Jordon Joshua David Klassen has arrived! Yes, folks after 53 wonderful hours of labor, our son was born at 5:58am on Tuesday, May 2nd. Weighing in at 7lbs 4oz & measuring 20 3/4" - This Klassen is tiny!

Here is the story from my perspective and it is written to my children to document their homecoming into this crazy world and loving family (Selah's Story - Click Here). It is quite long and detailed, and your more than welcome to read some or all of it.   I might add that a 53 hour laboring story isn't going to be short and sweet--especially coming from me. When you get done reading this, it'll be as if you were there!

First of all I must preface this by saying that it is true that Michelle labored for 53 hours. Active labor, no, but nevertheless at 1:00am on Sunday night/Monday morning, the first contractions began waxing in on Michelle's peaceful sleep. As most of my readers know, our daughter, Selah, was born at home with the assistance of a Doula (Jen Stumbaugh), a Midwife & the Doctor--oh, and the best coach ever...me! Needless to say Michelle was a bit anxious to deliver anywhere other than the comfort of home. Back in October we did some homework and found an amazing doctor who delivers at this Alternative Birthing Center (ABC) in Southfield, MI. Honestly, the name is a bit ironic to me, as what is deemed "Alternative" is actually a non-medicated, natural birth. However, the room is like a hotel suite. It has a huge Jacuzzi to labor in, a queen-size bed, and many other accommodations--most importantly, a full service staff that serves the laboring couple so selflessly. The problem with the ABC is that it is located inside of Providence Hospital--a problem only because it is legislated by their rules which I won't go into detail about. The ABC was once a stand alone building that was going to be shutdown but through protest and opposition by local Midwives it stayed open but under the supervision of Providence Hospital--in other words, it was absorbed into the Hospital--The ABC Unit--and they were given three rooms to operate in.

Back to our story: So Michelle labored through the night, contractions spaced out but consistent enough to know that Jordon was coming. We had our weekly prenatal appointment scheduled for Monday afternoon, so when we arrived Michelle was checked and was 80% effaced and 2 cm dilated. We went home, and went for a walk with Selah around the neighborhood. The contractions continued, some were intense, others mild altogether, they grew to be more and more consistent.  Around 7 o'clock, the contractions were consistently between 5-7 minutes, this went on for a couple of hours. We soon decided to call the doctor and share the progress. He suggested that we continue to wait it out until they grew closer together and maintained their intensity.

This is when some anxiety began set in for Michelle.  You see, in our previous birth with Selah, there was no need to fret about when to leave for the Hospital--because that wasn't the plan.  This time however, being well-read on the whole hospital scene when it comes to pregnancy/delivery, we knew that we couldn't arrive too early, because then we'd then be on their "clock"--that is, the "Cesarean Section Clock" or the "Inconvenience Clock"--you know, when the mother is laboring too long, and it's time to intervene--i.e., pop the water bag without asking; propagandistically stating "concerns" in order to surgically remove the child just to get it done quicker. Often, their intervening will promote some "tell-tale" signs that immediate intervention is now required--C-Section--because the baby's heart rate dropped, et cetera.

So we got to the point where we felt it was time to head to the ABC. We had a 45 minute drive to get there, so we also factored that into the laboring process--nor did we want to wait so long that Michelle labored into transition in the car on the way there--I think you see our multi-faceted dilemma!

