God Is My Oath - Our Birth Story

Hear our Lowed Opinions on trusting God in stressful circumstances and how God has come through in our birth story. What are some moments God has come through for you?

Today's Non-Sponsors
Bradley Method - https://bradleymethod.com
Baby wrap - https://sollybaby.com


Slightly related content mentioned in todays Episode
Mercy Me song Even If | https://youtu.be/B6fA35Ved-Y?si=Xr41dWbOtdo3qs_s
Story of Hagar | https://bibleproject.com/articles/what-hagar-and-ishmaels-story-reveals-about-gods-purposes

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome back to Loud Opinions. This is episode five.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

I think it's five. I don't I don't even know, but anyway. Welcome back to Loud Opinions.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

We're the Loos.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

And these are our opinions.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Man, it's good to be back. It's been a long time coming.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

It's been a while. But we kind of have a reason why.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

We did a thing. We had a thing. Our um our baby is out of the womb.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Out of the womb, and it is in the room with us.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yep, she's here. And so because of that, we've taken a few weeks off. But we're back and we have a fun story to tell that I'm excited to share on this podcast. What about you?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

I think it is gonna be good to like cement it and share it with the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

This podcast, like in some ways, kind of feels like our journal. Yeah. So it's like even if we get five views, you know, we can look back on it and watch it ourselves. Yeah. Even if it's for us. Yeah, exactly. It just kind of gets that story out there, so it kind of gets out of my head and I'm able to put it out and just it's almost like my journal.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Yeah, I agree. So do you want to tell the people her name?

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Her name is Sibella Verity.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Yeah, Sibella Verity.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Can't wait to see what her loud opinions are eventually.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

She's got um she's got loud opinions. She does.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

At 4 a.m. They're pretty loud.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

At 4 a.m. They're very, very, very loud.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

And they keep her awake. No, she doesn't go back to bed. No, she's been great.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

She's been so great. And it has been almost two weeks now of having her.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

She is 12 days old, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Yeah. And man, it's just crazy that we have a daughter and that she's ours.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Yeah, there's a lot of times we're just kind of holding her and we're like, She's ours. Yeah. That's weird. It's a great thing. It's amazing, but she's ours.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yes. So Do you want to um tell the people what her name means and then maybe we can kind of start from there and share just like the story of how she came into this world and and all of that?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, well, so Sibella is um a variation of the word Elizabeth. Shout out to my mother-in-law, how she wants that name. She got it, just not in the way she wanted. Um, and it um means God is my oath, and it can also mean rest because it is a variation of Sabbath. So it can kind of mean that. Um the reason at first we picked it before the spiritual meaning was because your sister's middle name is Isabella and you and her had a a pact. Yeah. To name each other's daughters a variation of the middle name. Yeah. So we've fulfilled our end. We're waiting on Sophia. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

We'll keep waiting for a while though. We're not in a rush.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

I'm just saying we did our part. We'll see if she fulfills her end of the pact. Um, but yeah, we um picked that name and it just went well with the story. It feels like God really fulfilled it, which is really cool. And her middle name is Verity, which is um means true. Which is either uh could be an attribute of the Lord, but also hopefully for her.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah. Yeah. I think like the two together is like God is like God keeps his oath and is true to his word.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, God is my oath and his oath is true.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

And it's true, and I feel like that is that has been the testimony of the Lord in the last nine months, but really I would say like the last two, three months um of our story and of her story. And yeah, should we just dive on in?

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Yeah, what was the um first few stresses for us going into this?

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Well, uh the number one stress, a lot of people close to us do know this. Um I was turning twenty-six in February.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, whoop whoop.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Woop whoop, and thus, I don't know if you know this, but the government does not let you stay on your parents' insurance once you turn 26. And I was co I was I was mooching. I was mooching off my father's insurance.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

