The Wonnacotts’ August: The arrival of our daughter and a few other less important but enjoyable things

Dear Family,

Before I discuss anything else, I’ll talk about what is obviously the most important thing that has happened since my last letter. (Warning: this letter is mostly pictures of our new baby. I’m not particularly sorry about it.) 

Felicity Grace Wonnacott was born¹ on Thursday, August 20th, 2026. At 11:52 AM on that day, she weighed 8 lbs 4 ozs and was twenty-one inches long². 

Since then, Luke, Felicity, and I have done nothing more than enjoy one another’s company—something we feel absolutely spoiled in doing. This last week has felt eternally long and happy, and it’s kind of hard to imagine it going the way I had planned it to go only last Thursday.

The Birthday

I woke up on Thursday the 20th with about two plans for the day: go to my thirty-seven week appointment with my OBGYN and then make treats for the ward temple trip that night.

At 8:45 AM, I went into my OBGYN appointment in Lehi and there learned that I was five centimeters dilated. This was a surprise to everyone in the room, since I hadn’t reported feeling any contractions during the day. Not only had I not reported them to the doctor—I hadn’t felt any at all. I still can’t confidently say that I know what a contraction feels like.

Once the doctor realized I was apparently in labor, he sent me over to the labor and delivery I was planning to go to (conveniently, it was the one across the hall) with the instruction to talk to the on-call obstetrician there and “figure out whether this baby is coming sooner than we expected.” 

While following that directive, I shot Luke a text explaining that I might be going into labor and there was a possibility we’d have our baby today.

The plan before this appointment, conceived when the doctors told me the baby was presenting breech the week before, was for me to come into the hospital on September 3rd to either turn the baby and be induced or have a c-section should the baby refuse to turn. For some reason, I interpreted this plan as an almost sure thing. The way the doctor spoke about it, I thought there was only the slimmest chance that the baby would come before this appointment, mostly because she was upside down.

Clearly that was an incorrect assumption, and I’m sorry to everyone I passed that misconception on to. 

When Luke saw my text alerting him to our new situation, he called me and asked whether he should come. By this time, I was in a hospital gown in a room obviously set up to house a mom and a baby. I asked the nurse in the room with me whether my husband should come and she said something along the lines of, “We don’t know yet.”

So Luke, having just attended a work meeting in Mapleton, continued his planned work day which, took him and a coworker (carpooling) down further south to Payson for another meeting. The hospital was getting further and further away. He had, at this point, decided to leave his ringer on.

The next time a nurse came into my room, she helpfully said, “Okay, so we’re going to start prepping you for your c-section. Is your husband on his way?”

I had a few questions. First, I confirmed that I was definitely having a c-section and that the turning/induction plan was no longer possible. Apparently it’s too dangerous to turn the baby when the mother is already so dilated, so I called Luke again, heard him pull his coworker out of a meeting, then heard them head for the hospital in Lehi. They were a little under an hour away⁴.

Luckily, no one in the hospital seemed rushed since my water hadn’t broken yet. They prepped me with an IV, told me about the risks of the surgery, and then patiently waited for my husband to come. I learned during this time that I was apparently having contractions every two minutes. I don’t know how they can tell that, but I guess it’s a good thing they didn’t just have to depend on me to tell them. As soon as Luke got there, they took me to the operating room, gave me an epidural, and watched the reality of the situation finally settle on me. 

During the two hours or so that passed between being sent over to labor and delivery and entering the operating room, I felt almost uncannily calm. This was just what was happening today, and it was kind of exciting that things weren’t entirely as I expected. 

But the moment I stepped into the operating room, I think my emotions finally caught up with my adrenaline and I felt so afraid and small. I’m not sure if it was waiting to be poked in the spine with a needle (needles don’t usually bother me), or the fact that the operating room looked so much scarier than the hospital room I’d been sitting in until that point. I was suddenly terrified and overwhelmed. 

Thankfully Luke came in at that point and I got to hold his hand while they draped a barrier between my eyes and my abdomen. No one seemed surprised that I was crying a little bit. I imagine they see lots of emotions in the business of delivering babies. 

Less than ten minutes later (I think), I had a brand new baby. 

My rating of c-sections? I’m not a fan. It hurt and felt really weird. But it was also way faster than any other way I’ve heard about, so there’s that. 

I’m pretty sure they took Felicity away from me at this point to give her oxygen and also because I was drugged up enough that I shouldn’t have been trusted to hold onto her while they wheeled me through the hospital anyway. I didn’t mind. I couldn’t even keep my eyes open.

