupied. The contractions moved from 10 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart within a half hour span. (At this point I still wasn’t convinced they were contractions because they felt different than last time.) As soon as Marcus arrived we called the taxi because I figured if they were contractions, I’d rather be at the hospital when they start hurting than at home with James competing for my attention. – Love that little boy but there are some times I don’t want him jumping on my belly.

After a pleasant taxi ride (we managed to not scare the driver this time) we arrived at the hospital at 11:30am. Still fearing I was about to be sent home and reprimanded for wasting their time, I climbed up on the examination table. Turns out I was 7cm dilated and they confirmed that I was indeed in labour. Our little boy was coming, he’d listened to us and he was excited to meet us! I shed a few tears of joy and reassured the nurse that they were happy tears and I still wasn’t actually in any pain.

So we went straight into a delivery room (the last one, as apparently all the others were full) and spent the next hour waiting out the contractions  (waiting for the pushing stage) and trying different little things to cope with the newly arrived pain. I didn’t want to take any drugs so we tried massage, cold compress, sitting on an exercise ball and swaying back and forth together like an awkward grade 8 couple at a school dance – yes that was us cracking jokes and pretending to be in grade 8 while I was in labour.

Around 12:30pm my body was ready for the next stage. At first I was quite shy about pushing and did little pushes trying to keep my face from going red and trying not to pee! – Maybe labour is not the time to try to be calm, cool and collected  The midwives encouraged me to just push without caring about anything else. After one or two solid pushes, my water broke in a sudden intense push and rocketed fluids across the room, soaking the end of the bed and the floor. Both midwives let out healthy bursts of laughter, and while my charming husband did his best not to even react, he told me later it was just about the funniest thing he’d ever seen.

3 contractions later (or so) and the intense work began.  With a few more pushes the top half of his head came poking out. That was pretty much the climax pain wise, the next minute or two waiting for the next contraction felt like an eternity! With the next contraction the rest of his head came out, and saw dark brown hair. One more contraction and the rest of Ruuben was born, and after Jonathan cut the cord, he was put into my arms.

The next little bit was a blur as we got acquainted with our little guy. I do remember feeling happy that I didn’t need any stitches though. I chose the names this time and announced them to Jonathan. Ruuben (Finnish spelling, pronounced just like the Hebrew Reuben) Levi (Hebrew name) Eelis (Finnish derivative of Eli). Ruuben was born at 1:09pm, weighing 2.96kg and was 48 cm. He was slightly bigger than James was, although born two weeks earlier – I bet it has to do with all the chocolate I ate this time.

The rest of the afternoon/ evening flew by as we held our son, fed him, rested and called family with the news. As soon as we were ready I sent Jonathan downstairs to buy some celebratory ice creams and chocolate bars. We thanked God for this amazing blessing and I marvelled at how well I felt, with no aches or pains, basically ready for running and jumping and excited to sleep on my stomach! The only annoying part was the after birth contractions which have been very painful but are doing a good job of contracting my uterus, I’m told.

Now I’m writing this relaxing in our hospital room with a beautiful sleeping Ruuben beside me. I’m so happy for a few days to rest and get to know him before returning home to my nemesis: house work. This is like a little holiday.  Now I guess I’ll grab some sleep although, I’ll be up again in a few hours to feed my boy – life with a new born begins again.
To Ruuben,
You did amazing today! Thank you for being brave! We love you so much! We hope to be the best parents for you that we can be – hopefully you think so. We look forward to all the adventures together.
Love, Mommy and Daddy.