There is absolutely nothing that compares to the feelings of giving birth to your beautiful little baby. We were all super anxious as we awaited the birth of sweet little Atlas. As Mama, Karysa, entered her final month of pregnancy, Atlas did not hold back on giving mama contractions. Karysa was hoping for a VBAC and a healing birth after a previous traumatic c-section. Although Atlas really made everyone think he was going to come early, mama’s induction date quickly approached. Karysa had tried every natural way to get labor started beforehand but Atlas just wasn’t having it. Finally, we made it to induction day. Mama labored for quite some time. She had a balloon inserted to prepare her cervix the night before and then it was the real deal. Atlas was coming!!
Karysa worked SO hard. Her body was doing a wonderful job. She opted to have an epidural to cope with labor pains. She ended up having to sit for the epidural three times. Yep, you heard that right, third times a charm! This ended up being a blessing in disguise. Karysa was amazing through the entire thing. She never blamed the doctor once. She even said, “It’s okay, he can practice on me!”. As Karysa progressed, Andrew(dad), was by her side the entire time. They had such an intimate birth. Leaning on each other through the entire process. It was truly such a beautiful sight to see. After Mama’s final epidural was working, she was able to take a nice little nap. When Karysa woke up from her nap, after being in labor for quite some time, she was faced with the news that her body just wasn’t progressing and sweet Atlas wasn’t taking it very well. They decided to go ahead with a c-section.
Karysa felt defeated. She knew it was what was best, but was still so sad that she wasn’t going to have the healing VBAC she was hoping for. Andrew stood by her side the entire time, comforting her and making sure she knew she did everything she possibly could have. This is also where things changed a bit. Karysa and Andrew had gone through a c-section before. As they wheeled Karysa to the operating room, Andrew recounted the birth of their daughter with me. He told me about how everything was so different. This birth would turn out to be amazing in comparison. Before going into the room the Dr. asked Karysa what she wanted playing while her baby was born. She chose Carrie Underwood and a nurse joked of having to listen to country two nights in a row. Andrew and I stood outside the operation room as they prepped Karysa. Andrew totally thought they had forgotten him out there and Karysa anxiously awaited her husband’s presence. After what seemed like forever, Andrew was by her side and I waited my turn to enter the room. Karysa’s doctor was amazing in advocating for her and making sure I was able to capture this beautiful moment for them.
Atlas made his presence at 7:38pm weighing a whopping 8lbs 3oz and was 18.5 inches long. Everyone in the room commented on how big he was as he screamed his little head off. Andrew wiped the tears from Karysa’s face as they watched in awe as their baby was born. Along with being able to have a clear drape to see the birth, Karysa was also able to have immediate skin to skin with baby Atlas. The Doctor was absolutely amazing in making this experience wonderful for the entire family.
Dad mentioned to me, as we were in the OR, how different this experience was. He got very emotional as he cut the cord and watched as his new sweet boy was being checked out. You could feel his excitement and love as he took care of Karysa and Atlas. He then took Atlas to the room and did skin to skin until Mama was all stitched up. We joked of how ‘The Parent Trap’ was just starting to play on the TV as he got comfortable snuggled up with Atlas.
Atlas screamed for Mama as he anxiously awaited nursing for the first time. He rooted around a bit on dad, till she made it back to the room. The golden hour began and they talked about how everything worked out just perfectly how it was meant to be! Karysa still had her healing birth, even if it didn’t go exactly as planned.