There were some premeditated direction that we received from the Hospital staff: "[Come in through the Main Entrance, walk past the admitting to the elevator's, which you'll take to the third floor to the ABC. Your husband will come with you. We will admit you up here.]" Well, it wasn't that easy and there are a lot of stories that segue off of that paraphrased quote. First of all, we rolled up to the Main Entrance. We figured that at 11:00pm the Valet that operates from that entrance would be gone, and they were--no problem, we'd just park in the lot that is right there and walk in--besides, Michelle wanted to walk anyway. We passed the entrance and headed to the main lot--that happened to be closed, and a sign that instructed us to park in the ER lot. We found the ER Lot and parked--which happened to be the furthest spot from the Main Entrance where we needed end up. We grabbed our overnight bag and began walking. Upon arriving at the Main Entrance, we were confronted with locked doors and a sign that instructed us to enter through the ER! Sweet! Yeah right, we were really excited about this--just imagine Michelle getting more and more comfortable with this whole hospital experience, and we haven't even entered the building. There was a buzzer to ring for assistance, so I depressed the button.  A Security Guard responds.  I ask him to let us in to the building as my wife is in labor.  He asked, where are you?  I said, "The Main Entrance."  Ok, we'll send someone over as soon as possible.  We waited about five minutes.  It was chilly and had just rained.  No one showed "ASAP" and we were impatient, so we headed toward the ER which we passed on our way to the Main Entrance--where we were originally instructed to enter--apparently they didn't considered that someone just might happen to stop by after hours to deliver a baby.  T

As we are walking toward the ER, we approach the Discharge doors where people happen to be walking out as we were about to pass by, so we walked into the breezeway--three employees were standing there on the other side of the second set of doors and saw that Michelle was in obvious labor, and not one of them moved to open the door--lovely. More positive things just feeding Michelle's mental state.  We walk past the inconsiderate staff and head back up the hall in the direction of the Main Entrance. There is this guy running this machine that turns hospital floors into mirrors--he's focused, he's not messing around. In fact, the floors are the cleanest, shiniest floors that I think that I have ever seen--Floor Guy takes pride in his work. We take the elevator up to 3, and head to the ABC Unit as they are expecting us, thanks to our doctor calling ahead. We are warmly greeted as we seemingly enter the "Twilight Zone" of this Hospital--the only place that is seemingly "right" in this hospital gone wrong. It's weird, because it is not home. Home would be best, but we don't have that luxury here in Michigan. We're here now, at the ABC, and we best be warming up to the idea that this is the next best thing--and it is, we just haven't fully realized that yet at this point.

We check in and they check Michelle. No change. That was a startling disappointment. How could this be? We were encroaching on the 24th hour of labor--sure, it wasn't second stage labor but it was consistent and the contractions waxed intense as the day progressed. Well, we could head home, but I knew how stressed out Michelle was about the decision to come here in the first place as mentioned earlier. So we opted to stay and labor here--after all, it was the ABC, and we weren't under "normal" time constraints.

Then I was instructed to admit Michelle downstairs. This was a bit confusing, as we were previously instructed that they, j"ust do that up here". Well, that was apparently misinformation--and that happens--although, in my opinion you'd think that they'd get this kind of important stuff straight, oh well. Michelle wanted to walk, as some say that that promotes the laboring process in keeping the contractions consistent. We decided to walk downstairs together and check in at Admitting. The stairs were long, but seemingly effective--as we had to stop several times to submit to the contractions. We walked out on the mirrored floor to the music of the whirring machine doing its magic. Following our RN's instruction, we walked up to all these signs where we were supposed to go that said, "DO NOT ENTER, PLEASE USE THE DOOR AT THE ER, BLAH BLAH BLAH, ADMITTING". Also note that we are walking on this guys freshly glazed floors that you could eat off of. Confused, by the signage and no visible persons to speak to, the Floor Guy tells us to go past the signs and knock on some unmarked door. We do. The latch buzzes. I open the door. We walk in to this greeting:

"She with you?" Large Lady says ever so politely...as if.

"Yeah, we are here to register." I reply with a bewildered look on my face. I look at Michelle and she is more livid than I am at our warm welcome.

"Uh uh, she ain't 'llowed up in here! She gon have ta leave right now!" She waxed eloquent. Michelle, now more offended than I've seen her in a long time, walks out the door and replies, "Ok...I guess I'll wait our here."

I am shocked...but then again, I'm not really at all. (It's behavior like this that I've just learned to expect from corporations in general. It seems like customer service (CS) is customer dis-service everywhere I go--and believe me, when we get great CS, we praise them and tell their manager and offer recommendations when applicable.) Registration is complete and as I stand up taking my Health Insurance cards back, I say, "Miss, in the future I would hope that you would think things through before you treat people with utter disrespect when they walk into this place. It's awful the way you greeted us and treated us and frankly I am not impressed at all. What is your name? (her badge was conveniently flipped backwards).

