It was Monday morning, October 8th 2007. I was 41 weeks & 5 days pregnant – the same amount of days when our firstborn , Roen James, was born. In my mind this was the last possible day for me to birth this baby. I had known this date for a long time and had told people – “Anything’s possible, but I’d assume I’d have the baby by October 8th.” So, as I went to sleep the night before I knew that I fully intended to give birth that following day.

I awoke at 7:00AM to see Josh standing next to the bed with his eyes closed. I knew he was praying over me. As he did I had a contraction. He then opened his eyes to see that I was awake. We put our hands on my belly and prayed over the baby, asking the Lord that the baby be born today.

Josh left for work about 7:15AM and I got Roen ready to go downstairs for breakfast. I continued to have steady contractions for the next hour – coming every 5-8 minutes. Roen and I ate cereal, a banana and peanut butter & strawberry jam toast. By 8:15AM I called Josh at work fully believing that I was in labor. But having waited so long to go into labor it was almost hard to believe that it was happening just as I had prayed for – to go into labor in the early morning after a good night’s rest. At first he wasn’t sure if he should head home then or not. He called me back minutes later to tell me he was heading out and arrived at home around 8:40AM. We decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood. It’s a walk that Roen and I have taken so many mornings during the week. Josh, however, felt funny taking a walk around the neighborhood on a Monday morning instead of being at work. During our 2-mile walk I kept having contractions but they were still very manageable at this point. I could walk and talk through them easily.

When we got back to the house a little after 10:00AM I realized that I had a chiropractic appointment scheduled for that day at 10:30AM. While my back felt fine, my neck had been slipping out of alignment for the past several weeks. And since my contractions were still manageable at this point I thought having an adjustment would be a wonderful idea seeing as how I was about to give birth. So we got in the car and traveled to our appointment.

I was adjusted around 10:45AM. I had several contractions at the office. We then left to go get a veggie burger from Berrybrook Farms for lunch. (I ate a veggie burger during early labor with Roen as well – seems like a tasty, protein-filled good idea at the time). Back at home we ate lunch and juiced apples, carrots & spinach.

The contractions were all so manageable still. Definitely regular and therefore I definitely felt that I was going to have a baby some time soon. (Soon can mean anything of course. When you’ve been waiting 10 months for something a few days is soon.) At 12:15PM I called my midwife to let her know I was in labor. We also wanted to call some people for prayer to be happening for us but we weren’t sure when to do that. We decided to start that phone tree after lunch. I called my Mom to tell her that we’d need her that afternoon after Roen wakes up from her nap. Roen went down for her nap around 1:45PM.

At this point the contractions needed a little more concentration. Several days past, while on a walk at Freedom Park, I noticed this huge beautiful tree. After spending some time touching it and gazing up the trunk of the tree into the gleaming sunlight, I decided I would envision this tree when a contraction came. At this point I would think about it’s strength and it’s place in nature during a contraction. It really helped me.

During Roen’s nap Josh and I were just sitting downstairs. It seemed as though we were just looking at each other. I enjoyed contractions on an exercise ball at this point – rocking my pelvis back and forth when they came. At 3:26PM we got the call that our Happy Cow order was in (a cooler full of eggs & cheese awaiting us in the Warehouse parking lot). I was handling everything fine on my own and since Roen was still asleep I sent Josh out to get our cooler while I labored at home. During his time gone I spent some time praying to the Lord and shedding some tears.

Around 4:12PM (cell phone call logs are helping to keep all my times so exact ;) I called my mom and told her to head on. I knew at this point that I’d need someone with Roen as soon as she awoke. Some time around 4:45PM my mom pulled up in the driveway just as Roen was rousing. I called my midwife at 4:53PM to tell her things were changing and I thought she could come on. She recommended a shower while we filled the birth pool and some food to eat. She needed to give me a call back in a few minutes. At this point I said goodbye to Roen and headed upstairs. Josh was packing up things for Mom to take her to my sister’s house. We weren’t sure what to expect so he was sending spend the night things as well as a stocked diaper bag. I was sad to send Roen off but the intensity was picking up and I knew I couldn’t deal with any moment of toy noise in the next room at this point. While my mom played with Roen downstairs and Josh gathered things for their journey and filled the birth pool, I labored upstairs in our bedroom and bathroom.

While I was in the shower laboring through some contractions that were definitely picking up in intensity, my midwife called and left a voicemail. I missed Roen in the shower and hollered down to Josh not to let them leave just yet, that I had some more things to say to Roen. Out of the shower I checked my voicemail and called my midwife back at 5:12PM. She said she’d be on her way but reminded me it was bad traffic time and it may take a bit (she travels up from Rock Hill, SC). Right after that I walked down the stairs and took a picture holding Roen before she left. I told her that I loved her and then realized things were getting real serious and felt ready for her and my Mom to depart. They ended up leaving around 5:48 PM. This whole time Josh was still running back and forth getting things together for them to leave as well as filling up the birth pool that sat in Roen’s room.

At 5:17PM I made my last phone call… to my friend Shelly whom was in charge of passing along updates to everyone. I put her on speakerphone and told her things were getting pretty intense. As a contraction started up I said “contraction” and hung up. My midwife had recommended that I eat something so Josh brought up a banana and energy bar. I ate a few bites of each in between contractions. I had been drinking plenty of water throughout the day. Up until this point I also had been able to say to myself that these contractions actually felt good and I really felt that they did. I felt the need to be up walking through contractions, rocking my hips back and forth, often making some low groaning noises. But after that last phone call things were such that I couldn’t tell myself that they felt good anymore – they hurt! I could feel my pelvic bones shifting and opening which was interesting to me since I knew they didn’t need to do that until the baby needed to enter the birth canal.

