Baby Number Three Birth Story

Hey everyone! It’s been a little bit since I’ve written, mostly due to the fact that I was busy growing, birthing, and caring for a mini human :) Baby Revere Everett was born March 13, and he is such an amazing addition to our family. We are all so in love with him, and it’s been the easiest transition of the three. My 6-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy are smitten with him!  

Today is actually my little girl’s birthday, and so I’ve been thinking back on my first experience with birth compared to this last one. I’ve learned some things about faith since that first, so I thought I would share my birth story.

From the beginning of this pregnancy, I started saying, “This is my best and easiest pregnancy and delivery yet!” That went along with our overall confession for 2018, that it would be our best year yet. While I am six years older than with my first pregnancy, I have to say that it was a great pregnancy!

I had to fight off some wrong thoughts about my body in the beginning because I started off weighing more than with the other two. I had gained weight due to the fact that life had been crazy — we had been renovating a big fixer upper house for six months, and we actually moved in the week I found out I was expecting. I had to fight off fears like, “You’re going to get vericoss veins.” “Your back will hurt!” “You’re not in shape so this is going to be harder.” But each time a thought like that would come, I would immediately speak the opposite. I would say, “Lord, even though my body isn’t as lean as I would like, I thank you that it has the grace to carry this baby without pain or problems. Thank you that my veins are strong. My blood sugar levels are perfect. I will never have complications if any kind. This is my easiest yet.”

I did not have nausea as long as I ate enough protein, and I didn’t have weird aversions to food or sensitivity to smells. I did not have back pain. My veins were just fine, with not even a small spider vein. In the last few weeks, I dealt with the usual hip pressure, sleeplessness, and tiredness, as my body prepared for birth.

in the last two months of pregnancy my dad started preaching about the sabbath rest promised to those who are in Christ. He taught about what it means to rest in God’s ability to perform His Word, and that we have been set free from painful toil and striving anxiously. I took that word and applied it to my confession over the delivery. I said, “This is my ‘Sabbath Rest’ baby! Lord thank you for the grace over my birth experience. Thank you for your ability filling me, and that it will not be a birth of painful tool or striving. It will be a restful birth, and this baby will be a restful baby.”

Now, I will tell you what I was believing for medically. During my first birth, I had some back labor due to the baby being in a wrong position. After a few hours I was DONE with that! So Jason laid his hands on me and commanded the baby to turn and the back labor to stop. Within that hour it completely stopped and I went to sleep for awhile. The back labor didn’t come back because baby moved. So I added that to my prayer list for the next two: no back labor, and baby in correct position. Also, during my first I had a cervical lip, where a part of the cervix gets in the way of the baby’s head decending. That slowed things down. I added that to my list of things to believe for during my second and third deliveries: no cervical lip. During my first and especially second deliveries, I had good labors, but pushing was hard and took a long time. So for this one I thanked God that I would deliver easily and quickly. I prayed for less than four contractions for the baby to be out. I also prayed for pushing to feel like a relief, because I had never had what some women describe as the “urge to push.” I prayed for a quick easy labor, under five hours.

The week Revere was due, I was very impatient. I even cried a couple times to my husband that I just wanted to hold my baby and not be pregnant any more. Lol! Mamas, can you relate? Hormones are raging! I was so done with not being able to move quickly and easily. I felt huge. His due date came and went, and I had to fight to keep a positive attitude. I kept confessing God’s Word and listening to a recording called, “Childbirth in the Glory,” available on iTunes.

Three days after his due date, we went for a long walk outdoors to get my mind off of the waiting game. We went to buy groceries, and then got some stir fry. As soon as I got home and sat down for a bit, I started to have contractions, but they were very light. I started timing them at 7-10 minutes apart, but they weren’t consistent. I went to take a shower while Jason got the other two ready for bed. 

