A Life Full of Love: His birth story

Stephen and I barely slept a wink all night. I finally got up around 5:00 and took and shower and then called the hospital at 5:45 to see when we were supposed to come in. They said be there at 7:15. Wow, we were really having a baby! We finished getting ready and headed out the door.

We got to the hospital and got into our room. They started my IV and Pitocin. I was still 1 cm dilated. Steve got there soon after us and kept us company for the early morning.

My contractions started steady and continued every 2-3 minutes. The pain was tolerable and I could talk through my contractions. The rest of our family showed up and filled the waiting room. I could only have 3 visitors at a time, so they all rotated coming in to visit me. Around 10 am I was still only 1 cm dilated but was 80% effaced. This was a good sign, but things were still moving slowly.

Around noon, Dr. Bruce came and broke my water. The very next contraction was so different. The pain was intolerable. I gripped the side of the bed, closed my eyes, and focused on my breathing. They were painful! I called our birth photographer, Nicole, and told her to come. I wanted her to take a few pictures of me before I got my epidural so I endured about 2 hours of painful contractions, coming every 2 minutes and lasting about a minute and a half. Not much relief.

I finally got my epidural and the pain subsided. I was still not making much progress though and the baby was in stress. During each contraction his heart rate would drop.

At about 8:30pm I was 5 cm dilated and the babies heart rate continued to drop with each contraction. Dr. Bruce decided it was time for a c section. At that time, things got caotic and it was quite scary to me. All of the sudden nurses started coming in rushing around, etc. It was not the calm environment it was while I was laboring. We said goodbye to our family and went to have our baby.

Stephen waited in the waiting room while I got prepped. They brought him in and he sat near my head. I told him to get the camera ready and the anesthesiologist who was also sitting by my head asked if we wanted him to take pictures. We said sure, not knowing what he was about to do. He proceeded to stand up and take pictures over the curtain. They are pretty graphic, so I won't post them here, but they are so amazing! I am so happy we have those pictures.

At 9:49 pm on July 28, 2011, Stephen Earl Prather III was born.

As soon as Stephen III was born, Stephen went over to be with him while they cleaned him off and weighed him. While I was laying there I could hear him cry. It was music to m y ears!