double digit day.

That's right... it's Jesse's 10th birthday today, the first double digit one for him.  A friend the other day said it seems like it should be more of a celebration than it is, since most people stay in the double digits for the rest of their life.  It does seem kind of like it should be.  Well, for what it's worth, I'm calling him "double digit boy" today. :)

I thought it would be fun to post a few pics here today in honor of his special day, and since it's been a few years, I'll also re-post his birth story, just for kicks. Will you join me down memory lane?  

Why, thank you...

Not the most flattering pic of me, since I weighed my heaviest ever, but here I am about a week before Jesse was born.  I gained 54 pounds, the most ever, mostly because I was on bedrest for several months and we were trying to "plump up the baby" because we thought he was coming early.  Think lots of eggs and whole milk.  It really worked, too... see the story below. :)

Jesse with (not so) big brother Joshua, who was 21 months old at the time and really into holding people's chins. :)

Our first pic of all six of us. :)

Matt & Jesse sleeping in our room the next day, before they came in & told us Jesse needed to go to the NICU.

Jesse spent 8 days in the NICU because he was breathing too rapidly.  They put him on a bunch of antibiotics and did breathing treatments.  Here he was near the end of his time there.  The coiled up tubes made him look like he had a halo. :)

All dressed up and ready to go home at 9 days old.  He's lying on the beautiful quilt my mom made for him. :)

The boys were up before the rest of the family this morning... no big surprise there. :)  Here they're eating Jesse's breakfast request for the day, granola & yogurt.

Marissa, awesome big sister that she is, gave Jesse the gift of "being a scientist" (which he *loves*) and making Flarp.  He was very delighted!

And, without further ado, here is the retelling of Jesse's birth story... 

Jesse’s Birth Story
November 30, 20026:25 p.m.9 lb. 12.6 oz, 20 inches long
Total labor: 11 ½ hours

At about 23 weeks gestation, I started having pre-term contractions, so Matt & I promptly put me on bedrest. My doctors agreed with us. :) It was quite a challenge, with three kids in the house, one of whom was a busy toddler at the time. But people from church and Youth for Christ helped with childcare and food, and I was able to be on total bedrest for a couple of months. I did a lot of reading, spent time reading the Psalms, and crocheted a cuddly baby blanket for Jesse (that he carries around when he's sleepy). :) It was a challenging time, as well as a special time of thinking of and praying for this new little one we were soon to meet.

While on bedrest, I did a lot of reading about premature babies, and we learned that size really is a factor in how well a baby does when born early. So Matt decided to "plump up the baby", by feeding me whole milk and extra eggs every day. The "plumping up" worked, though Jesse was born full-term, after all! When all the nurses saw how big Jesse was, they asked if I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant. I just told them that my husband wanted to plump up the baby when we thought he was coming early, and it worked!! (In the process, he also "plumped up the momma", as well! I gained 54 pounds, all told, but did eventually lose all the weight!)

We decided that at 36 weeks the baby would be allright if born then, so I was going to be off total bedrest by then. I had the mistaken impression that the baby was just going to be born immediately after I got off bedrest. When I began making my appearance in public again, people acted like I was overdue. I felt like I was overdue. I'd always been one of those pregnant women who loves being pregnant and wasn't in a big rush to get the whole thing over with. So this was a new thing for me to be feeling like that. The night before I actually went into labor, I was so down in the dumps, I felt like I was going to be pregnant forever!

But, lo and behold, the next day (two days before the due date) I awoke at 7:00 a.m. having contractions about 10-15 minutes apart. I thought that I'd give birth by mid-afternoon at the latest. I sat in an easy chair all morning... the contractions were pretty strong, but I could tell we didn't need to go to the hospital yet. Around 11, Matt suggested that I take a nap, so I did. I slept about half an hour, and then came back downstairs, feeling frustrated that this was taking so long. (I'd thought with all those preterm contractions, that he'd be born in a flash!) So I said maybe we should decorate the Christmas tree we'd bought the night before. Matt had made some turkey soup, so I ate some of that. After that, things started to pick up a bit.

Around 2:00, I noticed that I wasn't talking between contractions anymore and I wanted to go lie down on the couch in the other room where it was quieter. Around 3:00, I felt the contractions get much stronger, still about 8 minutes apart, but from the way I was feeling, I thought it must be transition. When Matt came in the room a while later, I asked him to give me my Bradley student workbook, and I looked at the chart that shows how you feel during each stage of labor. I told him I was pretty sure I was in transition, so he fired off an email and a few phone calls. I called the OB unit and said I was coming.

It was pretty hard to move at this point, because when I got up the contractions were much closer together. We all bundled up and went out. Our friends Sid & Kate were going to meet us there to be with the kids and Kate was going to be with Marissa in the room if Marissa decided to witness the actual birth. As we pulled into the parking ramp and found a spot to park, Sid & Kate pulled up next to us. I got out and immediately felt nauseous. I threw up in the trash can next to the hospital entrance. Poor Sid & Kate were trying to keep the kids from coming over, and they looked more concerned than the kids did!

After a couple minutes of throwing up in the trash can while people went in and out of the hospital entrance, I was ready to go. I felt horrible. We must have been quite a sight! Me feeling sick and Matt hobbling along with his bad knee (having torn his ACL two weeks earlier), pushing me in a wheelchair, the kids tagging along with a worried-looking Sid & Kate.

Once we got settled into the room, I felt much better. The contractions were still quite strong, and I was at 8 centimeters, but I wasn't trying to move around anymore so it was a lot better. The nurses read our birth plan and were very accommodating with that. The kids & Kate came in and out of the room, and both of my doctors were in town and came to the hospital. Things were like that, pretty quiet and relaxed for almost two hours, with our George Winston CD December (really relaxing piano music!) playing in the background.

For a few contractions, I began praying silently to get through them. After a bit, I thought--Hey, I don't have to pray to get THROUGH these... why not just pray that it will go faster? So I asked God to make the labor go faster. You know how they sometimes say, "watch out what you ask for"? Well, it was kind of like that!!

My doctor Lisa (who I met when she was a student in one of my Bradley classes I taught) came in to say she was going upstairs to check on another patient. Since she was the family practice doctor on call, she had been called to look in on this woman who had had a heart attack. I was thinking, but wasn't able to speak the words, that I didn't think it was going to be long before the baby came. As soon as Lisa left the room, I had a contraction with lots of pressure down low, and sploosh! I felt the water break all over my bed. I said to Matt, "Water broke", and he checked to see that it was clear.

When I had the very next contraction, I felt my body pushing and I groaned deeply. I'm pretty reserved and don't normally make noises during labor, but this was uncontrollable. Matt said something like he was here for me, and I was thinking, "yeah, but you don't want to deliver this baby!". I think he figured what was happening, so he poked his head out the door and said, "I think it's time," and the other doctor and the nurses rushed in. Jesse's head was crowning when they came in. I was lying on my back since this had all begun while I was lying on my left side and I didn't have time to even think about getting more upright (plus the bed was cranked flat).

The birth was quite good, except for the end, when the doctor literally yanked on Jesse's head. I think we've figured out why now. His head was bruised from being squished (it was so big!), so it was entirely blue (except for his eyelids, which were bright pink), and I think the doctor thought he was going to need to be resuscitated. She had her knee up on the end of my bed and was yanking on his head... it looks terrible on the video. His shoulders got stuck for a little bit, and since I was trying to be on my side, that didn't help. So they turned me on my back to get the shoulders out.

