Her Story (Part One)

The Events Preceding the Birth of Beatrice Elise Barnes

What joy has come to our home. What a miracle I have beheld. What glory belongs to my God. 

It's hard to know where to begin. So I'll start with the preceding events that make the story of her arrival even more spectacular.

Adam has had weddings scheduled for the weekends surrounding her due date since before her conception. Many have asked us if this frightened us at all, and we have honestly answered, "no." The Lord is fully aware of my husbands profession. We firmly believed that if it was His will that Adam were to be present at Beatrice's birth, he would be there. We prayed daily and daily Adam would lovingly tell Beatrice, "now Beatrice, you need to come when Daddy says to come." And Daddy always "said to come" anytime between September 26th and October 5th, but preferably the earlier the better, so that he could spend as much time with her as possible. Now of course he said this in jest, but just keep this in mind.

Tuesday morning the 21st of September I woke up thinking my water was leaking. It wasn't, but boy did it put me in preparation overdrive. I had always thought that Beatrice would come late, so I was dilly-dallying on the final details. Not after Tuesday. Throughout the week I finished all of my birth projects and then on Saturday, September 25, as Adam shot his final wedding, and motivated by a friend's kind offer to help, I cleaned and organized our little house from top to bottom.

At 5:00pm, that same Saturday, I lost my mucus plug. I called Adam, and left a message informing him there were no contractions accompanying this occurrence, but I wanted him to be aware. I called my Midwife and Doula (yes, it is finally time for you to know the details surrounding this birth), and while they were both excited, we all agreed this meant the baby could come any time - now or later. I kept cleaning.

I finished my last task as Adam walked in the door. He was done and I was done! As we crawled into bed at midnight we both said, "Ok, Beatrice, it's time!"

I began contracting shortly after we went to bed, but this was common for the evenings, and since I had been cleaning so vigorously I was not surprised. Throughout the night as I rose to use the restroom (too many times to count at that point) I noticed they still hadn't stopped, but again, no big deal. At 6am Sunday morning I woke Adam and asked if he would massage my lower back, again, cleaning must have made me sore.

He massaged me for a while and then we got up and prepared for church. I told him I really thought it was nothing, and if it was "something" worshiping would definitely keep my mind off of things. Besides there was a catered lunch we were to attend and I was looking forward to it!

It was a beautiful fall day and I enjoyed layering up in a sweater and boots! We got our Starbucks and met up with friends who were visiting our church. On the way to church Adam asked me to at least text Laurie, my Doula and dear friend, with an update. I obeyed.

I can't tell you how splendid it was to worship my living God, who 9 months ago granted us the desire of our hearts.

I chatted with friends after church, all the while "plie-ing" and moving. Once we were back in the car, Adam insisted I call Leslie, the Midwife, Laurie, and Barbie, friend and Assistant Midwife. I felt ridiculous, again, I just KNEW I wasn't in labor. I left messages with all three and went and joined dear friends over a deliscious lunch! I asked Adam for seconds, thinking that if for some strange reason "this was real" I should eat as much as I could.

Leslie called back and suggested I head home after this lunch and nap. Either I was up for another night of contractions, or active labor was on the horizon. She asked me to stay hydrated, and she was glad I was eating such a large lunch.

I chatted with my dear friend Julie, and at Adam's prompting, finally headed out around 2:30pm.

Instead of going straight home, Adam asked if I would instead enjoy a rainy day drive with the heated seats. We had a few errands to run for the nursery, and I couldn't see why not! We drove to T.J.Maxx and I began to time my contractions on the way. Adam had previously downloaded this nifty Contraction Timing App for his I-Phone, and it was nice to just tap "start" and "stop", and let it do all the recording.

We walked through T.J.Maxx selecting frames for her carousel photos Adam shot in NYC, as I timed contractions and did deep plies when no one was looking.

We drove to Joe Beans (where I got a decaf caramel spice latte) then to Lowes where I sat in the parking lot timing contractions and Adam ran inside. At this point I was noticing that these silly contractions were all roughly 50 - 60 seconds long. Through our excellent childbirth classes I knew that contractions of this length were worth noticing. This frustrated me slightly, and I began to think I was timing them incorrectly. I called Laurie, who was also our childbirth instructor, and left another message.

Once we finally reached the house at 6:00pm Adam and I both spoke to Laurie who told me I was indeed timing correctly and she thought active labor was beginning. WHAT?! She urged me to rest in a completely dark room for an hour and to have Adam call her at 7pm with a status report.

This is where I feel "Part One" ends, and "Part Two" begins.... so I'll leave you in suspense.

Remember, this was Sunday, September 26th. To God be the Glory, GREAT things he has done!