Connor's Birth

I am finally doing a post. Bethany took all of these pictures. I am so happy we she took birth pictures for us. We have so many great pictures that we never would have gotten without her. I would highly recommend her as a birth photographer. She also made us a video montage that is so precious it makes me cry. It really tells his birth story with photographs, in a way you can't tell it with words.

Here is Connor's birth story, from my point of view:

 On Sunday, April 22 I got up that morning and got ready for a 9am to 5pm shift at work. The day went as usual. I normally get lots of contractions in the last few months of my pregnancy. So a light contraction here or there doesn't mean much. What sets things apart for me is when they get frequent, or strong enough that I stop what I'm doing. I had a few light contractions between 3pm and 4pm. At 4pm I had one that was a bit stronger. I had another like that at 4:25pm, and another at 4:48pm. I got hopeful that I might be headed towards labor. I went home after work and Kent and I got our stuff loaded up. The contractions got closer, 10 to 12 minutes apart. We got to the hospital at around 6pm.

We were very anxious about getting to the hospital early. I tested positive for group B strep with Corinne. My labors go fast, and despite trying otherwise, I only got the antibiotics 45 minutes before she was born, which wasn't soon enough and she ended up in the NICU for a week. We didn't want that to happen again. So we left as soon as we thought there was a possibility labor was coming.

It seemed that it took forever to get checked in and answer all the questions. When the nurse finally checked me at about 6:40pm I was dilated to 3 or 4cm. Then she had to get the order to start antibiotics. The antibiotics were finally ready to start at 7pm. The nurse knew how anxious I was to start, so she just let them go in quick, instead of a slow drip.

With Corinne, at this point, I was dilated to 5cm. The nurse told me to walk around for an hour, because the baby hadn't dropped yet and it would help progress things along. So Kent and I walked around, and ended up holding Corinne about 40 minutes later.

So this time I laid in bed and tried to relax as much as possible. I wanted things to progress slowly. We were told it takes an hour for the antibiotics to get to the amniotic fluid.

We had been praying for months that this would go smoothly, and that Connor would be protected.

My water never broke. Connor came down the birth canal still enclosed in the sack. The doctor finally broke the bag after his head was partially out.

He was born at 8:34pm.

Our little angel had arrived!

Here are LOTS of pictures. He cried after he was born, and cried some more. He has the sweetest little cry.

 I was finally able to calm him down, such a sweet little baby.

 He was grabbing on to my finger.

 He cried again when they took him to weigh and measure him.

 He calmed down when Daddy got to snuggle him up.

Our prayers were answered. Connor didn't get sick. He is a healthy, absolutely perfect baby boy. He is so sweet and so cute. He is such a blessing, such a miracle.

We love you so much, little Connor.