The worst part for me was that nobody was telling me what was going on, so I didn't know what part I was working on getting out. I asked, "What's going on?" But nobody answered me. I think Matt was pretty worried because everyone else was acting concerned. But that part only lasted for a minute at the most, because the whole thing was really fast.

The second stage was the most intense thing I have ever experienced! Jesse was actually coming out against my will... I could not control it at all, and it kind of freaked me out! With all the rest of the kids, I didn't have that happen once I was completely dilated... I was pushing when I didn't feel the need to with David, Jessica & Joshua. With Marissa, I felt that overwhelming feeling that my body was pushing without me, but only after I had made a conscious decision to stand up to see if I'd feel like pushing that way. This was so different, because I had only been checked the one time, so nobody knew I was completely dilated until the baby was coming out!

It turns out that Marissa happened to choose the moment of birth to go see me, so Kate ran after her and the two of them saw Jesse's birth! Marissa really liked being there (she's seen so many births on video & TV and wanted to be there), but I think it kind of freaked Kate out. She doesn't have any children yet, and she'd never seen a birth, even on video, before. I had meant to show her some births on video, but somehow the time got away from us before I was actually in labor. I wanted to wait until the cord had stopped pulsating before it was cut, to make sure Jesse got all his blood. We waited until the placenta was delivered, which felt so relaxed and unhurried. Our son David came in shortly thereafter and cut the cord. He was pretty excited about that. And Joshua got to meet Jesse then, too.

Jesse is named after our paternal grandfathers. Matt's grandfather was named Jesse and mine was named Russell. We hadn't really settled on a girl's name, though we'd thought of Jesse Russell quite a while before he was born, which was handy--since he turned out to be a boy! Jesse's name is also special since our first daughter was named Jessica, and we'd called her "Jessie". When she died, we never expected that we'd ever use the name Jesse. But after a number of years, the name kept popping into our minds, so we decided to use it.

We were so excited to have Jesse with us in our room and not be whisked off to the NICU like Joshua had been (having been born early)! All night long, I could hardly sleep and kept opening my eyes to see Jesse all bundled up in his little crib. I kept looking at Matt and saying, "He's SO cute!!".

Since Jesse was so big, they tested his blood sugar, and it was too low, so they said he needed formula to get it back up where it should be. He was nursing great, but they said that I didn't have enough colostrum yet to do the trick. They said if his blood sugar didn't get up soon, he would end up in the NICU with an IV. Of course, we didn't want that, so he had a few meals of formula through the night.

It was quite a shock the next day when they told us they thought he needed to go to the NICU because he was breathing too rapidly. The first few days, we were kind of in denial about him needing to be there, and once I accepted it, then things were better. I had been so sure that if we kept this baby inside until he was full-term, that we wouldn't have to go through another NICU experience, but I realized that isn't necessarily the case. The people in the NICU were wonderful; we just wanted to have our son healthy & be able to take him home right away. I was glad to be able to stay in a hospitality room in the hospital so I could be with Jesse. Then I stayed in a room in the NICU with him for a couple of nights before he went home. We were SO glad to take him home, after 8 days in the NICU!!

I watched Jesse be circumcised, the day we brought him home. It was pretty interesting. After it was all done, our pediatrician said he had had some dads watch, but he thought I was the first mom. He said, "Congratulations!". This doctor has been practicing for a long time, so I was surprised when he said I was the first mom to watch... but then again, everyone seemed to think I was going to faint or something. I had wanted to watch Joshua's circumcision but allowed myself to be talked out of it, so I was determined this time to watch!

Our doctor did a great job making sure the lidocaine had taken effect before he started the circumcision. I was quite pleased. The nurse who was helping told me afterwards that she wished Dr. N could do all the circumcisions, because he does such a good job. Jesse didn't cry until he was getting cleaned up afterwards. :)

Joshua's Birth Story

Joshua Michael
February 9, 2001
(5½ weeks early)
5 lb. 5.2 oz.
18¾ inches long

The beginning of the story…
We were quite excited to be expecting our fourth child on March 18, 2001, what would have been the 6th birthday of our daughter in heaven, Jessica. But the story of Joshua’s birth actually begins 6 weeks before the due date. The pregnancy had been going fine, I’d been feeling great, and there was no indication that anything was about to happen.

On February 6, I awoke feeling wet. I asked Matt if he felt a wet spot in the bed. Even though he said he didn’t, I still wanted to make sure my water hadn’t broken early. So I went downstairs to the bathroom to check.

To my horror, I discovered it was blood! I ran back upstairs, whipped our bedroom door open and shouted, “This is not normal!” to Matt as I showed him the piece of tissue with blood on it. Then, blood started dripping down my legs. I started to cry, I was so sure the baby had died. Matt told me I had to calm down, and asked me if I’d felt the baby move. I said I hadn’t noticed. He had me lie down in the bed, and almost right away I felt the baby kick me! I was SO relieved!! Matt called the hospital and told them what was happening and that we were coming.

We all piled into the van—Matt, me, David & Marissa. On the way to the hospital, I had a few contractions. I was sure I was going into labor. We were shown into a room at the birthing center at our hospital, and soon greeted by Jody, one of our midwives. I was hooked up to the fetal monitor, and we could see that Joshua’s heart rate was doing great.

We told Jody the story as she did a quick exam to see what was going on. Sure enough, just as I had suspected, she called Dr. R, her backup for problem cases. They did an ultrasound to rule out placenta previa, and Dr. R. said she suspected a small placental abruption (separation). She was going to give me magnesium sulfate to stop the contractions. She told me that I might “feel fine, or you might feel like s---“, once I was on the magnesium sulfate. She also said that with babies before 34 weeks, there was improvement with a shot of bethamethazone, a steroid that help mature the lungs if the baby is being born early. She said there wasn’t really any evidence that it helps once you get to 34 weeks. We ended up not doing it.

A nurse came in to start the IV, and everything began to go black. I told her I thought I was passing out (which I’d never done before), and Matt told me to get on my left side. This worked immediately! I had been lying on my back for quite a while everyone was examining me, and that’s not good for the mother or baby during pregnancy. It squashes the vena cava, the blood supply to the lower body (and uterus). After a while, the contractions seemed like they had stopped. Matt asked Dr. R. if we could hold off on starting the magnesium sulfate, since I wasn’t having contractions at the time.

I didn’t know this at the time, but staying hydrated helps cut down on preterm labor. I believe my contractions stopped because I was receiving IV fluids, and they started back up again after being discharged the next day because I wasn’t staying hydrated anymore.

They wanted to keep me at the hospital for observation overnight. I felt fine, the baby seemed fine, and I wasn’t really bleeding anymore. It was more like spotting. The next day, we had an ultrasound in the Radiology Department to get a better look at what might be going on, to estimate the gestational age and to find out the baby’s gender. Dr. R. said that boys develop more slowly than girls in utero, and if it was a boy, we’d have to really be careful that I took it easy and make it to 36 weeks.