I had many prayers and petitions for the Lord concerning this birth. I even took time during different parts of labor to cry out to Him and remind him of my heart’s desire. A few times I shed tears and other times I was sober and honest before the Lord. One of my prayers was that even I would be shocked by my progress, not fully even knowing how far along I was and how quickly things would be to progress. Earlier in labor I told the Lord that I didn’t mind these mild contractions lasting for as long as they needed to but that once things picked up I wanted them to really pick up and for me to push that baby out quickly.

At this point I told Josh I needed him to see if pressing into my back or hips would help during a contraction. I never wanted anyone’s touch on my back or hips during my labor with Roen but I thought I’d give it a shot this time to see how it felt – it only intensified the pain for me. Nearing the 6 o’clock hour I had two contractions that included some pressure. The first I just noticed what my body was feeling. The second I decided to give a small push to see if it was at all possible that I was feeling the urge to push. When I pushed slightly I knew it was time. I was almost in shock at myself!

The next contraction I walked into our bedroom (I had been walking back and forth between the bedroom and the bathroom for a while now) and said to Josh, “Help”, as he was walking in the hallway to check on the birth pool filling up. I took his hand and lifted one leg onto the nightstand. I said, “I need to push” and did so slightly. Josh said, “Are you sure? I don’t think it’s time.” He said after the birth that he was thinking I was pushing way too early and that I’d wear myself out if I started pushing at this point. (I pushed for nearly 5 hours with Roen.)

Josh asked me if I wanted to go get in the birth pool now. “I guess”, I said. As I walked into Roen’s room the birth pool was just a few feet inside the door. I felt another contraction come on and just instinctively got onto my hands and knees on the floor next to the birth pool, my forehead leaning on the side of the pool. I had a contraction and pushed really well. “Get a chux pad.” I said. Josh ran to get one. As he was putting the chux pad under me he said “Whoa babe.” I said, “Can you see the head?” And Josh said, “No, but you’re really opening up.”

Then I said, “Call the midwife and see where she is.” My phone log reads that Josh called the midwife at 5:58PM – he said, “Hey, what’s your 20? She’s pushing.” She said she was downstairs. The next thing I know is Josh dashes down the stairs so quickly to meet the midwife. I push and hear a pop (my bag of waters had broken) and up Josh and the midwife came. I remember looking through my legs and seeing them sit equipment and bags down but I hadn’t seen my midwife’s face yet. Finally, after the next contraction, I turned slightly to see her face. I was thinking I wasn’t going to get to lay eyes on her before the baby was there. “This is crowning.” she said. “Go get the camera.” I told Josh. And as he ran back into the room I pushed the baby’s head out!

My midwife suggested I lift up one leg and put my foot on the ground. With her help I did. Josh had gotten the mirror in that dash for me to see the baby’s head. I saw it and touched it and started praising the Lord out loud. The baby opened his mouth twice and wiggled inside me. “The baby moved and it hurts.” I said. Awaiting the next contraction I asked my midwife if I had done the hard part. She said, “You’ve done part of the hard part. You’ve got to finish the job.”

Then before the next contraction I spontaneously stood up and said “Okay, push.” propelling the baby out into the world at 6:06PM. Josh had moments earlier asked the midwife to catch the baby and so she did. I turned around and sitting down I saw our baby – “Oh my goodness, it’s a son!” I said as my midwife handed him over. I held him, rubbing his body and praising God, and exclaiming, among other things, “I did it Josh, I just gave birth to our son“. And Josh said, “It’s you Jude. It was you all the time.”

After a few minutes I got in the half full birth pool to rest and keep our baby boy warm. We poured the very warm water over his body and he quieted his crying and just looked up at me. We waited for the cord to stop pulsing before Josh cut it. We then called my mom at 6:23PM – who nearly fell over – after having just left my house 35 minutes earlier saying, “I want you to call me in a few hours after having this baby and we can all come back and go to sleep here.” I had told her that’s what I wanted to. Josh made some calls to his family and I called my friend Shelly to briefly hear her screams of disbelief and delight. I had called Shelly with her last update 49 minutes before I gave birth to him! I delivered the placenta on the toilet at about 6:56PM. Then into the bedroom I went to rest and nurse our baby boy.

So after 11 total hours, maybe an hour of active labor, less than 30 minutes of pain that felt more than I could bare, around 10 minutes of pushing and about 5 minutes with the midwife in the house, our son – Jude Leeland Acuff – was born into the world at 6:06PM on Monday, October 8th 2007. Later when we weighed and measured him he rang in at

9 pounds & 4 ounces and 20 ½ inches long. And for all that bigness, just a small 1st degree tear.

Now let me count a few ways that the Lord uniquely blessed me with my heart’s desires for this birth…

I wanted to awake in the morning and give birth before the sun set… and so it was.

I wanted to be shocked at my progress so much so that the midwife would only make it just before the baby’s birth… and so it was.

I wanted to be alert and able to take in every moment…. and so it was.

And as a side note: I had thought my whole pregnancy that this baby was going to be

9 pounds & 3 ounces… I was an ounce off; maybe that veggie burger did it? ;)