Baby Austin is Here!

Here is our baby boy:

Austin LeRoy Hatch

He weighed 8 lbs 5 oz - 20 in long

He was born on "Friday the 13th" of June

at 5:44 a.m.

We all are so happy and love him so much. It has been so fun to have the other kids here and witness their instant love for their little brother. They love to hold him and give him kisses.

This is Grandpa LeRoy Wirthin and Grandma Wirthlin holding their 64th grandchild and immediate family member #100

Here is his dramatic birth story:

After a few days of false labor (see post below), I went to bed Thursday night again feeling contractions. I was going to have my mom come and sleep over, but I didn't want to disappoint myself if this was more false labor. Luckily, I was able to sleep for a few hours waking up only occasionally as I felt something. Around 2:30, I was definately awake and could not sleep between contractions. Around 3:30, Paul was up, too as I kept squeezing his arm hard every 6 or 7 minutes. About an hour later, my neighbor came over, who is a doula and brought her teenage daughter to stay with our kids. I remained in bed as this was the best position for me to comfortably deal with the labor. As Paul was loading the car, the pain became very intense and my neighbor was getting nervous. The contractions were still a little bit irregular - about 4-6 minutes apart, so I didn't think that I should worry. The last contraction before getting in the car, was the worst one, yet -  and after that things were very different.

I am not usually a very loud or dramatic person, but at this moment I was not much like myself. I was screaming in the car as the pain and pressure increased. As Paul approached the stop sign by the timpanogas temple, I yelled "don't stop! don't stop!" Luckily it was about 5:30 a.m. and not much traffic - he ony had to zoom around a few cars on a road that is usually pretty busy. We pulled up to the front of the hospital - left the car running and rushed in. I laid down on the floor of the elevator (still screaming) to releive some pressure. Paul yelled to the nurses and they helped me into a delivery room. They told me I would have to wait as the doctor was on his way. I yelled again, "I'm not waiting for anyone!" A few minutes later, the baby was born and delivered by a midwife who was on call in the hospital.

When asked if I would do another natural birth - I think I would (but I would probably try to go to the hospital a little sooner). Right now I feel so great (other than the sleep deprivation from 3 nights of labor). Immediately after the birth, I felt awesome, and it was so nice not to have an IV or to be stuck in bed unable to feel half your body. There was extreme pain, but it was manageable knowing that it would be over soon. It was also nice not to feel any weird side effects from Pitocin or Epidural. When Anthony was born, his heart rate reacted poorly with the Pitocin and I had some weird side effects to the epidural like itchiness and extreme drop in blood pressure. I have to say that even thought I felt the most pain with this birth, I feel that it has been my easiest delivery and recovery out of all of them.