The ultrasound said the baby was at 34-35 weeks gestational age and about 4 lb. 13 oz. The technician took aim at the top of my uterus, looking down at the baby’s tush, and asked us what it looked like we were having. I said, “Well, it sure looks like we’re having another son!”. Dr. R., who was standing there as well, said, “No cooking for you!”.

I was sent home that afternoon, on strict bedrest, to try to make it to 36 weeks without giving birth. I was only to get out of bed to take a shower or go to the bathroom. As soon as I got home, I started having contractions again! These weren’t regular, but I shouldn’t have been having them, either. They stopped if I slept, so I tried to nap if the contractions picked up. I kept having on again, off again contractions, and my spotting never really stopped.

On Thursday, I had several contractions in one hour, so I called Dr. R. to let her know what was going on and that I’d call her in an hour or two to let her know what was going on. Matt took David to his appointment with the dermatologist. While they were gone, my mom called to see how things were going. Matt tried several times to call me, and got a busy signal, so he rushed home, worried that I was on the phone with the hospital.

Matt told me to call Dr. R., who said to come to the hospital right away. But since nothing was happening at the moment, Matt & I decided to wait. A couple of hours later, Dr. R. called to say that Mary, the other midwife in the practice, was at the birthing center and had been waiting for us all that time! She said to just come to the office in the morning and they’d hook me up to the fetal monitor to see how things looked.

We never got our chance! At 10:30 p.m., while watching ER, I had a very strong contraction. Matt said, “This is not relaxing!” and shut off the TV. We decided to try to get some sleep, but we both tossed and turned and got very little sleep. My contractions continued, strong as ever, and I couldn’t relax. This was the most painful labor I’d ever experienced! I had been in labor three times before and had always been able to relax, and labor without drugs. I think since I was in denial about being in labor, and stressed out that it was 5 ½ weeks early, I was not able to relax.

After a while, I asked Matt if he could rub my leg, which was really tense. He started trying to help me relax, which gradually began to work. Finally I admitted to myself that I really was in labor, and I was supposed to go to the hospital if I had any more contractions! I had hesitated for so long because we were feeling so bad about the miscommunication of the previous afternoon which resulted in Mary being left hanging for 2 hours.

Matt went downstairs to put more wood in the fire, around 2:00 a.m. I laid in bed a while, relaxing through more contractions, then decided we’d better go to the hospital because these contractions were not stopping. We called our friend Susie, who had said to give her a call if we needed somebody to be with the kids in the middle of the night. We didn’t bring a camera or camcorder or any CDs, since we were still in denial about this being the actual birth. So this birth was our only one without photography of any kind, and without background music.

The birth…
We drove to the hospital during a blizzard, but most of the roads had been plowed already, which made it a lot easier for driving. I was surprised at the amount of traffic on the roads for 3:00 a.m.

We arrived at the birthing center and Matt pushed me in a wheelchair since I wasn’t supposed to be up. We were shown to the triage room, where I changed into a hospital gown. Everyone seemed so relaxed. I said to Matt, “Do you think they know I’m at 34 weeks?” He said, “They know.” Our nurse, Kathy, came in to check me, and I was at 5 centimeters. I said, “Oh, boy! I guess we’re having a baby today!” On the fetal monitor, we could see the contractions, as well as the fact that the baby’s heart rate was fine.

We got settled into a room and Kathy started an IV. I was given Ampicillin, an antibiotic, intravenously, in case the preterm labor was caused by an infection. We were full of questions about how our son would do being born 5 ½ weeks early. Kathy got a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse to answer our questions. It was so reassuring to know that he would probably do just fine!

In the room, we had quite an assortment of people: Dr. R., Kathy, a couple extra OB nurses who were sitting at the table, and a couple of nurses. My labor seemed to get easier the further along I got. Not at all what I’d just taught the couples in my first Bradley natural childbirth class!! The nurses asked if I was always like this in labor, and started to say that I should be on “A Baby Story”, but changed their mind because I was making it look too easy!

At 6:50 a.m., I was completely dilated to 10 centimeters. I started bleeding heavier and Dr. R. wanted him out soon, so she ruptured my membranes. I tried standing with my arms wrapped around Matt’s neck, to see if I might have an urge to push that way (it had worked the time before), but it didn’t work. After a few minutes of that, one of the nurses got a birthing stool and they put it on the lowered foot end of my bed. It didn’t seem very sturdy up there like that. I perched myself on it, using Matt on my right side for support.

I prefer not to push unless there is a strong urge to push. I don’t care for directed pushing, when everyone else in the room counts to 10 and yells, “Push! Push!”. This time, I had read about self-directed pushing, when the mom just decides to push and does it without the urge, directing herself to do it. That’s what I did this time. I was so glad I’d just finished teaching that Bradley class, as it was all fresh in my mind. Tuck my chin in to create more pressure when pushing down, hold my breath, push…

I’d been thinking the baby would be this tiny, red thing that would just pop out. It wasn’t quite like that! It burned a little when I pushed him out at 7:01 a.m., but I didn’t tear. They told me I just had “skid marks”, tiny tears that are too small to repair.

The baby was crying lustily, he was pink, and he looked so much bigger than what I’d imagined! The cord had been around his neck, so Dr. R. quickly clamped and cut it. His APGARS were 8 at 1 minute and 9 at 5 minutes! (Not bad for somebody born 5 1/2 weeks early!) The baby was whisked away to be examined, but Matt nabbed him and tried to get me to nurse him. I was so focused on the nurses and doctor trying to get him that I didn’t cooperate. :(

In just a moment, everyone was gone! The baby was taken to the NICU, Matt and the NICU nurses with him. Dr. R. darted off to do a Cesarean at the other hospital in our area. Since the baby was born right at a shift change, Kathy was trying to bring the next nurse up to speed on what was happening. So there I was, alone, less than 10 minutes after giving birth. Very different from my previous experiences! I called the kids to tell them their little brother had been born, and then called my parents to tell them.

We hadn’t had any names chosen, since we thought we had a few more weeks to decide. Joshua was the only boy name we’d really talked about, and it took a day before we decided to name him Joshua. Just plain Joshua, not Josh. His middle name, Michael, is the same as Matt’s middle name. Joshua was born on Matt’s brother Mark’s birthday. I remembered that a couple of days later.

Joshua had to stay in the NICU for 6 days following his birth. He needed a little help with breathing the first day, and then after that just needed a little time and to get a little bit bigger. (I could write pages about his stay in the NICU, but I will spare you that, since this is already long!!) I was able to stay in the hospital in some hospitality rooms, and the nurses called me when he needed to be fed during the night. After a few days, I was able to stay right in his room in the NICU, which was so great!

We were SO glad when we could take Joshua home with us!

Our New Year's Teenager!

Wow, it's so hard to believe it's been 13 years since our New Year's baby--Marissa--was born! She is a joy to have in our family and such a huge blessing to us. I am *so* very thankful that God blessed us with Marissa and that I had the privilege of birthing her 13 years ago today. What a blessing to be her mother!

Since I've been re-posting everyone's birth stories this year, here's another for you...

The birth of...
Marissa Kay
January 1, 1997
9:28 a.m.
8 lb. 8 oz., 20 inches

All through my pregnancy, with a due date of January 10, we had thought it would be fun to have a New Year’s baby… but we didn’t really expect it to happen! I’d thought the baby would be born around the 4th or 6th. But we guessed wrong!

