I Did This! Beckham Cade Lewis Part 1

I consider every birth story a testament to the reality that miracles do happen.  Whether a birth is filled with drama,  filled with intense and painful descriptions, or is quick and virtually pain free, mother's who have given birth share a unique bond.  You get a group of women together and chances are their conversations will include the following:   menstrual cycles, husbands, diets, and birth stories.  Each of us take turns relaying our experiences of labor, epidurals, pain, and pushing.  Each story different, yet similar.  Most stories ending the same way... with a precious baby in our arms.

I guess my most recent birth story could be considered the same.  A little drama sprinkled with answered prayers and a sweet baby boy named Beckham Cade Lewis.

The week before my due date, my doctor scheduled me to be induced.  Month after month, week after week, baby boy was breech.  It was as if I was repeating my pregnancy with Homeboy.  Only the main difference was that this baby was a mover!  Where as Homeboy was content to just chill in the same position my entire pregnancy. 

The plan was to turn baby boy, break my water, and start me on pitocin.  This same scenario was played out almost 5 years prior with Homeboy! Just call me lucky.  

 Only I would have to have 2 babies turned!  Only I would have to endure such intense pain, AGAIN!

During my last doctor visit, me and my doctor went over the plans of the pending birth of baby boy.  I would arrive at the hospital on June 14th, 7:00 am.  If baby boy was still breech, my doctor would turn him and go from there.  If he just happened to have turned, the plan was to still induce my labor, because the baby liked to do flips in my belly.  He didn't want to risk him flipping again and increasing my chance for a c-section.

After discussing my induction, my doctor did an ultra sound on my bulging belly.  And sure enough, the baby had turned!  We rejoiced and I was off to cram all of my nesting tendencies into one week.

June 14th quickly approached.  I was anxious to get the show on the road, due to the major discomfort and pain that I had experienced the last month of pregnancy.  Steve and I arrived to the hospital and shared a moment of prayer, and deep breaths in unison.  This was it!  Our lives were going to be thrust into a different sort of chaos, but blessed in so many ways.  For the past 9 months we imagined what our third baby boy would look like!  Would he have the same hair color as Homey's (blonde with some red) or like Homeboy's (light brown).  Would he also inherit his father's butt chin or would it lack that special dent?  I imagined him to have light brown hair, looking similar to his big brother Homeboy, weighing in somewhere between his older brother's weights (6 lbs 9 ounces, and 7 pounds 10 ounces).  I believed his head would be bigger than Homeboy's, but closer to the size of Homey's and that infamous butt chin... it too, would be included.

Running late, I waddled as fast as I could to check in.  Once I was checked in, peed in the cup, and slipped into the bum-revealing-gown, the nurse performed an ultra sound on my belly to make sure baby boy was still head down.  And, of course, he was breech.  Shocker.

She informed my doctor and he instructed me to come back at 6pm to attempt to have the baby turned and labor induced, but I knew that was actually planning on a c-section.  Which, I did not want!  Nothing more could be frustrating to me than to not be able to recover as quickly as possible and to try to get into a routine.

So back home we went.  To wait.  

To keep me busy and my mind off of the impending pain that I would be experiencing in a matter of hours, I called my friend Lori and we worked on the alphabet that I was decorating baby boy's nursery walls with.  And then in the middle of the day, it happened.  While chatting with Lori, I felt some major movement.  I knew that the baby was most likely turning AGAIN! 

Prayers were answered!