Living a Changed Life: Sophie's Birth Story

Sophie Joye

My sweet Sophie Joye turned 7 last month. As a result, I thought it would be fun to share her birth story with all of you. I hope you enjoy this precious birth story!!

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Sophie’s Birth Story

Written: Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Before I get into the details of Sophie’s birth, I would like to make it very clear that the Lord was determined to be glorified in and through this story. At first it was hard for me to see, because certain things didn't go according to my plan. However, slowly and gently, like any good Father would, the Lord shed light on this circumstance and revealed Himself to be faithful every step of the way.

Life’s circumstances were extremely challenging the entire time I was pregnant with Sophie. I’m not going to go into all the details now, but there were extremely difficult things that we faced as a family while I was pregnant. I believe that the Lord gave me Sophie to be a constant source of joy and an ever present reminder that I am never alone.

God knew about all the bad things that we had to face throughout the year of 2013. With all my heart, I believe that Sophie was born to redeem 2013 and to continue to be a reminder of God’s faithfulness to my family. How can I remember it as a bad year when it was the same year that my baby was born?

Sophie’s due date was Tuesday, December 31st, 2013, the very last day of the year. Personally, I loved being pregnant during the Christmas holiday season. The whole point of Christmas is to remember the birth of baby Jesus. Being pregnant during Christmas time, gave me a whole different perspective on the Christmas story and what Mary really went through.

Little did I know, Sophie would be born four days earlier than her due date.

Monday, December 23rd, 2013 ended up being my last doctor’s appointment with Dr. Doerrfeld before I went into labor. Even though everything went well at my doctor’s appointment, Monday was a very stressful day, because I didn’t think Olivia was breathing and almost had to take her to the emergency room. As it turned out she was just too cold and needed to be warmed up, but it really was the last thing that I needed being a really pregnant Mama about ready to give birth.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Grandad, Grandma, and Auntie Hannah had arrived in Longview, Texas the weekend of Saturday, December 21st, 2013, so while my husband was at work they helped me get everything ready for Christmas. We baked cookies and all kinds of goodies in preparation for Christmas day. We were especially excited to find out that Jon would be home the evening of Christmas day! Our plan was to get everything ready, so that we could have Christmas dinner and open presents with Jon after he got home on Christmas day.

Olivia and I drove out to the airport to go get Jon and bring him home. As soon as Jon arrived it became apparent that he was very sick. He had flu like symptoms. However, he still joined us for Christmas dinner, reading the Nativity story, and opening presents. That night neither of us slept very well, because he was so sick.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

The next morning, I woke up and felt sick too! I had diarrhea all morning long. I was not sure if I was going into labor or if I had somehow caught the same flu, Jon still had. We didn’t go anywhere all morning, because we were both so sick. I finally started feeling better by the afternoon and went with Grandma Newsham to go get a few things from the store to help Jon while he was sick with the flu.

Keep in mind that I had been having Braxton Hicks for weeks. I had also been having all kinds of cramping, but I did not think anything of it. Olivia was two days late and even though I wanted Sophie to come around Christmas time, I was pretty sure that she would be late like Olivia.

Right before bed time, Grandad made Jon a hot toddy, which was supposed to help his fever. It was also supposed to help him sleep through the night. After dinner, Grandad, Grandma Newsham, Auntie Hannah, and Uncle Josh left to go sleep at their own places. Jon and I watched a CSI: New York before we decided to go to bed.

As soon as we tried to go to sleep, Olivia started screaming and part of me thinks that she knew that I was going to go into labor. For whatever reason, she was awake and did not want to go back to sleep. Even though Jon was sick, he went and slept on the floor next to Olivia’s crib in an effort to help her sleep and to let me get some sleep as well.

Friday, December 27th, 2013

As it turned out, it ended up being a sleepless night for me too! As soon as I laid down, I had period like cramping and my back really hurt. No matter what I did I could not get comfortable. I had noticed that the pain would go away when I was sitting upright, so around 1:30am I decided to go sleep in the recliner chair out in the living room.

Almost immediately, I began to notice that I was having contractions. For the next hour or so I tried to sleep and track my contractions to see if they were consistent. As I sat in the chair, they were coming consistently and did not seem to be going away anytime soon. Despite this fact, I felt like this was false labor, so I decided to change positions to see if my contractions would continue to come or stop.

My to-do list kept running through my mind. I decided that just in case I was in labor, I needed to get these things done now before it was too late. I got up out of my chair to get some things done. I cleaned the kitchen, washed the dishes, packed Olivia’s overnight bag, and made sure that my own hospital bag had everything I needed inside. I also began to pull out snacks and drinks that I would need as I labored at home.

The entire time I was up and moving around, I continued to have contractions. I knew that they were getting stronger and coming more and more consistently. Before I sat back down in the recliner, I also made sure, Jon got back in our bed. If I was in labor, he was going to need more sleep to help me through the rest of the day.

By 4:00am, I had finished my to-do list and decided to begin to track my contractions for the next hour. Over that next hour, my contractions were coming every six minutes and lasting for almost a minute. All throughout the night, I had text Grandma Newsham to let her know that I was having contractions. However, by 5:00am I knew I needed to have her come over to begin to help me evaluate whether or not I was really in labor.

Grandma came over for the next few hours she helped me track my contractions. We were convinced that I was actually in labor. So I called our friends, Michael and Becky, because they were going to watch Olivia while I was in labor and at the hospital. However, I couldn’t get a hold of them.

Olivia woke up around 8:00am, I feel like at that point, I went into Mommy mode. My primary focus was not on letting myself relax, but on making sure that Olivia got where she needed to go. So for the next hour or so my labor slowed down a lot. Finally, Becky came over around 9:30am to pick up Olivia. I was so emotional that I just started crying, because I knew I wouldn’t see Olivia again until after I had Sophie.