Throughout the day on December 31, I had contractions that felt just a little stronger than Braxton-Hicks practice contractions. I figured that these contractions were probably doing some of the work of dilating my cervix, since I was obviously going to have a baby soon. So I was happy just enjoying the day, finishing sewing the new cover I was putting on the infant car seat. Matt was on Christmas break from grad school, so we were enjoying a lot of good family time.

We went to the Olive Garden and waited a LONG time for a table, standing for almost 2 hours! I was having stronger contractions then, and we thought maybe we would have a New Year’s baby, after all! Finally, a manager noticed my large belly… soon we had a table! We told him we thought we might be having the baby that night, and with a worried look (thinking, of course, that I’d have the baby right there, on a super-busy night!), he told us to please not tell him that! We hadn’t decided yet on names for the baby, so while we waited for our food to come, Matt said, “Maybe we should talk about names!”

Later, we went to our next-door neighbors’ house for a New Year’s Eve party. Matt told everyone there that we thought I might be in labor. Wouldn’t you know it, after that my contractions stopped! After a while, we thought since my body was taking a break from contractions, I should go home and sleep! I took David home and got him to bed, then finished gathering everything I wanted ready in case I was in labor. At midnight, our neighbors let off fireworks and I looked down at my belly and said, “Happy New Year!” Matt came home around 1:00 and we went to bed.

At 4:20 a.m., I was awakened by strong contractions. I lay in bed for a while, relaxing through the contractions. I didn’t want to wake Matt until I felt we needed to go to the hospital, because I knew he was really tired. I got out of bed and dressed, then went out to the living room. When I felt that I was getting really close, I woke Matt, and called the hospital to tell them we were coming.

When I called, they didn’t believe me! I explained that this was my third baby and when I felt like this the other 2 times, it wasn’t long at all. Finally, the nurse reluctantly gave in and said to come in and they would see if we could stay! There were only 2 birthing rooms open in the hospital.

I called my parents around 6:00 a.m. to let them know to head out. Since at the time we lived only about a 2 ½ hours’ drive away, I thought they’d need to get going right away! I called our friend Mavis, who’d said she could be with David at the birth to explain what was happening. She said she’d meet us there.

We got to the hospital at 6:50 a.m. I had to rest on a bench in the downstairs lobby because I had another contraction. The people at the reception area saw us coming and sent us right toward the private elevator for laboring couples.

After arriving at the OB unit, they put us in a triage room to wait for a resident to check me and see if I was really in labor. I knew I had to be at least 6 or 7 centimeters dilated, and Matt kept trying to get someone to just put us in a birthing room. The bed in the triage room was more like an examining table, really hard to lie comfortably enough to relax on.

We were really feeling like we were just “numbers” in the large university hospital (which was the only one our insurance was good for), not getting a very personal feeling from the experience thus far. Finally, someone came and examined me. Everyone sprang into action once they realized I was at 7 or 8 centimeters! Our nurse came and took us to a birthing room in the high-risk area because it was now the only room left.

Lynn, our nurse, was wonderful! We learned that she was only 3 months away from being a Certified Nurse Midwife. We definitely got the advantages of her midwifery training! She made the difference in the whole birth experience. Lynn read our birth plan and commented on the things we had put in it. She didn’t strap me to the external fetal monitor, but occasionally checked for the baby’s heartbeat by holding the monitor to my belly for several seconds. Lynn was very quiet and just sat by my left side, watching me to know when I was having contractions. When she spoke, it was very quietly.

My doctor arrived (on a day off!) with her three kids in the waiting area. (I was so pleased, since we had been told we only had a 20% chance of having our own doctor when I went into labor!) She said I could push any time I wanted to, but I was reluctant to try. I wanted to wait until I couldn’t keep from pushing. Dr. S was called to the lobby to nurse her son, and Lynn began suggesting different more vertical positions to see if I might feel more like pushing. After she suggested standing, I tried that. I stood up with Matt’s help, and looped my arms around his neck, facing him.

Once I did that, the baby moved down and I felt the urge to push! I pushed with that contraction and then looked over at David. He looked worried, and I told him I was okay. During the second contraction, I pushed the head out and could see the nurse reaching her arm around to get something. I asked what was happening, and she said, “The head is out!” (She was reaching for the thing to suction the mouth.) She pressed the call button for the doctor to come back. As Dr. S walked in and put on gloves, I pushed the body out and she reached out in time to catch the baby. She said, “Now, let’s not tell her what we have here,” and suggested that I turn around and get onto the bed. When I did that, I saw that we had another daughter!

It was so amazing how gravity helped so much when I had no urge to push! All Marissa needed was a little gravity to help her come into position, and my body took over. I nursed her right away, to stimulate more contractions to help the placenta detach more quickly. They let the cord stop pulsating before clamping it (as we had requested), and I cut the cord, surprised at how tough it was.

We named our new daughter Marissa, which was a name we'd considered when pregnant the first time around. Her middle name is Kay, which is my mom's middle name as well as my own. I always wanted to name our first daughter with this middle name, since I like it so much.

Our first daughter, Jessica (second child), had the middle name Kay, as well. She died when she was 6 1/2 months old. When I was pregnant again, I knew I wanted to use Kay again as the middle name if we had a girl. What's funny is that our kids were so used to all the girls in our family having the same middle name, that when our next daughter Naomi was born, they almost expected her middle name to be Kay, too! (Her middle name is Grace.)

Jesse=Seven

Today is our son Jesse's 7th birthday! We made his (and the rest of the kids') day last night by buying our Christmas tree and decorating it. We enjoyed hot chocolate during the process, Matt took plenty of photos, all the while enjoying Christmas music on the stereo. Matt looked at the clock at one point and we were all shocked that it was almost 11:30!! So we all scurried off to bed, and today the kids & I finished decorating the tree. We had to get the boxes all put away because we're having friends over for dinner to celebrate Jesse's big day. :)

Since this seems to be the month of re-posting our family's birth stories, here's another for you. Jesse was by far our largest baby, and you can read the story to find out why...

Jesse’s Birth Story
November 30, 2002
6:25 p.m.
9 lb. 12.6 oz, 20 inches long
Total labor: 11 ½ hours

At about 23 weeks gestation, I started having pre-term contractions, so Matt & I promptly put me on bedrest. My doctors agreed with us. :) It was quite a challenge, with three kids in the house, one of whom was a busy toddler at the time. But people from church and Youth for Christ helped with childcare and food, and I was able to be on total bedrest for a couple of months. I did a lot of reading, spent time reading the Psalms, and crocheted a cuddly baby blanket for Jesse (that he carries around when he's sleepy). :) It was a challenging time, as well as a special time of thinking of and praying for this new little one we were soon to meet.

While on bedrest, I did a lot of reading about premature babies, and we learned that size really is a factor in how well a baby does when born early. So Matt decided to "plump up the baby", by feeding me whole milk and extra eggs every day. The "plumping up" worked, though Jesse was born full-term, after all! When all the nurses saw how big Jesse was, they asked if I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant. I just told them that my husband wanted to plump up the baby when we thought he was coming early, and it worked!! (In the process, he also "plumped up the momma", as well! I gained 54 pounds, all told, but did eventually lose all the weight!)

