Samantha Shay Photography {blog}

“The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” – Job 33:4

(Click on the below image to play the slideshow. All photos were taken by me and Andrew, and a few by our sweet nurse, Monica.)

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I was awoken that Sunday (April 1, 2012) out of as comfortable a sleep that an incredibly pregnant person can have (which as you can imagine is not comfortable in the slightest), to the most severe headache I can remember having in ages. I hadn’t had but one headache my entire pregnancy, so immediately I was concerned that maybe I would end up preeclamptic, like my sister, Callen, who had to be induced during her first pregnancy because of the disorder. My mild case of hypochondria meant that I gladly borrowed her blood pressure machine and fairly religiously would monitor my own blood pressure for the previous 2 weeks. My BP had been textbook the entire pregnancy, but this particular Sunday the numbers were dangerously high. One look in the mirror and it was obvious my face had swelled (another tell tale sign of preeclampsia). This was not a normal 39-weeks-pregnant-fat-girl-face, it was round and swollen and nothing like I looked my entire pregnancy. I asked Andrew for a second opinion and he confirmed that my face was unusually round. When my blood pressure was consistently reading borderline dangerous numbers I decided it was best to call my doctor. When I connected with the emergency line the answering service explained to me that my beloved Doctor was on vacation and that I should immediately call another OBGYN who was filling in for him. My heart sank. Having Dr. Hoffman deliver Lyric was paramount on my very laid-back birth plan. I decided after hearing this news to wait it out and continue to monitor my BP periodically.

At 10 PM I wasn’t feeling any better, so I decided to go ahead and call the emergency line again. Once again they directed me to call the doctor filling in, and once again I took this as a sign that I was over reacting and to wait it out. About 15 minutes later Dr. Hoffman was calling me from his cell phone – PRAISE GOD! He said he was receiving the messages that I called and wanted to make sure that I was ok, I explained to him my situation and he immediately said that I needed to head to Labor and Delivery to have my BP monitored. I told Andrew that we’d probably get sent back home, but that we had to make believe it was the real thing. We packed up the car with our overnight bag and my significantly larger camera bags and off we went. We spent the drive through the Watchung Reservation second-guessing the severity of my symptoms and even considered detouring to Friendly’s for a coffee Fribble instead of checking in to the hospital. If I had known that it wasn’t a dress rehearsal I would have been a ball of anxiety – who would have thought it would be our last drive with an empty carseat behind us.

When we finally made it to Labor and Delivery they put us in a tiny room (another indication that we weren’t really going to be admitted) and had me change into a robe and hooked up to monitors. The blood pressure sleeve went on and immediately I learned that when your BP is dangerously high an alarm goes off, this proceeded to happen countless times in the next 30 minutes while the nurse entered my information into the system. A kind resident doctor came in to assess me and after relaying the info to Dr. Hoffman they decided it was safest to induce me – the only other item besides having a C-Section, on the “Avoid At All Cost” list on my very flexible birth plan. Andrew, who had remained calm the entire time, holding my hand and making me laugh, finally looked nervous, “I guess I should get our bags now!”

And so midnight began my 15 hours of labor. I waited nervously for the notoriously horrendous contractions that Pitocin brings – and boy did they come fast and furious. I begged Andrew to get some sleep, I needed one of us to be of sound mind when the hard work of pushing would begin. After 2 hours of trying to get some sleep the doctor came in to break my water, I knew once this happened there was really no turning back. Labor was intense from that moment on. An hour after my water was broken I had to wake Andrew up, it felt a little too lonely being alone with my pain and my breathing while he slept. He was without a doubt, my angel – knowing exactly when I needed him to be silent, praying softly in my ear, reminding me of the mantra us O’Connor girls always say: “everyone needs to be born!”…we even played a few rounds of Gin Rummy (and I won, of course.)

I’ll never forget the moment Dr. Hoffman came in to tell me it was time for a practice push (I knew from Callen’s birth story that this was no practice, this was the real thing) – my nerves had me shaking and wondering if I could really do it. Was I really going to be a mom in the next hour? There was really not much more time to think, every ounce of myself was put into the act of getting this baby out – I’ve never worked so hard at anything in my life. All that I knew was that I wanted Lyric in my arms, to think back on those moments seem like such a blur, it was nothing like I had imagined and so much calmer than any movie ever portrays.

After an hour and a half of pushing, of questioning if our little girl would ever make her way out – I heard my angel-nurse, in a whisper: “Samantha, open your eyes…keep pushing and open your eyes.” The extra energy it took to peel open my eyes bestowed the most beautiful image I could have ever dreamed up. There she was – my sweet baby girl, letting out a piglet squeal and breathing her first real breathes in this world. And there was my Andrew, cutting the cord and handing me this little miracle that God gave us. In that moment, my world broke into millions of pieces – everything from this moment on would be different. Love flooded in. All consuming love. I floated outside of myself and saw us, our little family, how incredibly blessed I am…praise God for this new life, for this new family of three. And at last, I cried. Here she was, the baby I felt kicking and growing in my belly for the last 9 months, finally in my arms, blinking hard to open her eyes and see her momma for the first time. There are just no words to describe how wonderful the next hour was. I could never have imagined how fiercely I could love someone. We are a family, blessed beyond measure, grateful that God chose us to love and raise Lyric Hope.