Rowen Bruce Maughan was born on November 26th at 11:53pm.
It was a Sunday afternoon. I was sitting on the couch watching a cheesy Hallmark when labor(?) started. My contractions didn’t hurt but they lasted a minute and came every 3-5. I started timing them. Three hours later they were still consistent and uncomfortable so Luke called the doc to see if I should go in. I felt weird about going to the hospital for “labor” when I had no pain at all. They told us to come in and if we had consistent contractions, they would keep us. My mom pulled in our driveway from Washington an hour later, and we headed to the hospital. Talk about perfect timing.
We checked into the hospital at around 7:00pm.
They hooked me up to all the monitors, got me changed and checked in. I was at a 3 when they checked me in, which was depressing because I started labor with Brody at a 5 and Piper at a 6. They told me I could stay if I changed within an hour. I was not too hopeful since I hadn’t changed in three weeks of being checked, but contractions continued. Thankfully an hour later, I had got to a 4…and it was showtime. We hooked up my IV, broke my water and started the epidural. After my epidural my blood pressure tanked a few times, and I had to be on oxygen for a bit. But other than that I was feeling relaxed and amazing. They let me labor on my own until 10:30pm. I have always had pitocin so I knew it was only a matter of time before I needed a little boost. I got to a 6 by 10:30 but labor had stalled.
They started me on a little the pitocin and everything went triple speed.
In fact, they had to turn the pitocin down. At 11:20 I decided to text my birth photographer, Britt Cascio. I was feeling a LOT of pressure. They checked me 10 minutes later and I was at an 8/9. I woke Lauren from her slumber at 11:30 and told her to make her way to the hospital. Britt walked in a few minutes later…and a few minutes later I asked them to check me again. At 11:40 I was at a 10. It was chaos for a few minutes. Carts were wheeled in, the doc was called, the birthing crew was coming in. And Rowen was lower and lower every second. Lauren walked in at 11:45. Luke was in the bathroom with a bloody nose. Minutes later I was pushing, and Rowen was born at 11:53.
8lbs 11oz, 22 inches long with the chubbiest cheeks and pointiest head.
It happened so fast that it didn’t even feel real. I didn’t even have time for the emotion to build. He was here, and then he was peeing. All over me. He was warm, squishy, slimey, perfect. Those first moments of my baby finally out of my body and on my chest is absolutely the best feeling in the world. I love the warm, beautiful feeling of holding my children for the first time. After a few minutes, they cleaned him up, weighed him and did all his checks. Daddy holding his hand through it all.
The night had just begun.
Having a baby in the middle of the night is hard to recover from. We were in labor and delivery until 2:30 with checks every fifteen minutes. Starving, tired but so happy to be snuggling our baby. By 4:00am we finally were able to turn the lights out and sleep for a few minutes. The sweetest, snuggliest sleep there ever was.
Photography by my amazing friend, Britt Cascio + editing by me. So grateful to Britt for being there for these moments…and getting there so fast to catch it all ;)
Kylee started Kylee Ann Photography 9 years ago, and has since grown from a one woman amateur show to a full associate team. We shoot 50-75 weddings a year, and thrive on kindness and service. After a year of teaching Intro to Photography at the local technical college, she discovered that helping other entrepreneurs create thriving businesses is what fires her up! She hosts semi-annual Kylee Ann Sleepovers all over the US, speak at conferences and teach online courses about running a small business and marketing.
December 3, 2017
Kylee Maughan