While in the shower I had two contractions back to back. I let Jason know but told him they were very light, and it might not be the real thing. He proceeded to call the midwife and those I wanted at the birth, asking them to come on over. When I got out of the shower, he announced that everyone was on their way. I was kinda shocked lol! I again told him that I wasn’t 100% sure this was it, because things were light. I didn’t want them to be disappointed if it was a false alarm. However, he had heard too many stories of second and third babies coming quickly, and he was not wanting to deliver the baby himself. The midwife had decided to come spend the night since snow was coming and she didn’t want to drive in the middle of the night if things did progress. Good thing she did!

The midwife arrived around 11:30pm and announced that I was already dilated 4cm and was fully effaced. She hadn’t slept much the night prior, so she went to sleep in another room, thinking it could be a while before truly active labor kicked in. 

Jason put on some of our favorite comedians to watch, and let’s just say that laughing definitely helped speed things up! At midnight, my water broke and contractions started coming every 2-4 minutes. I had to start breathing through them, versus the light contractions I could talk through. 

At 1 a.m. we went upstairs to the bedroom and nursery, because I didn’t want to climb my long spiraled staircase at the last minute. The contractions had been very manageable and non-painful, but I could feel that the baby would be here soon, so we woke the midwife at 1:30a.m. Then transition kicked in. 

We had a birth pool, but because things had progressed very rapidly from light labor to transition, they had a hard time getting it filled up with water in time.  I really wanted to get in during transition because it truly relaxes the body and makes everything feel lighter. Finally, I was able to get in at 1:50a.m. And it felt so wonderful! Suddenly, I felt the unexplainable, uncontrollable urge to push. And what I had heard was true: it was a relief! 

In only three contractions, little buddy was looking up into my eyes with the sweetest love I will never forget. He just stared at me adoringly, bright eyed and alert. He didn’t cry much.  It was exactly 2a.m. on the dot. I couldn’t believe it was already over! In fact, I didn’t even know for sure that his head was out by the time he was fully born! Pushing had been the easiest, quickest part. I had only been in labor for three and a half hours, not all of which felt like fully active labor. In fact, I don’t think I’m going to call it “labor” anymore. It was simply resting in the Lord and trusting my body to do the work. It was delivering a baby, not laboring, toiling or striving in pain. 

I had no complications, and baby was perfectly healthy. The joy that filled me was uncontrollable, spilling over into tears and laughter. Ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes, a fuzzy little head full of downy brown hair, and the sweetest little delicate face was laid in my arms and in my heart forever. We rested well that night, with our sabbath rest baby.

Aren’t babies such a nice way to start a human life? Haha!

Now came the hard part — we didn’t have a name chosen! We had several options, but we truly didn’t know which to choose. We prayed and talked, but it wasn’t until he had been in the world for 36 hours that we knew what his name should be. He was such a peaceful, loving baby, with eyes full of reverence.  

I read a scripture that said the following, and then we knew: 

Malachi 4:2 says, “But for you who REVERE my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.”

Jason said, “I think his name should be Revere.” 

“That’s exactly what I like best,” I said. 

In this birth experience I received the specific things I prayed for, without exception. But this is my third time around, so I have built my faith and learned some things about delivery since my first. The greatest thing I have learned is to speak truth over myself and the baby during the pregnancy and delivery, visualizing what that truth looks and feels like. On your first, you have no clue what to expect and often don’t know how to pray. But on the next babies you have an understanding of how to work with your body and what to believe God for. Faith is very specific. Believing you are going to have a painful delivery is going to produce a painful delivery. Fear of something has the power to produce, just like faith had the power to produce. So I have learned to treat fear like poison. I don’t take it into my soul. I dont let it in the door of my mind, by choice. I willfully choose positive beliefs that line up with God’s promises. 

And as my son’s name suggests, I have learned to revere the Creator God above all others. His grace is stronger than my weakness. His power is enough for me. His loving kindness toward me is always astounding.  

For more encouragement on pregancy and delivery, check out, “The Know How Book on Birth” by my mother Drenda Keesee and myself. It’s available on Amazon or Drenda.com. 

our little family

The moment you meet your child is so special