Birth Stories: Griffy Knox

“WE GOT THE CALL!!” Hudson was running through the halls of our house yelling this over and over on the morning of Monday August 2^nd. And of course he was referring to the call from the hospital telling us they were ready for me to come in for our elective induction. We had just finished a big birthday breakfast of waffles, whip cream, and sprinkles celebrating our oldest son Jude turning 9 when we got the call. So I called Tim to come home from work and patiently waited for him since we had already packed the day before just in case. 

We kissed and hugged all the boys as we headed out and they knew that the next time they saw us would be with their newest little brother in our arms. 

When we arrived at the hospital, check in was pretty quick. Tim proceeded to tell everyone he could in the lobby that we were having a baby. His joy is unparalleled. He even bought several people coffee in his excitement. Then up the stairs to the Mother Baby Unit to our room. We met our nurses (the most wonderful humans ever – several of which I already knew from working together in the past) and got settled in. 

Questions asked- check! IV started- check! My doctor came in and explained everything one more time before beginning. For this induction he inserted a balloon catheter. This apparently helps with a quicker dilation time. The idea is once the balloon falls out, they know you are dilated to about 6cm. Paired with Pitocin going through the IV, the hope was to speed up the process a little faster. And boy did it! They placed it at 11:45am. Once the balloon was inserted they anticipated it would fall out within a couple hours. But 40 minutes after it was inserted I had to go the bathroom and out it came! I was shocked to say the least as my previous inductions just took a LONG time to get started.

So at 12:30ish I started feeling the contractions starting to come on. Around 2:45 they were beginning to get more intense. My doctor wanted to come break my bag of waters at around 4pm. Since I know from past births that I move pretty quickly to pushing once my water is broken, I also knew I wanted the epidural. So around 3:30pm the contractions were getting more intense and we started the epidural. Boy was that rough. I’ve had my share of them and for some reason we just could not get the right spot for this one. After several painful tries we got it though and I laid down to relax for a bit. 

Right on time at 4:15pm my doctor checked me and broke my water, then said “see ya in a couple hours hopefully”! I was hopeful too. Since Griffy was still pretty high and needed to drop a bit more, my nurse had me sit straight up in bed to let gravity help. “Tell me when you feel pressure down there and we can readjust”. So we waited. And Tim slipped into a pretty heavy nap. Around 5:30pm I felt a little pressure. About 10 minutes later it was much more intense. And 10 minutes later I was super uncomfortable and feeling contractions intensely again. I asked for a bit more pain medicine but it seemed that I was too late for that. The epidural was pretty worn off and probably wasn’t going to catch up. I woke Tim up from his nap and my mom was right beside me. 

I looked at my nurses and said “I think I need to push, no- I KNOW I need to push and I can’t help it”. They called the doctor. I was in transition and things were happening quickly. Sidenote- with all my past births, pushing has taken anywhere from 1-3 hours, so I was expecting the same. Yet this felt different. Instead of having to practice pushing and be coached through it, my body was taking over and knew exactly what to do. It was now about 6:09 I suppose and I looked at my nurse (also my dear friend) and said “I need to push this baby out and can’t stop the urge to push. Is the doctor here?” She calmly looked at me and said “he’s not going to make it and you are going to be just fine- let your body push, the baby is almost here”. And with that, I did. 

Next thing I know our beautiful baby boy was out and up on my chest just as fast as I could catch my breath from the one, maybe two pushes. My body was still shaking from transitioning to pushing so fast and we were all in a bit of shock with how everything progressed so quickly. They didn’t even really have time to set anything up for the delivery. Five minutes later my doctor walked in shaking his head smiling and also very surprised with how fast everything moved.

As fast as it all happened I still managed to tear quite a bit (mostly in the same spots as before) which was a bit disappointing but nothing I wasn’t prepared for. And overall I’m just so grateful for this totally unique experience of bringing our sweet baby boy Griffy into this world. I’m grateful for the team of 3 nurses (2 of which were friends) who were incredibly encouraging and by my side the whole way. And I’m grateful for Tim and my mom who have been in on every birth, they are the dream team for me! I continue to be in awe at the incredible miracle of life and God’s design for life. 

Psalms 139 describes it perfectly in verses 13-18:

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mothers womb, Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!”

What a beautiful description of life being formed and brought to fruition through pregnancy and labor/delivery. What a beautiful gift to be a part of carrying that life. 

We are so in love with our sweet Griffy Knox and so excited to see how his story and life continue to unfold. The best is yet to come!

xo, Sarah