Joseph’s birthday!

My midwife recommended a labor induction cocktail at my appointment today.  I drank the nasty mix after getting home and went to lay down.  Jason was home watching the kids and cleaning up their lunch.  For about an hour I felt some very mild contractions but they were like a distant echo of the real thing... then my water broke. It was 12:30. I brought my hospital bag to the door and told Jason my water broke. The contractions were already getting going. We told the kids we were going to the hospital and got in the car before his parents even arrived to watch the 3 littlest ones. As soon as their car pulled up we were off. Jason drove as fast as the Prius could go with the hazard lights on, flashing his headlights for people to let us through. It felt like God really made the way clear for us as we went down the interstate. Neither of us said anything the whole way there. I tried to stay really relaxed and breathe through each contraction, which were quickly getting more intense. When we got off at the hospital exit the labor felt so intense I said, "Oh this is really bad! Jesus help me!" We got to the street in front of the emergency department and I said, "The baby is coming!" There was no stopping this little man from making his appearance. I laid the seat back, put my feet up on the dash of the car and pulled my pants down. Jason pulled the car right in front of the emergency room door and ran inside to the security guard and told them he needed a doctor to deliver a baby. He ran back outside just in time to see little Joseph's head crowning. In complete calm, he helped his head out, released the cord from around his neck, and Joseph was born right into daddy's hands. He started crying right away and looked so pink and healthy- we were so relieved he was okay. For 30 glorious seconds it was just the 3 of us there at the car. We called him by name, told him we loved him and I held him close to me. I felt so happy we had made it to the hospital and that the hardest part was over! Joseph was born at around 1:15 in the afternoon.  If I hadn’t forgotten our little pocket camera on the way out the door, we would have had some kind of picture of us Post- Prius-Pre-Hospital.  But, we don’t.

Some emergency department people came out to help us with blankets and cutting the cord. It was kind of a surreal experience to get out of the car with your pants around your ankles holding a clamped umbilical cord hanging between your legs in your hand. I really did not care at that point who saw what, I was just so happy to have our baby here safely. We rolled on into the ED where a doctor looked at us in the hallway and deemed Joseph Alive and Okay. The doctor then realized that Jason was indeed the dad of this precious little miracle and not just a Vanderbilt doctor who happened to be walking by and ended up helping a random lady give birth outside the hospital. This still makes us laugh because Jason would be a very unlikely candidate for helping a random lady give birth- he runs from all women's health related issues like the plague. Our new family joke- "Dr. Pereira- Now offering emergency roadside delivery assistance!"

Little Joseph has the distinction of having his daddy's name on his birth certificate in two places- once as the daddy, and once as the "certifier of live birth" - the doctor who delivered him! Not at all what we had planned, but what a blessing it turned out to be. We truly thank the Lord for his protection and guidance in Joseph's arrival.