The Famous Story of Lucy's Birth

****W A R N I N G**** This is a BIRTH story...there is a little BIRTH talk....if you don't want to hear about BIRTH, DO NOT READ. Although I left out stuff that I would normally say if we were talking, there are still a few references to some BIRTHish things...consider yourself warned....here goes....


The thoughts of typing out Lucy's birthstory make me feel overwhelmed....there are so many crazy details, that I am sure I will leave some out but anyway, here are the highlights....of course, some details we will have to keep to ourselves, don't want to scare ya'll away too bad..ok, let me preface the story by saying that with the boys we always found out the sex and I was induced both times and given an epidural....anybody who knows me knows the story of Charlie's birth and all my troubles, well, without going into too much detail, I decided by baby #3 that God made women's bodies for giving birth...He sure knows more about my body than a doctor does and I wanted to experience giving birth the way God intended...it could not be half as bad as the after effects I had from epidurals...so, seriously, I prayed the whole 9 months that God would PLEASE let me experience this, that He would let me go into labor on my own, you get the idea. We were doing the Bradley Method (which is a great book by the way)..it is called Natural Childbirth The Bradley Way. It basically explains what is going on with your body when you are feeling pain in childbirth, which is what we are scared of...once we know what is going on, it really takes the fear away and you can relax and your body can do what it was created by God to do...no crazy breathing and stuff like that...we both read it and had our plan of how this was all going to go down. So, I had had false labor 2 weeks leading up to her birth and on 2 different occasions I thought it was time but within an hour or so, the contractions would stop. My due date was around August 15th and let's just say, support for natural delivery is hard to come by. I love my doctor, but basically he thought I was blowing smoke when I approached him about having no epidural and no meds. He said he would be happy to do whatever I wanted, even if that meant giving me an epidural after 15 minutes of contractions. Wrong answer. I could tell in his voice he had heard it all before, and I knew he thought I wouldn't or couldn't do it. Well, if I had ever been sure I WAS going to do it (even if it killed me trying), it was then. So, as we get closer to August he starts talking about inducing me and I stood my ground. We finally agreed that he would let me go over my due date 1 week and if nothing was happening, then I would let him induce me. I did want to be smart and wanted what was best for my baby. Well, the 15th came and went and the praying got even more serious. I begged and pleaded with the Lord. I was supposed to see my dr the 23rd if nothing had happened by then. That Sunday, the 20th, while at my sisters for lunch, I started feeling bad-weird bad and crampy--I had lost my plug!! I was sooo excited--I had wanted to experience every aspect of it, so I knew there was still a chance to go into labor. So, the next night, August 21st, me, my mom and Charles all sat down to watch a movie..I was having contractions and I knew it would probably be it, but I knew if it was really time, we had a long way to go. As we were watching, I realized that I could not really keep my focus on the movie because of the contractions, so I decided at 11:00 pm to go and take a shower while they watched. My mom said as I headed upstairs, 'now Jennifer, don't go have this baby at home...you know you might not be laying on the floor in pain before you need to go to the hospital." I was like mom, really...give me a break, I would never do that. I got out of the shower, got ready for bed and told Charles that I was going to try to get some sleep, so maybe when I woke up it would be closer to time...contractions were still happening but they were pretty far apart. I woke up around 2:30 and began to time my contractions. They were sporadic at best but increasing in their length. Charles was sound asleep, so I woke him up when I could not calculate the time for my contractions...I could not add/subtract...haha...ok, I knew it was time, so we talked and did our Bradley stuff when I would have the contractions. But they were so far apart and inconsistent...one would be 13 minutes, then 8 minutes, then 4, then 10....it was ridiculous...I mean, I am not an idiot, but this was not how 'labor' was supposed to be...they were supposed to start out far apart and then get close together and consistent. The book said that if this is your third or so baby, you should head to the hospital when your contractions are about 4 minutes apart and that sounded reasonable, we were thinking we would start heading that way when they were about every 5 minutes. So Charles got up and got a shower and I got up and started getting things ready. We were talking and I was up standing by the bed and I had another contraction...it was a really weird one and I shivered really big at the end...Charles asked me if I wanted a blanket and I said no, that