She "apologized" and gave me her first name. More to come about Large Lady.

All the while, Michelle was pacing outside the door were I was taking care of the paperwork.  I walked out of admitting only to find out that Floor Guy scowled at Michelle and instructed her to stay off his floors--an impossible task, seeing as how the floor is what it is and is meant for walking on. Yeah, please note that it is now only about 12:20am. We've been here for maybe an hour. It gets better too!  Once we reached the "Twilight Zone" of the ABC, we told our RN our story of horror--she also was offended by how we were treated and told us she would follow up with this, and she did.

My mom showed up, and hung out in the room. Michelle and I decided to walk some more, but stay on our floor to hopefully avoid all possible confrontation. As we were walking, the wives from our Small Group showed up to offer support, and see a baby! This I think brought on some performance anxiety on Michelle--certainly not their fault for showing, they were invited to be there! I just think that Michelle was already frustrated and now it was show time, and it didn't seem as if Jordon was going to be coming out anytime soon! Dr. Taylor showed up at some point to check Michelle. I think at this point she was still at 2cm. Not much progress!

Not sure exactly what time, but Charity, Michelle's sister arrived. I think at this point we were hitting a wall with fatigue, and Michelle had plateau-ed with the contractions. So we slept--that is, in-between contractions. Tuesday morning spilled into the room and it was time to check Michelle. No progress...well I think we got a "3-4cm" from the RN, so that .5 was enough for me to hold onto--Michelle wasn't buying it.

We order breakfast for Michelle--you're supposed to allow 45 minutes for delivery of the food. Need I say that we never got our food in that timely manner! (In fact one meal--the most important meal, the breakfast after she delivered took over two hours, and we didn't receive all that was ordered!!) Anyway, I head out (pun intended) to the waiting room--sorry, the "Family Lounge"--to see our guests. I inform them of where we are at with the labor, and tell them that it'd be best for them to head home and wait for the call. It was a long day, we thought for sure that we were going to have Jordon by now. I knew that Michelle was getting anxious of the Hospital and wondering if they were going to induce her or call for a C-section. Either way, I would have taken her home and delivered her myself with the aide of my sisters who I knew would have stepped to the plate--regardless, this never came to be an option.

Tuesday was a long day. After the guests left, we had a visit from the Manager of Admitting. I went out to speak with her and she apologized profusely and informed me that Large Lady was going to be written up for her disrespect, and that this wasn't the first time that this has happened with Large Lady. She explained the logic about not having a laboring mother in admitting, and how they wouldn't know what to do if this or that happened. Silly, I know. I hate excuses. Thanks for the apology. So to "make it right" she gave us a few items to "ease the pain".  She gave us a complementary valet pass, a $25 gift certificate to the Gift Shop--which I bought a "push gift" for Michelle...ok, it was for Jordon, it was a "Little Slugger" piggy bank that plays "Take me out to the ballgame"! The ladies at the Gift Shop were riding me about buying the Piggy Bank, and not getting Michelle flowers. I said to them, "C'mon, I know my wife, and she could not care less if I got her flowers. She'd love the P-Bank!" It was true. When I told Michelle of my adventure at the Gift Shop she said that I did the right thing! Hip Hip! Also, she gave me a meal voucher for the cafeteria--which I managed to rack up about $30 in food and beverage for one meal.

Later on Tuesday, my sister Sarah came in for some relief work on my part in ministering to Michelle during her contractions. At some point, she was checked and I think that she was at 5cm and 90% effaced. Still, for the work that she was doing with the contractions, I thought she'd be at least at 8cm. Sarah brought me Taco Bell! Thanks again!  Later that evening, Charity and Julie Davis arrived with the goods--Selah! Selah is a miracle working for ministering to Michelle.  All she wants to do is "give kisses"!  I knew that as soon as she saw the huge tub filled with water that she'd be all about taking a bath <insert Selah doing sign language for bath here>! Sure enough within about twenty minutes we were in the Jacuzzi! Not only did they bring Selah who is always good comic relief, but they brought some food to relieve us of the bland Hospital food! Right on! The time was about 6pm.

