We were shocked to find out that we were pregnant again in March of 2010! Of course, the entire first trimester, I was incredibly nervous that I would do something wrong and have another miscarriage.

I had a wonderful second trimester. I feel like this is the time where you are a cute pregnant person in adorable maternity clothing! And then third trimester hit….. and I looked like a swollen elephant.

I was also put on bedrest during the third trimester due to my high blood pressure and signs of pre-eclampsia. I took it easy, watched a million movies, and ate a ton of cereal!

My due date was November 2, 2010, and that day came and went with no baby! Finally, four days later, I started to have contractions! It was about 6:00 a.m., and we were going to have a baby!

Brit drove me to the hospital, and we were excited! After what seemed like FOREVER, we were finally admitted to our hospital room. The nurses hooked me up to all kinds of machines. After monitoring the baby’s heartbeat, we discovered that our little peanut was in distress. (At this point, we didn’t know if Henry was a boy or a girl.) Henry’s heart rate was up, he was breech and sunny side up, and was in distress.

This was my first baby, and I was trying to remain calm, but I had no idea what was going on. My doctor was, of course, out of town this day. So the on-call doctor was called.

I kept telling the nurses that it felt like the baby was coming. They assured me it wasn’t time. But I just KNEW it was going to be soon. The on-call doctor got there and checked me. It was then discovered that Henry’s foot was coming out, and his head was caught on my cervix.

I was in quite a bit of pain. I was scared for the life of my baby. I remember praying non-stop.

The doctor picked me up, placed me on a gurney, and ran me out of the hospital room to the operating room. Poor Briton was left all alone in the room.

I remember my wonderful doctor assuring me that everything would be okay. They were going to get the baby out as quickly as they could. He gave me something to put me out and performed an emergency c-section. My cut is vertical rather than horizontal because that cut is one minute faster to get the baby out. At 8:07 a.m., our sweet boy was born.

I woke up a couple hours later and remember wondering if my baby was okay. The nurse saw me starting to stir and came over to check on me. My first question was, “Is my baby okay?” After being reassured that my baby was fine, I then learned that it was a boy!

After what seemed like an eternity, I was finally able to meet the little angel that was perfectly knit together in my womb for the past nine months. Holding Henry for the first time was unlike anything I had every experienced. The love that I felt for him was overwhelming.

We were surrounded by our entire family when I held my sweet boy for the first time. And even though our family had all had a chance to hold Henry, he would not grip anyone’s finger – until mine. The picture above is a favorite. It’s hard to tell from this picture, but Henry finally gripped someone’s finger – mine.

We named him Henry Paul! Paul is both my dad’s name and Briton’s grandpa’s name!

While this day was certainly a scary one, we feel so blessed to have our sweet boy in our family. We know that God will use him in wonderful ways! Happy birthday, Henry!

Candace