Taco Bueno at 2 days old

Where do you go for dinner on Sunday night? Taco Bueno of course! We got out of the hospital just in time to meet up with everyone at Bueno! Daddy Steve and Namaw brought Brody up to Bueno. He was sooooo excited to see Barrett! He wanted to hold him as soon as we walked in the restaurant.

Billy, Paula, Brett, Amanda, Amanda's parents, Caleb, Audria, Daddy Steve, & Namaw were all there to eat dinner with us.
Brody really likes Paula (and I think she has a thing for him too ;) He didn't have to try too hard to mooch some cinnamon chips off of her plate.

After Bueno it was time to go home and go to bed! Let me say that our bed felt WONDERFUL after spending the last 3 days in a hard, hospital bed!

Sunday in the Hospital

We had a quiet Sunday morning in the hospital. Daddy Steve and Namaw took Brody to church and then came over to the hospital to see us. When they got there Mike, Daddy Steve, and Brody left to go find some lunch. They walked down the street from the hospital to the Jack-in-the-Box only to find it closed due to construction! So they ended up driving to Whataburger. Mike got a neat shot of the hospital when they were on their walk. It's MUCH larger than the Lyons Hospital where Brody was born!! Brody was happy to see us and spend time with us. He climbed up on the bed with me and helped me eat my delicious hospital lunch.
We felt like we were just waiting around all day to be released from the hospital. Around 4 pm Mike took all of our stuff to the car and brought back the carseat. The last time it was used Brody was the one riding it it. Mike re-adjusted all of the straps and we put Barrett in for a test fit. We couldn't believe how TINY he looked in the carseat!
Since Barrett was due July 4th, we had red, white, & blue outfits picked out for everyone to wear home. We decided to wait and get dressed after taking a shower at home...but we went ahead and put Barrett in his duds. These are newborn shorts...and they look like gangsta pants on him!

I was pushed out of the hospital by the hospital staff. I was excited to see that I got to ride in something a little more exciting than a wheelchair. I finally know what it's like to be a kid and ride in the fun carts at Home Depot!
You'll notice that Barrett is wrapped in a white blanket. This is a blanket that all of the babies in my family have been wrapped in when they were brought home from the hospital. It's fun to be able to carry on the tradition.

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 ;)

Barrett Daniel Knowlton

Barrett has arrived. He was born at 10:05pm, weighed 7.18lbs, and was 19 inches long. He is a beautiful baby! Here are a few pics to hold you over until tomorrow. What a great day!

9:54 PM

So much for 10:30... Staci is at a 10... Gotta go help push! Thanks for all the prayers!

9:36 PM

The epidural was a huge success! The nurses felt that Staci did a terrific job having contractions and holding still while they plunged that huge needle into her back. :o She is still around a 7 so they are turning up the PIT. They will check her again in about an hour (10:30pm CST).

Aren't these the most beautiful feet you've ever seen!!



Evidence that the Epidural is working!!



This is a picture of the monitor. The blue graph is the babies heart beat and the bottom yellow one represents the contractions. The vertical lines represent 1 minute in time.... As you can see the contractions are coming pretty often now.

7:40 PM

Unbearable Pain!!! Staci is such a Trooper!!! I've never seen a someone so tough! It's now 7:40 and Staci is getting an epidural to help her relax from such a crazy long day. She is currently a 6.5 - 7cm and is progressing nicely. Her contractions are getting really hard and are coming about every 1.5 - 2 minutes. I pray it won't be to much longer!

6:24 PM

Staci is now 5cm dilated, but contractions have slowed back down to every 5 minutes. They have started her back on pitocin to see If that will speed up the process. She is getting a little tired, so she's going to try and take a nap before the pitocin kicks in. Keep up the prayers for strength and perseverance!

3:42 PM

4.5CM dilated and 100% effaced. The CNM just broke my water.... No turning back now. Please keep up the prayers.

2:22pm

Baby's head had moved back up a little bit this morning so my CNM didn't feel comfortable breaking my water.... I was 3cm dilated and 50% effaced. At 9:30am they started me on Pitocin in hopes that would further drop the baby's head as well as thin out my cervix. At 1:20pm I was 4cm dilated and 75% effaced. Hopefully if all goes well, they'll be able to break my water in a few hours. We'll keep you posted!

6:41 am

We're up and getting ready to head to the hospital. We're supposed to be there by 8 am (since we're not sure what traffic will be like we're gonna leave here in about 1/2 an hour). I'm excited...but nervous. Since I've done this before...I know how painful it is and am not looking forward to the pain! However, I know that it is worth it. I can't wait to hold our sweet little boy! Please continue to pray for my labor & delivery and that both baby and I will remain healthy throughout the process.

2:09 pm

My midwife tells me that I'm now a good 3 cm! That's as dilated as I was when I got to the hospital to have Brody! The baby's head is down further now and my cervix is really soft. She said it was easy to strip my membranes. It didn't feel that great...but it wasn't too bad. She said that I will probably have more contractions this afternoon/evening. If I don't end up in the hospital sometime tonight, I'm supposed to be at the there at 8 am tomorrow and they'll start with breaking my water. So hopefully tonight will be my last night with the baby inside me! That means tomorrow I may have some pictures of the baby to post! I know you're excited about that ;)

11:53 pm

We just got home. Mike and I dropped Brody off at my parents' house around 4:30 pm so we could go to the mall and walk. We ended up just letting him spend the night there and went to dinner and a movie (Get Smart). I had some pretty strong contractions during the movie. We're gonna try to get some sleep now. I have an appointment with my midwife tomorrow at 10:50 am. I'll update the blog if we leave for the hospital before then. Thanks for all of your prayers...keep them up!

Maybe?

This morning I woke up to contractions around 4 am. This isn't an unusual thing for me lately...but this morning they kept coming. I got up around 5:20 to go outside and tell Dad (who was waiting in the driveway) to go on to the gym without me. I finally fell back asleep and woke up at 7:15 to Brody crying hard! Mike went in there and couldn't comfort him. He felt really hot! We took his temps and he has a fever of 101.7! He doesn't act like he feels bad at all...so we're thinking it's probably from an eye tooth that's trying to come thru his gums right now.

Anyways, the contractions have still be coming. They're every 8-10 minutes right now. I think we may go on a walk to try to get things moving along. So when we ask ourselves today, "Is today the day?"...we're thinking, "Maybe?!?" I'll let ya know if there's any progress.

Still Exercisin'

There were several people who were surprised to see me at the gym this morning. I guess it's not the most common thing for a woman to still be working out just a few days before she's going to have a baby. This morning I walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes. Tomorrow I'll probably do the Body Pump class, Wednesday the Cardio Attack aerobics class, and Thursday I'll walk again. I guess if stripping my membranes doesn't send me into labor on Thursday, I could go in on Friday morning and do one more Body Pump class before they break my water that day. We'll see. I did have one guy say, "So Friday's the big day? Guess we'll see ya in here on Monday?" lol! I told him I might take a few weeks off ;)