Finley’s Birth Story

Finley Mae Joy Robinson was born on Friday, July 15, 2022 at 10:06 am. Weighing 6 lbs 12 oz and 19.5 inches long.

We arrived at the hospital on Friday, July 15th at 7:00 am. We got settled in our room, got to know our nurse, answered a bunch of questions about my health history, and I had my IV put in. Just like with Brecken, the nurse tried twice to get my IV in and couldn’t get it. She then called in an “expert”, who got it in on her first try. We watched a bit of the new season of “Stranger Things”, while we waited to be taken back to the room for the c-section.

I was most nervous for the spinal tap, and knew that once I got through that, things would (hopefully) be smooth sailing. John isnn’t allowed in the room for the spinal tap, and that is always a bit of a source of anxiety for me to be on my own. As soon as I sat down for the spinal tap, the emotions started pouring. I actually debated putting on mascara that morning because I wasn’t sure if I would cry or not. I decided to put some one because I didn’t think I was in a "“crying mood”. Boy was I wrong. : )

The spinal tap went really well, and before I knew it, John was back in the room with me. There was a lot of tugging during the c-section, but everything went as it should. Before Finley came out, my focus was on on the tugging feeling, but as soon as sweet little Finley was out, my focus was on her and not on the doctors stitching me back up. I got to hold her on my chest for the next hour or so and it was heavenly. It was the first time after giving birth that I got to hold and snuggle my baby for so long. With Ellie, I was put under completely and John held her for the first 2-3 hours of her life. And Brecken turned purple after just a couple of minutes and was rushed to the NICU. Finley’s birth was the incredible redemptive experience that John and I both prayed for. Our beautiful, healthy little girl. We are so grateful that we were able to experience her beautiful birth, and to bring home such a beautiful little girl to complete our family.

Finley was originally scheduled to be delivered on Monday, July 18th, but we made the decision to move up her c-section date to Friday, July 15th so that I could have a steroid shot on Wednesday and Thursday, prior to her delivery. Since Brecken (our second born) was born with a surfactant deficiency, our doctor said that there was a 50/50 chance that Finley could be born with a surfactant deficiency as well. The hope was that getting the steroid shots just prior to delivery would help boost the production of surfactant, should there be any deficiency. Since we couldn’t get the shots for her on Saturday and Sunday, we decided to move her delivery date to Friday. We had NICU staff in the room on standby during her delivery, just in case she needed to be put on oxygen support. Thankfully, the NICU staff was able to leave after delivery and no breathing support was needed. Praise God!

On the drive to the hospital, I told John that I thought there was a 5-10% chance that baby would be a boy. I was so sure that baby number three was a little boy. Finley was our first baby that we didn’t know the gender of before her birth. I (Rachel) was so sure that baby was going to be a boy—it was a feeling I had throughout the pregnancy (along with heart rate being in the 140s throughout most of the second half of the pregnancy).

We made a plan before she was born for the doctors to bring her around the curtain so that we could see if she was a boy or a girl. Well…one of the doctors’ accidentally slipped up and said the gender pronoun after pulling her out. Oops! The thing was…I heard her wrong. I thought she said “he”. I leaned over to John and said, “It’s a boy!”. Then when they brought her around the curtain to show us, we were both so surprised to see a baby girl! It was a back-to-back surprise (in the best way)! It was the absolute coolest experience to not know the gender until birth. I wasn’t sure I was the type of person that could wait until birth to find out my baby’s gender (we found out ahead of time with both Ellie and Brecken), but we did it! I found that the hardest part was getting through the 20 week ultrasound…once we got through that, it was more of an exciting feeling of anticipation. Bringing a new life into this world is truly one of life’s most beautiful miracles, and I am so happy that we chose to experience it in this new way. I am still shocked that we have a baby girl.

My first thought when I saw that she was a girl was, “that’s Finley”.

We weren’t sure what we were going to name Finley coming into the hospital. We had two girl names picked and two boy names picked. We thought we were settled on a name for a girl (the back-up name that we didn’t use for Ellie), but about a week before having baby, John said he really loved the name Finley. We added it to the list and thought on it for the week. Ultimately, we loved it and it was the “top” name going into delivery if baby turned out to be a girl. However, the night before we headed into the hospital, John said he had a bit of a change of heart and was thinking to go back to our original girl name. I have heard many others say that they waited until they saw their baby to pick their name…that they saw their baby just knew. That is exactly what happened. As soon as I saw her, I knew she was our Finley.

Finley Mae Joy Robinson. Mae is my grandmother’s middle name and Joy is John’s grandmother’s middle name. A wonderful tribute to the women who raised our mothers.

Thankfully, Finley was born perfectly healthy! No surfactant deficiency and breathing wonderfully. We were thrilled! This was truly the most wonderful birth experience we could have imagined. With everything that happened with Ellie and Brecken’s birth—we prayed for a smooth delivery and a healthy baby, and God provided just that with our Finley. It was truly such a blessing and answered prayer.

After her delivery, we went back to the room and spent the morning resting, getting to know her, and telling family members about her arrival. Later that day, Ellie and Brecken came to meet her. It was so special to see them meet their new baby sister. Ellie was really hoping for a baby sister and was absolutely overjoyed to meet and hold Finley. She has been by her side ever since.

My c-section recovery was so much faster than it was with Ellie. I was on my feet a few hours after Finley’s delivery and we actually ended up going home the next night (July 16th) around 9:30 pm (after the kids were asleep at home). The doctors said it was pretty uncommon for a c-section delivery to go home the day after birth, but we were both doing so well that we could go home. We figured that we would all sleep better at home, so we did just that.

We are now enjoying our time at home and adjusting to our life with three kiddos.

Welcome, Finley Mae! We love you!