Our Family of Five

At long last, Brooks Michael is here. Well, he's been here for a while, but this is the first chance I have had to sit with my computer & reflect on the experience.


Those of you who know me well, know that Brooks was making his presence known almost every day for the last 2 months of my pregnancy. At least 2 nights a week were spent sleepless with contractions, only to have them stop come morning. It was one false alarm after another. For the baby we feared would be too early, he certainly was taking his good ol' time.

It was Thursday, September 30th. The effects of Hurricane Nicole were being felt in Pennsylvania & Myerstown was starting to flood in selective areas. Jason & I braved treacherous roads to make what would be our last OB appointment where I begged to have my membranes swept {For those of you who don't know what that is, you may Google it at your leisure. I will spare you the gory details}. Shortly after arriving home, we headed up to the seminary kitchen to begin cooking our weekly meal for 30-40 seminary students.

As I was cooking, the contractions were coming in waves. But after 2 months of false alarms, I thought nothing of it. But goodness knows, I was making some seminary students VERY nervous.

After dinner clean-up was over, we went home & I began my usual puttering around the house. As I was sweeping the kitchen floor, the contractions were getting a bit more regular & a bit stronger. Taking the weather into consideration & the fact that Jason's parents (who were coming to get the girls when I went into labor) were over an hour away, we thought maybe a phone call was in order. Before we could get to a phone, another contraction came & my water broke. Okay, now we're serious!

All calls were placed & in between contractions, you could find me updating Twitter & Facebook. :) My best friend/doula, Sharon arrived around 9 pm. I think she was hoping birth was imminent & we could deliver right there in the livingroom! Nothing would have pleased her more! I wasn't feeling it, so off to the hospital we went.

We arrived at 9:30 pm & I was begging for an epidural. I had forgotten the time needed to insert the IV & to also consume a full bag of fluids before the anesthesiologist would be called. So I labored. And I screamed. And I did not handle myself with grace and dignity. It hurt.

Shortly after 11 pm, I finished my required bag of fluids & was informed that the anesthesiologist had indeed been called. Almost immediately after hearing that good news, I had 4 peel-me-off-the-ceiling contractions . . . & I knew that even if the anesthesiologist did show up, there was NO WAY I was getting my epidural. I was too far gone. The new nurse on duty came in to check my progress. Nurse Judy. Brave Nurse Judy. As she lifted the sheet, contraction #5 hit me with a vengeance & I said, "I have to push!!"

Now, let me take a moment to set the stage here. The bed I was in had not been broken away to prepare for the pushing stage of labor. The table with instruments for delivery was not in the room. The doctor was down the hall. And perhaps most shocking & horrifying of all, my father was still in the room!!

Nurse Judy took a peek & verified that, yes, I indeed needed to push. She was rather concerned by the fact that she was not wearing gloves. I could not have cared less at that moment & kept telling her to go ahead & touch him with her bare hands!! She told Jason to get her a pair of gloves from the box hanging on the wall behind him. In the time it took Jason to turn around, grab the gloves, & turn back, Brooks was already on the bed. 11:31 pm. 6 pounds 12 ounces.

I spent the rest of the night saying, "I can't believe I did that."


Brooks is 2 months old today. I am able to sit here & blog, forming coherent sentences because he has started sleeping through the night & is currently up in his crib, out for the count. He is a sweet, sweet boy & such a wonderful addition to our family. Everyone (especially his sisters) adores him.

We did discover around 1 month old that Brooks has a hole in his heart. He is being monitored closely & will have more tests done after Christmas, but we are holding fast to the faith that the Healer has His hand on Brooks' heart.

So now we're a family of five. That has taken me a bit to get used to. I think when you leave the baby stage, you develop a type of amnesia. In the first several weeks, I often caught myself saying, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

But in the first several weeks, I also caught myself laughing at the idea that Jason & I thought we were done having children after Peyton. Hee, hee. Even funnier was the idea that I never wanted a boy. Hee, hee, hee. From the moment I laid eyes on him, I was in love.