Lil’ Mister Moore’s Birth Story | An Unmedicated Riverton Hospital Birth
My dear friends the Moores booked me for their pregnancy announcement session, and as her pregnancy progressed, they decided to book a birth story and lifestyle newborn package as my very first birth clients! It took a lot of work to get the details ironed out (it takes a lot to go on call for a month!), but I am SO glad that they trusted me to serve them at such an important part of their parenthood journey.
As is normal for first-time mamas, her due date came and went with lots of practice contractions, but nothing really consistent, and no baby boy. We knew that he would come on his own time, but it still was hard to be patient for him to get here! Meanwhile, my husband packed up and left the country for Mongolia (for his Capstone project at BYU), my sister came to help be my on-call babysitter, and the Moore’s finished this little guy’s ADORABLE nursery (which you can see in his newborn session!). We were all ready for little mister Moore to come into the world whenever he was ready!
Thursday evening about dinner time, I got a text from Elizabeth, saying that those Braxton Hicks were starting to get stronger. Just before bed, I got a text from her husband – not Liz – and that’s when I knew this was the real thing – their little boy was coming! I sent a quick text to my sister, telling her to come over and stay with Eleanor and me that night just in case I had to take off in the wee hours of the morning. And ohhhh I’ve never slept so lightly in my life!! Jared kept me updated with the details all night long that I eagerly looked for whenever Eleanor and I woke up: she lost her mucous plug. Contractions got longer and inched closer together.
By the time I was up and getting ready to make the hour drive to work, the waves were long and close and intense enough that they started thinking about heading to the hospital. I quickly left early and, thankfully, got to work with just enough time to get all my ducks in a row (phew!) before I got that last text – they made it through triage, and she was at a 7! I quickly packed my things back up, and off to the hospital I went!
When I showed up, Elizabeth and Jared had settled into their room and were optimistic about their boy coming in just a few more hours. Her body had different things in mind, though, and her contractions that were so consistently close together and intense slowed down. They kept at it, though – walking the halls, resting in the tub, moving from the birth ball up onto the bed, using warm blankets their awesome nurse kept bringing them, gripping the squat bar, holding onto each other, playing music to keep the energy going. It was SO inspiring to watch them work through all the unknowns to get their baby boy HERE and in their arms.
I stepped out to get Jared and I some lunch around noon, and it was just after that when things picked up again – and for sure this time! She asked them to check her and she was at a 9 – and then her waters broke – and then she was COMPLETE – and no more than 30 minutes later, they pulled their healthy baby boy (all 9 lb 11 oz of him!!) up on her chest and the room just sighed with happy content. There they were – this little new family of three, together at last.
Jared cut the cord once it was nice and white, and as they admired him in all his fresh perfection, this little boy let his mama know that he was HUNGRY. But once he was fed and snuggled to his satisfaction, he was a happy little boy, content to be measured and swaddled, to get his footprints done, and to finally get some one-on-one time with Dad.
Simply put, it was beautiful. Incredible. This little boy was anticipated, worked for, and OH most loved. Check out my next blog post on his in-home newborn session for more about that gorgeous nursery I talked about!
