In May, we had our 20 week ultrasound and the both girls and
Conrad went with me. We had the
ultrasound tech write the gender of the baby and seal it in an envelope. Dr. Summers had told me that there was a
great chance that , since we had already had two girls, that we would have a
third, statistically speaking. I
suspected (hoped?) it might be a boy when the tech told me, “Oh you’re gonna be
surprised.” She was right…
We really wanted a boy, but were trying to gear ourselves up
for another girl! The next day, as soon as possible, I took the envelope to
Piece of Cake (bakery) and asked them to bake it into a cake for us with blue
or pink filling in the cake. I needed
that envelope out of my hot little hands so I wasn’t tempted to peek!
A couple of weeks later, on Memorial Day weekend, our whole
family gathered at Doc Holiday’s ranch for a cook out and the “Gender
Reveal.” Doc was kind enough to add some
fun extras like blue and pink ribbons for Team Boy and Team Girl. Everyone donned the color ribbon that
corelated with the gender they believed the baby would be. Team Boy far out numbered Team Girl,
consequently. We cut into the cake with
much anticipation and everyone (including Conrad and I) were totally shocked when
we saw the blue frosting…”It’s a boy!” and there was much rejoicing! That’s
when we knew Hudson William was on his way.
If the baby was a girl, we were going to name her, Charlotte
Marjorie Michael. But we always knew
what a baby boy would be called. I had
that name picked out since college.
Hudson after the great English Missionary to China, James Hudson Taylor.
May our son have his great sense of sacrifice, adventure, devotion to the Lord
and the lost.
My pregnancy with Hudson was similar to the girls, in that I
was always still sick and nauseated. But, different, in that medication
actually took the edge off. Different,
in that, I was extremely fatigued. So
tired, I often couldn’t do the smallest things! Also, I lost weight, my hair
grew in thick and was always manageable and I looked great! All my other
pregnancies I looked (as well as felt) green, but this one proved the old
saying that, “Daughters steal your beauty and sons steal your brains!”
Being 39 years old, I have felt like this was my last
pregnancy so I cherished my pregnant belly and my time carrying my little one
around with me everywhere I went , even more so than with the girls. I was less
nauseated, so I enjoyed my pregnancy a little bit more. And, I actually had less complications
(although many “precautionary” measures) than with either of the other two, as
well.
Hudson was due October 15, but was scheduled to be induced
October 9th at 39 weeks and 1 day.
I began to pray that I would go into labor naturally, since I wanted to
experience that, at least once. I had heard everyone say it was so much
easier! The week before I was scheduled
to be induced Grandma Margie came to stay with us, “just in case” I went into
labor.
On Saturday, October 5th, we went to the mall and
took the girls to get a pedicure for Grace’s 5th birthday. We had a great dinner with the family and
went home. I was really uncomfortable with what I thought was heartburn. I went to bed and slept for a couple of
hours. At about 4am I woke up with
slightly uncomfortable pains. Not too bad, so I just rolled over. Pretty soon I
started to notice that they were pretty regular. I started timing them and realized they were 5-6
minutes apart. I got up and started to finish packing my hospital bag and
folding clothes. At about 5am, I woke up
Conrad and told him I thought it was “time.”
He was sleeping up with Isabelle, where I had sent him since he had been
snoring keeping this pregnant mama awake!
Isabelle woke up too and was super excited about us going to the
hospital! She got up and started getting
herself ready to go with us. She was
mildly surprised when I told her she would not be coming with us right then.
She was so excited to meet the baby! We
then woke up Grandma, who jumped up too, she was also excited about the baby
coming!
We arrived just before 6am at the hospital and they checked
me. I had been 3cm dialated at my last
doctors appointment on Monday and I was only dialated to 3.5cm when we got to
the hospital. The nurse told me to walk
around for an hour and if I didn’t dialate anymore they’d probably send me
home. I was a little annoyed because I
knew this was really it. By 6:00am the
contractions were bad enough that I had to stop and breath, so I knew this was
the real thing!
We started walking. By the end of the hour, my contractions
were about 1.5-2 minutes apart and were very painful. I definatly couldn’t talk
through them! When the nurse checked me
again I was 5.5-6cm dialated! They
checked me in!
We quickly got to the labor room and I got an epidural at
about 8:30am. We called everyone and Oma
drove frantically from Norwalk to get there. She went back to our house to pick
up Grandma and the girls and headed to the hospital. Since it was Sunday, whoever the doctor on
call was would be deliverying our baby…and as luck would have it, Dr. Summers,
my OBGYN was on call! How wonderful!
Things slowed down as they tend to with an epidural and I
didn’t progress past 8cm for a while. I finished my book and took a little nap
and Mom, Grandma, and the girls dropped in to tell us they were there, and Dr.
Summers arrived at the hospital. I was
ready then to have the baby! I asked the
nurse to set me up in the bed. My
experience with my pregnancies told me that simple gravity will get me fully
dialated very quickly. And sure enough, within
10 minutes I had progressed to a 9.5-10cm.
The epidural had worn off enough so that I was very very uncomfortable
to the point of being in pain, with almost no breaks in between contractions,
and I was also very motivated to push!
At 11:35ish, the nurse said, if you feel like you have to
push, push. So I did! I felt more with this delivery than the other ones and I
could feel the baby move down, it was pretty painful. With the second push I felt his head move
down and the doctor said, “wait just a minute!” as the nurse said, “Push!” I said, “can we have this baby by noon?” She
said, “Oh, we’ll have it before noon. One more push and he’s out.” I was shocked, “Really?” And, again, very
motivated. On the next contraction (about two and a half pushes!) he was out
and crying!
At 11:38am, Hudson William Michael was born. 7 lbs, 20 inches long and a head full of dark
hair. He looked more like me than the
other two babies and he was perfect in every way. I was able to hold him and
nurse him right away and Oma was in there for his delivery so she got lots of
good pictures!
I had a more of a “birth prayer” than a “birth plan” and
things went exactly how I prayed they would. Even better. Although, I have to
say, it’s kind of a myth (from my limited experience) that pain with an
induction is more painful than naturally (they are both PAINFUL!) The
experience of letting my body do what it was designed to do, including
experiencing the pain of labor, was an empowering experience and I was in awe
of what my body could do and what God designed it to do. Creating life is an
amazing miracle. Every. Single. Time.
Not long after delivery the staff discovered that his
temperature was low and he had a difficult time regulating it. He was admitted into the NICU for about 12
harrowing hours and it was scary for us!
I spent that night making trips back and forth between my room and
Hudsons to nurse him and really just to be near him as it was the first time I
had ever been without him in his entire existence. It was difficult! I was terribly upset(hello,
raging hormones!), but at the same time, peaceful and knew the Lord had things
under control. Thank God that things
seemed to right themselves by the next morning and he was released back into my
room and then with me right on schedule on Tuesday morning. Thank you Lord for a healthy baby and a safe
delivery, exactly the way he had placed it on my heart!
