Friday, February 8, 2013

We Love Lucy: A BirthDay Story....

When I found out I was pregnant for a second time, my mind immediately went to the delivery room. It's one of those great inevitable's: A baby WILL come out, Lord willing. And because I had already been through that before, I knew what was coming. Some days I'd be overcome with excitement thinking about my baby's Birth Day and other times I'd be gripped with fear. Fear of the pain and fear of the unknown that comes with such a life changing event. But I knew two things for sure, when that day finally came, I knew I wanted to be fully in the moment, soaking it all in AND that I wanted a photographer there. If there is one thing that I have learned over the last 2 years in my journey with photography is that a picture truly is worth a thousand words...plus some. And for me, there is no greater way to tell a story than through pictures. I obsessed for 9 months about what I wanted these pictures to look like and I bugged the fool out of my sister-in-law (who was the chosen one) in the process. And when those pictures almost didn't happen the night of my delivery, I learned a valuable lesson that night in Delivery Room 308: You can plan and hope all you want, but sometimes the Lord has other plans.... And with that lesson, I will share with you Lucy's Birth Day story.
On the Thursday before our girl came into the world, I made my weekly visit to the doctor, who "stirred things up a bit" with a guarantee that I would be heading to the hospital within 12 hours. And he was right. Down to the minute. And for every passing hour after that appointment, I was cursing that doctor and myself for allowing him to do that. The contractions came quicker and stronger until we decided, exactly 12 hours later, that "The Time Had Come." We called the in-laws over to stay with Kidd-O and my husband and I made the trip to the hospital. He knew I was scared, so Mr. Clean just held my hand. We didn't speak. We just listened to the radio while The Lumineer's serenaded us down hwy 575.
For nearly 40 weeks I worried about the size of this baby. With my first weighing in at well over 9lbs, I was praying that this little girl would be a bit smaller making for an easier, faster labor and delivery. The doctors said she would be smaller, and everyone says that second births go much faster than the first. Well, the doctors were right about her size, but everyone else are liars! I never in a million years dreamed that I would labor for 11 hours....twice as long as with my first. And it didn't take long for me to realize that my "picture perfect" labor and delivery was going to be anything but.
Starting with the epidural. I gave my usual pep talk to the anesthesiologist, asking if she was alert enough to poke around my spine at 2 am and letting her know that this is the part that I get the most anxious about, so I was putting my full trust in her. She assured me that she was wide eyed and fully confident in her abilities... until she actually said the words "Oh Crap." I guess she missed the "bedside manner" day in med school. My nurse was so kind as she knew how freaked out I must have been and tried her hardest to deflect from that gross faux pas. It turns out that it was really no big deal (I'd hate to hear what she would say if it were) and she corrected her work. I'm extremely thankful for the gift of modern medicine, but I'm not sure I was so thankful that night. With the epidural "re-do" I actually got 2 doses of the medicine, which sent me into bouts of uncontrollable shaking, which brought on the nausea, which brought on needing the little blue blags that were hanging on the wall. Things didn't look so good for ol' Ashley. And all of a sudden I had a de'ja'vu moment from the last time when I'm tossing my cookies and my darling husband soundly sleeps right through it as my mom fetched ice and cool cloths for my forehead. 
Come 5 am, they sent someone to break my water and after 3 hours of waiting and no more progression at 8 am, they realized that my water didn't actually break. While I was pretty irritated, it actually turned out to be a blessing because my photographer sister-in-law was MIA and wasn't answering our phone calls when they came to break my water the first time...at all. And as it turns out, if my water had broken when they originally did it, she would have missed it and I wouldn't have the first picture. But the Lord is good, and she made it just in time for them to break my water....the second time. And I started pushing and hour later.
And it was at that point that I fell into a stream-of-consciousness. During that last hour, when the epidural has done as much as it can do, and the room starts to fill with various nurses who will be caring for me and the baby when she finally enters the world. Those 40 weeks...and 11 hours lead up to this moment. The moment when all the lights in the room go up, and it's showtime. They sent for the midwife, because delivery was just minutes away and at that point I became scared. Scared of the next 5 minutes and scared of the next chapter of my life. And that's when I asked to pray. And with my mom and husband holding my hands, my husband prayed for me, our baby, and our new life as 4. I was ready. Amen. 
The delivery was a dream. It made up for the horrible labor as it only took a couple of pushes until she just slid right out. It was everything I'd hoped it would be and more. She was beautiful. She looked just like her brother. And when I held her slippery little body, I praised the Lord for His goodness to us, showered her with tears of joy and wished my girl the happiest of birthdays, because on that cold January morning, it was nothing less than a happy day.
There are more details to this story, like not having a window in the delivery room, which bummed us ALL out, but I will let the slideshow fill in the blanks and tell the rest of the story. I am thankful that my sis-in-law made it and for taking such beautiful pictures that I will cherish forever. The sildeshow has 2 songs. The first one is the song that played during our quiet drive to the hospital and the second song I've pictured playing on this slideshow for months because it fits beautifully!  Thank you for stopping by!
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7 comments:

  1. Not a dry eye here after reading and watching. Ashley, you are beautiful, your family is beautiful, and Lucy is just perfect. Praise God for the beauty of child birth captured so perfectly here.

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  2. Ahh.. so scary about the epidural. I HATE needles and I still haven't decided if I'm going to do it yet or not =/ but I'm not one for pain either and I worry that I won't be able to do it natural. I think the photos capture everything that went down beautifully. and Lucy is gorgeous.

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    1. Thanks girl! And as far as epidurals go, while I hated the feeling of it, I think I would have hated not having one more :) You'll do great!

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  3. Ashley, I loved this! That slide show was the best, I shed a few tears. : ) Plus who doesnt love the Lumineers? Lucy is so beautiful, I'm so happy for you guys!!

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  4. She is so perfect. Praise the Lord. And oh man, I can't imagine a longer labor if the Lord chooses to bless us with a second. Mine was 32 hours, and I'm one of the fools who chose to do it naturally.

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    1. girl, you be crazy!!!! 32 hours!!! That's just nuts!

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