Delivered by Daddy

It's been fun having wi-fi at the hospital for Barrett's birth. When Brody was born we had to wait until we got home from the hospital to post any pictures or stories. This time Mike was able to give you play-by-play commentary! What he didn't take time to tell you about was the delivery itself.

After they checked me and determined that Barrett's head was right there, Tania (my midwife) looked at Mike and said, "Do you want to cut the cord?" He told her, "Of course." Then she said, "Do you want to deliver the baby?" He looked at her with a shocked look on his face and said, "Are you serious?!?" She said, "Sure! I'll be right there beside you telling you what to do every step of the way." So they got everything ready and during my next contraction I got to push. I pushed 3 times during that contraction and then Tania told me to stop. With those 3 pushes I had pushed his head almost all the way out! {Side note: The awesome thing about the epidural was that I could feel the urge to push, I could feel myself pushing, but I didn't feel the INTENSE "ring of fire" that I felt when I delivered Brody! It was great!} Tania then told me that I didn't need to push but that I should just let the next contraction push him out. What?!?!? I pushed for 1.5 hours with Brody...and now I only had to push 3 times?!? This was AWESOME!!! During the next contraction Mike saw Barrett's head slowly come out. Then Tania instructed him to sandwich Barrett's head between his hands (holding onto both ears) and push down on Barrett's head while pulling and pushing down to get his top shoulder out. Then once the top should came out he continued to pull...but pulled up to get the bottom shoulder out. Once both shoulders were out the rest of his body came shooting out! He then laid Barrett on my belly while he put the top clip on the umbilical cord and Tania put the bottom clip on. Then Mike cut the cord between the 2 clips. What an AMAZING experience! How many men get to deliver their own sons? It was so cool! I'm glad that I had the epi so that I was relaxed enough to make Tania feel comfortable letting Mike deliver our precious little boy!


Yesterday morning Daddy Steve and Namaw brought Brody up to the hospital to visit us. He was soooo excited to get to see his little brother! He came into the room and immediately crawled up onto my bed and asked to hold Barrett. When I put Barrett in his lap he started to hug and kiss him. He's gonna be such a good little helper to me!
Yesterday afternoon Jan, Ron, Julie, Lauren, Katelin, & Collin stopped by. The girls were very excited to get to hold Barrett. Julie said that she had asked Lauren if she wanted to come (she was at her other grandma's house and Julie told her they'd come see us sometime this week if Lauren didn't want to come to the hospital yesterday). Lauren told her this was a "once in a lifetime experience" and that she had to come! So sweet!

This morning they did the circumcision (ouch!) and now we're just sitting in the hospital waiting to go home. They will release us this evening (the dr said that means "after 6 pm"). We're very ready to go home. Hospital furniture isn't nearly as comfortable as our own home furnishings! I think that Daddy Steve and Namaw are planning to bring Brody up to see us after church...so that should help pass the time.

Don't worry...there are more pictures to come ;)