a son!

I've been a little busy lately & have not had the time on hand to liberally blog & post photos of our baby boy Ransom. He was born fifteen days before his due date. On Thursday night we were watching It's a Wonderful Life, when Andrew started getting excited (about what, he didn't know, but he felt anticipation for something, "as if Christmas was the next day") and my water broke, but I didn't realize it till the movie was over & I went to the bathroom. Even when I went to the bathroom, I wasn't sure my water had broke; we had to call a doctor to ask.

I had expected a little more nesting time so my suitcase for the hospital was not completely packed, I didn't have a birth plan written down, we had not yet toured the hospital, I hadn't painted my toenails yet (hey, that's an important one!), my mom wasn't in town yet, and there were several unfinished projects I'd hoped to work on, etc. We were thrust into parenthood earlier than we expected but I see God's timing in it & felt Him working through the labor & delivery & the events afterward.

At the hospital it was confirmed that my water had broken & that in order to avoid infection I'd have to deliver the baby within a certain time window. My contractions were five or so minutes apart & I was dialating slowly so I was allowed to rest during the night & to get labor going I was given pitocin at 6 a.m. as well as a sedative that knocked me out till 8 a.m. (it was blissful rest, indeed) when I started having harder contractions. I was able to walk the halls a little, I labored on a birthing ball & in a jacuzzi but after awhile the contractions were hitting me one intense one after another intense one after another one with hardly any break. I was getting discouraged because whenever the nurse checked my progress, my cervix seemed to be dialating slowly. AJ was with me the whole time, allowing his hand to be death gripped by me whenever a contraction hit, offering me encouragement & comforting touches.

I had purposed in my heart (just like the way that phrase sounds right now) to get as far as I could without an epidural & then maybe getting one toward the end, hoping that would make for a quicker delivery. I got to that point, AJ told the nurse, and the anesthesiologist was SLOW in coming... I was trying to think kind thoughts and not mean ones about this anesthesiologist, hoping the pain would soon be over. And then my body had the urge to push. We told the nurse, who checked me & informed us that I had dialated to 9 3/4 cm. The doctor who was on call said I could start pushing to see if that gave me relief, or I could take the epidural (the lovely anesthesiologist had by now shown up). She, the doctor, also said that the epidural could slow things down but if I wanted to push, the baby could be here within the hour. I opted to push because it felt SO much better than riding through the contractions.



Ransom was born at 1:24 p.m. on December 3rd. Because of a new hospital policy, as soon as he came out he was placed directly on my bare chest, both of us covered with a blanket, to allow for bonding time between the two of us.

Bliss. Joy. Skin on skin. Praise Jesus for this policy!

Having been thrust into this parenting adventure so suddenly, I am thankful that there seemed to be a blanket of grace surrounding everything that happened, whether it was a helpful nurse, or a hospital policy that allowed for me to feel the feelings of being a mother immediately after having labored for our baby.

Andrew got his bonding time with Ransom too, taking off his shirt & cuddling Ransom for an hour with a blanket over them.

I know so many people were praying for us & I felt the influence of those prayers throughout the whole day. Thank you SO MUCH if you were one of those people!

The afternoon really is a perfect time to have a baby, I think, because the adrenaline hit me as soon as that little boy was placed in my arms & I was fresh as a daisy till 9 p.m. to take in all of the newness of him & to enjoy the visitors we had at the hospital.



He's four weeks old, will be a month old tomorrow & I can hardly believe it! Time has flown by. Will post more pictures soon.