it wasn't a cold shiver...I asked how long it had been since my last contraction and he said 8 minutes. It made me mad. I knew that if we went too early, they would try to convince me to get an epidural, so I really wanted to get closer to 5 or really, just for them to be remotely consistent. I said if they were still that far apart, then I was going to lay down a little longer while he finished getting ready. Then, when he was ready to go, I would get up and change clothes into something cute for the hospital:) I had on my regular sized tshirt stretched over my belly...nice:) So, frustrated, I laid down...the second I laid down, I felt a pop. My water had broken--normally, I would have been ecstatic to experience another step of the process, but there was no thinking time because as my water broke I simultaneously HAD to push...and I. mean. REALLY. I immediately told Charles to call 911, that I had to push. Now, what we had been studying said that when a womans water breaks the contractions will hurt a whole lot more, so Charles said, your water broke and you are just feeling it more. I was grabbing him and looking as seriously as I knew how with really big eyes...I was like...(LISTEN BUDDY), CALL 9-1-1 RIGHT NOW..I HAVE GOT TO PUSH. Listen people, I could not even turn from my side to my back...it is like I was paralyzed...so Charles goes and gets my mom in the next room and I am begging her to please pray for me...out loud...like I needed to hear it for real....he then headed downstairs, I thought to call 911...in actuality, he moved the vehicle out of the garage and called the hospital we were heading to which was 30 minutes away....he told them what was going on and they told him that he needed to get off of the phone and call 911...hello...listen to me!!!! He comes upstairs and the 911 operator had asked him to see if he could see the baby's head...he comes over to see...then, talking secretively, says, "yes, I can see the head" all whispery....ummm...like I do not know a babys head is coming out...cracks me up!! Not so much then...they tell him to get clean towels and some shoestring, that an ambulance is on the way, to put the phone on speaker and they were going to walk him through delivering the baby. I held off pushing the best I could for 10 minutes and finally I just couldn't anymore. She said if I had to push, then push...so I did. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster....I would come down from a contraction and just apologize...I was so sorry, I couldn't believe I had done this and I was having a baby in my bed at my house...not to mention on my new white sheets...the first nice ones I had ever had...then, as another contraction came..I would pretty much scream...not really because it hurt but because I was scared...nobody was in charge and I was freaked out!!! I only pushed about 2 times and her head was out...that is when the EMTs came in and looked like they had seen a ghost!! Nope, just me spread eagle:) Yes, I am really HAVING the baby, ambulance people, not just freaking out about having contractions, buddy!!!...there were 2 EMTs and they were eager to say that they had never delivered a baby before....PERFECT!! One of them went to see if they had any kind of delivery kit in the ambulance, of course, when they got back, I had her already. Charles suctioned her and wrapped her in a towel...they wanted to transport us 'attached' and I wasn't feeling too keen on that, so they called the on-call doctor and he said to cut the cord..so the EMT cut the cord while Charles held her...now I am going to leave out some pretty graphic stuff-- you are welcome!!...then, they transported us to the local hospital in the ambulance, not the hospital we were headed to originally. I felt like we were in a movie from the welcome we received as we pulled into the hospital parking lot...it was like we were celebrities...all of the staff was outside waiting for us:) GOD WATCHED OVER ALL OF US in the biggest way..my boys somehow stayed asleep through the whole ordeal. Mom was there to keep them asleep for us to go to the hospital and for 'clean up'. Lucy was perfect...although no one even checked her out for over 45 minutes..at all. I was fine....a little bit traumatized, but fine. Allright, alot traumatized. God is good....he gave me the most natural delivery a girl could ever dream of and I got to experience every single detail of it...it was awesome...he listens and cares about our desires...here are 2 pictures of the day she was born...


If you want to know the rest of the story, we will just have to talk sometime:) It was a day I will never forget...daddy was a hero and he was so calm! Since the day Lucy came to our family, she has filled our lives with much excitement and we wouldn't have it any other way! We don't have alot of pictures from her birth..Regan did get there to snap a few, but not many I can post, so I will leave you with these...here is Lucy at 2 weeks old in her daddy's arms...

at one year old...

at two years old...

at three years old...

and, now at four years old...she is our angel and we cannot imagine life without her:)

Happy Birthday my sweet Lucy;) Momma loves you and I love our story...