Our Fourth Miracle

We welcome Baby Boy Young, who entered this world at 7:24 AM on Friday, 5 September 2008, putting him in the 3% statistic of babies born on their actual due dates. He weighed 8 lbs. 13 oz and was 21.5 inches long, by far our biggest (Megan was our smallest at 6 lbs 1/2 oz). His name is still to be decided--the favorites so far are Colin, Dallin, Jeremy, Spencer, and Caterpillar (Erin's choice). So far he is a sweet, calm baby who sleeps well and nurses well. He is being smothered with attention from his three older siblings. Erin is especially protective and possessive, taking her new big sister status seriously.














































If you want the details of the labor and delivery, then read on. If not, then avert your eyes now. . .



Since our other three children all arrived 8-18 days early, April was starting to feel hopeless about this baby ever making an appearance. Our little outings and projects were not enough to distract her, so we decided on a canning project. Thursday night we bought the ingredients for a big batch of spaghetti sauce. At 1:00 AM on Friday morning April awoke when she felt the mucus plug dislodge and fluid start to leak. Upon getting up there was a gush and about a pint of amniotic fluid came out. Contractions began shortly after and were 6-7 minutes apart. Kevin called Chris Miller, our midwife, around 2:30 AM. Chris was just finishing up with a birth in Tremonton and said she could be to our place within an hour. Contractions continued, increasing in strength.

Chris arrived around 3:45 and got the room set up for the delivery. April was disappointed at 4:00 when an internal exam showed that the cervix was only 2 cm dilated--with how intense the contractions had been she was hoping to hear that she was at least 4 or 5 cm. Megan had been planning on watching the birth and Kevin was anxious to wake her up. Even though April thought we should let her sleep longer, Kevin woke Megan shortly after 4 AM. Megan watched for a bit and then started working on one of her math work books, saying that if the baby was coming that day she might not get to all her schoolwork later.

We then decided to try resting for a bit ourselves and let Chris rest on the couch since she had been working for so long already. By 6:00 the contractions were very powerful and painful and Chris had returned to our room. Around 6:30 AM Ian woke up, saw Megan's bed empty, and heard noises coming from the other room. We agreed he could watch if he was very quiet (Megan later commented that she had never seen Ian so quiet for so long). By this stage the contractions were close together and very strong and April was exhausted. She basically tried to catch her breath between contractions and just work up enough strength to get through the next one. Kevin sat behind her, rubbing her shoulders and trying to help her relax. April was trying to not push too soon to avoid tearing, so she gave a little push when the baby was crowning then a big push on the next contraction hoping to get the head out. Megan and Ian's eyes were big with wonder as the baby came all the way out in one quick motion. Chris passed him right up to April and Kevin, and we all gazed in awe and touched this wet, wrinkly addition to our family.

A few moments later Ian asked the big question "Is it a boy or a girl?" He was thrilled with the response and immediately started talking about all the people he wanted to call (his vow of silence ended rather abruptly). His first priority was to wake up Erin, who was sleepy and surprised. We all spent some quiet time together falling in love with this lovely little boy.