An Awe-mazing Birth Experience

Disclaimer: you may wish to skip this post if you are eating. It's not graphic, but, well...it's a birth story.

Over the summer we tried to go on vacation a couple of different times, but our attempts were thwarted at every turn.

We finally managed to go out-of-town on a little weekend getaway with our niece S.

The following are a series of photos I took in the water in response to a special request by Judah.

You see, before he was born, I had decorated our bathroom with pictures taken of Jericho and daddy in various pools while we were on vacations over the years. The pictures had long since come down, but when Judah spotted them in a box in my craft room, he said, “That’s not fair! You don’t have any pictures of ME and daddy in the water” and actually started to cry. (Actually I have a ton, but they're all digital and not yet in albums or picture books, and so he never sees the evidence.)

Knowing we had nearly 10 years of family life together before he came along is a hard pill for our Judah to swallow, and it seems he wants to make sure everything is even-steven.

At the end of a hot but very fun day, we were hanging out in a yogurt shop when we received a series of three text messages.

The first was that our nephew J, a grown man and father of 3, had been in a motorcycle accident that crushed his foot. The second was that another neice K had been in a Sea Doo accident with her dad, and she was en route to the hospital with what they suspected could be broken ribs. The final text was from her older brother to inform us that his third child was due to be born soon. His wife was in labor.

The mother-to-be, our nephew’s wife, had already had a couple of false alarms, so we were a bit hesitant about cutting things short until we knew for sure what we were dealing with. We were two hours away at the time.

Things were progressing rather slowly with her labor pains, so we opted to go ahead and stay another night and head home early the next morning. This turned out to be a good idea, because labor came to a screeching halt at some point in the night.

The prego mama’s father and stepmom live 18 hours away, and the daddys family were all vacationing 4 hours from home. They, too, were a bit hesitant about cutting their vacation short unless they were 100% sure it was not another false alarm, as my sister-in-law had already been to the hospital 3 times only to be sent home within a couple of hours.

In fact, with their daughter K having been in the Sea Doo accident on the lake they couldn't have left right then even if they'd wanted to, as she hadn't even been seen at the hospital yet.

Meanwhile, in two other hospitals hours away, yet another of my sister-in-law’s (and her husband!) were both in separate hospitals for two very serious conditions, he had been in long-term care but had just taken a turn for the worst, and she having just had surgery to remove a cancerous portion of her lung with recovery being rather dicey. We honestly thought we might lose them both that weekend, but by God’s grace did not.

There we were on vacation, supposed to be relaxing and 'getting away from it all'…but life doesn’t stop just because our family goes on vacation. Babies being born don’t wait for ‘convenient’ (to us) times. Life happens!

We went to bed rather heavy-hearted that evening, after praying for all these extended family members who were all in various hospitals all at the same time and then the baby on the way.

Early the next morning, we rose early and got ready and headed for home. On the road we got the call, “Things are moving along again and starting to pick up speed. We don’t have anyone to stay with the kids, and I’m going to end up being alone at the hospital…I'm scared.” and the mama-to-be was crying.

Less than a year earlier, she’d lost her own mother in a tragic car accident. It was a difficult time for this little gal, and my heart went out to her.

After informing her we were already halfway there, it was decided that her husband would meet Jeff and the boys at the hospital so that Jeff could take their kids back to our house until the baby was born and her husband (our nephew) would join his wife and I in the delivery room as soon as the car seats were all switched over.

Here were a couple of the photos Jeff messaged to us at the hospital. Jericho and Judah did a great job of entertaining their cousin’s kids. They had a blast, and didn’t seem to have a clue as to what was going on at the hospital.

Little B, holding the soccer ball, was a bit confused as to what having a baby sister was all about. When they would ask where the baby was, he would pull up HIS shirt, haha. He would soon fall immediately in love with his squalling baby sister.

I brought my camera into the hospital, ready to document the entire thing for them and to be there to talk the little mama through it.

I’d also brought along my crochet bag, not knowing how long things were going to take, but ended up just visiting, our nephew reminiscing about hilarious childhood memories to try and distract his wife from her labor pains.

I had to chuckle at the little mama, posting minute-by-minute updates to Facebook.

We tease her mercilessly about her phone habit, as she even carried her phone with her to the altar at their wedding (even though everyone they loved and cared about were there in the room with them) because she couldn’t wait to change her Facebook status to Mrs. S.

Kids of this generation, haha!

All I know is that the very last thing I would have thought about during my own child birth experiences would have been giving real-time, blow-by-blow accounts of the experience to anyone not in that room with me!

Meanwhile, the baby’s father was kicked back in his easy chair in the corner trying to keep warm while his wife did hard labor. “It’s a bit chilly in here” he complained once or twice.

None of the women in that room bothered to acknowledge his complaints knowing what all the mama was going through.

After the flurry of medical personnel had come through, indicating that things were getting much closer, I invoked my auntly privilege (having babysat that daddy for years when he was a kid) and told him it was time he got his carcass up out of that chair and ‘helped’ talk his wife through the remaining stages of delivery.

Upon viewing things up-close and personal, this was his reaction:

I actually got worried at one point that he might faint.

You hear about that happening sometimes.

Actually, he did pretty well.

Childbirth…it’s not a pretty business. But oh…the reward waiting on the other side!

A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ~John 16:21

Awww…so precious. Little Baby B!

So very miraculous and amazing.

Truly, every time a baby is born, I marvel anew at the absolute miracle that babies are!

How amazing it is that our Creator designed for them to live in a safe, cozy enclosed womb where they were nourished by the placenta through the umbilical cord one moment…to suddenly breathing with their lungs and being in the big, bright, noisy world for the first time. Incredible!

And did I mention precious?

Little B was born a tiny 5 lbs. 3 oz. She is a petite, dainty little thing, but when you’re born to a mom who weighs about 95 pounds soaking wet, that’s probably a good thing.

In the end, between Facebook updates and text messages, Nana and Tata did cut their vacation short. Their daughter had sprained her ribs in the Sea Doo accident, and though she was in pain as bad as if they’d been broken would otherwise be fine with some rest. They did their level best to get to the hospital in time.

They made it literally moments after little B was born, and here they got to see their first little granddaughter for the first time.

“Wow…that was hard work!” the dad was heard to say as he guzzled down a bottle of juice in his chair.

And once again, all the women in the room ignored his comments.

We well knew who had done all the real work in that place, haha.

:: :: :: ::

In the days that followed, there were lots of visits in which we all got to take turns holding our little Baby B.

Mama D and Baby B.

Awww…so sweet!

This is one of my faves. Big Brother B was holding his baby sister when she suddenly started crying. Brother B and our Judah were like, “What happened? What is it doing? What is going on?” They weren't quite sure what to make of the squalling little thing.

Then, a couple of days later at a family gathering we all took turns getting to hold little Baby B.

Here Nana T and Great-Aunt K are cooing over the baby.

Sweepy witto booboo.

GG finally got her turn. She’d been in and out of other hospitals a dozen times in the previous week, what with her daughter’s surgery and her son-in-law’s turn for the worse. To relax and hold her precious little great-granddaughter was like balm to the soul.

Awww, those cutesy little baby toes and fingers in Great-Grandma’s hands

Great Uncle Jeff got his turn

And finally, Great Aunt Becky got hers…

…taking Anne Geddes style photos in the same flower pot that we took pics of Baby B’s older brothers when they were newborns.

What a delightful bundle of joy and blessing little Baby B is!