We decided that at 36 weeks the baby would be allright if born then, so I was going to be off total bedrest by then. I had the mistaken impression that the baby was just going to be born immediately after I got off bedrest. When I began making my appearance in public again, people acted like I was overdue. I felt like I was overdue. I'd always been one of those pregnant women who loves being pregnant and wasn't in a big rush to get the whole thing over with. So this was a new thing for me to be feeling like that. The night before I actually went into labor, I was so down in the dumps, I felt like I was going to be pregnant forever!

But, lo and behold, the next day (two days before the due date) I awoke at 7:00 a.m. having contractions about 10-15 minutes apart. I thought that I'd give birth by mid-afternoon at the latest. I sat in an easy chair all morning... the contractions were pretty strong, but I could tell we didn't need to go to the hospital yet. Around 11, Matt suggested that I take a nap, so I did. I slept about half an hour, and then came back downstairs, feeling frustrated that this was taking so long. (I'd thought with all those preterm contractions, that he'd be born in a flash!) So I said maybe we should decorate the Christmas tree we'd bought the night before. Matt had made some turkey soup, so I ate some of that. After that, things started to pick up a bit.

Around 2:00, I noticed that I wasn't talking between contractions anymore and I wanted to go lie down on the couch in the other room where it was quieter. Around 3:00, I felt the contractions get much stronger, still about 8 minutes apart, but from the way I was feeling, I thought it must be transition. When Matt came in the room a while later, I asked him to give me my Bradley student workbook, and I looked at the chart that shows how you feel during each stage of labor. I told him I was pretty sure I was in transition, so he fired off an email and a few phone calls. I called the OB unit and said I was coming.

It was pretty hard to move at this point, because when I got up the contractions were much closer together. We all bundled up and went out. Our friends Sid & Kate were going to meet us there to be with the kids and Kate was going to be with Marissa in the room if Marissa decided to witness the actual birth. As we pulled into the parking ramp and found a spot to park, Sid & Kate pulled up next to us. I got out and immediately felt nauseous. I threw up in the trash can next to the hospital entrance. Poor Sid & Kate were trying to keep the kids from coming over, and they looked more concerned than the kids did!

After a couple minutes of throwing up in the trash can while people went in and out of the hospital entrance, I was ready to go. I felt horrible. We must have been quite a sight! Me feeling sick and Matt hobbling along with his bad knee (having torn his ACL two weeks earlier), pushing me in a wheelchair, the kids tagging along with a worried-looking Sid & Kate.

Once we got settled into the room, I felt much better. The contractions were still quite strong, and I was at 8 centimeters, but I wasn't trying to move around anymore so it was a lot better. The nurses read our birth plan and were very accommodating with that. The kids & Kate came in and out of the room, and both of my doctors were in town and came to the hospital. Things were like that, pretty quiet and relaxed for almost two hours, with our George Winston CD December (really relaxing piano music!) playing in the background.

For a few contractions, I began praying silently to get through them. After a bit, I thought--Hey, I don't have to pray to get THROUGH these... why not just pray that it will go faster? So I asked God to make the labor go faster. You know how they sometimes say, "watch out what you ask for"? Well, it was kind of like that!!

My doctor Lisa (who I met when she was a student in one of my Bradley classes I taught) came in to say she was going upstairs to check on another patient. Since she was the family practice doctor on call, she had been called to look in on this woman who had had a heart attack. I was thinking, but wasn't able to speak the words, that I didn't think it was going to be long before the baby came. As soon as Lisa left the room, I had a contraction with lots of pressure down low, and sploosh! I felt the water break all over my bed. I said to Matt, "Water broke", and he checked to see that it was clear.

When I had the very next contraction, I felt my body pushing and I groaned deeply. I'm pretty reserved and don't normally make noises during labor, but this was uncontrollable. Matt said something like he was here for me, and I was thinking, "yeah, but you don't want to deliver this baby!". I think he figured what was happening, so he poked his head out the door and said, "I think it's time," and the other doctor and the nurses rushed in. Jesse's head was crowning when they came in. I was lying on my back since this had all begun while I was lying on my left side and I didn't have time to even think about getting more upright (plus the bed was cranked flat).

The birth was quite good, except for the end, when the doctor literally yanked on Jesse's head. I think we've figured out why now. His head was bruised from being squished (it was so big!), so it was entirely blue (except for his eyelids, which were bright pink), and I think the doctor thought he was going to need to be resuscitated. She had her knee up on the end of my bed and was yanking on his head... it looks terrible on the video. His shoulders got stuck for a little bit, and since I was trying to be on my side, that didn't help. So they turned me on my back to get the shoulders out.

The worst part for me was that nobody was telling me what was going on, so I didn't know what part I was working on getting out. I asked, "What's going on?" But nobody answered me. I think Matt was pretty worried because everyone else was acting concerned. But that part only lasted for a minute at the most, because the whole thing was really fast.

The second stage was the most intense thing I have ever experienced! Jesse was actually coming out against my will... I could not control it at all, and it kind of freaked me out! With all the rest of the kids, I didn't have that happen once I was completely dilated... I was pushing when I didn't feel the need to with David, Jessica & Joshua. With Marissa, I felt that overwhelming feeling that my body was pushing without me, but only after I had made a conscious decision to stand up to see if I'd feel like pushing that way. This was so different, because I had only been checked the one time, so nobody knew I was completely dilated until the baby was coming out!

It turns out that Marissa happened to choose the moment of birth to go see me, so Kate ran after her and the two of them saw Jesse's birth! Marissa really liked being there (she's seen so many births on video & TV and wanted to be there), but I think it kind of freaked Kate out. She doesn't have any children yet, and she'd never seen a birth, even on video, before. I had meant to show her some births on video, but somehow the time got away from us before I was actually in labor. I wanted to wait until the cord had stopped pulsating before it was cut, to make sure Jesse got all his blood. We waited until the placenta was delivered, which felt so relaxed and unhurried. Our son David came in shortly thereafter and cut the cord. He was pretty excited about that. And Joshua got to meet Jesse then, too.

Jesse is named after our paternal grandfathers. Matt's grandfather was named Jesse and mine was named Russell. We hadn't really settled on a girl's name, though we'd thought of Jesse Russell quite a while before he was born, which was handy--since he turned out to be a boy! Jesse's name is also special since our first daughter was named Jessica, and we'd called her "Jessie". When she died, we never expected that we'd ever use the name Jesse. But after a number of years, the name kept popping into our minds, so we decided to use it.

We were so excited to have Jesse with us in our room and not be whisked off to the NICU like Joshua had been (having been born early)! All night long, I could hardly sleep and kept opening my eyes to see Jesse all bundled up in his little crib. I kept looking at Matt and saying, "He's SO cute!!".

Since Jesse was so big, they tested his blood sugar, and it was too low, so they said he needed formula to get it back up where it should be. He was nursing great, but they said that I didn't have enough colostrum yet to do the trick. They said if his blood sugar didn't get up soon, he would end up in the NICU with an IV. Of course, we didn't want that, so he had a few meals of formula through the night.

