This post is a sentimental one. Haylee and I went back and forth thinking on photographing the actual birth, or just a few of the kids meeting Lucas for the first time. Clearly she outdid herself and for that I am SO thankful. Haylee, I just love you! If this is your first time visiting our blog, Haylee & I are a photography duo. We work together…and it’s so great. SO great. 🙂 This time, Haylee worked by herself, and I was on the other side of the camera. Usually that is TOTALLY awkward for a photographer to be on the other side, but when there is an epidural, two toddlers, a newborn, and some pain meds involved, the camera is the last thing on your mind.

Lucas’ birth story: 

It all started one entirely too cold February afternoon in Massachusetts. I was pacing back and forth as the time slowly ticked by, waiting for Josh to get home from class. Of COURSE the day I find out I’m pregnant, he lollygags and stays after talking to friends. I’m sitting over here sweating bullets, trying to figure out how in the world to tell him I have a baby in my belly, knowing we are about to make a huge transition and move back down to Florida when Josh graduates in two months. Because, let’s face it, moving down the East Coast with a 2 year old and 10 month old wasn’t enough excitement for us Pools. As my mind is going a million miles a minute, in walks my clueless husband. Do I tell him now? No, no. What about now? Every time I was just about to blurt it out, he would start talking about some deep theology he just learned in class. How in the world do you just insert in, “Oh that’s great, babe! I’m pregnant!” You don’t. So here he is, chatting his heart out about the Reformation (or something), and I’m trying not to burst into tears. My heart was beating far too fast. So I did what every woman does when they tell their husband they are pregnant in a really cute way: I threw the test at him. Thoughtful, right? DON’T JUDGE ME, PEOPLE. Josh freezes. I am uncontrollably laughing, because that’s what I do when I’m nervous…Josh’s eyes fill up with “sweat,” and he says, “What is this?…MANDI. What IS this?? This is a joke, right? It’s a joke? Don’t play games with me!” So I shove my face behind a pillow because I’m at a loss for words.

We ended up moving back down to Florida when I was just 11 weeks along. Insurance took forever to switch over, so my first appointment down here wasn’t until 17 weeks. BUT that’s the appointment we found out our baby was a boy!

Fast forward to birth-day.

 I was induced at 40w+1d: Just two days after Thanksgiving dinner. You can say I was stuffed, that’s for sure! Josh and I went in at midnight and began the beloved paperwork. The nurse hooked me up to the IV and started pitocin around 1:30AM. You’d think that’d be a great time to get some rest before I don’t get any for the next 20 years, right? No. I WAS SO HUNGRY. “Would you like some chicken broth?” What? no. I’d like a #1 with no onions. I had to settle with a popsicle (or two…). As time went by, I seemed to be slowly progressing. I was having steady contractions. It was the most bizarre thing though. I was at 7 cm and in no pain. My other two births were NOT like that. My sweet nurse tried cheering me on to have no epidural, but I let her down by saying YOU’RE CRAZY. 🙂 I was too scared to even attempt that! My nurse comes in the room with his needle the size of the Grand Canyon, ready to give me my epidural. Let me preface this with how ticklish I am. Reuben comes in with the thought that this will take 5 minutes. He didn’t quite understand who he was dealing with. It took about 15 minutes to get that sucker in my back because I could not. stop. laughing. The slightest touch of his fingertip on my back made me jump out of my seat. The other nurse had to hold me down. I couldn’t tell if Josh was standing there praying for me to behave, or asking God why he made me so ticklish. Fifteen long minutes later, that bad boy was IN and I was on cloud 9. By 10:30 AM, the nurse said I’d probably have my sweet boy in 30 minutes or so. WHAT. I asked the nurses when to tell Haylee to come in so she can get some of the details after he was born, and they said to just have her in the room. So I texted Haylee and gave her the details. I told her she could come at any time, but not to feel pressured to be there for the birth. Afterall, she does have a family of her own, so I had no expectations of her getting there immediately. Well in walks Haylee, camera in hand, immediately. Haha! Next thing I know, my doctor walks in, and says, “place your feet right here.” And that’s when my heart sank. It was time. I had been dreaming of this day for 40 weeks, it was finally here, and I thought I was about the throw up. It all happened so fast! As soon as she says to start pushing, I just lost it. I couldn’t stop thinking about Abigail and Jack in that moment. Their life was about to change and they were clueless. They knew mommy had a baby in her belly, but they had been with Nana and Gramps. All they knew was that mommy and daddy were gone, and the next time they saw us, Lucas would be here. Josh was so sweet and just stayed close to me and encouraged me through it all. I’m tearing up just thinking about it! I love him so much. In the middle of pushing, an oxygen mask gets placed on my face and a vacuum gets handed from one nurse to another just in case (thankful we didn’t need it!). Can I just add how hard it is to push while having an epidural? I had no idea what was going on down there because I felt like jello. Don’t get me wrong, I felt DANG good, but I didn’t know if I was pushing hard enough. By the looks of the pictures, I pushed hard enough to grow multiple chins though! Three sets of pushes later, Lucas Joshua Pool graced our family at 11:19 AM weighing a whopping 8lbs 3oz and 21 inches long. He came out so fast that he broke blood vessels all over his face and bit his poor little tongue! It was a little strange when he first came out. He didn’t really cry, and the nurses were quiet. I was super scared and didn’t know what was going on. Apparently he had the cord wrapped around his neck twice. Dr. Esses is a beast though and handled everything so delicately. Josh & I later asked one of my nurses about the oxygen and vacuum, and she said they saw his heart rate was dropping, so they wanted to just be safe. We are so thankful that they can all read each other so well and know exactly what to do without saying it out loud so that I didn’t freak out. Sacred Heart staff is seriously so incredible and I couldn’t have asked for a better hospital to deliver at!

So with all of that in mind, here are some of the images from my little guy’s birth:

The BEST doctor. Like, EVER. She was my doctor for the majority of my pregnancy with Abigail, but then we moved to Massachusetts. I actually remember joking and telling Josh I hoped to get pregnant sometime when we moved back to Florida just so I could have her again, haha! Dr. Esses, I love you!

And just for giggles…I have NO idea what is happening here.

Thank you, Haylee for all of these! I will treasure them forever.

xoxo,

Mandi