Wow! Last week was by far the best week of our lives. Our 8th anniversary, hosting Denver's first annual Walk4Water for Hands4Others, AND the birth of our baby boy, Atticus!
I will relive the week in order:
Tuesday was our 8th anniversary! We decided to go out to dinner at Luca d'italia and celebrate. We had a great dinner, but also had a wonderful time bringing up memories. We talked about our marriage, how blessed we have been, where we want to go and what we want to do in the near future. About Atticus and his birth, about how we want to raise him and what we want him to stand for. About how we can influence that throughout his life and about how excited we were to meet him. It was an amazing evening with great food and wine.
Next on the agenda was Denver's first annual Walk4Water. We have invested a lot of time into preparing for the walk, getting in front of kids at school assemblies, volunteering at youth events, spreading the word around Denver, and trying to create a base for Hands4Others in Denver. It has been a stressful venture, but the walk went off on Saturday morning and it was great! Some folks that we didn't know came out and are very excited to be part of the movement, some kids came out that have fundraised, and our volunteers were awesome! With previous donations combined with the fundraising from this walk, Denver has funded its first village, providing clean, sustainable water to 1,000 people that have never had the opportunity to have clean, parasite-free water! An amazing accomplishment and strong work from everyone involved. We are excited to keep the momentum rolling and hold our second event in Denver in the early fall!
And now, the culmination of the week. I will keep the story as succinct as possible as it was amazing!
To set the stage. Adrienne went into labor the same day as the walk. We woke up at 5:30am and headed to Starbucks for breakfast. We set up the walk and got everything ready. Adrienne walked the three mile walk, and then helped break down. After, we headed out for some Mexican food and celebrated a successful day (little did we know what we were in for). We headed home and packed up our hospital bags and made sure we were ready for our next adventure. Around 10:00pm, Adrienne said she was feeling some crampy pains that she had not experienced during pregnancy yet.
Side note: A was very blessed throughout her pregnancy. No sickness, no pain, no food aversions, no real cravings. Just normal life with the addition of carrying a baby.
We decided to see what came of the pains and play it all by ear. Around 10:30pm, we realized the pains were contractions and they were coming every 5 minutes and lasting about 1 minute each. For those of you that do not know, that is when the doctor says to leave for the hospital. So instead, we stuck around the house just to make sure. These contractions continued and by 11:30pm they were around 3 minutes apart and getting much more severe. We decided to leave for the hospital then. I brewed a french press of coffee and got the car packed up (the essential things). We left around 12:00am and arrived to the hospital around 12:30am. We were checked in by around 1:00am, A was already dilated to 4cm and labor started getting pretty serious. She got sick a few times and the contractions looked extremely painful. I did my best to coach her through them, focussing on breathing and resting, and giving a lot of positive reinforcement. Adrienne decided to go through labor without the use of medication, so we were in for a workout! She got in the jacuzzi tub and labored there for around 1.5 hours. Once the contractions were too much to stay still, she got out of the tub and moved to the exercise ball. There was no more being comfortable! She dealt with the contractions amazingly! Breathing through them and then resting when they were over. After another hour of laboring, she looked at me with the saddest eyes I have ever seen and said, "I'm so tired. I'm not sure how much longer I can do this." It just breaks your heart as a husband to see that face and hear those words, but this was the time to be strong and continue being positive. I would pray for her each contraction, asking God to give her strength, endurance, perseverance, and to renew her mind! We asked the nurse how much longer until the next measurement. She told us she would measure again in 30 minutes and see where she has progressed to. Knowing it was only 30 more minutes before finding out progress gave A some renewed hope. We got through that next half hour and she was back on the bed getting measured. She had progressed to
9.5cm!! Praise God. She was almost there. The doctor was on her way and once she arrived, she checked the cervix and said it was completely gone and she could start pushing if she wanted to. This again brought new hope and it was time to push! Once the next contraction came around, the pushing started! What an experience! Adrienne pushed for 45 minutes and out came our baby boy, Atticus, at 5:52am. We were taking pictures, I had the GoPro running, and we were celebrating new life! Watching Adrienne hold our baby boy immediately after he was born was the most amazing thing I have ever seen.
Over the past four days, we have had the most amazing time with Atticus. So far, he is sleeping well, feeding nicely, and we are enjoying our new family! What an amazing week celebrating the best experiences of our lives, our wedding day and the birth of our son, Atticus. We could not feel more blessed.
Below is a photo bomb of A's belly before having Atticus, the completed nursery, and our baby boy!
A's Belly at 40 Weeks
Nursery Pics
Atticus Swaddled
Time to go Home!
He's a Charger's Fan!
