Joshua Andrew

The Labor and Delivery Story:

For those out there that care about these stories, and for posterity's sake:

After going for a short run Monday morning, I started having contractions. This had become normal during the last month I was pregnant: run (jog, really), have contractions, get excited, contractions fade away, I'm left disappointed. As usual, the contractions went away and I was sure I was going to be pregnant for the rest of my life. But that afternoon they came back and by 6:30 p.m. I had to lie down between contractions. I don't know why I was so tired. Compared to the marathon 4 days of labor with Caleb, this was nothing. I labored for about 4 hours at home before Kevin, Doris Ann (our doula), and I went to the hospital. Doris Ann made me walk in and by the time we got to the ward (11 p.m.) and I got checked, I was dilated to 8 centimeters. I didn't want an epidural this time (I had one with Caleb) and honestly, I never even thought about getting one. All I could think about was getting through the contraction so that I could close my eyes for a few minutes and rest. I do remember thinking, "I can't do this." But I kept remembering what I'd heard God say that Sunday at church: "You are not alone." And that's what kept me going, that and Doris Ann rubbing my back. After the nurse burst a big vein in my arm trying to put an IV heplock in, I walked to a room, had a few contractions squatting (left, with Doris Ann) by the bed, and felt the urge to push. The midwife came in, broke my water, and left to change her pants. Doris Ann warned me that the contractions would feel different after the water broke, but wow, what pain! Fortunately I only had one of those before starting to push for real. The midwife rushed back to the room just in time to take a seat and get totally soaked with amniotic fluid during the first part of the push. From my view, it looked like I hit her in the face with a water balloon. The fluid was quickly followed by a slippery baby boy. As you might be able to see, the midwife got pretty wet. (You should click on the picture, it's pretty funny.) I'm glad she had her eyes open enough to catch Joshua. (She had to take a shower afterwards to get the vernix out of her hair.) The pushing was totally weird compared to pushing with an epidural. It was really, really painful, but I could feel it, and my body knew what to do. I, however, didn't know what to do, and Doris Ann was really helpful in this. She told me when to hold my breath, when to relax. Doulas are great. I highly recommend getting one. Before I knew it, only an hour after coming into the hospital, it was all over. We had a beautiful, healthy son.
Joshua Andrew Toth was born at 12:04 midnight on July 31st and shares his birthday with my mother. He weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. and was 19.7 inches long. My mom and Kevin's mom drove like crazy and got to the hospital around 1 a.m. to meet the little guy. They were his first visitors.
3 hours of after leaving the house, Kevin and I were settled into our room in the Mother Baby Unit with our new baby. The recovery was equally blissful, compared to the last one. I was walking around and popping up to get the baby in no time. Of course Kevin complained that I got the comfy bed while he had to sleep in a pull out chair. But he helped out a lot and didn't put up a fuss about changing those two diapers. It's funny how much more comfortable he is with this baby. He's such a great dad. I can't stop praising God for His grace in giving us such a wonderful experience. Thanks to all of you who prayed for us. -Kristen

Joshua's name:
We named him after the Biblical warrior and leader Joshua. Our prayer for him has been the same strength and courage that Moses spoke of in Joshua 1:9. We also continue to pray for both Joshua and Caleb, that they would support each other in faith and truth as their namesakes did upon their return from the Promised Land in Numbers 13. His middle name is after Kristen's father, Andrew Durbin Chandler. Our original plan was to name our son Durbin Durbin Toth, out of respect for Kristen's wise and very, very old father, but the Colonel threatend to write us out of the will again; he claims to have recently put us back in for the third time and we didn't want to press our luck. -Kevin