That's a good one too.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

It was it is it it is a good insurance, and so really the biggest stress one of the biggest stressors was kind of this timeline that was created of when I would lose insurance, um, which was supposed to be on March 14th. That was the deadline, and my due date was actually past that. And so um the last nine months have been very stressful, honestly. It's been a lot of like, and we'll get into just the overall thing, but that deadline like looming over us the whole time of like how do we both um bring her into this world in a way that doesn't feel like forceful, but then also is like, hey, we really do have a timeline, and that was like number one stressor. Number two stressor was the fact that my mom was also gonna be out of town March 15th. So you wanted her present. Definitely wanted my mom present. So there was this big this big timeline of I have to have this done by this day. But babies aren't really like that. I mean, they can be. We have learned a lot about like the medical system and induction and all that.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

How have we how have we learned that?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

You can tell them, do you and tell them?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

So we went to a um birthing class, which is specifically the Bradley method, which is for husband-coached childbirth. And so the goal is to coach the husbands how to help his wife while she is in labor. And so it's informing the husband and wife on what like different stages of labor look like, what those interventions are, how to prepare for birth before you get there, and all that kind of stuff, which was a game changer for the time we were there. And it just it changed everything for us. But the hard part leading up to it is we did this class wanting to inform ourselves, learned about natural childbirth, meaning natural in the sense of you were trying to stay away from any other like interventions interventions or the goals to stay away from like painkillers and be able to just do it as natural as possible. Nothing wrong with the painkillers, it's just a goal we had from this class. And so one of the hardest things for us is like we went to this class. Love the little baby giggles in there. Um, we went to this class wanting as natural as possible of a birth, but also in that class we're knowing that we're not going to like a birth center, we're going to a hospital, and also that um we have an induction scheduled. And so inductions are kind of the opposite of natural birth in the sense of how it happens, and so it just kind of felt like we had two worlds collide, and in the beginning of it all, I kinda had just like given it to the Lord and really trusted him to kind of come through in the end, just because God had come through and everything else. And um a lot of people say like pray about things and just kind of see what God does for me. I just kind of like I already trust him, so I just kind of wait to see what happens when it comes.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

I already trust him.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

I'm just saying, like, for me personally, I'm not like, oh my goodness, I like I need to pray for this. Like in my head, I'm like, I know God's gonna come through, so I'm just kind of waiting to see how he does. And so, you know, maybe we got a little bit closer and closer and you know, fast forward all the way to one week before the induction. And that week was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Yeah. I think like hasn't I don't know about you guys, but like have you ever had like that feeling of like I really it was like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. That's what in every area of this scenario it felt like we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was like, um, I want to have her naturally, but also we have to have her before this day. I trust in God, but also is he gonna show up at this day? And it was like that's just sorry, she moves a lot. I have lots of nerves. Um and that's just what it felt like we were living in this kind of like in-between tension of we just don't know what's next. We didn't know about insurance, we didn't know, you know, how much it was gonna cost to put me on an insurance of our own. Um, if it was possible to even put you on an insurance because we had missed enrollment period. There were so many like little things that had compiled, and you know, that week before she was born was stress mess 1000. Literally, like I I can't even um uh it was so stressful. A little side note is I had in my mind concocted the date, um March 6th. No reason other than in faith, I was like, I just feel like we should be praying for March 6th. Um and I got the whole church to pray for this baby to come primarily before my insurance ran out, but mostly on March 6th, people were like, We're praying, we're praying, and and um March 6th in the night rolls around and I'm like having oh hold up, you can start the story because she's moving.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Was it like pre-drumble labor where it starts early? And so we were like it was right before falling asleep, too. So then we're like getting up scrambling, trying to find like all the hospital stuff because we weren't fully ready for it, and then we just kind of got no sleep that night. Yeah, and then all of a sudden, like the it just stopped, you didn't have any more contractions.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

I know I was like pretty much having contractions for like three hours. Yeah. And we were like, let's just wait, they're not like the space together, they're not spaced together, they're not consistent.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

They were very yeah, timing was a little weird. The how often they happened was a little weird. It was just not like you could tell it wasn't like normal labor. It was something like your body was just kind of practicing, sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yeah, but then you know, we went to sleep, woke up, and they were gone. And to me that was like the start of like what felt like an emotional roller coaster. Because I was like, I just went through three hours of what is going to be labor, and it was for nothing. Because in my head, this is yeah, this is obviously what I'm thinking. I'm like, God, like it's not that I don't believe that you couldn't have done it on the sixth, but like why didn't you do it on the sixth? Like you got me feeling like it was gonna happen, and then it didn't happen. And that was like a Thursday? Was that Thursday or Friday?

