The You're listening to nocturne. I'm Vanessa Lowe.

You're listening to nocturne. I'm Vanessa Lowe. We were living in Richmond in Virginia and I was pregnant with number five.

My husband at the time is a mural artist and he was doing a mural on a little island in Maryland.

And he was up there for weeks and weeks and weeks and I was home with the kids and school got out and it was Father's Day weekend and I took the four kids and my pregnant self up to visit with him.

And this was about three weeks before this baby was due.

The plan was he was going to finish this mural up and then come home in time for the birth.

We were staying in a comfort in on this little island and the night before I was to go home I went into labor up there.

And immediately I thought oh God we got to go home I just I'm having this baby I got to get home and it's 11 o'clock at night and the kids are sleeping we're all in the same hotel room and my husband at the time he was painting his mural

he would paint in the middle of the night had to get a hold of him.

He came back and I was like we got to go home and I called my midwife back here in Richmond and I said I'm really sure I'm in labor.

I just want to come home and she's like you cannot get in your car and drive on the highway, this is not a good idea.

The long and short of it is, I had contacted a midwife when I first came up to this little island, just one of those serendipitous kinds of things.

And she had said to me, if you need anything, just give me a call.

So I called her and I said, I I think I'm in labor would you come

help me and she she said well I'll come and check and see if you're really in labor and

if nothing else I could stay with your kids while your husband takes you to the

hospital and I'm thinking I'm not going to the hospital and I don't want I can't go

home. We didn't want anyone to know I was in labor because we figured they would probably call 911.

So in the end, the midwife and her assistant came in very, we told them, don't say you're here for labor and so I ended up birthing him under the cover of night in this quiet comfort in room. The kids quietly slowly started all waking up as I was in

labor and they all watched their brother be born and we had this little beautiful baby and he was

born just as the sun was coming up.

It was beautiful and then we told the people at the

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