It's a Boy!

From Jeff: 

It's official- we proudly announce the birth of Maxton Ronald Baer, who is 20 inches in length, and 8 lbs, born at 12:34 a.m. on Friday, April 25.

We think the timing of the birth is interesting. He was late two days, with the due date on 4/22. Tired of waiting, on 4/23, Tiffany scheduled an induction for early Friday morning. Something about having a deadline, an absolute knowledge of when the child would be born was comforting.

Knowing that, it is interesting that a day before the scheduled induction, Tiffany started contractions at 3:00 a.m. on Thursday, 4/24. They continued until she got up at 5 a.m. and advised me to get ready for the hospital. She had woken up her parents to let them know in case Dorothy ended up missing the birth because she was coming on a later flight. But, the contractions died down, so I worked from home. They picked up around 2:00 p.m. so we scheduled a visit to the doctor's office. They confirmed that things had progressed and admitted us to the hospital.

Tiffany's mother arrived at 6:30 p.m., before any of the real action started. She had just flown in from California and made the drive out to the hospital. Then Tiffany's friend, Cassie Ames, who volunteered to be our birth photographer, showed up shortly after.

TIffany opted to receive the epidural, which was a great choice. Once in, and her heart rate stabilized, she was completely relaxed. In fact, with the added company, I found myself completely relieved of the duty of making small talk or trying to come up with ideas to fill the time of waiting for the baby to come. In fact, the three girls were so social, along with the nurses and the physician, that time passed quite quickly. Kat was our RN, a veteran from many hospitals and many states. She is a traveling nurse and has seen it all and knew exactly what to do. The fact that everyone was talking helped me not to focus on the progression of the birth and I was able to leave all of the worrying to the physicians and nurses. I could tell that Tiffany felt likewise. We were so distracted, that we just allowed things to progress.

Our physician, Dr. Priebe, was also able to make the birth. If we had gone on Friday, there is no way he could have attended to us since it was his clinic day. It was our good fortune to have him attending the birth since most of the doctors don't come deliver if they are not on call. He was wonderful and we were so happy to have him there.

The anesthesiologist, always one of my favorite people during labor

Our 3 name choices: Owen, Max, and Evan--tallying the votes. Looks like Max is in last place.

My mom made it for the birth, hooray!

Nice mountain view from my room. My mom loved that there was parking (being from L.A. makes you appreciate things like that), and that it was a beautiful hostpital with beautiful views. 

Jeff's favorite room when he needed a break

Thank you basketball playoffs to help Jeff pass the time

Jeff thought this would be a fun picture to hang in our home

My favorite doctor, Dr. Priebe! He wasn't even supposed to be there but he came and stayed with me and was wonderful. I love this doctor!

Tiffany was progressing somewhat slowly with dilation, so the doctor and nurse recommended different remedies. The baby's head was not aligned properly, so they worked on different ways to get him to present properly. The physician was getting afraid that we might need to move forward with a C-section. In addition, there was a cord around the baby's neck, which cause the heart rate to drop as Tiffany turned in certain positions.

Tiffany recommended that we pray for the baby to switch positions and to present in the proper way so that she could avoid surgery.

The next time the physicians came in to check Tiffany, the baby had rotated to the right position and she was fully effaced. The nurse and doctor told her to start pushing. And what felt like only minutes, the baby was born! I couldn't believe how fast it happened. The doctor was rushing to get all of his items together and to put on his gown and had to tell Tiffany to stop pushing so he could finish getting ready. The boy let out sweet little cries and was placed on his mother. I cut the umbilical cord.

My mom's first birth (besides the 6 she attended when she was the one giving birth)

A happy and relieved father (and mother!)

Sweet baby

We felt very blessed that those who attended to us knew what to do when things were not progressing. We felt very grateful that Heavenly Father answered our prayers. The baby looks great and has a very sweet face. He looks like a Baer boy, for sure.

We did not leave the hospital until 3:30 a.m. I think we are all tired, but when it's said and done, this was the easiest birth for Tiffany and I due to the support, conversations, and the little time required pushing.

The three men of the room

My friend Cassie Ames was so kind to come photograph for us!

Whoops, where's the diaper? 

Scrunchy face

Look at that sweet little boy

Thanks to my parents and sisters for watching the kids all week long and making it easy for us to focus on having the baby without needing to call ward members and to make other arrangements with our children.

Everything, including the timing, worked together for our good so we could have an excellent nurse and a fortunate time slot with our physician.