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

And um that like set us on a weekend course of really just trying to do everything imaginable to naturally get her out before what was my elective induction on the Wednesday, the 11th.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, so you had taken that Sunday off just to kind of try to relax because you knew regardless, you're gonna have to have that induction on Wednesday. So you're like, you don't want to overdo it, keep your energy, took that Sunday off, and so from those few days, we're just doing everything under the sun to try to get this baby to come out. We played pickleball.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

We drove on a I was let's pause. I was 38 weeks pregnant playing pickleball just to get this baby out. I kept it a good time though. It was good. I kept up.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

You did.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

I lost.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

You were you were throwing some.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

No, I hit it towards you. I was trying to be as fair as possible. We weren't playing to win, we were playing to play.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

We're always playing to win. What are you talking about? There were like moves that he would throw the ball, and I was like, I'm I literally can't get that.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Okay, what about some of your hits?

SPEAKER_00 13:04

You're not pregnant.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

You can't Oh, so you want me to run? Okay, so you're admitting that some of the hits were crazy. Anyway, pickleball, what else did we do?

SPEAKER_00 13:13

We played pickleball, we ate spicy food.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Yes. Twice.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Twice, and I hate spicy food. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

You were you did good.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

I know. We uh what did we do? We The bumpy road. You tell them.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

It's a brick road. Some of our friends have told us try driving on this road and it might start it. Worked for us, might work for you. It is the um craziest road.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

It's like cobblestone, but and it's also but it's also like uneven cobblestone. Yeah, and the guy like walked up to us and he's like the roller coaster. What did he say? He said, My wife, like all three of our babies. We rode this we drove down the street and she went into labor. So we were like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Might as well try, you know? Do everything we can.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Lots of curb walking.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah, lots of work. Lots of walking. Well, because you also don't want to overwalk, so we're trying to rest too. So a little bit of sitting at home doing nothing, a little bit of walking around, a little bit just everything.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Yeah. And nothing.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Stretches, exercises, nothing.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

And um that was crazy. So that went all the way to till Wednesday, which was the day of our induction. Yeah. And at that point, you know, you make peace with the fact that you have to induce. Um of course, like there were still desires on my heart, you know, that God that I was still praying to God about. Like, God, I'm I really don't want to have to get on this um intervention cycle that they call like, you know, you go in for an induction, you get Pitocin, the Pitocin's too much, so then you go on epidural, and I like didn't want to get on any of that. And so I was like, God, this just feels like I'm like losing autonomy little by little in my decisions. And so, you know, we were we went in there. Oh no, we didn't go in. We didn't go in Wednesday.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Wednesday. We called the um hospital. You have to call an hour before you get in just to make sure they have space because we were an elective induction, meaning it's not an actual like priority. Priority of a it's not like medical reasons. It's not a medical reason, meaning like something's wrong and we have to get the baby out, kind of thing. It's more of we're choosing this day because we're losing insurance, which to us is pretty serious, but obviously medical is more important than for us. So we called an hour before, they said um we're f all the whole floor is full, so call again in two hours. Call in two hours.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

This was like the our first call was at four.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Next one was like six or seven. They said try calling again at nine. Yep. Called at nine, and they were like, Well, go ahead and just call your doctor and reschedule. And that was like we were just quiet on the phone.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah, I think she could sense, bless her, she could sense like my panic. I was like, the office is is closed.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

She's like, Well, do you have like um She was like, There's an emergency line, and I'm like She asked if you had a medical reason to go in. She was like, Do you have a medical reason? Is there anything going on? Like, well, we're losing our insurance on Saturday, so we're really trying to get this before. She's like, Okay, well, let me talk to the person over the floor and the floor manager, whatever the position's called. Like, I'll talk to them and just let them know your situation.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

I was like trying to memorize all the nurses' names that we like went on the phone call because I felt like if I memorized their names, they would feel more personal. Do you know what I'm saying? I'm like, I call I called at four and she's like, This is Stephanie, and then caught six, and she's like, hello. I'm like, Hi Stephanie, this is Laura. We spoke earlier.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Did it work?

