It was an amazing Saturday for the Steffen family! It was the day that Ezekiel Aaron Steffen entered the world!
It was 4am and I woke up with a weird pain in my stomach…I really thought it may be gas from all that popcorn that I had eaten the night before. I headed to the bathroom…..I layed back down, then about 3 minutes later the pain came back. “Weird” I thought….I headed to the bathroom again. Huh? What on earth did I eat that could make me feel so terrible right now? Then, after a few trips back and forth around the basement of my in-laws I realized that this could be IT! WOAH! Contractions, could they really be contractions?! I woke Aaron up and told him that I was calling the birth center to find out….I think he went from sleepily-delusional to WIDE awake in about 4 seconds! :)
After a quick bath to see if the contractions were going away, we packed our bags and hoped in the car. It was a horrendous 15 minute car-ride to the hospital as we sped through the back-roads to get to Stillwater! :) We arrived around 7 am…got checked in and hooked up to a gazillion monitors. Aaron unpacked a few items, gave me my iPod and we both relaxed as we knew in only a few short hours we would be meeting our son or daughter! :) Woah…this was REALLY happening! :)
Not long afterwards, the baby’s heart rate started monitor started to slow down, his heart rate was dropping….he was laying on his umbilical chord. A few times the nurses ran in, jostled me around (to get him to move) and return his heart rate back to “normal”. This only happened a few times before the doctor started chatting with me about a C-section. AWE MAN, I was not up to doing a C-section…more recovery, longer hospital time, not to mention dealing with a major surgery…(although I WAS willing to do ANYTHING to get our baby out healthy and safe! :) Thankfully she saw that I was 9cm dilated and thought it best to try and have me start pushing. After one solid push, she saw that it was going to work! :) YAY….here we go……….
The nurses beckoned Aaron over to my bedside. And little did Aaron know what he was in for…you see, we didn’t take any baby or delivery or pregnancy classes. He had a picture in his mind of himself calmly sitting next to me, holding my hand, and praising me for how well I was pushing and persevering through delivery! :) Little did he know that he had the responsibility of holding my leg while I pushed….the nurse handed him my leg and the look on his face was priceless. “I hold this?!” he said…..”YUP!”
A mere 23 minutes of pushing and out he came. We heard his cry and both of our hearts melted….he was here! And he was a HE! :) Despite my 9 months of thinking we were having a girl, out came a boy and man were we THRILLED to meet him! :) The minute his lungs filled with air and his scream started, we knew it…..we were parents and our lives would never be the same! :) The nurses flipped him over, Aaron exclaimed that he was a boy and they put our baby (OUR BABY!) onto my chest. I cuddled, kissed and cried with him…..I looked over at Aaron and we both had the same deer-in-the-headlights, tear-filled look on our faces. WOW! A baby!!!!! Aaron leaned in and hugged both of us with all of his might (without squishing him of course!) We took about 20 minutes to revel in the amazingness of our new little baby Boy and then made a few phone calls to Grandmas and Grandpas!
The next few days were a blur. People came and hugged us and brought us food (and wine…thanks Jess!) and gifts and so much love for us and little Ezekiel! :) Everyone keeps asking us how we got his name and to be honest, we didn’t even think of it until Aaron came up with it at the hospital after he was born. We both struggled with names (Aaron kept thinking that my AMAZING names were terrible and visa versa) so we weren’t sure on anything until after we met him. “Ezekiel Aaron”….he suggested. “It’s perfect” I said! :) Just perfect!!!!
So, now little Zeke is 5 weeks old and we are settling in. Our little family of 2 adults, one baby boy and 2 crazy pugs feels so wonderful. Yes, the nights can get long with feedings and sometimes I feel like I will never have a chance to brush my teeth during the day….BUT I wouldn’t have it any other way! :)
Here are a few photos that we took at the hospital! Does it surprise you that my camera was one of the first things that I grabbed at 4am while packing for the hospital?! :)
