Welcome Baby Lucas

Lucas Phoenix Willoughby was born on October 14th, 2019.  He weighed 8lbs 2oz and was 21 inches long.  Lucas is now 6 months old and I'm finally getting to posting to my blog again 🙈.  

My Labor & Delivery Story:

Warning: this is a long story, but for anyone who hasn't heard it, here it is.  If you have already heard it, or don't care for delivery stories, feel free to scroll down to the bottom for some cute baby pictures :).

My labor with Lucas was very different than with my first son, Lincoln.  About a month before my due date I came down with a cold.  Being sick while pregnant isn't fun, but I couldn't shake the cold for weeks and I was coughing constantly, especially through the night.  If you've been pregnant before, you know you don't get any sleep the last month or so of your pregnancy.  Add coughing all night to that and I was pretty much a zombie.  I went to my OB and explained my symptoms and told him I was having rib pain every time I coughed.  For whatever reason, the OB didn't listen to my chest, and advised me to just take cough medicine and told me the cough should go away.  About a week later I was back at the OB, this time crying from the coughing pain.  He said I probably pulled a muscle in my rib from coughing, and gave me a prescription for a stronger cough medicine and sent me home (still did not listen to my lungs).  A week before my due date I was in the kitchen with son Lincoln.  I bent over to pick something up and heard a "pop" sound come from my back/ribs.  I screamed and couldn't move.  I was just standing in my kitchen, crying, trying not to freak out my 2 year old.  I luckily have the worlds best neighbor who came over and took Lincoln to her house to watch him.  I called my OB and they advised I get an X-ray.  I got my x-ray, which was taken incorrectly and did not get images of my ribs 😒, but I did get a chest x-ray that showed I had pneumonia.... less than 1 week before my due date.  This was a huge concern for delivery, as I could go into labor at any moment.  I remember being in so much pain and thinking, how the heck am I going to push a baby out when I can barely move or breath.  After many discussions with multiple OB's and an anesthesiologist, we determined the best route was to have a c-section.  There is a lot more detail into this, but basically that was the final decision.  I really did not want have a c-seciton, but at the same time I didn't want to injure myself more or end up with an emergency c-section due to complications.  

So we scheduled the delivery date for October 14th.  At this time Julian and I still were not 100% sure of what we were going to name this baby.  It was the day before my c-section, and Julian and I were outside with the neighbors while our kids played in the driveway.  Penelope (our dog) was with us playing with the neighbor's dog.  Little did we know, our already bad luck was about to take a turn for the worst.  Our dog Penelope ran into the road right as a Jeep was coming down the road.  It hit her and ran over her back side.  Julian scooped her up and rushed her to the closest emergency vet.  

The next day, driving to the hospital, Julian and I were in a fog.  I remember thinking, this should be happy, we should be excited to meet our new baby boy, but all we could feel was sadness.  At this point we did not know the status of Penelope.  The vet was supposed to call and update us, but it was 7am, and we knew we may not hear anything for some time.  Was Penelope alive? Would we see her again? Would we bring one life into this world and lose another? That drive seemed like forever.  I think Julian and I sat in silence holding hands for about 15 minutes.  Finally, we starting talking about baby names.  What should we name this little one? We had gone back and forth with the first name, Lucas, for months.  It was honestly the only name we both liked.  We decided that this little one would be named Lucas.  Early in my pregnancy we had run across the name Phoenix.  We both liked it, but we moved on to other names and this one just sorta got left behind.  We had discussed using the name "Dean" for a middle name.  There was no reason behind it, again, we just both liked it.

When driving to the hospital Julian said, what about the middle name Phoneix? I immediately agreed.  The Phoenix bird is a symbol of strength and renewal.  It is reborn out of the ashes or some say a symbol of the sun which sets every night only to be "reborn" the next morning.  Things seemed very uncertain that day.  We had so many questions. How was Penelope? How will my surgery go? How will Lincoln adjust to life with a new sibling? But we knew that whatever came our way, we would come out stronger and rise from the ashes.  So Phoenix it was, and I think it fits him perfectly.

The c-section went as planned and after no time at all we were holding little Lucas Phoenix Willoughby in our arms.  Through all the hardship we faced the month leading up to his delivery, we came out with more blessings that we could have ever imagined.  We had a healthy baby boy, and found out that Penelope hadn't suffered any major damage and did not need any surgeries, just time to rest! 

Our little angel Lucas has been a gift from God.  From day one he has been our angel baby.  He is a perfect addition to our family and we cherish every day with him.  

Here are some pictures of that day, where our family and our hearts grew again :)