Birth Story | Torjus Robert Johnson

We should probably explain how to say his name. Chances are, you puzzled over it for moment before moving on, figuring it wasn’t worth attempting!

Imagine saying “victorious” then just take off the “vic”. That’s the simplest explanation.

His name is Norwegian so if we had strong Norwegian accents we’d actually say “Tor-yoos”, but we felt that was a little too much. 🙂

And to make it easy…we call him Tor.

So, how did Torjus come into this world? Fast. He came into it fast. With a really squished head. Sorry buddy…you got a lot cuter a day or two in. 🙂

Torjus Robert

It was November 28, 2015. Our baby boy was due today.

I woke up, noting that there were contractions happening every 45 minutes, but I was trying my hardest to pretend they weren’t. “Just hold out one more day, buddy, then our midwife, Chillon, can be here!”

But, just like now, this boy does what he pleases.

At 1:00pm, I took Reagan upstairs and laid her down for a nap and went to do my makeup. As I stood at the counter a contraction came on. I recall thinking “this feels like when my water broke with Reagan”.
Before I even finished that thought, “POP”, my water broke. Thank goodness I was in the bathroom! When my water breaks, it’s like a flood.

I asked Brandon to bring me some new pants and called my parents to ask them to head over as well as informing my sister-in-law who would be taking photos for us.

I finished packing my bag while trying not to leak water everywhere, making my way through 3 pairs of pants by the time we left.

The Hospital

We arrived at the hospital at 1:45pm. They hooked me up to the monitors and checked me…I was at a 5! I knew right then that this was going to be fast. Thankfully, the nurse knew it as well and started filling the tub.

The on-call midwife arrived and as they did their checking they told me my water hadn’t broken. I laughed…loudly. “Believe me, it broke. I have multiple pairs of soaked pants to prove it if you’d like.”
After checking further, they decided it had broken up high and that there was still a bulge of water holding him in so they wanted to break it.

Why not? Let’s do this thing.

I was already at an 8.

As the contractions would come on, our baby’s heart rate would slow down. Enough so that they wanted to continue monitoring me. I wasn’t thrilled. I wanted in that tub…this baby was just ready to get out.

The contractions were hitting hard now and being strange. One would come lightly, then the next three would be strong and right on top of each other with no break. I worked hard to remain calm through those long contractions, reminding myself there would be an end to them…eventually.

At 2:45pm, one hour after arriving, they gave me the go ahead to get into the tub.

The tub is maybe 7-10 feet away from the bed. I had to stop twice for contractions before practically leaping into the tub so I would be sure to make it there before this baby got out!

During the second contraction as I headed for the tub, a nurse began closing the blinds to the windows for privacy (keep in mind, we’re on the third floor and it’s daytime so no one was gonna see in). I mumbled through the contraction “leave those open” and Brandon, my mom, and sister-in-law laughed at me knowing EXACTLY why I wanted those curtains open.

Natural light. Don’t take away my beautiful light for the photos! 🙂

I made it two contractions in the tub and said “I’m pushing on the next one”. 3 pushes in…maybe 2 minutes later and out he came!! Born at 3:01pm (I knew I needed in that tub!!).