It was quite a shock the next day when they told us they thought he needed to go to the NICU because he was breathing too rapidly. The first few days, we were kind of in denial about him needing to be there, and once I accepted it, then things were better. I had been so sure that if we kept this baby inside until he was full-term, that we wouldn't have to go through another NICU experience, but I realized that isn't necessarily the case. The people in the NICU were wonderful; we just wanted to have our son healthy & be able to take him home right away. I was glad to be able to stay in a hospitality room in the hospital so I could be with Jesse. Then I stayed in a room in the NICU with him for a couple of nights before he went home. We were SO glad to take him home, after 8 days in the NICU!!

I watched Jesse be circumcised, the day we brought him home. It was pretty interesting. After it was all done, our pediatrician said he had had some dads watch, but he thought I was the first mom. He said, "Congratulations!". This doctor has been practicing for a long time, so I was surprised when he said I was the first mom to watch... but then again, everyone seemed to think I was going to faint or something. I had wanted to watch Joshua's circumcision but allowed myself to be talked out of it, so I was determined this time to watch!

Our doctor did a great job making sure the lidocaine had taken effect before he started the circumcision. I was quite pleased. The nurse who was helping told me afterwards that she wished Dr. N could do all the circumcisions, because he does such a good job. Jesse didn't cry until he was getting cleaned up afterwards. :)

Well, I'm not sure how many people have made it to the end of this birth story, but I hope you enjoyed it! I've got some shopping & cooking to do before our friends get here in 3 hours...

My Birth-Day Story :)

Four years ago, I asked my mom if she could write out my birth story, and I posted it on my blog. I'm re-posting it here today in case any of you "birth story addicts" like me (I know you're out there!) would like to read it. :)

So, here you get to hear from Mom...

On Nov 20th I got up to use the bathroom at 8 am & had a "bloody show", so I went back to the bedroom & asked Dad if he was ready to be a daddy today. We laid in bed & talked. I did not eat all day as back then they didn't want you to have full stomachs while in labor. But we had a box of mixed chocolates (a Christmas custom I had when I was a kid & Dad & I took it as one of ours) in the house so I had "snacks" of chocolate throughout the day.

I don't really remember totally when the pains started, but had pains off & on all day, and at 11 p.m. we went to the hospital, as the pains were 5 minutes apart & regular. But once there things moved slowly. I had an epidural for pain it was a very common thing back then to have and the lady in labor didn't really have much say, just given what the doctor ordered. I would know I was having a contraction because I would get sick to my stomach each time. I ended up with such a bad backache too.

Each time I had a pelvic done Dad was sent out of the room & no one bothered to let him know he could come back in, so I spent a lot of time alone & felt bad. His family was out in the waiting room & I thought he was just staying with them, but he said it was just that he didn't know he could come back in. Back then only the fathers were allowed in the labor room. At 1:30 p.m. Nov 21st I was taken to the delivery room & Dad left behind—they didn't allow fathers in the delivery rooms then.

I had the normal size episiotomy, another normal customary thing, but soon they realized that was not good enough & did a bigger one. They had to rupture the bag of waters at that point too. At 2 p.m. you were born. I was put under, supposedly because the placenta didn't want to come & they would have to go get it. But later I realized it was because you had been cut during the second episiotomy & they wanted to check out your eye without me awake. I had only a very short peek at you before being put under and was still very sleepy when they wheeled me out to the recovery room, so I forgot to tell Dad that you were a girl and he had to ask.

Dad watched you get your first bath, then he had to leave for a job interview, which actually was supposed to have been earlier (2:00 p.m.) but he had called & asked if he could come later. He did get the job and started the Monday after Thanksgiving in the engineering department.

I didn't get to hold you or feed you until 6 a.m. on the 22nd. No one helped me get going on nursing; therefore it didn't go well, also I did not have enough milk to satisfy a big baby. While at the hospital you were kept in the baby nursery as they did not have babies in the mother's rooms in those days. Anyway, each feeding time a different nurse would come in & say, "Oh, you are the mother of the big one!". Your left eyelid was swollen for several days so I couldn't see your eye. You did smile at me while we were still at the hospital. We came home from the hospital on November 26th to start life as a family. What a blessing!

(Mom didn't say HOW big I was--I was 10 lb. 6 oz. at birth!)

Thanks, Mom, for going through that to have me! I'm very glad to be here!! Thanks, also, for sharing my birth story! I'm glad you're my mom! :)

Happy 16th Birthday, David!! :)

This year David's birthday is just amazing me. Why? I'm not sure... maybe it's the fact that it's been 16 years since he was born, he's in his second year of high school, he's as tall as me, he can drive a car, his voice is deepening, he is becoming a man before my eyes.

I know the following remark will make me sound old, but it seems just like yesterday that I gave birth for the first time and held this amazing little person in my arms. I had always wanted to be a mom but had no idea how amazing it really was until I had David in my arms. It just seemed so natural, even though I didn't have a lot of baby experience and had always felt somewhat uncomfortable with other people's babies. None of that mattered because I was a mom now, and this was our baby. Wow!

It's been four years since I posted David's birth on my blog, and since I'm a birth story addict, I thought I'd put it on this year's birthday post. So, here you go...

the birth story of...
David Edward
(after Matt's dad, David, who died
a year before we were married and
my dad, Edward, who is very much still alive)
November 9, 1993 * 11:38 a.m. * 8 lb. 3 oz.

On the day of my due date, November 8, 1993, I had an 8:00 prenatal appointment. It was a very snowy day and we put my hospital suitcase and my parents' camcorder in the trunk, just in case I should go into labor, so we wouldn't have to drive back home to get those things. I really thought I'd be at least a week past my due date when I went into labor, since this was my first child, so I wasn't expecting to need those items. We were glad, though, that we had them with us.

At the appointment, my doctor stripped the membranes. My doctor also set up a time for us to have a non-stress test. Matt & I left and stopped by the homeless shelter he managed before my appointment at the OB unit. While I was sitting in the car, I started having contractions that were different than the Braxton-Hicks I was used to. I know this sounds cliche, but I *knew* I was in labor. (Granted, I didn't know it was going to be 26 hours before we'd meet our baby, but I knew I was in labor!)

When we arrived at the OB unit for my non-stress test, they hooked me up to an external fetal monitor and told me to press a button every time I felt the baby move. They were checking to see that his heart rate was going up when he moved. This checked out fine, and one other thing the nurse could see was the fact that I was having contractions. She said not to get too excited, but that I might be in the beginning stages of labor.

We checked with some friends who live in town to see if I could hang out at their house while Matt went to work. The weather was getting worse, and we didn't want me to be at home when we knew I'd need to be back in town eventually. The day passed slowly, with contractions happening regularly but not very strong or close together. Our friends had somewhere to go for dinner and said we could stay as long as we needed. I called the OB unit about 5:00 and they said we could come in whenever we felt like we needed to. I didn't feel like I needed to be there yet, so we stayed a while longer.

About 8:00, we knew our friends were coming home soon and didn't want to impose on them any longer, so we decided to head to the hospital. Once in the car, I burst into tears. I was just so scared about the whole thing, so uncertain of what was going to happen. I still didn't feel like I needed to be at the hospital, but didn't want to go home in a blizzard, either.

The nurses told us to try to get some rest, and I thought, "How am I going to sleep? I'm in LABOR!!". But I learned a few hours later that even in the throes of active labor, you DO sleep! Everyone pretty much left us alone during the night, other than the occasional nurse taking my vital signs and turning on the fetal monitor for a little while.

