Josephine Melissa Peters

It was 10:19pm on Friday, July 9th, one day past our due date. Luke and I were watching "The Untouchables" when I asked him the time. After three more time inquiries he finally asked why I wanted to know. I was having contractions 10 minutes apart! We continued watching TV as I wondered if they were real contractions. At around midnight, Luke suggested that if this was really happening he should pack a hospital bag and we should try to get some sleep. We went to bed around midnight. By this time, I knew my contractions were the real thing as they were getting more intense and happening more frequently. At 2:30am after trying unsuccessfully to sleep, we decided to get up and time them. We had some minor disagreements on how to time the contractions. I wanted to use my watch with a seconds hand. Luke wanted to use the stopwatch timer on his cell phone. He said my watch was too small for him to read. I said his stopwatch "lap" times didn't make any sense. Finally, he downloaded a clock app on his phone that worked great! Gotta love technology. As Luke made sandwiches for the hospital, I labored on the couch in our livingroom. I started really having to focus on my breathing. I still couldn't believe this was finally happening! (After all that time waiting...) I got in the shower a little after 4:00 am. "How far apart were those two?" I remember asking Luke. "Three minutes." At that time, I decided it was time to go! We called the hospital and Dr. Koss admitted me. Luke loaded the car and off we went. (Had to make U-turn to go back for Luke's sandwiches that he forgot. I wasn't about to have him tired AND hungry while I was going through this!) We checked in with our nurse, Deb at 4:45am. My water broke just as she was leading me in to the bathroom to go potty. We answered some health questions and turned down the epidural, explaining that we planned to do this naturally. I had Luke call my mom to let her know I was at the hospital. She passed the message on to my Dad, brother and sisters. Luke and I went for a walk around the maternity ward. I wanted to be moving as much as possible. From about 6am onward we were in the delivery room breathing through contractions together. Luke was an awesome labor coach. He breathed each one with me and encouraged me with head nods as we did so. After each contraction I was rewarded with an ice chip and a kiss! I tried a couple of labor positions but found that I was most comfortable on my left side...who knew? Dilating from 8-10cm was the hardest part. I do remember thinking at that time that I never wanted to do this again. But Luke helped me get through it as we did our "birthday candle" breathing. We also had a very supportive nurse at that time named Jenny. Finally at 8:30am, Jenny announced that Dr. Sabal was coming in to scrub up. "We are going to practice pushing," she said. I wanted to say, "Let's skip the practice and be on with it!" but really when she said that she meant it was go time. I remember the doctor coaching me between pushes, reminding me that women have been giving birth naturally since the beginning of time and that our bodies are designed to do this. He insisted that I was doing a great job. Lukas asked, "Is that the head?" Sure enough Baby Peters was crowning with a head full of dark hair. Unbelievable! Twenty-four minutes of pushing and out came our baby. "It's a girl!" Luke exclaimed. And as they placed our beautiful baby girl on my chest, we both cried tears of joy. "It's Josephine Melissa, " I said. "We have a daughter!" To this day, I still can't believe how perfectly wonderful she is. She is a healthy and happy baby girl. What did we ever do without her?

We proudly announce the arrival of our daughter,

Josephine Melissa Peters

Born on July 10, 2010 at 8:54am

Weighing 8 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long

You are our dream come true...