Benjamin Dumont

Benjamin was born on a nice summer day, 4 days after his due date. The contractions started in the middle of the night, at 00:53am. They started out only 10 minutes apart, but still very irregular. I went downstairs and cleaned up some toys of Nathalie and Ingeborg. I also cleaned out the dishwasher and then tried to sleep some more or at least to rest. When I lay down, the contractions got more intense and I had to adjust my breathing. But when I sat up or stood up, I didn't even really feel the contractions.

In preparation for this third delivery, I had done sophrology classes, it helps you to really connect with your baby.

At 11am, I started to lose my mucus plug. I still had contractions about 10 minutes apart. At 11:37am, I took a shower and after that I decided to have a bath. That was nice and relaxing, I didn't even feel the contractions while I was sitting in the warm water. When I was walking around, I could feel the contractions, but they did not really hurt yet. I even tried lying down during a contraction, just to see whether that would hurt.

At 1.30pm, things still were the same. I had arrived in the hospital, because things went so slowly and I really wanted to know whether I was dilated and how much. Bummer! No dilation yet! I did feel the baby move a lot. I could stay in the hospital if I wanted, but I preferred to go back home.

Around 2pm, the contractions came closer together, maybe because of the car trip to and from the hospital. By then I was rather tired, I had had almost no sleep last night. The contractions came closer and closer together. I think I must have walked a marathon in the house. From the kitchen to the living room and back. When I felt a contraction starting, I used squatting. Because of the walking and the squatting, everything went much faster. I was squatting on a small chair, when my water broke during a contraction. Nathalie (almost 5yo) called Ingeborg (almost 3yo) to tell her that mommy had peed in her pants. That was 5.15pm. After my water had broken, the contractions came every 2 minutes and were very strong. So we quickly went back to the hospital.

In between 2 contractions, I tried to get to L&D on the sixth floor. While I ran through the hall to the elevators, somebody from the front desk asked what this was all about. The photographer (who was going to make pictures of the delivery) ran behind me and shouted that this was to give birth. Later he told this to me, I hadn't noticed this exchange at all. The only way I could still keep on top of the contractions, was by sitting on my knees. On L&D they checked me and I turned out to be 8 cm.

By then it was 5.50pm and I immediately could go to a delivery room. After a few minutes, I felt that my labor changed and I got the urge to push. I had read a lot about giving birth in a vertical position and figured that would be much more natural than helplessly on your back on a delivery table. So I squatted and at 6pm Benjamin was born. I had torn a lot and needed 10 stitches. But this was nothing in comparison to having a third kid.

I tried to nurse Benjamin while I still was in the delivery room, but he was not very interested. I think he still was tired of the labor and delivery. Then, when I got back to my room, he was fervently sucking on his fingers. Nathalie told me 'He is thirsty, he needs your breasts to drink from.' This was the start of a very long breastfeeding period that both of us (Benjamin and I) very much enjoyed.

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