Welcoming Harrison into the world!

The morning we took our little home from the hospital and our life changed forever. 💙

Monday night Ross and I prayed that I would go into labor (like we had been for a week!) and reviewed some of the material from our natural birthing class we had taken. We talked about the different emotions we had about becoming parents (little did we know it would be so soon!) and prayed together over Harrison and submitted our requests to God for the experience we were hoping for. We went to bed hopeful and excited, but not expecting anything. 

Between 3-5am I kept waking up to go to the bathroom and around 4:30 started to realize that I kept waking up about every 20 minutes in discomfort. Could this be labor?! I didn’t want to wake Ross up too soon because I wanted him to be well rested for the marathon that lay ahead and I knew false labor could be a thing. Around 5:30am I was walking back to bed and Ross heard me and woke up. He immediately sat up in bed and was like “Are you in labor?!?” 

He jumped up in anticipation ready for the day. I told him to calm down (lol) because I still wasn’t sure if it was “real.” So Ross started timing the contractions and they were about 15min apart. We began to labor with the tools we learned in our Bradley class with Ross coaching me through every contraction and trying to relax and “embrace” the waves of contractions as they came on. I kept imagining myself going snow tubing and the peak of the contraction being a bump in the tube flying me up and then sliding down the mountain. I think this was my attempt to make labor “fun” 😂

We labored for a while and then I took a shower & blowdried my hair so that I would be ready when it was time to go to the hospital. When I was in the shower Ross kept timing contractions and surprisingly they had sped up to 4min apart at that point. Ross was like, “Kate! You might need to hurry up because I think the contractions are like 4min apart.” I was suprised because laboring in the shower had been so awesome! 

We got ready and decided to go to the hospital asap so that we weren’t accidentally having the baby in the car 😂

Once we got there we got checked in and expressed our desire to try and go as natural as possible. We had an awesome nurse who had been in L&D for 19 years and our doctor came over to say hi as we got checked in. I was only 2cm dilated at that point so they weren’t sure if they were going to admit me, but my contractions were 3min apart. Our nurse started getting annoyed that they were making me wait (in an uncomfortable position and in a triage room), so she just put us in a room and let us get comfy. Praise for awesome nurse Angela! 

Once we got settled we were praying through every contraction. The pain was getting worse so I decided to take a shower because that was my comfy spot. We had our “Baby playlist” going with worship music and were pretty comfortable all things considered. 

At 5pm we had a shift change of nurses and our new nurse had me get into the bed for a contraction and baby heart rate reading (we did this when we checked in but hadn’t in awhile). She was less comfortable with me being up and around moving because she wanted me continually monitored. We were a little bummed out because that was less comfortable than being able to move around, but when she hooked me up she checked me and I was at 8cm. Praise Jesus!! I honestly thought we might be there all night so I was thrilled. 

I decided to stay in bed to honor our new nurses desires for the readings. She told me to tell her when I felt the urge to push and she would check me. About 20min later, surprisingly, I was like “I think I’m ready!” She told me I was between 8-9 so to keep at it. 

She kept commenting how quiet and calm we were and how shocked she was. I kept waiting for “transition” to come and spiral out of control for a bit, but surprisingly I never noticed it and I knew God was sustaining and carrying me through the whole thing. It was amazing to be so reliant on God’s power in me rather than my own strength the whole time. 

A few minutes later I told Ross, “I think I’m really ready to push!” so Ross yelled for Lacy (our nurse), “I think it’s really happening!” She called for the doctor and pressed the “delivery imminent” button for our room. “Here we go!” we thought. 

They got me into my pushing position and the doctor checked me. As soon as she checked me my water broke! She said “Yep! We are ready to go and there goes your water!!” 

We started pushing and I was so concentrated and focused. It felt like it was taking FOREVER and I was working really hard to squeeze Harrison down and out! 

The doctor said, “I can see his hair!” I stopped my concentration for a brief moment exclaiming, “OMG! What color is it?! Ross and my mom have a bet!!” And she told me, “Brown! Do you want to feel it?” and I was able to feel that there his head was...so close to coming into the world to meet us!” 

After a few more pushes and some funny commentary from the doctor, Harrison was down and out! What felt like hours ended up being less than 20 minutes in the end! I was so thrilled to finally meet our little boy and Ross and I were in pure bliss once he was on my chest. Thank you Jesus for this miracle! He was born at 6:30pm and weighed 8lbs and was 20 inches long. Pure perfection in our eyes!

Everything after was a blur as we praised God and soaked in the first moments of being parents. We felt in that moment and even now that we are so blessed that God chose us to be Harrison’s parents. We can’t wait to raise him, love him, and grow as parents. His “birth” day was the best day!! 

Right after we had him!  

 A few hours after we had him and we got him ready to meet his grandparents!