Waiting for and welcoming Joseph!

Here are some photos of waiting and welcoming Joseph! The first one is a typical me and David picture, followed by one of the very first pictures of Joseph. Also our very first family picture of all 5 of us as well as one of dad and Joseph and Joseph going home from the hospital.

Joseph Henry Givens

He is here!
Last Thursday, at my regularly scheduled doctor's appointment I found out that for the first time in my life my blood pressure was border-line high-not good at 36 weeks pregnant! I was sent over to the hospital to be monitored, but before I left my doctor gave me the scenarios that could play out. I could have preeclampsia and could be induced that day or I could have pregnancy induced hypertension and be induced after a couple of days of monitoring. He checked me and said that he thought the baby was turned, so I would probably have to have a c-section. I was scared to death and was all by myself. I immediately called David and headed to the hospital. As soon as he could get there , he did. We found out the baby was head down-yay-but that I absolutely had some blood pressure issues. So off to bedrest I went in hopes of keeping the little one in until the following Monday, which was the day to re-evaluate and possibly induce. In the meantime, our familes have a lot going on-my niece got baptized Sunday in Huntsville, my brother-in-law is starring as Hank Williams in a play in Union Springs starting last night and it looked like we were going to have this baby early! So needless to say, I tried really hard to keep my BP down so there was no need for early action that might upset all the other plans going on this week!
On Sunday night, after my 4th day of bedrest (which by the way, is way harder than you'd think) and timing the contractions I'd been having each day, I went to bed. At about 2:30 a.m. I was awakened by them and knew they were harder and closer. Upon timing them, they were all 5 minutes or less apart. I told David we needed to go to the hospital if for no other reason than to check out how my bp was handling all those contractions. We went and it was a good thing we did-I was between 5 and 6 cm dilated and 75% effaced. I felt great knowing that I was progressing and that all the pain of the past 4 days was not in vain. As I waited for my doctor, I got very nervous. He helped me map out the process and all of what could happen and I decided to go ahead and get an epidural in case I had to take pitocin to help speed up the labor if my bp should become a problem. And I am telling you that getting the epidural and having to lie still for 30 minutes after it, was the worst part of the whole day-pretty good, huh?
After hours of contractions getting a little harder and me pumping a little more epidural "juice" in me, they checked me and Hallelujah-I had progressed on my own and quite far! I was at 7-8 cm. The hospital was super busy so I got left a lot, which was fine, but I really didn't know how much progress I was making until my doctor came to break my water. He went to break it and I was 10 cm and ready to push. I had to breath through contractions and NOT push! I went on to push a few times and the nurse called the doctor right away. When he got there, I pushed one time and there was Joseph! It was truly a miracle. Of all the awful situations I had come up with and scenarios of how that day could have gone, it was awesome! No csection, no inducement, no further bp problems and an almost painless (as close to painless as labor can be) experience. And to top it all off, Joseph had absolutely no problems breathing and he got to stay with us for about an hour right away-something none of either of the other two of our children got to do.
Our doctor, who was used by God in such an awesome way, quoted "Children are a blessing from God and sons are a heritage from the Lord," right as we met Joseph. He went on to pray for Joseph and assured me that God had answered many prayers that day in being merciful to me. I agreed 100% and through tears of pure joy we all celebrated!
So at 1:42 p.m. on August 3rd, 2009, Joseph Henry Givens came in at a whopping 6lbs. 15oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long.