Harrison Rhys Massey

It has been nearly two weeks since little Harrison Rhys joined the land of the breathing and dry. It has been a long 2 weeks, but we're loving it.

Before the pictures, let me recap the adventure we went on here at the end of August 2010.

August 19, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. we arrive at Baylor Medical Center of Grapevine. Steph is admitted and they begin a regimen of pills that will slowly start the process of labor. She is mercifully given an Ambien, something I was not afforded as the lowly husband who seemingly doesn't exist to begin with. Instead I was given a pseudo couch and a thumbs up. Steph fell asleep and was awoken every hour or two for a check up or more medicine. I didn't sleep much that night as I was convinced that the medicine would cause her to give birth unannounced, so I was hyper alert throughout the entire night listening intently to every beep and whir in the room.

My mother appeared the next morning at 7 a.m. with 3 pigs-in-the-blanket from Cliff's Donut shop. Yum. I devoured the three that she'd gotten me and immediately started chugging coffee, something I wouldn't stop doing for about 18 hours. About the same time, Steph was given the Pitocin to start labor and get the show on the road. From that point on neither of us ate anything and Steph was only allowed ice chips. She's still irked about that.

Friends, family, and well wishers came and went throughout the day as Steph's body prepared to do the unthinkable. Finally at 8 p.m. on August 20th the nurses decide it was time to push. After 20 minutes of trying to figure out the best position we finally started really pushing. By 9:45 the doctor had determined that Harrison wouldn't scoot past the pelvic bone. Steph valiantly pushed, but every time Harrison would slide down until she stopped pushing at which point he'd go right back up the way he'd come.

By 10:00 that evening Steph had been put on the operating table for an unplanned (not emergency) C-Section. Both she and Harrison were doing fine, but this was the way it had to be. At 10:38 Harrison was brought into the world screaming bloody murder. At 10:39 he stopped screaming and just observed everything going on around him proving he was truly my son. I was allowed to take pictures and video until he was ready to be held, at which point I was allowed to bring him over for Steph to see for the first time. Magical to say the least. We had known him for mere seconds and we couldn't fathom being without him.

After the very successful C-Section, Steph was moved into the recovery room while I was allowed to take Harrison to the nursery and push him down the hall past the mass of family who had stuck it out with us. That is, without a doubt, the proudest moment of my life.

A year ago we'd lost our little baby. We were both crushed but understood it was for the best. A year later we were holding our new little miracle. These two thoughts were in my mind a lot over that weekend.

By 1 a.m. we were both exhausted. Steph was finally allowed some fluids. The family had gone home for the night and it was just us in the Post-Partum room. Steph finally got to hold her baby boy at this time. However due to extreme exhaustion, we opted to let the nursing staff keep him for us as much as possible until we left the hospital. We'd have him for our own very soon.

On Monday, August 23rd, we were allowed to come home. Its been an adventure ever since.

I'm sure this story is similar in nature to every other parents' out there. This is our story and we won't soon forget it.

I'll upload some pictures with the next post.