Lydia Joyce, the day you were born...

As many of you know, Colleen was almost a week overdue, and it was starting to look more and more like she might make it to her induction date of Tuesday, much to our disappointment. We would obviously prefer things happen naturally. Katelyn woke us up on Sunday morning, as often she will do, as she said hello standing next to our bed. If she wakes up before Titus (which doesn't happen all that often), she'll come into our room and want to jump in bed with us. So it was probably a little after 7:00AM when she came in and after she laid next to Colleen for a second I noticed Colleen lean over and whisper something in Katelyn's ear. Katelyn immediately began to grin ear to ear and looked over at me with a big smile and said, "Daddy, we're going to have a baby today!" I looked over at Colleen to which she nodded and said how she began having contractions at 4AM that morning and had been having them off and on since then. So that was certainly a pleasant way to start the day after days of waiting for this baby to arrive.

So Colleen decided to stay home from church, obviously, to rest. Colleen's mother (Grammy), who has been in town for 2 weeks now also waiting for this baby to arrive, was fighting a bit of a cold and decided to stay home and rest also, as well as stay nearby in case Colleen needed anything. So it was just Katelyn, Titus, and I who went to church. With everyone in the church quite aware of Colleen's impending state, it didn't take long for all to notice she wasn't present and for word to trickle out of her beginning states of labor.

I had my cell phone on vibrate in case of any sudden changes, but nothing came through during the service. I checked on her before Sunday school with no real major changes, still sporadic contractions anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes apart, and that is pretty much how things remained through Sunday school and the fellowship meal that followed. So by the time all that finished up, it was probably 2PM before we got back upstairs, and while the the contractions were continuing to pick up a little bit, Colleen didn't feel the need to leave for the hospital yet, so we rested and waited throughout the afternoon.

Evening church starts at 6PM, and since we live on the church grounds, we discussed whether it might be best for Colleen and I to head on down to the hospital before people started arriving. While contractions still weren't the prescribed 5 minutes apart like many doctors recommend before heading in, they were about 6-8 minutes apart and based upon the fact that with Colleen's previous deliveries, once things really got into gear she seemed to deliver rather quickly, we thought it was best to head on in. The plan was for Grammy to take the kids to evening church and juniors and hopefully put the kids in bed by 8:30 and head down to the hospital so she could be in the delivery room for the birth, just like she was with Titus. Since the pastor's family also lives on the church grounds, we had help close by and the pastor's wife had graciously but strongly insisted that once Grammy was getting ready to leave, that she would come over and watch the kids while they slept late into the night until Grammy was able to return (which was very nice since it made Grammy feel like she wasn't burdening them with our kids). We were obviously very grateful to their family for their willingness to help out.

As we headed down to the hospital, about a 40 minute drive or so, Colleen remarked that her contractions had slowed down again, including some that were 15 minutes apart, and she wondered if we possibly should have waited a little bit longer before coming in. Regardless, we called the Dr. to let him know what was going on and headed on in anyway and parked in the garage across from the hospital. As we walked the short distance to the ER to check in, her contractions really started to pick back up. I don't know if that was due to the walking she was doing, which was really her first real exercise of the day, or what caused the frequency to pick up, but from there things really started to progress (which incidentally, is exactly how Titus' delivery went. Steady but not severe contractions throughout the day, but as soon as we checked into the hospital, boom, things take off. It's like her body just knows it's time to roll).

We checked in and by the time we got up to the triage room, it was close to 7PM. The on duty Dr. came in and checked her out for the first time. Colleen guessed that she would be 6-7 cm dilated, and that's exactly what she was. Her water had not broken yet, but considering the frequency of the contractions and how far along she was, they quickly moved her into the delivery room. At that point I called Grammy and told her that if she wanted to be here for the delivery, she'd best come now, so she let the pastor's wife (Tab) know she was leaving a bit earlier than planned, to which Tab told her to get a move on it and don't worry about the kids. She would put them down when it was time for bed and stay with them in the house. Fortunately she has watched the kids many times and they are quite comfortable with her.

By that time Colleen was in quite a bit of pain, obviously, and was experiencing a lot of back labor, as she did with the first two kids, which for her is definitely the worst pain. While she had debated about whether to get an epidural in the days leading up to to the delivery, it was very clear at that point that if she could do something to prevent the pain, and in the process allow her to actually enjoy the delivery process instead of being in intense pain, she was all for it, and I certainly agreed. So at 7:45PM the Dr. came in to give her the epidural. That took about 15 minutes, and so at about 8PM her regular OB-GYN Dr arrived and after the epidural was finished he went in and found she was at 9 cm dilated but the baby was still at -1 position, so the baby still had some dropping to do.

