Timothy's Birth Story

Timothy Richard Kilby

 Born September 6, 2016

 1:21 PM

 9 lbs. 1 oz., 21 inches

Timothy finally arrive safe and sound. His due date was August 30, so exactly one week overdue. For a little history lesson, my body has never gone into full-blown labor on its own. I went into the hospital with Grace having minor and irregular contractions . I think they just kept me out of pity since she was five days late. With Isaac and Abi my water broke and with the twins I was induced. I was pretty convinced that we would have to schedule this week to be induced even though I had been having some irregular contractions.

Monday, September 5 I went to bed feeling very sore and had some signs that labor was maybe coming up. It was all very early labor stuff so I did not think too much of it although I was hoping - and it was all stuff I hadn't really experienced before with my other pregnancies. Around 2:30 I woke up with contractions that were fairly regular and fairly intense . I thought if I made it till 3:30 I would wake Aaron up and it would be go time. They stopped at 3:15.  Around 4:15 I was having some pretty major but not super close together contractions. At this point Aaron woke up and asked if I was okay. We chatted for little bit and I explained the situation about the earlier contractions and I didn't want to wake everyone up, go to the hospital and then be sent home.  Fortunately for me, he was paying more attention to what was happening right now.

Finally he said babe, these contractions are coming pretty close together, I think it's time. I agreed with him at this point and so we called my parents so my dad could come over to be with the kids and my mom could go to the hospital to hang out with us. As we waited for my dad I told him the moment my dad got there we needed to go.

When we arrived at the hospital I fully expected to be told my body had made some progress but it was still going to be a while. I was having very intense contractions at this point and they were ridiculously painful. In triage Aaron was timing the contractions and found that they were two minutes apart, again very intense. I was already dilated to seven (again, unheard of for me.  I was at a 1 when I went in for Isaac and Abi...and I don't remember for Grace but it was less than a 3).

They got me into a room pretty quickly and there is a mad flurry of activity as they tried to do everything necessary to get an epidural for me. I was impressed with their speed, although I'm sure my attitude did not show it as I was not enjoying these contractions...at all.  I hate that part because the intense pain and my "handling" of it makes me feel very weak.  I don't know how to explain it any better than that but my mind doesn't usually hang out in a good place.  I try to breathe and pray and worship while all this is going on - and that helps but it is easy to get caught in the pain.  Once they got the epidural and life was good again I sent a text to one of my friends that has had four natural childbirths, including one with Pitocin and told her that I thought she was a superstar.

At this point my labor stalled because my body was recovering and the epidural allowed it to slow down. I want to say it was around 7 AM, although I kept no notes and can't be sure. (Again, large amounts of pain made note taking pretty impossible.) I made slow progress and they added some Pitocin later to help my contractions intensify as we reached the end.

Around 12 they decided I was ready to start pushing since the baby was still very high up and he needed to be pushed down before he could be pushed out. Right around 1240 I remember looking at the clock and thinking we would have a baby in the next hour. My doctor came in at that point and got ready to go as well.  The pushing part was fairly "easy" all things considered.  The epidural was going great, I had my people there and I knew Aaron was praying me through it. 

At 1:21 Timothy was born.  He was my third face up baby and thankfully no tearing.  I was delighted and at this point basically started crying off and on for the next hour or two - thank you hormones - our God is good. 

Timothy means honoring God which didn't factor into our picking that name but I looked it up later.  It has been something that we have been talking about around here a lot - just how our lives should give glory to God.  Once I realized what it meant, and that he was our sixth baby that we were trusting God to provide for and to help us raise it seemed so fitting!  Richard is after my Great Uncle Dick Lanham.  He and his wife, Aunt Shirley, are amazing examples of people who love the Lord and others.  They ooze hospitality and generosity.  If this boy loves the Lord and the people around him like they do, I will be so thankful.

I have a picture of Aaron with each kid looking
pretty much exactly like this.  I love this man.

Sister approved.