I’m sitting here with Beaufort sound asleep on my chest, both girls are napping (insert victory dance here!! All 3 kids asleep at once!), and I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I’m about to write my THIRD child’s birth story. For so long I wasn’t ready to become a mama, it is purely God’s grace and goodness to me that I am one today. If you’re new around here, or if you just love birth stories, I’m including some links that will fill you in on my journey to becoming a mama to three. And then you’ll hear the crazy story of how Beaufort William came into our lives.

8:05PM
We got checked in, made it to the room, and the nurse checked me: 7 centimeters!

3:30PM on July 25th
I had just woken up from a nap. I was already on maternity leave, It was 4 days before my due date, and I had been chasing my 2 year old Milly around all morning. I felt mild cramps, and then they would subside. “Could this be it?” I laid there for 30 minutes, praying, timing the cramps, and begging God for help and His presence.

We checked into the hospital around 11pm. I had lost all concept of time, and everything at this point everything is very fuzzy in my memory. I was completely in a different place mentally and physically, focusing all of my energy on the work before me. I remember being shocked to find out it was 11pm – I thought it was much earlier! We were delivering at a brand new hospital, and it was like a ghost town. It had only opened its doors 2 weeks prior, and we were the only ones there to deliver a baby! It was pretty great. Instead of triage, I was escorted straight to a labor and deliver room since all of them were empty.

I didn’t fully realize what a life changing experience Milly’s birth would be. I have learned to surrender my plans to the Lord’s throughout my pregnancy, and I learned to surrender to Him in a very real way during Milly’s birth. To provide a bit of context to my story, we decided to have a natural childbirth, free of medication.