SPEAKER_00 17:02

I mean, she put us in for the next day. Because originally she was like, have your doctor do it. Like, have your doctor schedule you. And I was like, When is that gonna be? And she was like, We're kind of full for tomorrow, so it might be after that. And I was like, No, no, no, it needs to be tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

So they kind of said, Well, let's check out call uh was that that was the night call. She said, We're full tonight, so call again in the morning. There's someone else who's supposed to be in at eight, but maybe we because you're a day away, a day off from when you were scheduled, you would take priority. So we'll just try to kind of instead of a full reschedule, it was like a they just kind of keep kept pushing us, which really helped us because otherwise we wouldn't have got in when we got in.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah, but when I tell you girl. Hold on. Let me fix her head. When I tell you that every phone call ended with tears because like I'm feeling that pressure. I'm feeling like this is less and less gonna be possible. This is like we're too close to the deadline. Um like I just felt myself like kind of giving up like energy or like I don't know, like I don't want to say hope. That sounds so dramatic. Giving up hope, but it was it really like became a mental game, and I was I was weak, but you were really great about keeping me strong and which I know even you were feeling like some kind of feelings. Your energy mental game was was I don't know, do you want to talk about it?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Yeah, I didn't know if you were yeah, for me it was like, you know, w we had so many people praying, it kind of came to that moment where like I don't know, I've just I've served the Lord for so long that I feel like I've never had a moment where God like didn't come through, and this kind of felt like that first time. And so I was almost like really f like frustrated at God of like why is it going? Like, you know, when David's like, I served you my whole life, why me? kind of thing. Like man, I've like you know, I've done everything for you and to serve you, and it like this is the one time it feels like you're not coming through. And like um on Sunday you had had Pastor Shannon praying, and he was you had asked him, and he was like, he came and told us he was like, you know, I was gonna pray like that it could be on the sixth, but I was like, I really she really wants it to happen and feel like God just said, I got this. And so in my head, that's what was going through this whole time, was just like God's saying, I got this. And I was like, sure don't feel like you do. Like it feels like you know, we're doing everything humanly possible to, you know, see if we can get net birth to start naturally without having to have any interventions, and it just it wasn't happening. And so it was like, I guess, you know, it was supposed to be Wednesday, then it wasn't Wednesday, it was Thursday, and just felt like everything was going away. And so, um, two things. I felt like there was almost like this picture of like people say when they're sending prayers to heaven, it's kind of like this iron dome of like you're hitting the iron dome.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Like the wall?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yeah, the wall, and I felt like God was saying, like it's like I feel like I'm praying, and it feels like you're not hearing it, and you're just up there. And I feel like God just like reminded me, like, well, I mean, I'm not up there, like I'm down here with you. Like I'm not above, I'm not behind some wall in the sky, like I'm here with you, and I walk this with you. And then um he just reminded me of the story of Hagar, and so this is from Abraham and Sarah when they're supposed to have Isaac, and then they go to Hagar instead, and this whole thing happens where they have Ishmael try to make the promise their own