Baby Boy's Birth Story

My husband was in NY taking the bar exam during the labor and delivery of my son. Kyle and I didn't originally plan to have anyone present at the birth, but since I wanted to have Kyle feel as much a part of the birth as possible, I asked my sister to come document our baby boy's birth story. I am so grateful that I did. I didn't really notice what she was taking pictures of, and it was such a treat to look back and have memories triggered by the images I saw. I took a few from my perspective looking up at IV's and my mom took the pics where Erin is present, and in the OR, but almost all of these were taken by her (and edited/converted to B&W by me). Thank you Erin, we love every single one.

I wrote out our entire birth story and posted it on our family blog, but as it would take about 3 days to read, I'll quickly post "the man's version" as my father says, but with lots of details women like to hear.

• The intense, consistent contractions started around midnight on the 27th
• I willed myself to not be in labor since my husband was in NY taking the bar exam... tried laying down, taking a shower, etc., but nothing worked
• at 3am I gave up on trying to stop labor and decided that I should probably have my mom drive me to the hospital in Provo where I was planning to deliver (just in case it was go-time)
• arrived at the hospital around 4 am after a crazy car ride in the back seat with no seat belt (really clever, I know, but you would have done the same thing if you were trying to cope with back labor)
• Found out I was dilated to a 7 - who would have thought?!
• Decided that I was probably the only woman on the planet who would have rather gone home instead.
• Called my husband on his way to day 2 of the bar exam to tell him the baby was coming. After a tearful exchange I felt at peace, even though he couldn't be there with me.
• Got hooked up to all the monitors and got prepped for a C-section (just in case), including an epidural, iv, and they gave me an oxygen mask to wear for the duration of labor to help give my son as much oxygen as possible
• Blogged :)
• My sister Erin showed up to take portraits
• Baby was struggling after contractions, but I finally made it to 10cm and fully effaced.
• Pushed for 1 hour, 45 minutes only to arrive at a 1+ station
• Got prepped for OR to attempt forceps, and if failed, Cesarean-section. My Mama came with me to the OR to be with me and document the birth.
• Determined that the shape of my pelvis would not allow the baby's head to descend, so they performed a Cesarean
• It was a good thing they got him out fast because he wasn't breathing and had no heartbeat initially... but after CPR he rebounded quickly from an apgar score of 0 to a 7 (the nurse said she's never seen a baby rebound so quickly)
• I got to meet my son and nurse for a few minutes before the NICU team took him to be monitored- such a sweet moment.
• And once they brought him back and got him bathed and fluffed up that hair there was no hope for us- we were all smitten.

If you are even considering having someone document your birth story, do it. You won't regret it.

All photos (except for three by me and four that my Mama took, noted below) were taken by Erin and edited by me.

above three taken from my hospital bed

My Mom took the next three:


This shot of Jones my Mom took when I saw him for the first time is one of my favorites- its so scary to think that he wasn't breathing and his heart wasn't beating at this point.... Erin took the next one of me holding him for the first time:
 

These two were also taken by my mama:

taken by my Mom: