I have always loved St. Patrick’s day. I love the food, the music, the atmosphere and even the traditional Green Beer! And now that I know the real story about St. Patrick, I love it even more. If you don’t know the true story of St. Patrick I encourage you to do some research, or heck, just call me- I’d love to tell you all the details and about how much he loved Jesus and needed to share the gospel.
Anyway…last year on St. Patrick’s day is when I went into labor with our third baby.
Now, let me back up. A third baby was never in our plans. After Georgia was born, Jason and  I had decided we were done having babies. That our two beautiful and healthy girls were just what we needed. Also, we had been through 2 miscarriages as well and I just didn’t want to go though another one. And, I don’t like being pregnant. I get so sick and not just in the 1st trimester- like the entire time. So we did what all families do when they decide they are done having babies and gave EVERYTHING away!!!!!
Literally, a few weeks later I was feeling awful. I chalked it up to traveling a lot and being pretty busy with work and let it all just go. I never even thought to take a pregnancy test until I was about 4 weeks late. I know right, denial. I honestly thought the test would be negative, that there was no way I could be pregnant. That I would probably have to make a doctors appointment to figure out what was wrong with me.
I had been editing the day I took the test at 2 in the afternoon. I placed it on the bathroom counter, walked away to check my uploads and actually got distracted for the next 30min. I was that oblivious! So imagine my surprise when the test was a full blown positive!
I did what any rational girl would do and phoned a friend! Crying, and to be honest, I said some non-church words too. How could this be??? We are done? I don’t want another baby!! We gave EVERYTHING away!!! I don’t like being pregnant!!! On and on and on. Everything but excitement went through my head.
So for the next 7 months we rallied and gathered everything to bring home a new baby again! I was fairly healthy during this pregnancy and was only severely sick once, so that was a total blessing, and like our previous pregnancy’s we didn’t find out the sex of the baby and I honestly was convinced it was another girl. Which would have been fine. I wrapped my head around the idea of 3 kids slowly and focused a lot on work up until the week before my due date.
A few fun pics from my pregnancy!
So there we were St. Patrick’s day 2016. In the spirit of the holiday my mom and I decided to order Ruben Sandwiches from the local restaurant here in Elko. They were so good- I thought I wasn’t hungry but soon had finished the entire sandwich, plus fries, and most of my mom’s soup too. When I got up to clean up from lunch I had to sit back down from contraction pain. Now some background: I have always had contractions with my other pregnancy’s that turned into nothing. I have also always been induced a week +1 day over my due date. So when the contractions started I didn’t think much of them, thinking they would soon go away and I would walk into the hospital sometime the week after and start the induction process.
Well, they didn’t stop!! I showered and Jason came into say goodbye to me to go pheasant hunting and asked if I was OK while I leaned over the bathroom sink to a contraction. I said “yes, just contractions, see you later” and off he went. Because this had happened with the girls he thought nothing of my calm state. However, when he returned to find my mom still at our house telling him to go upstairs and get ready to go he was a little shocked.
I had now been in early labor for 6 hours at home. The contractions were coming every 4 minutes lasting for a minute or longer and I still didn’t want to go to the hospital. It took some coaxing from Jason and my mom and my sweet birth coach Sandy to get me to leave the house. But we finally did.
When we got to the hospital though I was only at 2cm…
But, our nurse announced that we were going to stay and that we would be having our baby soon!!! Tears of joy started running down my face, and we sent Jason out to the car to get the bag. Because, like I said I didn’t think we would be staying.
I took this blurry but perfect picture of Jason as he came in from getting our bag. We were so excited! It was now around 7pm.
The next few hours as we got settled in we did all the tricks. Walking the halls, doing lunges on the stairs, using the ball, and even getting into the tub (which I was told was magic and would speed everything up). Well, it didn’t. So by 3am and only being at 3cm, they broke my water.
We thought this would really speed things up. But it didn’t. And from there is gets pretty blurry for me. I labored until around 5am when we thought I was displaying all the signs of transitioning! So, Jason called my sweet friend and birth photographer, Kristen Dyer (who took all these amazing images) to come to the hospital thinking we would be close. This was a false alarm too. I was at 7cm and would stay there until around 10:30 am. Around that time I finally got to 10cm! Fully dilated now and feeling every need and desire to push! So we tried a few times and I was told to stop!!
After a quick check by the doctor it was determined that I needed to labor some more. The baby was not in the right position. So we waited. Which led to complete exhaustion on my part, my team’s part, and my uterus’s part. Did you know that your uterus could get tired and slow down? I didn’t. I have been in on a lot of births and never heard of this. So, the staff thought it would be best to start pitocin to help my tired uterus out. This sucked! A few hours later we tried pushing again with no luck. So then my doctor tried to go in and (stop reading here if your sqweemish) turn the baby to get it into the right position!!! I don’t know that I would wish that kind of pain on anyone… this also didn’t work. Since baby still looked good on the monitor we decided to try to labor a little longer and try a few more positions to get baby to move.
A few more hours later my sweet nurse returned to try pushing one more time. If it didn’t work this time the next step was to get an epidural and try turning the baby again!!!! Imagine the look on my face at that suggestion. I was like “where were you with that suggestion 3 hours ago?” I was so done!
So I gave it my all and, just like that, like it was no big deal at all, our sweet nurse Cristal says. “Stop pushing!!!!!!!!! The baby is coming”
Like a ninja Jason jumped on the bed behind me like he had done with Georgia’s birth and together we pushed. With my mom on my right and Sandy my birth coach on my left. 3 pushes later and we had a baby. Our reaction to the news of a boy is priceless. I was in total shock. And completely overwhelmed. A BOY!! A perfect, surprise, chubby, baby BOY!!!
A total of 27 hours of natural labor to get one of the biggest and best surprises of our lives. He was born right on his due date. The craziest thing!
We loved introducing the girls to him and soaking in every little piece of newborn goodness. And now he is going to be 1 tomorrow! How is this possible? How has a year gone by so fast? A big shout out to the team I had there that day. Jason, my mom Karen, Sandy my birth coach, Cristal our nurse, Kristen for your support and amazing, priceless images, and Marv and Vicki for taking care of the girls.
I vividly remember the ride home from the hospital. I sobbed, full on hard to breathe crying. I was obviously tired and hormonal but on top of all that I was so thankful. Poor Jason kept trying to console me as I cried. How could I have ever been upset about being pregnant again? How could I have thought that my plans where better? I was so overwhelmed with the thought that I had made God so small, that I tried to tell Him what I thought was best for me. When all along He was preparing this little boy for us. This perfect little gift that we didn’t see coming. It’s so hard to see the big picture when you’re in it. Deep in your own selfish desires and thoughts about what you thought your life would or should look like. It’s like God reached down and shook His finger at me in that car. Like an earthy father saying “I told you so, why didn’t you trust me.”
Bowdy has made me a better mom. Maybe it’s because it’s my 3rd time around. But, I am so much calmer, so much more delighted in every little stage that he goes through. We obviously can’t imagine our life without him. We are so excited to celebrate his 1st birthday. It will be St. Patrick’s themed with Rubens and all.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. My hope is that it encourages you to look beyond what you think your plans might be to see the bigger picture. His plans for you are so much better than you can ever imagine.
Happy Birthday Bo. You are so very loved.
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