way, and it doesn't work. But what God kind of showed me through the story was um she flees because Sarah is mean to her and rude to her, so she flees, goes to the wilderness, and then God sees her in the wilderness and tells her, Hey, like, you're with a child, I'm gonna bless the child to go back to Abraham um for like his resources, he's gonna be able to help you be able to have this kid. Yeah. So she goes back, they have the kid, they eventually have the promised kid, which is Isaac, and then Ishmael does something stupid and like makes fun of him, and so then Sarah's mad again and is like tells Abraham, cast out, like just send him away. The promises through Isaac, not him. And so Abraham's sad because it's also his kid, but then God says, Just listen to your wife, send her away, I got her too, kind of thing. So she goes back to the wilderness, she has a jug of water, that jug of water runs out, and she puts Ishmael under a tree to just cry, and then she walks far away enough where she can't hear him cry. She's just gonna let him die, kind of thing. And it's like very dramatic, but I almost felt like that was how I felt like where it's like you're in the wilderness, you're just God's not showing up in the way that you thought he would. He gave you a promise, and that promise hasn't come through, you're just mad at him, and so you just kind of sit with. Waiting to die, is what it feels like. Like you're just like, Alright, God, I don't know what's going on. Like, I trust you, but also I'm kind of mad because I thought you would come through by now. Like you know the song, um, like never lost a battle. It's like all great and fun, but there are dark moments before you win those battles. Like there's times where you're in the dark night and God just has not come yet. And I felt like, you know, God reminded me of that story, and what happens is an angel, you know, she's the one who called like God is the God who sees and the God who hears. And so um the angel comes and says, like, hey, go get your child, pick him up, and he's like, God's gonna make a nation of him, which is the same promise that was made to Isaac as well. So now he's included in the same promise. And then um she said, like they she goes, picks up their kid, and God opens her eyes to find water and provides water. And so she had every right to kind of like be frustrated at the Lord and say you promised this kid would like be a nation, and but she just gave up because she couldn't find water, and God sometimes has to remind us of those promises, and so I know that's a long thing, but just kind of sharing like what God was showing me is like her name means God is my oath. Yeah. And then the middle name. True. Yeah. God is true to keep his oath. Yeah. Even in those dark nights when it's not how you thought it would happen and not how you wanted it to happen. But all that to say, we went to the hospital and God did it and every prayer we had, he answered it just not in the way we wanted.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yeah, it's like, you know, um, it was a big test of my faith. I think I had never, like I was sharing with you, like I'd never you have prayer requests, but sometimes you're not like bold enough to like share it, like be like, this is my my like you know, some people have like really weird things like God show me the husband, my husband is gonna show up with like yellow flowers, like very specific dreams, and then like that happens, right? Like I had never done that in my life, like I don't think I ever was like, God, if you're real, do this, or like show up in this way. So to pray like this very specific prayer, God, I want this to happen. And like every day I felt like that was like further away, was like I'm not losing faith in you, but like, geez, the one time I try to like have like bold faith, it feels like it's not happening, you know what I'm saying? And so that was really hard. I think like a story of a song of my life will forever be like, you know, the song Um by Mercy Me.

