January 14th 2009 - Luke's birth

I have to say to begin with that the symbolism behind Luke being born on January 14th meant so much to me. Ali was in the room with me when he was born, and having her there was SO special... her little voice reading a book, her little hand rubbing my arm - it brought me a lot of joy and peace. (More on that after the birth story below)

I never thought I'd actually make it to my due date with this one. I was so hopeful to go early, but as the days went on, my attitude actually got better instead of worse. At 37 weeks, I thought I would just die if I didn't have him sooner... by the time I hit 38 weeks, I was feeling much peaceful about waiting.. When I hit 39 weeks, I had started to enjoy my final days. I think I realized that I did only have "days" left to go, and I wanted to take it all in before it ended. Maybe that's why I went to my due date, God was giving me more time to relish in the moments. The dr asked me at 39 weeks if I wanted her to strip my membranes, and I actually said no. I was so curious as to when he was going to come on his own. At 40 weeks, the dr asked me again, and I said no, but she went ahead and scheduled me for an induction at 40 1/2 weeks. I was really praying he would come on his own.

Saturday the 10th, I started have some bad cramping. I called the dr just to check, because it didn't feel like contractions, but it was really hurting. After that night we realized that it could happen fast, so we packed up everything we needed and moved in to my parents house for a few days. They live 5 minutes from the hospital, so it would save us 20 minutes in case we needed that time.

Sunday the 11th and Monday the 12th, I had no signs of labor during the day, but each evening around 6:30 I would have that serious cramping every 10 minutes or so till about 11pm, and I'd go to sleep, just to wake the next morning to realize that I wasn't in labor. Tuesday the 13th was about the same, but around 7pm, I was having my cramping, but they were much stronger and were bordering on 7 minutes apart... we watched it for a while, and I didn't sleep much that evening because they continued on in the night. I kept waking up wondering if this was it.

Wednesday the 14th, I had a dr apt. at 8:00. My cramping has stopped by then, and the dr checked me. I was 3 cm and 75% effaced, and she said it wouldn't be that day. She was a little worried about his size, and scheduled me for an induction on Monday the 19th. We left the dr's, and I was feeling a bit discouraged because I thought with all the cramping I was having I would have been further along. Around 10:00 my cramping started up again, I timed them for about an hour, they were 7 minutes apart... Thinking it was just my normal cramping, I rested and hung out at my parents house. Around 1:00, they changed from feeling like cramping to true contractions. I called Nathan around 3:00 and we decided that he should come home. I called the midwife and she said knowing that I have a tendency to go quickly, that I should come on in to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital around 4:00 - the nurses were amazing!! My midwife had told them ahead of time that I was coming and to be quick with me, so within 30 minutes I had my IV and everything was set in place. It was awesome! With my history of having problems with my pelvic floor, they had wanted me to get an epidural like I did with Julianna so that I wouldn't put much pressure on my muscles when pushing... (With Julianna, she practically came out on her own, I think I pushed 1 time). The nurse called for the anesthesiologist, and then came back and told me that there had been an emergency downstairs and he wouldn't be able to come for a couple hours. As she is telling me this, he walks in the room. Amazing! He said that he had heard that I needed the epidural to help with my recovery and that I labor quickly so he ran up really fast to do me first. I wanted to cry - he was so nice and caring to do that for me! So by 5:00, my epidural was done. WOW! Now one of the problems with an epidural is that sometimes your body will accept it in places and not in others. My tummy took it decently well - I could still feel the contractions but they were bearable. My bottom area decided not to accept the medicine, so I felt each contraction right down there.... And my legs went practically numb. HAAA... weird huh!

At 5:30, they broke my water... which you would have thought they broke the Hoover Dam. My gosh... even the midwife said that she didn't think she had seen that much fluid before. I told her it was God's way of protecting Luke, because William and Julianna had no caution for my growing tummy!! :) I went from 4cm to 7cm and fully effaced quickly after that. The contractions continued till about 8:00pm... Then they just slooooowwed dowwwnnnn...... Around 8:20 the midwife said that it was up to me... we could wait it out, or we could start a bit of pitocin to get me going again. At this point I was still fully effaced and only 7cm. I decided to do the pitocin and see what happened.

They hooked me up to the pitocin at around 8:35pm. I was immediately hit by a MASSIVE contraction that literally took my breath away. 20 seconds later, it hit me again, and the pain wouldn't go away! I asked her why this contraction wasn't stopping, and she said that it had gone down... to which I responded, NO it hadn't... so she decided to check me and then jumped up off the bed and told everyone in the room that we were having a baby. Luke's little head was crowning at that moment... I had to push to get out his shoulders, because his little hand was up by his face... and then at 8:45 he was born!! 9lbs even, 20 1/2 inches long, beautiful little baby boy!!


I was flooded with the strongest love in the world. I cried just thinking about how blessed I was to given such beautiful loving children. How in the world did God decide to let me be the mother of all these gorgeous babies!! He answered every single one of my prayers leading up to labor and delivery and through it all. Everything I asked for, happened for me. I was overwhelmed with thankfulness and humility... When you see a little perfect human being born, having grown in your belly from a little cell... You can't help but feel so small in this world... To realize what is important!

Having come a full circle for me... From 7 years ago on Jan 14th 2002, giving birth to Ali in such a different time of my life... to now, 2009, having Ali with me as my final baby is born - it was such a beautiful moment in my life. One that I will treasure forever!! Ali may not have realized it in that day how important it was to me that she was there and that it was her birthday. But her presence meant so much more than I can put into words... My life felt more complete in that moment of Luke being born than it ever did before in my life!!!