It was about 2 or 3 in the morning when things started getting really active. Matt had fallen asleep in the chair, and I remember feeling SO tired and feeling so jealous of the postpartum moms down the hall, who were sleeping!

Around 9:00 a.m., a resident who we'd never met before and looked WAY too young to be a doctor came in to check me. My doctor was in the middle of looking for someone to watch her 2-year old daughter (it was her day off) so she could come. My parents arrived after driving 8 hours in a blizzard. The resident and attending doctor on call decided to rupture my membranes, so my parents went out to the waiting area.

It seemed like suddenly the contractions got MUCH stronger! I couldn't even tell Matt I thought I was in transition. I was SO glad I had read enough during my pregnancy to know some of the symptoms of transition. It was all I could do to imagine myself riding over the tops of the waves of contractions, while clutching Matt's hand.

After about an hour of this, my contractions felt different and I said I thought I had to push. Suddenly, all the doctors and nurses were back in the room! Someone checked me and declared that I was completely dilated, and they took the bed apart and put my feet into the places where you can rest them while pushing. We had the whole counting to ten thing going on, with the nurse shouting at me that I wasn't pushing. She put an oxygen mask on me to "help the baby", and I really think she was trying to scare me into pushing this baby out.

All in all, it was only about 40 minutes of pushing (quite amazing for a first-time mom!) when I really didn't feel a strong urge to push. (I learned about THAT 9 years later!!) Matt overheard the doctors whispering about doing an episiotomy, and he spoke up and said he was pretty sure Amy didn't want one. He asked me and I said I'd rather tear than have an episiotomy. I was SO glad he was listening in and caught that!!

At 11:38 a.m., I pushed our son out, getting a small tear in the process (which I didn't feel). My doctor walked in the room about 2 minutes later, in time to catch the placenta and oversee the stitching of my tear. We named our baby David Edward, after his grandpas: Matt's dad, David, who had died 4 years earlier; and my dad, who is still very much alive.

I felt like Superwoman that day. I kept looking at David and thinking in amazement that I had actually just given birth to this little person. I had wanted to try to labor & deliver without drugs, but didn't know if it was possible. While in labor, I figured out how to relax with the contractions and never felt that I NEEDED drugs. Just when it started feeling almost out of control, it was time to push the baby out. I had also wanted to breastfeed, but both my mom and my mother-in-law had tried breastfeeding, without success. So I didn't know if that was possible either. I was SO amazed when David took right to nursing, and it worked!!

I fell totally in love with David and with motherhood. It's been an amazing journey, these past 16 years, with God carrying us through some really tough times, but this is the "career" I'd always wanted all through my growing up years. My mom has been an at-home mom since I was a small baby, and because of her example, I always thought it was the most important job for a mom to have. Thanks, Mom! :)

If you've made it this far, you're either very tolerant or you're a fellow birth story addict! Thanks for bearing with me, and I hope you enjoyed the story!!

Five years old!

Naomi is five years old today. It's hard to believe that it's been five years since I last gave birth. Wow. I'll post a photo of the birthday girl later on today. She's still sleeping at the moment. :)

If you look at the time below, you'll see I'm up at 3:00 a.m. writing this post. Even with adding three hours to make it Eastern time, I can't even really use the excuse that I was up at this hour in labor five years ago! Naomi was kind enough to allow me a full night's sleep before I went into labor. (You know, researchers do think the baby somehow triggers labor, so that's why I attribute that to her.) Jesse, too, allowed me a full night of sleep before his labor started, too. Not that it really matters...

I went to bed not really tired last night, and now I'm awake. And of course, with it being Naomi's birthday and our trip to Michigan coming up in a few days, my mind is running full tilt, regardless of the fact that I woke up at 2-something a.m. So, like I did when Naomi was a baby and I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night (something to do with the emotions of my brain tumor diagnosis, not because of a little baby), I am online.

And as mothers often do on their children's birthdays, I'm thinking of Naomi's birth. Here is her birth, as I wrote it 3 days after her birth. I thought I'd post it here for all you birth story addicts. You know you're out there. It's okay to admit it. :)

the birth of

Naomi Grace

Monday, June 21, 2004

5:07 p.m.

6 lb. 4.2 oz.

On Monday morning at 3:45, I discovered I was spotting a tiny bit, which made me wonder if something was beginning to happen. I went back to bed and a few hours later awoke to discover more of the same. I told Matt, and as we were talking, I had a strong contraction that was the first that felt like labor.

These strong but irregular contractions continued all morning, and I was in denial that this could really be labor. Around noon, I went up to take a nap with our two younger boys, Joshua and Jesse. I had a few more contractions which felt like labor but were not very close together or regular. After I got up, I told Matt that usually when they are this strong, they are closer together, so I wasn't sure what was going on.

About 2:00 in the afternoon, the contractions became a bit more regular. I called the doctor's office, and they wanted me to come in to check me and see if we should go to the hospital or go back home. I told them it was our 6th time around and I like to wait at home until it's time to go to the hospital. So they said they would talk to the doctor and call us back. When they did, they said he said that was fine and not to wait TOO long to come in!

At this point, I had to lay down in the other room where it was quieter, in order to concentrate more on relaxing through the contractions. Matt's efforts to find someone to watch the kids became more intensified as he realized things were progressing pretty quickly! Our friend Irmgard agreed to watch the kids and Matt said he'd call back in an hour or so.

After he got off the phone, he said he thought maybe we could run to the store and I didn't have to go in (he said later this was a test to see how far along I was!). I said I didn't want to go anywhere and if he went, not to be gone too long. So he decided not to go. :) Matt started having the kids pack up backpacks with a change of clothes, pajamas and toothbrushes.

My contractions started feeling as if they were almost more than I could handle, which I recognized as a classic sign of transition, the end of first-stage labor and right before time to push the baby out. I began praying my way through the contractions as I tried to relax through them. When I was doing this in my last labor, I was already at the hospital and only a few contractions from giving birth! I said to Matt, "I might need to vomit", and he got me the trash can, into which I did vomit. It was then that Matt got the older kids loading the younger ones into the van. He knew from past experience that me vomiting is a sign we are getting close to the end of labor!

Then Matt made the call to Irmgard to meet us at the hospital, and called the doctor's office and the hospital to tell them we were on our way and we didn't think it was going to be long. It was now about 4:30. Matt came back in the house to get me, and I had three contractions on the way to the van! It was a downpour outside as we made our way into town. The ride was a bit uncomfortable, and I was really not sure if we were going to make it to the hospital in time!

We arrived in the parking garage at the hospital. Irmgard was so excited that she had been there waiting for us, and Matt asked her to bring the kids to the waiting area after he wheeled me to the family birthing center. I was feeling quite a lot of pressure down low (a sign of being about ready to push!) as Matt pushed me in the wheelchair.

We got to the unit about 4:50, and the nurse was going to take us to a triage room to see if I was in labor and/or how far along I was. We told her we didn't need to go to triage; it wasn't going to be long. So we went to our room, and she left us so I could change into the hospital gown. I did this in a flash and hopped into the bed before the next contraction hit.

The nurse came back in and wanted to find the fetal heart tones. I told her I hoped she would be able to do it while I was on my left side, because I preferred lying that way, rather than on my back. This position also is better for the baby, and the contractions hurt more when you lie on your back. However, she wasn't able to find the heart tones that way and insisted that I lay on my back. I think she thought I was being uncooperative.

