Ives Birth Announcement

We are pleased to announce the birth of our fourth child and third daughter, Monica Evelynn Ives!  She was born at 12:20 a.m. on Tuesday, May 12, 2009, weighing 7 lbs., 4 oz., and a length of 20 1/2 in.  We named her Monica after the godly mother of Augustine, the famous Church theologian and apologist of the 5th century.  In her praise, Augustine wrote of her, “she brought me forth both in the flesh that I might be born in this temporal light, and in her heart that I might be born in the light of eternity.”  Evelynn is a hybrid of the middle names of our mothers – Joan Evelyn Ives and Debora Lynn Myers.

As many of you know, this pregnancy was somewhat of an ordeal.  Aubrey had developed some problems with blood clots early on in the pregnancy and her body just took more of a toll on this one.  Further, we learned a few weeks ago that the baby was breach and that they were going to have to perform a c-section.  But God wonderfully answered the prayers of many, and the baby turned upside down a week ago.  Aubrey’s doctor was shocked.

We went into the hospital on the Lord’s day evening in preparation for Aubrey’s inducement.  Since her body was not ready, they first had to use some oral medicine and then later on a manual measure to help open the cervix.  It took some time to get her blood’s coagulability to an adequate level for the Petosin, and then another several hours after that for the epidural.  Aubrey hadn’t had one for the first three pregnancies; but since this one was rough all round, she opted for it.  We were getting a bit anxious that she would have to plough through the labor without it, with successive bloodwork results not quite on target.  As I understand, inducement can make labor even more rigorous.  So she was quite relieved at about 10 p.m. when they gave the green light, and the medicine kicked in shortly thereafter.  It was only a couple hours after that when she felt the urge to push – and then just minutes until little Monica made her grand debut.

For those of you who encouraged us and prayed for us, we thank you.  And ultimately, we express our deepest gratitude to Him who has blessed us with this little gift, another “daughter of Zion.”