hey
Who would have thought I’d ever blog about having a baby when I started this whole thing some 11 years ago?
I went to work on the night of the 26th and didn’t expect to come home shortly after that. I did though, I got a call from Sky. Her water had broken, and it was go time! I had these images of every father seen on TV who couldn’t remember where anything is. Who would then forget the wife as he is rushing out the door to get to the hospital. I wasn’t like that. We planned ahead and had a bag that we needed to take. We knew this time would be coming.
We grabbed the bag, filled Jake’s bowl full of food and water, and headed out to the hospital. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. It was a long time in labor. We waited so long that the nurse eventually said that we would have to do a c-section. The baby wasn’t turning right and also the size was too small for the baby. This was after hours and hours of trying to have the baby vaginally. They scheduled an immediate c-section and we felt like we didn’t know what side was up. What a whirlwind of emotion. We were frustrated, especially since we knew the stats and how many women are forced into c-sections, especially in the US (even when it’s not needed).
Emotions aside we prepared for the coming baby. I waited in a room while they prepped Sky. Eventually, they brought me in (see photos of while I was waiting). I felt like I was Dr. Karev from Grey’s Anatomy (yeah I probably watch the show too much). Then I went inside the room and took photos of the baby being delivered. What a crazy experience. I was talking Sky through it because she couldn’t see what they were doing (which was probably for the best at that moment in time).
Then, at 6:29 pm we heard a little voice fill the operating room.
Welcome baby! This previous child that I was holding in my arms. After the baby was cleaned up, they had me walk with her to the room. On the way the nurse stopped me in the hall and asked if I’d like a photo of just me and my newborn daughter. You can see the photo below.
As time went on, we decided to post a photo on social media. We tagged Matthew West since his song “Hello, my name is” is so popular right now – plus we love the line “Child of the One True King!” How much of a greater welcome could we give her?! He saw it and apparently loved it. We started getting notices from everyone that they saw our baby on the page for Matthew West. The post soared and got over 110,000 likes. We were not use to this kind of popularity.
With this also came the negative side of social media. We read things that people were saying about our child – really mean things. Nothing I want to mention, but some of it was disgusting. Due to this, we ended up saying “this will be the only post” that we have. We would not have our baby on Facebook. Any photos would be on Instagram and locked down so that only friends and family could follow updates.
We decided on a name: Arabella Hope.
Arabella being “prayer answered” and “Hope” is pretty self-explanatory.
just Pray
note: this post was published on 09/07/22 but moved the publish date back to the end of February 2014 to keep chronological order.
