Baby Lyon: The Birth Story, Surprise Gender Reveal & Hospital Stay

Jude’s birth story.

Ah, it has brought such a sense of peace to my heart that I have been so excited to share with you all. It was so perfect for me in so many ways and I feel comfortable enough to say that I truly got what I envisioned in this birth, even if things didn’t go as we ‘planned.’ And for those who don’t already know, we didn’t find out the gender of our babe until birth. Some say that we’re crazy, others said that they wouldn’t have been able to do it… but honestly, it was the best thing ever. You only get very few surprises in life and this is definitely one of those moments. I don’t regret the wait one bit. And for the two of us, it was so much fun.

My ‘plan’ for this birth was to try for a VBAC, which is a Vaginal Birth After Cesarean. Since things didn’t quite go as I would have liked trying for a natural birth the first time around with an urgent c-section, and the complications were not due to me personally, I wanted to try again. I still had the mentality that I could do it and I had the inner strength and knowledge behind knowing the basics of what it took to breathe through the waves up until the very end from my past experience.

On Wednesday August 12th I went in for my 40 week appointment. I had my membranes stripped twice during a short period of time, this being one of the days, and had been doing all of the things to try and get those contractions going. With my first birth I ended up being induced 6 days past my due date because my body wasn’t progressing on it’s own. With this one I just secretly wished and hoped that it would show me some kind of signs of progress. For Jude’s birth though, I did get to experience the things my body needed to do pre labor and that was encouraging. To be prepared and be able to plan ahead, we scheduled our cesarean on that Friday just in case things didn’t move along on their own.

Having a scheduled cesarean birth vs. an urgent one during labor were two totally different experiences. Each birth is different and each birth matters just as much as the next one. Being a birth photographer, I’m blessed to be able to watch life arrive into this world in many different ways. And I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that I tear up during every single one.

So, sure enough, we met the day of our scheduled c-section. Ours was scheduled at noon and we needed to be at the hospital by 10am. I remember the slowness to the morning, it just never felt ‘real.’ I couldn’t believe that we had made it. We were actually here, the day we had been counting down for had finally arrived and I couldn’t believe that I was doing my hair and makeup when I felt like I should have somehow been in labor. Nana had spent the night and was there to be with brother Owen the next morning when we left. I remember all the feelings of leaving as just us and knowing we were going to be coming back home with a brand new babe… priceless.

Driving by the hospital on all of our days before, we would always say that we couldn’t wait until the day or the crazy moment when we actually needed to pull into there. And now here we were, making that turn into the hospital and we were so excited.

I got checked in and into our room and I cannot, again, stress to you how unreal it still felt to me… feeling perfectly fine getting all dressed and prepped, sitting in a hospital bed and literally twiddling my thumbs waiting for the time to pass. They informed me that I would actually be walking back to the OR and I just remember thinking that was quite funny, thinking back to the birth experience I had before this one and how it was quite different. There was a moment when I started to feel icky but it was just a short moment filled with nerves. The smell of the hospital room and the years of craving that brand new hospital baby smell was happily overwhelming too and I was just so excited. This was one of the moments my heart had been waiting for again for so long.

I walked back with the nurse, sat on the table for my spinal tap and slowly felt my body begin to numb as they layed me down. They talked to me the whole time and we were throwing jokes and laughter around like it was a coffee date or something. Again, I didn’t feel like I was there to have a baby haha. I think between the journey of my son’s diagnosis, our reversal and actually making it to this day my mind was just filled with emotions and I really didn’t know how to feel to be honest. Our story gives me all the feels and this was the icing on the cake.

By the time I walked back to the time Jude was born, it was about 40 minutes.
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On August 14th at 12:39pm we had the SURPRISE moment of finally meeting Jude Wilder Lee Lyon and bringing him into our arms. He weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces and was 20 inches long. The nurses admired how much hair he had and dad got to announce to the whole room that it was A BOY!! The anesthesiologist was absolutely wonderful walking me through everything, everyone made me feel incredibly comfortable and every single soul in that room made our day and this moment so special by cheering with us. All of our lives have changed since bringing him into our family and a calm feeling somehow arrived, making us feel that ‘everything will be okay.’ He has been a blessing that we knew we were missing.

Please enjoy these photos and moments with us as we relive the birth of Jude
and our hospital stay of just the three of us during this worldwide pandemic.
Jude helped to bring our blended family together even closer
and it was one of the best days of our lives.