Birth Stories: Lucy Wren

I love getting to share these birth stories here. So let’s get started. The day was finally here!! Knowing we had a tentative induction date made my sleep the night before all the more restless (in an exciting way!). But 5am finally rolled around, I called the hospital to confirm they had space for me and so it began. Tim and I got up, got ready, ate breakfast, snuck in to hug the older boys and headed to the hospital. We arrived at 6:30am, checked in, made it to the room, got changed, answered all the questions, IV in, and were ready to have a baby!

My doctor came and checked to see how dilated I was, then placed the balloon catheter in along with starting the Pitocin at 8:42am. The balloon catheter is something they place in your cervix and fill with saline to the same size as 3cm dilation. This means once you are dilated that much, the balloon will theoretically fall out. Paired with Pitocin to get contractions going, this will get labor headed in the right direction. I had this same thing done for Griffy’s induction (read his birth story here) so I fully expected this to go similarly and for the balloon catheter to fall out quickly as it had done with him. Boy was I wrong.

Contractions began within a couple hours and slowly got stronger, happening every 2-3 minutes. Nana arrived when they started. My mom, alongside Tim, have been a part of each birth and they are my dream team! I’m so thankful for each of them. As the contractions continued, I stood at the bedside breathing through them for about 3.5 hours before deciding I was ready for an epidural. The balloon was still in place which was a bit deflating (no pun intended) because it meant my cervix wasn’t dilating like we expected. The epidural went super smooth and was in by 2:15pm. From there life got a bit more comfortable.

After another hour I was still feeling a bit frustrated that things didn’t seem to be moving along as quick as I hoped. As I talked it out with Tim and my mom, I also spent some time praying and just giving the whole day to God and His timing knowing that whenever Lucy made her arrival would be just as He planned for her! My mom turned on some worship music and I called the nurse in to ask if she had any suggestions such as positional changes that may help things along. Our nurses were amazing and were totally on board with this. For the next 1.5 hours they moved me into different positions to try to help with dilation and progress.

Around 5pm the balloon was still in so my nurse decided to tug on it to see if it would come out with a little help. Within seconds she pulled it out and said “Oh it’s out and I think it has actually just been sitting in there but ready to come out. Let’s check you and see how dilated you are.” We all started taking guesses that were pretty conservative, so it shocked us all when she said “Well, you are definitely dilated to a 6, actually more like 7cm.”. What? Hallelujah!! I almost wanted to cry because finally we had some progress. Or maybe progress had been happening for awhile and we just didn’t realize it while doing the positional changes.

1 minute later my doctor happened to walk in and suggested he could break my bag of waters since I was so well dilated. I agreed and so he checked me one more time to make sure. Just 3 minutes after the nurse had checked he said “Well, you are actually now dilated to a 9!”. Now things were really moving. He broke my bag of waters and we decided to have me sit up and let gravity help her come down a bit before we started pushing. I started to get a bit shaky which for me usually signals my body is in transition and ready to have the baby soon.

By 6:20pm my doctor checked again and said we would wait a bit longer before starting to push. Within 10 minutes I was ready to start pushing.

10 sets of several pushes accomplished. My doctor said we were getting close but that she was doing a lot of rotating and it seemed she was OP, or in basic terms- sunnyside (face) up. She was head down but just not facing the correct way. This can also be a common cause for stalled labor or prolonged labor. Which started to make sense why everything was taking a bit longer than we anticipated.

1 more set of pushes and then on the 12 th set (my mom counted), with the most encouraging people around me, our Lucy girl was born. I had asked my doctor that when she came out to please say “it is a girl” just to confirm it to me when they placed her on my chest. But the silver lining was that since she came out face up, I was actually the first one to see her and right away could tell. I think I managed to squeak out an “It is” along with a flood of tears that our daughter was now here, safe on my chest. Tim glanced at the clock and said “7pm on the dot”.

As she came out, began to cry, and they placed her on my chest, so many emotions flooded me (and Tim and my mom as well). I was just so thankful we made it. All those months, all the aches, all the tears, all the joy, all the prayers, all the anticipation and all the unknown culminated to this moment. Our daughter was here. Peace and joy and tears filled the room for us all. It is truly a moment I will never forget. The next hours were filled with lots of snuggles and lots of pictures and videos to remember every little moment. Our little Lucy was here and everyone commented how petite and little she seemed. Something that is a bit foreign to me since most all my boys were in the 8lb range with larger heads.

As much as I’d love to say it was a perfect birth, I did still experience a 2nd degree tear during the delivery. Thankfully, my epidural kept me nice and comfortable while my doctor stitched everything up. After that, I also was losing a bit more blood than they would’ve liked which was a bit concerning. This continued for another hour and even as I tried to sit up, I got very dizzy and light-headed. So, they gave me some medicine to help slow the bleeding and we just rested a lot before doing anything else.

While they helped me stabilize, they also weighed Lucy. We had all placed our guesses and I had guessed 7’8oz. She was just under at 7’7oz. Suddenly someone in the room said “and it’s your 7th baby”. We all kind of looked at each other and then pieced it all together. Our 7th child, born at 7pm weighing 7’7oz. If that wasn’t a sweet little God wink I don’t know what is. It felt like the cherry on top of the whole experience.

Within another hour or so things were looking better and we were settled into our postpartum room. I was able to get up for the first time and walk to the bathroom with help. From there, we just continued to be in awe of our sweet girl and soaked in all the newness.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the miracle of new life is unmatched. God’s design for life is incredible and beautiful in every way. I’m so thankful that I have been able to experience this gift 7x over. Each birth unique and beautiful in its own way and nothing we will ever forget.

Throughout each pregnancy I love to read and pray Psalm 139 over my children and myself- specifically verses 13-18:

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb,
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I
know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in
the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your
book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your
thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they
outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!”

What a beautiful promise and also picture of how amazing our God works. What a gift to be a part of God’s good plan for life!

We are so in love with our little Lucy Wren and thrilled to watch her life unfold and the plans God has for her! Thank you for encouraging us along the way. I love getting to share these birth stories with you. The best is yet to come!

xo, Sarah