On January 28th at 4:15am, Team Sobus welcomed it's newest member: Jude Michael Sobus. It was a typical "You plan, God laughs." Sort of experience. Good thing that's nowhere in the Bible though.
Proverbs 16:9
In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.
We took a Bradley Course (Husband Coached Child-birth). This basically meant that we wanted a natural child birth and that I would play a role in encouraging and coaching my wife throughout the pregnancy, labor, and delivery. We read books, went to classes, researched issues, typed up a birth plan and took a tour of the best hospital in our area. Only the best for Jude.
Ruby never felt a contraction until 3:00am when we had just laid down to go to sleep. I believe our prayer right before then was, "God... we want to have this baby in your timing." Jude was already a week and a day past his due date.
She felt the contraction. But wasn't sure if it was a contraction or not. We tried to get to sleep in order to have energy for a long day of labor. Another contraction came. We decided to start timing them. If we had contractions every 4 minutes, lasting at least 1 minute, over the course of an hour than we'd know to go to the hospital.
After about 50 minutes of recording contractions, Ruby felt a head crowning. We called for an ambulance. I yelled at the 911 Operator as she struggled to make sense of the situation, "How old is your wife? Do you have towels? Is she having contractions? Go find some string, you'll need string." Obviously she didn't understand.
The paramedics arrived. I hung up on the operator. A younger paramedic who was probably terrified out of his mind decided it'd be best to shovel the walk.
We loaded Ruby onto a stretcher and then onto the ambulance. 10 minutes into the drive, 2 minutes from the hospital, Jude was born as we passed by a McDonald's. Silently, I prayed against this:
We got everything we wanted:
A very healthy baby, with a full head of dark hair. A natural, pitocin free, epidural free, childbirth. No cervical exams, no IV, no fetal monitoring, no episiotomy, no doctors who were taught to disagree with our desires. No being forced to labor in a position that's best for the doctor rather than the mother.
But we got it in a much different way than any of us anticipated.
We planned our course and God established our steps. Not as a laughing sociopath but as a loving father who knew what was best for us, wanted what was best for us, and cared about our desires.
Happy birthday Jude bear. We love you.