Room to Grow

The Birth of Lily Karthryn Lim

My labor started about a week before I actually went into labor. I went in for my forty-week check up and my midwife asked me if I wanted to see if anything was starting to happen. To both of our surprise I was four centimeters dialed. She warned me that my labor could be a fast one. I went home and frantically cleaned the house and then began to wait. I was positive this baby was going to come that night. Late in the evening contractions started but nothing progressed. I went to bed and figured that if labor was going to start in the middle of the night I wanted to be well rested. I woke in the morning feeling normal again, this happened again, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night. So by Saturday I was tired of hanging out at home. I decided to go to the park and celebrate a friend's son's birthday and then off to a friend's baby shower. I got a call from Art at around six in the evening saying that he had thrown out his back and was laying on the couch in a lot of pain. As soon as I got the call I figured baby was coming tonight for sure. When I got home I got this frantic need to eat dinner so I went and made myself a large turkey sandwich and sat down and ate while my contractions began to rise with intensity in my body. Art decided that he should take some old pain medicine to help his back pain so he could be ready for the labor. It numbed the pain but also made him very sick. Here we were: me in labor and Art over the toilet, getting ready to bring this little girl into the world. At that moment I realized I had been striped of my 'plan' of how this was going to look. We prayed for strength and called on the promise that in our weakness our God is strong.

I called my midwife and told her that my contractions were coming on stronger and closer together. She agreed to come over to our house and check me. She arrived at nine o’clock and said that I was six centimeters dialed and that I needed to get ready and meet her at the Birth Center at ten o’clock. Art and I got our last minute things together and drove over. We arrived before she did and happen to find an open door in the back and let ourselves in. We found a room in the back and began to settle in. My midwife arrived surprised that we had found an open door and moved us to a different room that was ready. She filled the bath with water, turned down the lights and lit some candles. She suggested that I get into the tub. The water was warm and relaxing and Art turned on some soft music. My friend and birth helper Danyale arrived as I was getting in. The contractions began to grow with intensity and began to come closer together. My breaks in between were slowly disappearing. Art steadily talked me through each contraction while Danyale encouraged me. After a while in the tub my midwife told me that I needed to go use the bathroom. After finding a tiny break in my contractions I got out and sat on the toilet. It was nice to be in a new position and after sitting there a minute my water broke with great intensity. I began to get the urge to push so my midwife checked me on the bed and then invited me to sit on the birthing stool. I sat there for a few contractions and the urge to push started to grow like a wave building before it crashes onto the shore. I started to work with the rhythm of the contractions and urges and pushed when they peaked. Soon you could see a little tuft of hair as she was working her way down. My midwife had me go to the bed as I began to push. I continued pushing as they peaked and out came my beautiful little girl. They held her up to me and I couldn’t believe that we had done it.

She was laid on my chest and cried this sweet new little cry. I checked her over for ten fingers and toes and to make sure she really was a little girl. After a few minutes she stopped crying and just looked deep into my eyes. We stared at each other and I couldn’t believe that she was mine. Art and I held her as we commissioned her with God’s word:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:16-21

Lily Kathryn Lim
Born 1:35 in the morning
April 5th 2009
8 pounds 13 ounces
21 ¾ inches long