When the nurses did find the heart tones, they discovered that there were decelerations as low as the 50's and 60's during contractions (they like to see the heart rate at the 120's and higher). The nurses became panicky and called the doctor, telling him he needed to come NOW. One nurse did say the decelerations could be from head compression because the baby might be coming soon.

I didn't know it at the time, but the nurses had contacted the OB on call to do an emergency cesarean. Matt decided he was going to be the stabilizing force in the room and began telling me what a great job I was doing. It really helped to hear him being so encouraging and not freaking out like everyone else in the room! The nurses put an oxygen mask on me, and proceeded to start an IV right when the next contraction began. I realized that if I could just get the baby out that everything would be okay and everyone would calm down.

So I decided to just work through the HUGE contraction, partially on my back, while the nurse poked at my right hand to start the IV (this was probably one of the hardest things I have had to do!). Fortunately, I could feel my body pushing, so I gave it all I had and the baby popped out, all at once, only 17 minutes after we arrived at the hospital!! Suddenly the atmosphere in the room changed as everyone saw her good color and heard her loud crying. Nothing was wrong with this baby!! :)

Matt and the nurse caught the baby as she came out, and I opened my eyes to see her on my chest. I said, "What do we have?" and looked to see that we had a new daughter!! I had been convinced that we were having a boy, but that afternoon Matt told me he really thought it was a girl. In fact, he didn't even bring a boy outfit to the hospital with us!! I said, "Matt, you were right! It IS a girl!!".

Matt went to the waiting area and got Irmgard and the kids. They didn't know the baby was already born at first, until I tried to show them. Then everybody got up close and got to see their baby sister! It was a lot of fun!! Dr. Stevens walked in just after the baby was born and delivered the placenta, declared that I had not torn at all (yea!), and left before she was an hour old.

Irmgard said the kids could spend the night at her house, so they all left after a while to eat dinner and get ready for bed. They all seemed really excited, even Irmgard, which made us very thankful! It's hard to find someone that truly enjoys watching 4 kids, especially when two of them are very active little boys!! :)

We did not have any names picked out, because we thought we had a few more weeks to decide! So Matt & I spent the rest of the evening and the next day poring over the name books I had remembered to bring. She was 23 hours old before we settled on Naomi Grace. I have always loved the Bible story of Naomi and Ruth and their friendship, and I've always loved the name Naomi. Matt & I really like the meaning of her name: "pleasant, beautiful". Naomi certainly seems like a pleasant person so far!! We are very pleased that she is born and that we can all get to know her now!

Just a couple of notes five years after the fact. Naomi wasn't due until July 16th, hence my hesitation in believing that I was really in labor. I don't remember the length they said she was, but it was longer than she really was. The next week in the doctor's office, the numbers looked like she'd shrunk! It was just a more accurate measurement than the one at birth. :)

Naomi was born the day after Father's Day, and it was only about 55 degrees out in Marquette the day she was born! It was a *cold* summer there that year. Here in Arizona, on her birthday it can easily be twice the temperature it was on her birth-day! But this year it has been a "cool" June, so it will probably "only" get to the low 100s later on today.

There, now I feel tired again. So I'm off to bed for a few hours until the birthday girl and her excited brothers wake us up! :)

Joshua is Eight!

Eight years ago today, our son Joshua was born 5 1/2 weeks early, weighing in at 5 lb. 5.2 oz, our smallest baby at birth.

He spent a week in the NICU, working on getting a little bigger, and has been healthy ever since. He's growing like crazy lately--he usually eats more than I do at meals! God has really taken care of him over the years, and it's fun to see him changing from a little boy into a big boy. (This photo is from last November at the regional park a few miles from our house.)

Here are eight things you might like to know about Joshua...

• He was due on March 18, which was extra-special because it is the birthday of our daughter Jessica, who is in heaven.


• Joshua was born on his uncle Mark's birthday, even more fun now that we live close to them. We're going to celebrate together on Saturday.


• Joshua is really good at sorting out things. I first discovered this a few years ago when we were in a bead store, when we noticed he was picking out the little beads that had gotten mixed into the wrong bins, and finding their proper homes.


• Joshua has Matt's middle name, which is Michael.


• I once had to do the Heimlich on Joshua, when he was 3 years old, just a few days after Naomi was born. Because we had just watched a CPR video in the hospital, the choking sound I heard on the baby monitor was familiar, so I knew instantly what was going on. I ran upstairs and could tell he was choking, did the Heimlich on him, and out popped a hard candy! Whew! I was SO relieved and quite shaky afterwards when I realized how badly things could have turned out if I hadn't had that baby monitor on.


• Joshua asked Jesus to be his Savior five years ago, after talking with David & Marissa, and it's so great to know that he is my brother in Christ!


• He loves to draw, and likes to make lots of creative looking creatures in his drawings.


• Joshua has a great smile and loves to give me squishy-tight hugs. :)

If you'd like, you can read Joshua's birth story here. It was both my most painful *and* my least painful labor (very, very close to a painless labor near the end), and that was without drugs. You'll have to read the story if you're curious! :)

We are very thankful for the gift of Joshua--so glad God blessed us with him as our son!

Saturday's excitement :)

This past Saturday, I was honored to be with our friend Suze during her scheduled Cesarean! What a blessing to be one of the first people to meet her new little daughter!

Here is a pictorial birth story...

Suze got us "buzzed into" the unit.


Here are Suze's mom Berta, and both our pastors, who were at the OB Triage waiting room when the three of us got there.



Pastor B. read some Scripture to Suze before we went into pre-op. All the passages he read are ones that have been put to music. (Isaiah 40:31, etc.)



Suze took this photo of me in my paper scrubs, which were HUGE! The pants, which you can't see in this photo, were even worse than the shirt. I felt like I was in a tent!


When I went into the OR, I said, to no one in particular, that I had a camera and would it be allright if I took pictures? The nurses (in unison) said, "Of the BABY". So I made sure not to take photos of the actual surgery.


Here is Kaitlyn Lois!
born Saturday, 9/13/08 at 10:30 a.m.
8 lb. 11 oz., 19 1/2 inches long

She was covered with vernix, and here the nurse is scrubbing it into her skin. I spent a few minutes stroking Kaitlyn's head, holding one of her tiny hands and talking to her (it helped her calm down). It was humbling to realize I was doing this in place of her mother, who was still on the operating table.

Finally, Mom gets to touch Kaitlyn! I asked the anesthesiologist if she could have her arm free, since her arms were velcroed down during the surgery.



When the nurse took the baby out of the OR, I went and got Grandma, who was going to be with Suze & Kaitlyn in the recovery room. Berta was *so* excited to meet her new granddaughter!!


A few hours later, we came back with big sister Katrina, who was with Matt & the kids at our house during the birth. Here's Suze with her two girls, settling into their room together. :)

When we were there, I bent down to pick up Kaitlyn. Mmmm... I got a whiff of that *great* newborn smell! Nothing quite like it!! :)


Check out the view from their room! Not bad, huh?


Here's Suze & Kaitlyn on Monday, right before we brought them home.


Sisters!

It was such a privilege & joy to be included in Kaitlyn's birth-day! Thanks, Suze!! :)