Josiah Luke was born on Friday morning, Sept. 12, at 4:44 a.m. He was 7 lb 5 oz, 21 inches long, and absolutely amazing! Later that night, hurricane Ike struck Houston with a fury. I highly recommend giving birth as a fantastic way to be distracted from any stress over a major natural disaster--we barely noticed the storm! And God was so good to us--He has worked blessing after blessing during all this.
I'd been having pretty hard contractions for almost 48 hours before being admitted to the hospital. They began late Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning were consistantly every 5 minutes, lasting at least 1 minute. No water broken, but I hear that's not uncommon, and this is when they say "Go to the hospital"... Right?!? Well, we went to my doctor's office, and he was not impressed. No dilation, and "you're still smiling" he said. Go home. I was not still smiling after that visit. I was convinced that I would be pregnant and having contractions for the rest of my life. In my defense, I was only still smiling because I thought I was fixing to have a baby! So Nate took me home and patiently entertained me and took care of me all day and all night. The contractions continued, but became far more erratic--every 10-15 minutes, and they stopped altogether for about an hour or so. This continued through the night and Thursday morning. By early afternoon we were a little concerned about the oncoming storm, and called the doctor's office to find out what the plan was for delivery during a hurricane. The doctor's office had shut down at 2:00 that afternoon--there was a hurricane coming, for goodness sake! So we ate some lunch, fed the dog and horses, threw our bags in the car and headed for the hospital. Our plan was to just find out what protocol would be, since Nate still had faith that I would have this child within the next 24-48 hours--I was not as convinced (see above!)
The hospital wouldn't give us any information until someone checked me--"The contractions are no longer very regular, though," I felt the need to inform them. Protocol is protocol--so an hour or two later I was in a triage room and my doctor walked in. "Five centimeters!" he proclaimed. His non-smiling test is definately a dud--I was so happy to hear, "Let's admit you and have a baby!"
My mom & dad came within a couple of hours, and Jenny and Aaron and baby Sophia were there by around 10 pm or so. By about midnight it was time to push--for 4 1/2 hours! That is a long time, by the way. After an hour or two, the doctor came in and confirmed that Josiah was not really in the right position--face up instead of face down, and somewhat "whomper-jod." He felt like we'd need to go to a C-section. He positioned me nearly on my stomach and said I could have an hour to see if the baby would turn, but that was not really expected. Nate came and prayed with me after the doctor left, and while he was praying I could feel the baby moving. The sensation got stronger over the next 10 minutes or so, and the nurse came and re-checked me after about 20-30 minutes. He hadn't flipped over, but had moved enough that she and the doctor felt like he could be delivered! Praise God for His miracles! It was still a long, horribly exhausting time later that he was delivered, but no C-section was required, for which I was immensely grateful.
It sounds so trite, but there is really no way to describe the first time I saw this tiny person and heard his first cries. It was truly one of the most amazing moments of my life. His Daddy cut the cord, and a little while later we got to hold him for the first time. God is so good.
Nate took a moment to present me with a beautiful gold ring set with an opal that he'd purchased for the occasion.
Mom & Dad and Jenny & Aaron and Sophia had stayed through all of this--around 5:30 or 6 ish they came in to meet Josiah. His "aunt" Leslie and "uncle" Brian came by later that morning for a visit, too. The hospital announced that it would be going into "lockdown" at noon that day, and each patient could have just one visitor--so Nate could stay, but everyone else would have to leave. They actually zip-tied the doors shut and posted guards and everything--apparently hurricanes bring out the crazy people to the hospitals, and they cannot act as a general shelter! The electricity went out sometime late Friday night or early Saturday morning; we barely noticed, really, so ensconced were we in caring for and marveling at our newborn son.
We checked out on Saturday evening and took Josiah home--another of God's miracles was that our home went unscathed. We had several oak trees down, but no damage to our house, barn, or fences. The horses were safe and, other than no electricity or water, all was well. We stayed the first night at home with our new son, and then headed to Kingwood to stay with Mom & Dad, who had purchased a generator and window AC unit for the occasion--they are such a blessing! We stayed there, along with Jenny & Aaron & Sophia, for a week until our power came back on Sunday night the 21st. It was different from what we'd expected, this first week with our new baby, but we really enjoyed the time spent together with family--we couldn't have asked for a better alternative!
Sometimes Daddy gets in on the sleeping action, too 
Four pumpkins, two of which became moldy and had to be thrown out 48 hours after purchasing--$20
