Introducing Lucy James.
She, like her older brother, made her swift, unexpected, and early arrival at exactly 38 weeks (a week before her scheduled c-section, and 2 weeks before her due date) on May 13, 2020.
She was 7 pounds 4.9oz and 19.75 inches long.
I have a few blog posts in my drafts that talk about what I wore during my pregnancy, a third trimester update, and in an odd turn of events, what it’s like to be pregnant during a global pandemic. I’m not sure if any of those posts will ever be published, because at the end of the day, we welcomed our healthy, sweet little baby girl on May 13th. Without further ado, her birth story…
I woke up in the middle of the night on 5/12/2020 after only sleeping a few hours and felt a little off. No major labor pains, but couldn’t shake this feeling I had. I ended up getting up to use the restroom and then went back to sleep.
The following morning at 6am, (warning for TMI), I felt a small “gush” of water. It didn’t happen like it does in the movies, so I made note of it, and continued about our day. It happened a few more times but didn’t have any labor pain whatsoever or any spotting like I had with Jack. I had a few friends tell me of their experiences of thinking their water had broken but they had been mistaken, I kept telling myself it was the same thing.
I had three conference calls throughout the day and even took a call to pre-register for my scheduled c-section for the following Wednesday. During Jack’s nap, Cody and I talked and decided it was a good idea to at least call the nurse’s line to inquire about what happens when you think you water breaks. They suggested we go to triage where they would monitor the baby and do a test to see if it was amniotic fluid.
I needed to wrap up one final work thing, have Jack wake up from his nap, Cody to finish his conference call, and inform my mom that it was possibly “GO” time! Just a few things to wrap up in a short amount of time!
Of course, Jack woke up just as I needed about ten more minutes of quiet time to get things sent off for work. Cody was busy packing up things in the car. We got on the road and headed to the hospital.
We met my mom and transferred Jack (with tears of course), and said this was probably a false alarm and would keep her posted. He tends to wake up hard these days from naps and had no idea what was going on. We took one last family photo of the three of us and kissed him goodbye. As we walked into the hospital, we both acknowledged that we would have to figure out how to pick Jack up that night because this was probably a false alarm.
Once checked in, we got our temps checked (when we walked into the triage area as well as back to our room), and strapped up to the monitors. They did the test and checked to see if I was dilated. 1 cm and no contractions, but thankfully the monitor indicated she was moving around and had a healthy heart-rate. Nothing is more calming than hearing your baby’s healthy heartbeat.
We waited about 30 minutes and our nurse, Shelly, came back in and said, “So, what do you think it is…?” Cody and I looked at each other (I was so prepared to hear that it was a false alarm) and she confirmed it was amniotic fluid and we would be checked in upstairs. It was officially happening, we were about to meet our baby girl! I told myself before we left the house that I needed to trust that I knew something was off and we were making the right call to head to the hospital. Lo and behold, we did the right thing.
Right before we went up to our room, we discussed with our nurse the option of VBAC vs. repeat c-section. Because I hadn’t progressed at all with any contractions since 6am that morning, we were all in the same page to do a repeat c-section to help prevent any infection. This decision had weighed heavy on my mind throughout my entire pregnancy. The thought of having a VBAC scared me but the recovery of a c-section scared me just as much. Having the decision made for me in a sense, helped put me at ease with how Lucy’s birth was about to happen.
We got walked to our room (masks on) and got hooked up to an IV. They did swab me for Covid-19 (it sucked, but it was a necessary evil). We wore masks anytime we were in the hallways and when we were safely back in our room after the birth. Thankfully, my test came back negative.
Walking to the OR was a surreal experience as well as being completely with it as I got my spinal after sitting myself up on the operating table. I kept my mask on until I asked if I could remove it right before the surgery started, it was really hot and hard to breathe with it on. I was much more lucid this time around than I remember being with Jack, as with him, I had already had my epidural.
Lucy James made her debut at 7:51pm, just about three hours after our arrival to the hospital. She was 7lb 4.9oz and 19 3/4” long. Lucy was slightly bigger than her brother at birth, but just barely. Back in our room, we did skin-to-skin and she immediately latched to nurse. As much as we enjoyed having friends and family meet Jack in the hospital, we enjoyed the alone time with just the three of us this time around, getting to know our baby girl.
We choose to stay at the hospital for three nights and it was kind of like a vacation after being stuck at home for two months. Other than wearing masks if we left the room (I only did once to do a few laps in the hall to help with my surgery recovery), our lovely nurses and doctors wearing PPE anytime they were in our room, everything felt normal and very similar to when we had Jack.
Jack met Lucy the day after we got home. We kept Jack over at my mom’s for one additional night while we settling in at home preparing for all four of us to be under one roof. Jack meeting Lucy may be one of my favorite moments of my entire life. Seeing my two babies together, realizing we made these two wonderful and sweet human beings. Just so much love and I didn’t know my heart could feel this way.
