The Precipitous Arrival of Justus Paul Chruma

Several months ago, a friend of mine had a most exciting birth story. Despite their well-laid plans, she ended up delivering their third child in the front seat of their mini-van after a hectic ride to the local hospital. All was well with my friend, the baby, and her van. But, after reading her account, I felt nervous about the same thing happening to me, so Jason and I readied our mini-van "just in case." We had blankets and a shower curtain laid out in the back along with an OB kit I borrowed from the Rescue Squad where I volunteer. Our actual birth plan was to labor at home, then head to the hospital to deliver with the help of a midwife.

In the wee hours of Friday, 18 September 2009, I awoke to some contractions that had begun spontaneously. I decided to try get some sleep so that in case it was the real thing, I'd be rested. I'd had several rounds of false labor in the week prior, so I didn't get too excited. The contractions came every so often, but I did get to sleep most of the night. Around 9:30 am, things got rolling and by 10:30 am, my mom was writing down times/duration of each contraction. I had an appointment set up later that day to see the midwife, so at noon, I called her to let her know I thought that real labor was in progress. The contractions were regular and lasting between 45-75 seconds, so we were pretty hopeful this was it. She said I should continue laboring until I felt ready to come in to the office so she could check me. After hanging up the phone, I though to myself, "How will I know if I'm ready for an office visit? I'll have a better feeling for when I'm ready to go to the hospital, so I'll stay home until then."

My mom took Violet over to a neighbor's house to eat lunch and to play while I continued to labor. Our plan was to have her present for the birth, if possible, but during the labor, she needed to be elsewhere. I called Jason to let him know this was the real thing and that he should probably come home from work. He was in the middle of a meeting, so I was only able to reach a graduate student in the lab who had to go down and interrupt the meeting to tell Jason to come home. When he got home, I was pretty uncomfortable and felt that it was time to go to the hospital. He went over to pick Violet up from the neighbor and by the time he got back, I was ready to leave.

2:07 pm: The contractions were strong, but I figured that we'd get there and they would tell me I was at 6-8 cms and still had some time to go. As soon as I climbed into the back of our van, I thought, "There's no way I'm going to be able to ride in this van for 20 minutes to get to the hospital...I'm just too uncomfortable." Kneeling in the back of the van in my white t-shirt and old, grey Army shorts, I told Jason to call the Rescue Squad. As soon as he did, my water broke with gusto and immediately the head began to emerge! I couldn't believe how fast this was happening!

At this point, I realized that the shower curtain, however ingenious, was not the best choice for this type of situation. Think Slip-N-Slide! I also thought I had to get this baby out before the squad arrived...it was Friday day, and I wasn't sure who was on duty and hoped that it would be minimally embarrassing! (remember, I've volunteered there for about 4 years now) Next thing I knew, my mom appeared with a bunch of absorbent pads and saved me from the Slip-N-Slide. She had to help me pull off my Army shorts while I shouted, "Mom! What do I do? The head is coming out!" She calmly directed me to consider pushing and within 2-3 pushes, the baby was out. Mom carefully directed the baby to the floor safely onto the pads. It took us a few minutes to check to see if it was a boy or girl...we were too focused on making sure the baby was breathing.

During all of this, Jason freed Violet from her carseat, so she had a ring-side view of the birth. She kept reporting back to Jason as events unfolded and she got to announce that the baby was a boy. Jason also got on the phone with the midwife and was calling out instructions as the baby came out. Within a minute or two after delivery, the ambulance pulled up and Kostas, John H., Ross, and Will appeared. And yes, all I had on were my white t-shirt and those Army shorts hanging off one leg! It may have been more awkward for them because at that point, I really didn't care. They covered me with a sheet and I was able to slide out to the back of the van and onto the ambulance cot.

It wasn't until we got to the hospital that we found out how big he was...10 lbs and 11 ozs! I was pretty much out of it for the next 24 hours and just wanted to lie in bed. We expected the baby to be big, but he certainly exceeded all our expectations!

We chose the name Justus Paul for several reasons. Justus is a strong, masculine-sounding name and it also has some obscure Biblical references...just our style! Acts 1:23 talks about Joseph (Jason's middle name) Barsabbas who was also called Justus. He was being considered as a replacement disciple after Judas died. They drew lots and Matthias ended up being chosen. There's another reference in Acts 18:7 to a man named Titius Justus who housed Paul on one of his missionary journeys. Paul is certainly a Biblical name, but we chose it in honor of my (Laurel) mother's father. She was very close to her him growing up and he died on my 2nd birthday, so I'm the only one of her children who knew him.