Since we started announcing the birth, people have wanted to know who we think Felicity looks like. The above picture was taken on Thursday and everyone said she looked like Luke. I find this funny, because in that picture I think she just looks square. More recent pictures have prompted people to say she looks like me or like a fifty-fifty split. All of these guesses reinforce my and Luke’s idea that no one actually has any idea and that she’s just a cute baby.

Thanks to Hannah and Emma visiting us in the hospital, the whole stay is pretty well documented. They are the most doting aunts and sisters you can imagine, and they were even so kind as to spend Friday night in the hospital with me when Luke went home to get a good night’s rest before his half marathon on Saturday morning.

The First Week

This long-anticipated half marathon has been the focus of Luke’s exercise for the past several months, and he’s gradually seen a lot of improvement in his running. We weren’t planning on already having the baby by the time the race came around, but I didn’t want him to have to miss it when he was still perfectly capable of getting there.

He made it, and I think he’s glad he did.

Luke’s report on the race is that he felt good about his time, but that during the last few miles his exhaustion mixed with the knowledge that he had a baby at the hospital in Lehi made him sad. All he could think was, “I don’t want to be here—I want to be with my baby.”

He finished faster than he expected and was back to me and Felicity in no time.

We were discharged from the hospital on Saturday afternoon, and we have been fed by friends and family ever since. Luke has been on paternity leave, and we’ve both had plenty of time to practice feeding the baby, changing diapers, and holding her. We’ve been incredibly pampered, and we’re grateful for the outpouring of love and service we’ve received and the chance it’s given us to relish being a brand new family.

We’ve been gifted clothes, diapers, dinners, company, and one of our dear friends came and cleaned our kitchen and bathroom. We sometimes feel a little silly accepting all of these favors while Luke is on paternity leave and probably could do all of it while I recover, but we’ve long felt that accepting help is often just as valuable a skill as offering it. We love that people care about us enough to serve us, and if we want other people to let us serve them, it seems important that we know how to let them serve us.

It’s been a little over a week now, and we sometimes feel like we’ve gotten it down. I’ve taken to watching my way through the Infinity Stone saga of Marvel during midnight feedings to keep myself from falling asleep while holding Felicity, Luke is an expert diaper changer, and I gave Felicity a bath that went much better than her first. I won’t give you a play-by-play of her first bath, but it involved a bucket, Felicity peeing in my hand, and our poor little girl being wet and cold for much longer than she wanted to be. It was hilariously embarrassing and I think Luke and I will remember it fondly while being glad that Felicity cannot do the same.

A Speed Run of the Last Two Months

July and August were our last hoorah for traveling. Luke and I figure that our roadtripping days will see a slight hiatus with a newborn baby, but we’ve since learned that she seems to like the car…so we shall see.

We sure did take advantage of our last two months though.

We visited Luke’s aunt and uncle in Snohomish and stopped by Seattle on the way.

Tina and Blake thought we were crazy for driving from Provo to Seattle for a three-day weekend, but we enjoyed ourselves. I don’t know if it was because I was pregnant, but I had a really hard time driving for longer than two or three hours. Luckily, Luke was always willing to do most of the driving and never complained. I pitched in where I could.

Seattle was fun and Luke’s family are wonderful and welcoming. We were there long enough for two dinners, a dip in the stream, and a restful Sunday before we drove home in time for Luke to work on Tuesday. It was a perfect weekend.

At the end of July, we drove south towards Zion for the extended Willis family reunion. On the way, we spent a night with Luke’s Grandma and Grandpa Wonnacott in St. George, who were kind enough to let my family make a pit stop at their backyard pool during their drive from the Las Vegas airport to the reunion.

They’ve always been our go-to pit stop when we’re going south, and we always love the chance to see them. I’ve always appreciated that the Wonnacotts are so welcoming to Willises, and it’s nice to know that the hospitality continues even outside of Maryland.

The Willis reunion was excellent and full of friendly faces, most of whom I’d at least heard of before, and several more whom I was happy to meet.

I’ve decided that large family reunions with many people I don’t know are made easier when there’s an obvious conversation starter. Being due to give birth a month from the time of the conversation is a helpful tool in this. I think Grace also had this blessing because of her recent engagement to Matt, someone I have not yet mentioned in any of these letters but whom I’m very excited to get to know better.

My experience also tends to be made easier by my dad’s famous letters, and to a lesser extent my own. I hardly have to exert any energy to get conversations going because the person I’m talking to has a few talking points saved up from reading updates on my life from Dad’s last few famlets. There are many things I appreciate about Dad’s fastidious record of my entire life, and my mild fame among family members I don’t know well yet is one of them.

