Lucy Elise Biddulph...more pictures to come

Dear Friends,

We are proud to announce the birth of our daughter Lucy Elise Biddulph, born Sunday April 19, 2009, 21 inches long, 9 pounds 3 ounces! She has a full head of hair, not sure if it is blonde, blonde with little red highlights, or strawberry blonde. Her eyelashes are long and very white blonde along with her eyebrows. We think she is such a doll, especially Hilary who thinks she looks like a cabbage patch doll.




We left the house with a foot and a half of snow at 6 a.m. Saturday the 18th and arrived at the hospital for our 7:30 induction appointment. At 9:00 they started Hilary on Petocin to start her into labor. She was 4 cm and 80% effaced to start the day! At 1:00 p.m. she was still 4 cm and 80% and received an epidural, and by 3:15 they broke her water to speed things along. It was really an uncomfortable experience for her, and because of back spasms, we continually had to up the dose of the epidural. We had a great team of nurses, and by 5:00 p.m. our doctor got on shift - Dr. Gardner from our church ward! She was then at 6 cm and 95% effaced by 5:00 when Dr. Gardner checked us out. 2 hours later they checked her, she was 8 cm and 100%! By 8:30 she was ready to go at 10 cm, more than 100%, and she started pushing! Almost 3 1/2 to 4 hours later, after midnight, the doctors concluded that the baby was refusing to come out! There was a total pushing time of about 1 and a half hours total. Dr. Gardner even tried to put her head in the right position, but stubborn Lucy flinched and drenched him in amniotic fluid! It was really funny and everyone was laughing! Unfortunately after all the pushing, it wasn't possible to have a vaginal birth because Lucy would pull herself back up after every push! Dr. Gardner decided that it would be best for mother and baby to have a C-Section. They said that she did a great job pushing, but it was to the point that it wasn't safe because the blood pressure of mom and baby were not at a safe level anymore. So, at 1:11 a.m. Sunday morning the procedure began, and I helped comfort Hilary through muscle spasms because she couldn't have medicine to ease her back pain through the procedure. I was able to see the whole procedure from my point of view...it was amazing! Just 8 minutes later at 1:19 a.m. Lucy was born! Hilary said I was laughing hysterically out of joy and almost teary at the same time! The neat thing about the operation was that after the procedure was out, they showed me all of Hilary's organs, which was very interesting and special to see! We took some pictures, and I was able to be the first to hold her while Hilary recovered until 5 a.m. when we finally got to our room to sleep! Hilary actually didn't get to hold her until 9 a.m. Sunday morning, and she is recovering very well, but is still in some pain!

Needless to say, we are exhausted and excited to share our story with you! Thanks for all your love and support!

- Evan



P.S. We will be in the hospital until Wednesday unless they think we should go home Tuesday. Thank you for your fasting, prayers, and good thoughts throughout this entire pregnancy! We really consider this little girl to be our little miracle! We can't wait for you all to meet her! She started showing signs of Jaundice, and has spent the entire night under the special lights, and Hilary is getting looked at again because of more pain throughout her torso. Please pray for them to heal faster. Hilary is looking forward to her mom's help for 10 days and so am I:) I get to take off 6 days of work, so hopefully though all of this, we can all have some sleep and learn more about helping our little baby. She is beautiful!!!