Everest

 Baby Everest

Two days before Everest’s due date, Tara began having steady contractions every 5 minutes.  After around an hour of them, we went to the hospital at around 5pm.  They continued for a while and we called my mom and she came over to our house to watch the kids. Unfortunately after a few hours at the hospital the contractions slowed down and stopped, and they sent us home.  Tara was really bummed.  At least we didn’t get home too late, as we arrived back at 10:30pm. 

On the due date, Tara had a doctors appointment and decided to schedule an induction for the following day, which I supported.  

The next day we came into the hospital at 7am for an induction.  Tara arrived 4cm dilated and 80% effaced.  After getting everything all setup, they broke Tara’s water at 8:30am. As with the last 2 births, Tara wanted to have another natural birth without any pain medication, despite my encouragement for her to have an epidural.  By around 11:30pm Tara began active labor.  She was incredibly quiet and intense through the whole process.  It wasn’t until roughly 30 minutes before birth that she began to moan in pain, and occasionally asserted she was going to die.  Her midwife, K. Skieens, calmly reassured her she was fine and that it would all be okay.  At 1:24pm Everest was born (weighing in at 8 lbs 6 oz, and 20.5” tall).  He came out “sunny side up” (i.e.. face up), according to the midwife, which helps explain why it took a little while to push him out.  He had some mild bruising on his forehead, and his nose was a little bit flattened from the process, but overall, he looked really good. He had a little bit of hair, and it looked pretty light colored.  He was really calm, and immediately looked around with his eyes open. Within a few minutes he began nursing. Tara was very happy to rest and snuggle with her little guy after the 5 hour labor process. 

Here's Tara with Kristy Skieens, the midwife, who helped with the delivery.

This was the first birth I've had to wear a face mask for.