Parks Bridger Mortensen-Birth Story
We welcomed our precious baby boy Parks into the world June 9th 2016. He is six weeks tomorrow as of 12:55 pm, and oh man, I feel like the past six weeks have been a blur of emotions and blessings! Parks is the happiest little momma’s boy around. My house is a disaster, I’ve worn makeup maybe three times since he was born and my hair? ha well that usually ends up in a braid down my back, but you know what? I’ll take it! I love every single minute with my sweet baby boy and seeing his little smiles, kissing his cute cheeks and hearing his sweet baby coo’s makes every other project I have seem unimportant and so small.
If you have followed me for a while you know that I struggled with three miss carriages before becoming pregnant with our precious Parks, I still remember having the absolute WORST anxiety the day they wanted me to go in for my first ultrasound to hear the heart beat because my previous three pregnancies didn’t have a good outcome. I was an emotional wreck going into the hospital that day. We were able to see our sweet baby boy and hear his strong heart beat and all my worries washed away with my tears. Fast forward to 33 weeks pregnant and two days spent in labor and delivery for constant contractions spaced 3 minutes apart. I was so worried that he was going to be born super early and not be ok, I have never prayed so hard in my life over those two days that heavenly father would bless him if he did come. but we were able to get the contractions to stop and I was able to carry parks full term! Thats right he is one of those less than 5% babies that are actually born on their due date!
On June 8th around four in the afternoon I had Cody take me to the hospital because I was having some mild contractions spaced about 4 minutes apart and getting stronger. When I got there sure enough they saw I was having steady contractions and gave me an exam, at that point I was dilated to 4 centimeters and about 75% effaced so they called my doctor and she wanted to have me walk and be monitored for the next few hours to see if I progressed at all. Around 8 that evening they checked me again and even though I was still contracting I hadn’t dilated anymore and had only thinned out to 80%. At that point I was super frustrated and just wanted to go home and be with my family so they discharged me and we headed home for the night. I remember taking a warm shower thinking in my head that it would make the contractions stop or at least dull down when in reality it didn’t do either. I was up all night long with steady contractions but didn’t want to go in for fear of being told I wasn’t in “real” labor so I just waited it out until nine the next morning when the contractions started to build in intensity and length. By the time we reached the hospital and I got all gowned up the nurse came in to check me I was still only dilated to 4 centimeters!! I was 90% effaced but I just wasn’t dilating so my nurse stripped my membranes trying to see if that would do anything and ouch! It did! Within a few minutes I was having some seriously painful contractions that I couldn’t talk through. So by 9:30 they admitted me and put me in one of the labor rooms, at this point I decided it would be best to get the epidural now instead of wait because once I am actively in labor my labors are super fast. My anesthesiologist was the nicest woman ever and made getting the epidural so painless and easy! About ten minutes after getting the epidural my mom and River came to the hospital to visit us and talk to us and at that point I was still feeling my contractions really well but the edge was taken off so I didn’t really think anything of it. My doctor came in and broke my water at noon and checked me stating that I had dilated to almost 7 and was completely effaced and that she expected me to start pushing by two. After she left my epidural slipped and completely stopped working! I called in a nurse at about 12:40 and said how much pain I was in (actually she could see how much pain I was in because I was shaking and couldn’t even talk bracing against the side of the bed.) They called the anesthesiologist back up there to try to adjust my medicine but my contractions were coming so hard and so fast that it just couldn’t keep up with them. All of the sudden I had this crazy urge to push and when my nurse went to check me her eyes got big and she was like “oh my, you are complete and baby is right there”! Luckily my doctor was just in the other room and she came right in suited up and was there while I pushed. I pushed three times and he was born at 12:55! And let me tell you, that little boy has some serious lungs! He cried and cried and cried some more until they placed him on my chest. It was as if everyone else in the room disappeared and it was just him and me, he opened his eyes and looked right into my soul letting me know he knew exactly who I was. it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life! I cried and kissed him and didn’t want to let go! they finally took him from me and measured him at 21 3/4 inches long and he was 8 lbs and 11 oz of pure chunk! He is our perfect son and we couldn’t be happier to have him here! He hurt like heck coming out (props to all the natural momma’s out there, OUCH) but he was SOOO worth the pain!
The first time river met him was one that I will never forget, she came and sat on the bed with me and immediately started touching his head and cheeks telling me how cute our new baby was. There isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t receive at least 100 kisses and face pets from her, she loves him so much and is the BEST big sister! She is always right there wanting to help me when I change his diapers or give him baths, and constantly wants to hold him. It is so sweet to watch him look at her and smile knowing exactly who she is, he will sit and coo for her better than he will most everyone else. I just know that the two of them are going to be best buds soon and I can’t wait for her to be around to help me teach him how to walk and crawl and everything else! We have been over the moon excited about our little family of four and are so so grateful!
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