Our First Baby – Edison’s Birth Story

We never thought this day would come.

Like, ever.

—

I have struggled with PCOS my whole life, and with so many ruptured cysts over the years, we thought I might have trouble getting pregnant. And well, we did. 5 years of marriage later and with no pregnancies in site, we had decided that maybe the traditional way of building a family wasn’t God’s plan for us.

But here we are – holding our baby boy, Edison, in our arms. He’s snoozing next to me as I type this.

I wanted to write his story to have it documented for the future, so we can read it together and marvel at the beauty of our family and just how special he is.

—

October 5, 2014 was my birthday. I was 37 + 6 weeks pregnant and was READY to have this baby. I had been walking every single day up and down the hills around my mom’s house, trying to get this boy on the move. So, to help me along, Eric took me to the zoo. We had so much fun walking around and talking about what we thought would be his birth weight and length, and what he would look like.

And I woke up that morning at 3 am to my water breaking!

I woke up Eric, told him we needed to get ready and we were SO excited! I’ll never forget that we both took showers, made sure the bags were packed, got breakfast and THEN headed off to the hospital. haha

We immediately got into a room and I was at a 4! I was starting to feel contractions, but they weren’t too bad. I had decided to get an epidural, but was so nervous about when to get it done. The nurse told me to “wait until you feel like you can’t breathe through it, or the pain is too much.” So I did. And a hour and a half later, I had her check me because they were starting to get “painful” (I say painful, eventhough my birthing books wanted me to refer to it as “pressure” or “waves”) – either way, the pressure was getting intense…. and she told me I was at a 6 and could stretch to a 7! What?! That’s crazy!

This was around 8:00am and my family had a tough decision to make – especially my mom.

You see, my mom’s father, O.C. Mullen, had passed away the week before and his funeral was scheduled for that day. So she had to make the heart-wrenching decision to attend her father’s funeral or be there for the birth of her daughter’s first child.

I had to convince her to go. She and my nurses circled up around Eric and I and prayed over me and Edison and the birth. And after lots of tears, she left and I got my epidural.

No one prepared me for getting an epidural during a contraction btw! Why had I never thought of that?! Like, let’s shove a needle in your spine while you’re having the worst pain of your life. hahaha! Sorry Eric for cutting your circulation off in your fingertips.

So, after that, I was able to relax and Eric and I got some rest. I was expecting to be ready to push by noon, but to my surprise, the epidural stalled me out and I stopped progressing. By noon I was at an 8, by 3 I was around a 9.5 and by 5 I was almost complete, but I had a lip on my cervix that wouldn’t thin out and move back.

It was around this time that all of my family made it back to Little Rock from the funeral in Cave City. My mom was so relieved. <3

After another hour, my doctor decided to manually move the lip on my cervix back and it worked! I was good to go and complete. We started pushing.

I’ll spare you the details, but a VERY LONG and exhausting TWO hours later, with an epidural that gave out halfway and sweat pouring down my neck, I heard the screams of my healthy baby boy fill the room and they placed his wonderfully messy self onto my chest.

I couldn’t stop crying and thanking the Lord for this precious soul He entrusted to us. I was completely overwhelmed and overjoyed – this was the moment I had prayed for, for years and years. Eric began praying out loud over Edison and his life, his future and his soul. And I’ll never forget how we just rested in the presence of God in those moments, like He was present in the room with us.

Oh, what a holy moment. Thank you Lord for that.

He was here! in our arms and forever ours! He started nursing and we did skin to skin for the next two hours, before our families came in to meet him.

It was the best day.

Edison Glass Richardson

Born 8:23 pm

9 lbs 7 ounces

21 inches long