On September 30th I was at a Norwex party that one of my friends was hosting. During the party I had been having a lot of painless contractions just like I had been having for the last week or two so I didn't think much of them. That night I woke up at 2 AM in a little bit of pain. At the time I didn't realize that I was having a contraction because by the time I was awake enough to really even think about it the pain was already gone. It happened again and so I decided to go to the bathroom since I was awake and sure enough I lost my mucous plug...so I knew having the baby was much sooner than I expected. After that the contractions just kept coming. They weren't super consistent so I still didn't think it was the real thing. They would jump around from being 7 minutes apart to 15-20, but they never went away. I couldn't sleep so I decided I had better get things packed and cleaned just in case this was the real thing. I was folding laundry and packing Carter's bags. 7 AM rolled around and Matt was asking if he should go to work and we decided he better not just in case since the contractions were still coming and even if it was just a long early labor it would be a good day to get last minute things done. I decided to get in the shower and then I still wanted to paint trees in the nursery. I was able to sketch them out, but it seemed like things were picking up a little bit and the contractions were getting a little stronger. We decided that maybe we should head over to his parents house since they are close to the hospital. That way Carter was already there and we wouldn't have to worry about finding a babysitter. We went over there around 6 and ate dinner with his family. Around 9 PM my contractions all of a sudden started coming 3-4 minutes apart. At that point I knew it was time to go to the hospital. We got to the hospital room and I changed into the gown and sat down in the hospital bed and was giving my information to the nurse when my water broke. I was so happy that happened there instead of on the way to the hospital! The nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 5. My sister, Sabrina, was on her way up from Vegas to try to make it to the birth. It was great timing because when I told her we were headed to the hospital she was only 15 minutes away! The anesthesiologist came in a little after to give me the epidural. After I got the epidural they checked me again and I was dilated to a 8. My mom showed up shortly after and it seemed like we could finally get some rest since it was 11:30 at night. I was trying to rest but I was feeling all of the contractions...down there, but not around my stomach. The epidural wasn't working properly so the anesthesiologist came in and gave me another dose of some pain relief (I'm not sure what it was exactly), but it made my whole body ache for a minute or two and then it went away. I also couldn't stop shaking. They said that a lot of people will shake from the epidural and that it just goes away after the epidural wears off. It was pretty annoying because it made it really hard to relax! I was so nervous about feeling the ring of fire, because the doctor said there wasn't much they could do for that since I wasn't getting numb. Around midnight I felt a lot of pressure so they checked me again and I was dilated to a 10. My sister in law made it just in time to take pictures of the birth. I pushed for about 15 minutes and gave birth to little Shawn Henry. He weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and was 18 1/2 in. long. He came a little sooner than expected which made him 2 weeks early. But I was so happy that I didn't have to be put on pitocin this time since I had to with my last to babies. It was just so nice being able to let my body do it on its own.
Getting ready to have this baby!
Matt and I were pretty excited to meet him!
Holding Shawn for the first time! So sweet!
Daddy holding his little hand.
Snuggling with my brand new baby!
As you can see in this picture, Matt is just so happy. Having Shawn was definitely a healing moment for both of us after losing Porter. Although we will never be fully healed, Shawn does help fill some of the emptiness we've felt after Porter passed. Even to this day, both of us can't get enough of this little boy! Carter LOVES his baby brother! He's going to be the best big brother!
When Shawn was 6 days old my friend Nikki came over and took some newborn pictures. They turned out so cute and it was so nice not having to go anywhere to get them done.