unknown 24:44

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Um, where the even if, where like it talks about like the Shadrach, Meshach, and Benago, they're in the fire and they're like, I know God can save me, but even if he doesn't, I'm still gonna like worship him. And I think that was like something I just had to remind myself over and over, like, even if it's an induction, he's still in this. I was still made for this. Like, even if it's Petosin, like I was still made for this, like God is still in this, like that was just kind of what kept me going, and then just like yeah, Pastor Shannon's word, I was like, he says he got us, but does he got us?

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Um looking back at it now, you'd He totally, he totally had us. I think like you realize if God had answered it in a way that like we thought he could, he wouldn't have gotten all the glory. We would have thought that maybe like we're part of that. And I think there's times where like God has to let your part of it die.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Woo guys! Um that's good. Yeah. He he has just shown himself so faithful. And like there are things that even, you know, we're sharing this story to not like there's other stuff that we're thinking of that we're like, man, God is so faithful. Um and the at the end of the day, like I did birth her without any medical well, they did give me one little thing, but it was it was different.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

The goal was to get away from pitocin, which is because once you have that, it's the artificial version of what your body will naturally do to create contractions.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

So then that takes away morphins, which is off your hormones. Like your hormones are supposed to send stuff out.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Yeah, and when you to help with the pain.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

When you take pitocin, it kind of shuts off that hormone system and does it by itself. And so there's a lot of things that you kind of lose in getting Pitocin. And so um I went in, we went into the hospital at 1030, they gave me like this pill um at 1130, and uh by six o'clock I was fully dilated and pushing. And um, man, it was just like even in that, even even in that God is like so good. Um, I was in the middle of like a contraction and you know, Jonathan the only real like sense of help was when the contraction hit, I wanted him to like pull and I would like pull back, and I think that like counter pressure really relieved a lot of the tension in my body because then I could kind of relax. And so I told him, I was like, it would be so nice if I could like push in this position. Yeah, I literally said that, but you know, it was a it's with the squat bar, and I didn't even know if the hospital had a squat bar. There was nothing on the website about it. We never mentioned it, but we're pushing, and one of the nurses comes out with the full squat bar and she's like, Hey, do you want to try this? Do you want to try this? And we were like, Yes. Yeah, that was it was crazy because like that's exactly they're like watching a TikTok on how to do it.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Like you can tell, you know, we knew going into the hospital we were trying to do it in a way that was different than what they normally see. But they were very accommodating to work with us to try to let us have the birth experience we wanted, which was to not have the medication if it wasn't needed. Yeah, and they accommodated and they were very willing to work with us, which was amazing. They could have just like, no, I'm the doctor, we're gonna do it this way kind of thing. But they didn't feel like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

Another like little like God thing was we were supposed to come in on Wednesday, and Wednesday was gonna be one it was actually gonna be a doctor I had never even met before.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yeah, because you see them once like every other week or every week leading up to it.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Yeah, because there's a practice and there's like nine different delivering doctors, and you know, the odds of you seeing all nine in your pregnancy, especially if like we have one location, is not large. So the person that was supposed to do our induction on Wednesday, I had never even met, and I think that gave me a little bit of hesitation. I'm like, are they gonna like validate my plan?

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

And being pushed back, we actually ended up seeing the doctor who I presented the plan to.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

And helped walk us through if it's possible.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Yeah, and so it was like even in that God was there.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

We saw her twice, and she was like, we liked her a lot.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

She was really friendly and she was on the list of people that I was like, if I'm gonna birth, I would like to birth with her.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

And she was there, and she was amazing, and yeah, it's just God was totally all over that 100%.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

And now we're parents, and it's been amazing. One of the last things of what we've been learning before we went through all that was just kind of through the birth class, you learn that, you know, we as Americans in today's world is you medicate pain. If you feel something, you give yourself something to try to numb it so you don't have to feel it. Our like modern way of thinking is just medicate any pain that comes. And I think we've carried that through into religious moments of pain, into any you know, emotional pain. I think we just try to numb it as whether it's our phones scrolling, and you just we numb anything that hurts us. And in the class, like you kind of realize like your body is giving birth and doing something. Well, not me, I'm a man, but what I've learned for you is like your body is doing a lot like through this process that actually benefits you, and actually it benefits the baby, and there are things that happen that they cause pain, but they're still good.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Sorry, I was agreeing with you, that's really good.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

And so it's like, you know, through this whole thing, I think like we've learned we don't want to just medicate the pain, you know, we wanna like one of the things I've been learning is like or saying is like the only way forward is through. And there's like a psalm, uh Psalm 77, and at the end of it it says like your footsteps are untraceable, and your way of deliverance is through the sea. And the Israelites had to go through the water, which like to them poetically water was known as like from Genesis 1, as like the chaos waters. God sometimes delivers you through that chaos and takes you, like the thing that is the chaos is actually what delivers you. Well, he delivers you, but it's it's in the process of walking through that dark moment that brings that deliverance. Yeah. And so just through this birth was like we don't want to medicate it, we don't want to like take just numb it, we want to go through it. Yeah. And I think God did that spiritually.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Yeah. I think like in the moment we were like, this is so many times, we were like, this is not fair. But it's like it is that chaos, it is that like difficult thing that God pushes you through. You know, it's um in James where it says like trials like produce like perseverance and endurance, it's like it's all for the testing of your faith. And I feel like we have a story and we have a testimony of like God like doesn't leave you and he is true to his oath and his word is true. And if he says that, you know, one, all of this is gonna ultimately ultimately lead to his glory and our good, then you know, we believe that in faith, and and we've seen that. And oh parenting two weeks in, it's a lot. I there's a lot of tears, there's a lot of chaos, there's a lot of unknown, but man, like God's got us this far and and he's not gonna leave us, and yeah, it's just been it was an amazing story. I think it was everything I had. Like even just birth, ten out of ten no negatives. There were things, there were pain it was painful. It was I mean, that's what it is. The only way through that was a thing that we said. The only way through is through. And I think um only way through is like through with God, and he gets you through it.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