This family reunion also gave me the chance to see my own dear grandparents, Bert and Chris, who flew out from Maryland for the event. There, Grandma surprised me with sweet gifts for my future baby, including a relic in remarkably good condition: my dad’s first baby blanket.

Grandma evidently found it in her closet while doing some cleaning and wanted to give it to me, the first provider of a great grandchild. Since Felicity was born in August instead of January, she probably didn’t need to be brought home from the hospital in such a warm blanket, but I enjoy having something with so many happy memories to share with her.

Finally, high on well wishes and several days of wonderful company, we drove from southern Utah straight to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to celebrate my other grandpa’s eightieth birthday with my mother’s family. Mom, Dad, Grace, and Ari flew while Hannah, Emma, Luke, and I caravanned. The drive is about fourteen hours long and we arrived in Idaho late Sunday night and then left late Tuesday night so that Luke could make it to a work conference on Wednesday.

We managed to see every single one of my grandparents and Luke’s grandparents during this trip by stopping in Tremonton on the way up to Coeur d’Alene for lunch. This stop was impulsive and we actually only gave Grandma Hunsaker ten minutes notice, in which time she managed to set up a delicious and filling meal for all four of us before sending us back on the road. Since Grandma Carolyn and Grandpa Pat were also in attendance at my mother’s reunion, we got to see everybody. It was a special week.

Grandpa Kent’s eightieth birthday celebration was wonderful and fun. I know my grandma put a lot of work into the whole thing, and I’m grateful Luke and I were able to come celebrate with everyone.

The short time in Idaho was enough for Luke to learn how to wake surf and for both of us to spend time with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. It was an awesome trip, and by 7PM on Tuesday, Luke and I were ready to retire from traveling for however long it takes us to convince ourselves an infant can handle a ten-hour car ride.

We don’t know how long our long-weekend road trip hiatus will really be, but we look forward to once again making the rounds to all of our family in the west—this time with our sweet Felicity.

Everything is Different Now

We are certainly in a phase of transition and it sometimes makes me nervous. I spent a whole summer waiting to have a baby and now, she’s finally here. It’s wonderful, exciting, nerve-wracking, and has a scope that I sometimes have a hard time comprehending.

Preparing to have a baby and finally having has filled me with a wealth of complex feeling and wondering. I don’t think I’ve ever said as many prayers, either expressing gratitude or pleading for something I wanted, as I have over the last nine months. I felt afraid that something was wrong so many times, and I think my prayers to God in the days leading up to and following Felicity’s birth are the sincerest ones I’ve ever said.

Felicity isn’t just a newborn baby—she’s a future toddler, kindergartener, middle schooler, high schooler, young adult. Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about how easy it must be to care for a newborn when compared to everything else that comes afterward. I’m so happy and sometimes a little disbelieving. I’m worried that I’ll be lonely when Luke goes back to work or that I won’t be up to the task of raising a person the way I feel like she should be raised. But I also know that this is something I’ve wanted my entire life.

I also know, and these last two months have proven, that I have so many people behind me. My family, my friends, my ward members, and plenty of people I don’t know yet.

I’m incredibly blessed to have all of you, and I thank you for being a part of the reason I know that I can enjoy being a mother. For making it so that I never have to feel scared and alone and small if I don’t want to.

I love you all, and I look forward to introducing you to our daughter.

Love,

Sophie et al.

1. Unless you don’t count c-sections as “birthing,” like some old dead playwrights. I guess it’s neat that she could kill Macbeth if necessary. ↩︎
2. Tall? ↩︎
3. The specific thoughts I remember going through my head were things like: “I’m calm. Should I be calm?”; “If I’d known I were going to be hanging out in a hospital gown today, I would have shaved my legs.”; “I’m going to have to text a lot of people to cancel on them today if this ends up actually being the day I give birth.” That last thought was actually one I expressed out loud to Luke while I was probably high on laughing gas once they’d finished stitching me up after the surgery. A double date, a movie night, the ward temple trip we were in charge of—all casualties of the day. I wasn’t unreasonable enough to be upset about this, but I knew I had some texts to send. ↩︎
4. Shoutout to Luke’s coworker, Ethan, who drove Luke by our house to grab a few supplies, then all the way up to Lehi so that we wouldn’t have to deal with two cars when I eventually got discharged from the hospital. Additional shoutout to Hannah and Emma, who later picked Luke’s car up from his office a few days later. ↩︎