Grandma let me try to sleep for an hour and said that by 11:00am we would start doing things to help get my labor going again. About the same time, Auntie Hannah came over to take pictures while I was in labor. This was the best decision we made all day long! You see Jon was still sick and spent most of the day asleep in bed. Auntie Hannah stepped in and helped me labor when Jon could not.

Daddy, Mommy, and Grandma on a walk

After the hour was up, Grandma, Auntie Hannah, Jon, and I went for a walk on campus at LeTourneau University. We walked for over an hour. Thankfully, being up and walking around, helped to get my labor going again. While we walked, I would have to stop and focus on breathing through my contractions.

We went back to the house, where we were going to have lunch. I really wanted a break, so I sat down in the recliner and again my labor stalled. This ended up being the theme of the day. Each and every time I was up and moving around my contractions would start coming every few minutes. However, as soon as I sat down, my contractions would stall. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to my contractions.

With Grandma and Auntie Hannah’s help, I labored all afternoon while Jon slept. My labor was not unbearable and the three of us girls actually had a lot of fun! We laughed as Grandma accidentally told me to swaddle the chair when she actually meant straddle. Auntie Hannah tried to help me with my breathing and when she said the wrong thing, so did I. Afterwards we just giggled like little girls that we just could not seem to get it right.

I never expected that labor could be fun. However, that is exactly how I would describe that afternoon!

By 5:00pm, my labor had stalled again. My contractions were not coming very often at all and I was convinced that I probably would not have Sophie for another few days. Auntie Hannah suggested that we try waddling. She explained that it was something that Auntie Eva did with her laboring mothers in the Philippines and it was supposed to help get labor going.

Waddling sounded silly and embarrassing, but I tried to have a good attitude anyway. We began to waddle around my little yellow house making up songs as we went, because we felt so silly!

“Waddle, waddle, waddle till the baby’s out!”

To our delight my contractions began to come back with a vengeance!

Grandma called Grandad to let him know that I was in fact in labor and we would probably have this baby tonight. That was such an encouragement to me and made me determined to do whatever was necessary to get Sophie out.

The next time I went to the bathroom, I could really begin to feel Sophie’s head, because it was so low! We waited too long to go to the hospital with Olivia and I did not want that to happen again. So, I told Grandma Newsham what I felt and that it was about time to go to the hospital.

Really in labor now!!

We needed to get everything together and wait for Grandad to pick us up. So, I sat down in the recliner where again, my labor stalled. Like I had said, it was the theme of the day. However, I am thankful for this, because it gave us time to get to the hospital and get settled before Sophie was born.

When Grandad arrived, around 8:00pm, Daddy, Auntie Hannah, Grandma, and I all piled into the car and made our way to the hospital.

At the hospital we checked in with the woman in the Emergency Room and signed all of the appropriate papers. Uncle Josh ended up showing up at the hospital right about the same time we did, so he got to be there too!

They got me upstairs where I changed into a hospital gown. I answered all of their registration questions and signed all of the necessary forms. They checked me and discovered that I was already at an 8! Finally, they got us into a labor and delivery room which I had not been able to see when I had Olivia. All the while, I was still having contractions pretty frequently. By this time, Jon was up and took Auntie Hannah’s place to help me labor.

Dr. Doerrfeld was out of town, so I opted to have the midwife on call named, Mary Beth Smith.This was the best decision I made all day! All throughout my pregnancy I had been going back and forth about a home birth vs. a hospital birth. In the end, God made the decision for me, because my doctor was out of town.

After monitoring Sophie’s heart beat the midwife said that I could get up and walk around for thirty minutes. I got up went to the bathroom and walked around. My contractions were becoming unbearable as they came one right after the other. I did my best to breathe through them, but I was not sure how much more of this I could take!

At 9:30pm, I got back in bed, so that they could monitor Sophie for another thirty minutes. This was the one time, all day that when I laid down my contractions did not stop! I told Grandma I was tired and she said that I could lay in bed until 10:00pm, but that then we would get up to move around.

In that thirty minute period I went through transition. My contractions hurt so much as they forced my hips to open up and give way for the baby that was about to be born. I had kept my cool all day and with every contraction I felt like I was going to lose it.

I looked up at the clock which read 10:00pm and knew that there was no way I could get up and walk around. I hoped that Grandma would not make me get up out of bed, because I was in so much pain!

With the very next contraction, my water broke. As soon as my water broke I felt the need to push. I knew that it was just about time for me to have my baby girl. With Jon and Grandma’s help I did my best to not push until the midwife and nurses arrived.

The nurse checked me and I was complete. They sent someone to get the midwife and I could finally try a practice push. As the midwife came in, she threw on her hospital gowns and asked if Jon would like to catch Sophie and cut the cord.

Two contractions and three pushes later, Sophie was out! They put my precious baby on my chest, which was a new experience for me, because they didn’t do that with Olivia. I could not believe that my baby girl was finally here.

So excited to meet our baby girl!!

Over the next hour, they stitched me up, took care of Sophie, and just let us bond with our newest baby girl. There were so many babies born on December 27th, 2013 that they did not have enough room for us in the mother/baby wing of the hospital, so they kept us in labor and delivery.

Grandad, Grandma, Uncle Josh, and Auntie Hannah had all been in the waiting room and got to come see Sophie as soon as we were ready. They fell in love with Sophie at first sight!

Over the next few days Sophie met her big sister Olivia and many other people that love her. We brought Sophie home and since then, each day, we have been learning more about her and how to be a family of four. Sophie brings so much joy to our lives and we are thankful that the Lord has put her in our family!

We continue to be thankful for the many ways that the Lord has provided for our family and will continue to provide on Sophie’s behalf!