For Amy

Amy asked for more details on Hyrum's birth, so I am obliging you. Here is what Jared wrote to the families in an email the night he was born. It is abit long and may contain alittle too much info at times, but read it if you want to.


When we went to the doctor on tuesday morning, he informed us, that Kristin had dilated to a 2 and he was quite sure that the baby would come within the next week. This was not really the kind of news that Kristin and I had hoped for but it wasn’t exactly bad news either! So we just went home again hoping that it wouldn't be too much longer.

Throughout the entire day, we both felt that the time for the birth was getting closer and hoped that it wasn't just our impatience and desperation that caused these kind of feelings. Just to be sure and properly prepared, Kristin took a nap to gather all possible strength. After putting the girls to bed, we finally had a chance to lay down and to really talk to each other about the feelings. At that point, Jared leaned over and simply said: "Kristin, we are going to have this baby tonight! He had long enough!!" Several suggestions, like taking a walk or walking up and down the stairs were given by Jared but Kristin didn't seem to really like any of those - surprise! ;)

At about 9:30 pm, Kristin started having little contractions every once in a while. In the following hour, these little contractions became a little more intense but still didn't seem to justify any action yet. After having 3 very different experiences with the previous deliveries, we were not sure what to expect and when to belief that the time has really come!! Therefore it was decided by Jared to have Kristin take a bath to find out if these contractions would get more intense and more regular. At about 11:30 pm Kristin got in the bath and after 45 minutes, the contractions became much more intense and also more regular. She now had a contraction about every 6-7 minutes but was still hesitant because the intensity still didn't seem strong enough. After waiting another 35 minutes, the contractions were now coming every 3-4 minutes. Kristin was still not sure if they should head for the hospital, at which point Jared got up and said that we are definitely going - Now!

We got mom out of bed and told her that we were off to the hospital. Kristin went downstairs to get her favorite shirt and checked on Anne and Alicia a last time. Then proceeded to the phone to call her mother and tell her about the news. Jared in the meanwhile took a very short shower, got dressed and changed Katie's diaper before running downstairs and getting him and Kristin in the car. It was now 12:50 am and the contractions kept coming every 3-5 minutes. The trip to the hospital, which would usually take about 25-35 minutes (depending on traffic), took a total of 20 minutes including parking the car and walking into the hospital - new personal best! :)

When we got to there at about 1:10 am, a wonderful midwife named Sandra (she was the same one that showed us everything when we went to the hospital a couple days before to check it out) checked Kristin and told us that Kristin had now dilated to a 3-4 and it looked like the baby would come fairly soon. She set up a CTG, got us all registered and checked Kristin regularly. She was really nice and spoke good english which made it so much easier for Kristin to ask for anything she needed and to feel understood. Another 3 hours went by while we were walking up and down the hallways of the birthing area and Kristin laying down to try and relax her body. During that time, another lady was giving birth to her son and the midwife was pretty busy. Therefore we spent some time being alone and we used the chance for Jared to give Kristin a blessing. The blessing stated that everything will go according to the lords plan and that we did everything we could to be prepared. Now Kristin had to just trust in the lord and not worry too much about the time or how things would happen.

When the other birth was finished, we asked the midwife about the epidural. She said that she will prepare the blood samples while she set up the IV and would let us know as soon as this is ready so that Kristin could have it if she wanted it. At about 4:00 am, Kristin's contractions got really intense she asked the midwife again about the epidural. The midwife said that the blood was still not back but she could give Kristin some pain killers to reduce the intensity of the contractions. This helped a little but very soon, Kristin felt that the head of the baby was coming down very low and after our experience with Alicia, we asked the midwife to check Kristin's progress again. It was now about 4:30 am and Kristin had dilated to a 6. At this point, the midwife suggested to break Kristin's water with a little hook to help speed up the process. After this was done, she said that we would have a little more time and she would check on the blood work about the epidural so that we could start the procedure right away.

At about 4:55 am, Kristin started to get that wild look in her eyes at which point Jared got the midwife to check Kristin again. She had now dilated to a 9 and the midwife called the doctor and started to get the room ready expecting it to take just little bit longer. All of the sudden, Kristin said that she needs to push! The midwife told us that Kristin needed to switch from her bed to the birthing bed and tried to convince her to fight against the desire to push. When Kristin got over to the birthing bed, she could not hold it back any longer. She had to push. It took a total of 8 minutes and Kristin had to push maybe 6-8 times when the baby was already out. Our little Hyrum was born. When the doctor walked in, the baby had already come out.

The doctor and the midwife were completely amazed at how fast it all went. They checked Kristin and the baby and everything was just fine. Kristin had ripped just a little during the birth and the doctor had to do 2 stitches. Other than that, everything just went beautifully. The doctor repeated several times, that it was unbelievable how fast the little boy came. We were able to spend the next 2 hours resting, talking and holding our newest sweet little addition to our family. We took the chance to say a prayer of thanks to our Heavenly Father since everything had gone so wonderfully and we felt extremely blessed. After that, our little boy was measured, checked, bathed and fed before the nurses came to take us to Kristin's room. After getting the room ready, Kristin got to eat some breakfast and Jared got to take Hyrum to the changing room in order to get his instructions from the nurses on how to change and dress a baby. When they found out that it was our 4th child however, the nurse left and got two students who were studying to become nurses to just watch and learn. It was fun.

After all that, it was time to get some rest. Jared went home and Kristin tried to get some sleep. It was a very special experience and looking back, the hand of the Lord could be seen in every detail as He guided us through this miracle of life.