From Tiffany:

I love everything that Jeff wrote and would just like to add a few thoughts. It has been a very relaxing week with the kids spending it at the Baer's, but I must admit I miss them. I realized that even though kids add chaos and fatigue to life, I'd much rather have them in my life than not. They are so sweet and fun and make the day brighter. But, Jeff and I did have a lot of fun spending time together and going on dates in the evenings, so it's nice to get that alone time with your spouse too. And like Jeff said, when I was unsure of my contractions and if they were regular or not (since they would change after an hour), it would have been very hard to know when and if I should call anyone to come watch them. Not having to worry about that aspect of this process brought so much relief to me. 

I spent the day contracting at home and Jeff thought it was funny that I would be talking and happy, then when I went in contraction mode I had to breathe and focus on making it through, then after it was done I'd snap out of it and come back to the conversation like nothing had happened. 

I knew that during office hours the OB likes to see patients before sending them to the hospital, so when my contractions started getting more regular, 5-8 minutes apart, I called to see if I should come in before the end of the work day. Once there, I was dilated to a 4 or 5 and was 80% effaced. The doctor on call, Dr. Serniak, saw me and sent us to the hospital right next door, Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland. It is a beautiful hospital and one of the 3 baby friendly hospitals in Colorado (there are only 19 in the U.S.). This means they promote skin to skin and breastfeeding and bonding time with mother and baby, which is so nice not to have the baby whisked away right after birth.

We got there around 4pm and my mom's flight came in at 4:45 p.m. so we were hoping she'd make it since she had to rent a car and drive an hour to the hospital. But since I wasn't progressing really fast she made it in plenty of time. It was such a joy having my mom there! She got to witness the actual birth (her first one) and there's just something so comforting and nice having your mom with you. She was so happy to have had this experience and felt like it might not ever happen again. Most of the time if she were to come out for a birth it would be to watch the kids. But since the Baer’s had the kids, she could just focus on being there with us. Such a wonderful blessing!

I always think I might try it without the epidural, but after a little while of hard contractions I was ready, and it made all the difference. Jeff and my mom watched the needle go in (Jeff tried to tell me about this later but I didn’t want to hear anything about it) and afterward I could just enjoy my time chatting and when Dr. Priebe was feeling around for the head and body position, I didn't feel a thing! Being painless during labor is the absolute best.

I visit teach Cassie and she had offered last week to do some photography for us at the hospital since she is trying to get a photography business going...and she offered to do it for free. I wasn't sure how it would all work with the timing of it, but she came around 6 pm and in the end was there for 6 hours and so pleasant. I'm just glad it was at night so that her husband could be with her kids. We ended up paying her (thank you Mom!!!!), which she refused, but she did such a great job and was so fun to have around that we enjoyed giving it to her. 

Jeff had a great time chatting with the nurse who also loves European soccer. It's always nice when Jeff finds a kindred spirit. Jeff watched some NBA playoffs and we chatted and the time flew by. My epidural still allowed me to move my legs so I was able to get in different positions to try and help move the baby since he was transverse. I didn't actually know that Dr. Priebe was thinking of doing a c-section, but after our prayer and things improved he told us he was minutes away from going that route since he had tried everything he knew how to do. I'm so grateful for prayer! We did that with Lily too since she was close to having a c-section as well when her head wasn't dropping. I am extremely grateful our prayers were answered so quickly. 

Once I started pushing it went by so fast and I felt absolutely no pain. It was the best delivery so far and such a pleasant evening. I have no negative things to say about it. Once delivered, it was so nice to hold our baby close and feel his soft skin. He pooped all over himself and me, but that didn't take away from the sweet moment, we were just a bit messy afterward.

So far I have not been in pain except when nursing and the contractions feel pretty strong, like labor contractions. But I was told it gets worse with each child. 

We are so grateful to have our baby here and can't believe this whole process is over! We are naming him Maxton Ronald Baer and calling him Max for short. Max looks like Lily and is such a sweet little spirit, we are so happy to have him in our home. I'm grateful for our blessed lives and the gift of this life. It's funny we went back and forth with names and Max was not at the top, but Lily preferred Max to all the names and in the end we chose it. Kids no best. 

I also have to write one other thing that is pretty funny. The highlight of this hospital stay for Jeff (besides of course having the baby) has been the food. Every time he orders or comes back from the cafeteria we can't believe how much he got, but it has been good and he has been a happy man.

Jeff and his delicious lobster meal

Going home