Shortly after the bath, Grandpa & Grandma Klassen arrived to offer support & encouragement for Michelle. At this point Michelle was checked again and there was "no change" in the dilation or effacement. Now granted, I believe that there was a ton of stuff going on with each contraction, just because the "tell-tale" signs were unambiguous, I wasn't buying that there was "no change". We discussed with Dr. Taylor our options--in other words, what we really wanted to know at this point was how much longer do we have before someone somewhere (Hospital Authority) gets nervous and evokes hegemony over our situation. Dr. Taylor assured us that it was our decision as long as Baby & Mommy were healthy--and they were, it's just that Michelle was growing more and more fatigued. Some options that were suggested for us to consider was to 1) wait it out; 2) have the water sac broken; 3) or get a shot of Morphine to help her relax, go to sleep and hopefully wake up complete and ready to deliver. Well, we immediately rejected the two later options. We counseled with those in our present company and got some of their stories when trying these other options. After that round table discussion, we met privately with Dr. Taylor and hammered him with questions about the "Morphine Induction" as we later called it. He assured that it was safe, and we believed him. So around 7:30 Michelle received her dose of Morphine--they forgot to give me mine. She awoke around 10--and during each contraction--but got a lot of well needed and deserved rest. They checked her. Can you guess? Yeah, "no change".

The Morphine lasts only 2-4 hours at the dose that she was administered, and around 11:30pm it was completely wore off. She was frustrated, but was a lot more relaxed and more comfortable with her environment. One thing that I kept telling her was that she was going to have to sell herself on the fact that this is where she is delivering, and accept the environment. It is what it is. I think at this point she became convinced of this, and we were ready to move forward. Her body was buying what her mind was trying to believe and trust. We said our "good-bye's" to Grandpa & Grandma & Selah as they headed home. Around mid-night Charity and Julie stopped by the room (Michelle had asked on Night One that she felt best laboring alone with only her Ace of a Coach--me! So everyone more-or-less, waited in the "Family Lounge") to see what was up with Michelle and say "good-night" as well. Our RN, Margaret, who was an Ace herself, hung out with us in the room for about an hour just talking--talking about our Journey in life and how we both met, the ministry et cetera. She was stalling, as Michelle requested another shot of Morphine just before Midnight, and she wanted to hold off as long as possible so as to aide Michelle in sleeping through the night. Around 1:15am on Wednesday morning,  the shot was administered in the buttocks. Michelle was lights out. So was I.

I groggily woke over the next two hours as Michelle labored in her sleep. At one point, Michelle startled me out of my Melatonin induced sleep telling me she need her Coach to help her to the toilet. "What time is it?" she inquired. I squinted at the clock, "3:27am". We stumbled into the bathroom. Michelle relieves the urge. She's got to stand up now because a contraction is coming on like a locomotive to mow her down! I take all her weight into me as she relaxes in my arms. She is so introverted at this point--humming that sweet sweet laboring hum, that deep moan from where deep calls out to deep. We struggle over to the bed. I get Margaret. She checks Michelle. Guess what? She slept through transition and was 100% complete! Jordon was right there ready to meet us!!!! Michelle's first words were, "Get Selah here." I love it! That is all she wanted, was that Selah be right there, front and center for her brother's birth! And believe you me, I've got pictures of Selah laying on her stomach, double fisting some crackers, simultaneously kicking her legs on the bed, facing the birth canal--completely aware of what is about to happen!!

I run through the mental list of people that I knew Michelle wanted me to call, and I start calling. First call was Grandpa & Grandma Klassen who'd be bringing Selah. Sarah was next on the list, as she was slated to assist in the birth--no answer. She was trying to beat a sinus infection and knocked herself out with some Nyquil earlier that evening. Charity answered on the first ring, she was in her car and here I think before we hung up seconds later! Tamara, the slated videographer was next on the list. She was an Ace! The list went on as family and friends that were asked to be there were called. Selah arrived with Grandpa & Grandma and it was time to push. Michelle has this uncanny ability to hold off at this moment until the party she desperately desires to be there arrives--with Selah's Birth, it was her mom who flew in from Mississippi--and now Selah needs to get here for the moment of truth!  Selah arrived with her entourage about 45 minutes later.