And he walks you through it. He walks through it with you. Yeah. He doesn't choose to be away and just watch you go through something like he holds your hand through it.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Yeah, out here crying on our podcast.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

I know. This is how you know it's raw.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

This is more like a sad opinion than a loud opinion. But it's just because it's so real and so raw and recent, and just, you know, I hope that our story can encourage you that, you know, even in those dark moments when you feel like the Lord like hasn't answered your prayers, like you know? Yeah, he hears he's faithful to his word, you know. Sabella, he will keep his oath, you know.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

And that's your story, little girl. Well I think that's it. Um, any non-sponsors of the day? Have two. Two non-sponsors. Mombelli? Is that what this is called? No. Oh, not Mombelli, what's this called?

SPEAKER_00 34:54

It's called Oh oh something Soli Baby.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

So I guess we got three. This wrap, not sponsored, and then what's the mom belly?

SPEAKER_00 35:03

The mombelli. I don't think they sell those anymore though.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Really? Yeah. Oh, forget that, scratch that. Third one, Bradley Method.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Bradley method.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Thanks for, you know, really being a part of our story.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Yeah, and to um, if there are mommas out there that are watching this, just message me. I have so much. So much to share. Um, but it's been great. It's been great. God's been good.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Any soon-to-be dance that have questions, Jonathan I'm not an expert.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

No, no, but he's an amazing coach.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

I wasn't just I wasn't just like I think I wasn't just sitting in a chair. I was like I was one of the nurses. I was there. I was holding your hand the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

I was And you watched the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

It was like a war room in there.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

It really was a war room.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

And I was helping command things, you know? I wasn't just a bystander. People say like, oh well, you know, you didn't go through the paint. My hand was through the paint and I was in that paint with you. Oh yeah. We did it together.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Yes. Can I wait before we end, can I talk about the transition? Just two seconds. I feel like it needs to be documented. It's my favorite part. Like, well, other than having her actually holding her in my hands. But they say that like the space between you have being six centimeters or not sex, you being eight centimeters to ten is like they call it the transition phase. It is probably like the most difficult or like most straining one. It is like usually where you hear women say, like, I can't do this, like I don't I don't want to do this. Like it is the moment, like it's the pivotal moment where you're like, either I'm gonna give me the drug or I'm gonna push through. Yeah. And I was contracting, I was holding John's hand, and it they were just coming, coming. At this point, I didn't know how far along I was, I just knew that it hurt, and I was feeling so bad for Jonathan's hand, and I was like, John, can you just give me the labor comb? It's just a little comb you put in your hand, and it's not painful, but it you squeeze it and it kind of just I think redirects like your brain.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Your brain. You can only kind of focus on one pain at a time, so it helps you to think about your hand and not giving birth.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Yeah, and so I kind of curled into the bed and just held the comb and was like that for like how long do you think?

SPEAKER_01 37:22

An hour, two hours?

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Maybe an hour.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Yeah, you were just chilling there. Yeah, like no one But you were you were in the side of the bed.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Yeah, my eyes were closed. I was like, my head was tucked into the bed, and like every time a contraction hit, I had this was what I told myself. I was like, I'm in control of this, it is not in control of me. I was like, I'm going to feel it like a wave. Because that's what I had read. It's like you want to imagine the pain, it has a purpose. Yeah, so where is it going? What is it doing? Like, visualize it as a wave, and just doing that over and over and over. At one point, I was like, I think I have to use a restroom, and that was 30 minutes before I started pushing. So I got through that. And I am proud. I am I got it by myself.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

I you should be proud. You went through it without any pain medication. I did it.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

You did a great job, and I didn't even know I was doing it, which was the best part. So yeah, feel the feel the pain. There is purpose in your pain. God, God doesn't do things just God's not far off God, He's not a far-removed God. If the if there's a trial, there's a purpose, and it's to produce something in you. And um yeah, that's our story, that's our birth story.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Yeah, so our loud opinion is um it's her name. It's like God is our oath and God is true. Even when it doesn't feel like it. Just lock in, push through. The only way forward is through.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Oh, thank you guys.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Thank you, and uh we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

See you when we see you.