The Birth of Our Baby Boy

Alright everyone since Shanda has been given direct orders to remain upstairs from her mid-wife thus limiting her access to blog this post is being created by her other half. Therefore before you can proceed you must read the following disclaimer:

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Now that we have gotten that out of the way let's proceed. ( After this post I am sure Shanda will change her log in info.)

As many of you know we have been expecting the birth of our baby boy any day know. I say we ......as if I were pregnant. Shanda has been experiencing contractions for the better part of week and a half so Wednesday August 6th started out like any other day during this hurry up and wait saga. During lunch the phone rang...I answered...'Hello?'

"Hello!", replies the young female voice on the other end.

'How are you?', I quiz still not sure if I am talking to one of Shanda's friends, a niece I've never spoken with, or a rouge telemarketer off script.

"Is Milo there?", she unabashedly asks.

My mind begins to race. Wait a minute how does she know we are about to have a son who we are planning on naming Milo? Is this one of Shanda's family members playing a joke? Perhaps it is a phone call from the future bounced off of the northern lights. Oh dear.... maybe it is a call from the people upstairs checking in to see if Milo's arrived yet.

'Excuse me?'

"Oh, I'm sorry I have the wrong number." Click.......

This is the stuff the twilight zone is made out of.

After lunch, a trip to Home Depot, a walk to the park with Talia and myself, and a ton of jumping jacks, Shanda began to feel that today was the day. Okay I didn't make her do jumping jacks instead we mud wrestled.

When we were looking into birthing options before Talia's birth we decided to have a home water birth. Her birth was such a beautiful experience for us there was no doubt in our mind with this one we were going to do the same thing. It is at this point I could go into a long rant of home birth versus in the hospital however this is certainly not the time nor place. Let me just say I feel blessed that we have the option to chose. Here is Shanda laboring on the birthing ball.

Shanda's contractions had increased in frequency and length to the point that Shanda summoned her midwife who arrived around 7:45 pm. That is when the games began.

Literally.......This is Shanda, her father, Jan our midwife, and myself playing sequence. Yes, there were many delays in our game due to frequent trips to the bathroom and contractions, but we had fun.

Finally things had progressed to the point that Shanda got into the pool of warm water.

The water provides several key functions. One, it allows the mother a cooping method when dealing with contractions. Two, it helps the mother relax assisting in the delivery. Finally, the water provides a warm peaceful environment for the baby to enter into the world.

Shanda labored in the pool for several hours. Here I have to shower my wife with accolades. She used HypnoBirthing a process which teaches relaxation methods to help cope with the labor and birth. She never screamed, she never cried out. When intense contractions came the only way you could tell was her breathing intensified. Labor was longer this time than it was with Talia but she only pushed for 8 minutes when the time came.

So here is Milo Hansen Hickman....7lbs. 5oz. and 19 1/2" long. Both mother and child are doing well.