Selah, as I mentioned earlier gave out "kisses" to everyone--including mommy's belly which was about to give up the baby that she grew to understand was coming outside to play! She took her position at the foot of the bed and waited. Tamara got up by Michelle's head and Charity straddled a leg. I manned the video camera instead of Tamara, because Selah would fuss if she didn't have uncompromised access to me. Let the Pushing begin! 29 minutes later, my son revealed his head...then the shoulder...out popped the arm...and then the whole body of the Klassen heir! The doc says, "Who wants a baby??"  I shout, in tears of joy, "somebody take my daughter!", as she was still clinging to my left hip and the camera in my right hand. I tossed Selah over to Grandma and immediately Selah began to wail from our separation. Tamara grabs the camera from my hand. I dive on the bed next to my Heroine and take in the silent but commanding presence of our son. Wow. 53 hours later, our son was given to us through the beautiful intimacy of childbirth. Honestly, I don't know which is more intimate--the conception, or the birth and its laboring process.

Selah was still crying for her Daddy at this point (you know I eat this up!) and I reached for her back from Grandma, she leaped into my arms and immediately was calm and totally staring at her "Bubby", Jordy! She leaned in to give him kisses, "Mmmmwah!" she says as mommy taught her. Selah was so into Jordon it was incredible, and I know that she knew the entire time what was happening. God she is so brilliant! (Did I mention she knows and reciprocates about 25 signs now? Yeah, crazy. We can't wait for her and Jordy to be able to communicate through signing.)

We had the option of staying there all day and spending yet another night, and we figured, why not? We are here, and the staff at the ABC Unit (only) are wonderful! So we just kicked it all day, watched some Tiger Baseball, and slept and drank in the awesomeness of our new addition. Later that evening, before our visiting guests arrived, Michelle requested a big fat juicy Porterhouse steak from Outback Steakhouse. I made that happen (would you guess that they forgot her loaded backed potato and her steak was over cooked!).

Later on Wednesday evening we were visited by Ken with our two nephews, Ethan & Andrew. Sarah showed and shortly thereafter, Matthew & Jennifer, who are expecting on May 29th showed up, followed by Grandpa & Grandma Klassen with our daughter Selah! After the family left, we crashed early knowing it was going to be the beginning of many looooooooong nights.

Sure enough it was a long night so when 6am abruptly knocked on the door announcing it was time to gather our stuff and head out--I moved methodically and robotically getting everything ready. I took a trip down to the car and loaded it up. Came back to find that the blood test results for Jordon's Bilirubin count weren't in yet. "They should be in soon," we were told. Three and a half hours later, the results were in. He was kosher, that is except for his penis which we chose not to have circumcised.  (That's supposed to be funny!) During this annoying hiatus of waiting to leave we had an amazing conversation with Dee, one of the RN/Midwives. She assured us that we were so blessed to of had Dr. Taylor as our doctor, because if it had been any other Doctor or Midwife they would never have allowed her to labor that long without intervening. Thank God for Doctor Taylor--a "Top Doc" featured in Hour Detroit--and for him trusting my wife's instinct, body, and past birthing experience. He also commented on what an awesome birth that it was, and he loved all the family that showed up and was especially impressed with Selah, who is one of his patients!

When we arrived at home, Selah was hard at work playing with her toys, reading her books and patiently awaiting her playmate and best friend to arrive. I walked in with Jordon in the car seat and set it down on the rug facing her. She looked at both of her parents and kept on playing--playing "hard to get" that is! She is so funny! I moved in for the attack and smothered her with kisses. She made the sign for "Baby" and went in to lay some big kisses on him! "Mmmmmwah!" and another one for Mommy.

And they lived happily ever after!