About 8:15PM Grammy arrived, and by that time Colleen was feeling much better as the epidural was taking effect. The Dr. left to attend to other business under the notion that it would take a little while for the baby to drop. The nurses also left with the instruction that if Colleen began to feel pressure, to let them know immediately. So Colleen, her mom, and I relaxed and chatted for a few minutes and enjoyed some brief moments together, but it took only about 20 minutes before Colleen told me that she was feeling a fair amount of pressure and to let the nurse know. So I went out and notified the nurse, to which she seemed a bit surprised of the quickness, but she immediately came in to check Colleen. As soon as she examined Colleen, it was clear that delivery was imminent. She told Colleen to do whatever she could to avoid any pushing. She quickly called Colleen's OB-GYN dr to get him back into the room asap, and then the nurse quickly began readying things for delivery. As is typical, several medical personnel started to quickly show up, and when the Dr made it back and saw Colleen, he remarked something to the effect of, "Boy, you don't wait around, do you?!"

So at 8:45PM Colleen began to push. At that point, prior to pushing, the head was already clearly visible, almost to the point of crowning. And, at 8:45PM, Lydia Joyce was born. The girl practically slid right out, at which point we finally found out the gender of our little one. It happened so quickly she couldn't have pushed for more than a minute, maybe less.They (the NICU doctors who were there because once again, our children always meconium in the water bag, which supposedly happens only 1 in 10 deliveries, but has happened in all three of our kids births, which by my quick math makes us a 1/1000 family, for whatever that is worth!) quickly grabbed Lydia and the baby doctors and nurses began checking her over as I quickly shed a few tears and kissed Colleen at her once again wonderful hard work. The Dr. mentioned more than once how easy Colleen delivered and how he wished all his women delivered so smoothly, finished off by a "You can deliver for me anyday!"

I then headed over to Lydia with a camera to get a quick video of her first sounds. With both Katelyn and Titus, they were practically crying as soon as they arrived, but as I got over to Lydia I noticed that she was very purple and blue and didn't seem to be responding much, if at all. It was a little alarming as she still hadn't made a sound yet since being born, and probably would have been extremely concerning except for the fact that the Dr. and two nurses attending to her didn't seemed to be alarmed at all (I don't know if this is normal or not, but they at least didn't show real concern). So they continued to suction her out and rub her down. It was almost as if she just needed a little stimulation to "flip her switch" which told her body that, OK, she's on her own now and now everything was ready to be fired up. And it didn't take very long before she let out a cry, and within just seconds that cold purple and blue color turned into that rich red and flesh color of life, and Lydia was well on her way.

This may seem a bit crude, but it was a bit reminiscent of those many lambs' births I had seen and helped out with on my Grandpa's farm. As the lamb was born, it hit the ground and often seemed almost lifeless at first, not showing any movement. My grandpa would quickly descend upon the newborn lamb and begin to suction and clean away any and all mucus and fluids, begin lovingly but firmly rubbing it back and forth, and even would pick it up and swing it back and forth by its legs, and inevitably it was like a switch and suddenly everything fired up and the lamb was "alive."

Colleen told me afterwards that Lydia's newborn APGAR score was a 3 on a scale of a 1-10, which measures the babies responsiveness etc, with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. Both of our previous kids were upwards of 9 upon birth, so this was certainly a bit of a difference. But after a few minutes and after Lydia's systems perked up, her APGAR score was up to a 9.

So as the medical personnel slowly filtered out, we got to have a little family time, including Grammy, and that was very special. We made lots of calls and spread the news. Since Katelyn and Titus were already in bed asleep, we didn't tell them until morning. Grammy left shortly after 10PM, and the nurses came and took Lydia to give her a bath, and it was just Colleen and I alone in the room, and it's in those moments of peace and quiet where life just feels really special. We obviously know that those moments of peace and quiet will be few and far between in the coming months and years, and we certainly enjoyed this brief moment, resting in the joy of another precious life.

I could go on and on, but that is probably enough for now. We are fully aware and thankful for the, not an exagerration, thousands of prayers that were offered on behalf of Lydia and most importantly grateful for God's goodness to us in the blessing of another healthy child, and we thank and praise him for this good gift.