The Arrival of Soren

November 11, 2009 at 1:32am

Holly and I are pleased to announce the arrival of our son Soren! Soren currently does not have a middle name but one is in the works.

It has been a long three days of labor birth and getting to know our son. I plan on writing up the whole story but tonight I'm just going to post some photos and the short version of the labor while Holly is nursing.

Holly's water broke on Saturday afternoon around 3pm. We got to the Hospital around 6pm and Holly's contractions started in full at 1am on Sunday morning. After 11 hours of active labor Holly was dilated to 8 cm and she was working hard each contraction. At 15 hours of active labor Holly was still at 8 cm and she was exhausted and her contractions had slowed down a bit. She elected to get an epidural and had one by 7pm that evening. She got a bit of rest while the contractions continued and with the help of some Pitocin she was fully dilated and ready to push at 10pm.

Holly was relieved to be pushing and after a few pushes to get the hang of it she was off and making progress and by the midnight we could see the first signs of a head with brown fuzzy hair. After two more hours of of pushing Holly's contractions were still strong but had slowed and the baby's head was just showing still. The midwives backup Dr. Laurance arrived and Holly pushed for an additional hour with little progress made. At this time Holly had been in labor for 25 hours and she was completely beat. The Doctor recommended we try to use suction to aid the next few contractions. On the next contraction with a bit of help from the Doctor Soren was born. After the birth Soren was placed directly onto Holly's belly while I cut the umbilical cord.

Being a part of the birth of Soren was a truly awe inspiring experience and one that I will never forget. I am lucky to have such an amazing wife who worked so hard to at getting our son into this world. Our new family is blessed to have such an amazing circle of supportive family and friends. We look forward to being able to introduce you all to Soren and have him grow to know the same support and love that Holly and I have received from you all.

Below are the first of many photos to come of my son that I have taken during his first two days with us. A few were right after being born where his hair looks crazy curly and he is a little purple is color. There is one photo of him taking his hearing test in his sleep that I thought was cute. His eyes have not been open much but I did get one photo of him peering my way that I absolutely love.