Mason Lee Yates

Thank you everyone for all of your offers for help, phone calls, texts, and prayers. We have certainly been blessed and have felt surrounded by support.

Our due date was February 14, (Sunday), so we got a scheduled induce date for Thursday, February 18th. I wasn't looking forward to that, because I heard being induced is pretty intense. On Wednesday afternoon, then, I was surprised when all of my pre-labor contractions that I had been having that week started becoming stronger and more regular. By the time we checked in to the hospital on Thursday morning at 7:00 AM, I was already 3 cm dilated and our doctor said to just see how things went! Things just were a little slow though; although they broke my water and I kept trying to walk around and keep moving, by the time 5:00 PM rolled around, I had only made it to 5 or 6 cm. I asked for an epidural and pitocin at that point, and David and I were sure things would pick up, but I was only at a 7 by midnight (although the baby was slowly dropping lower and lower). More pitocin! Finally, by about 4 AM, the nurses felt I was about ready. The doctor was doing another surgery at the time, so by the time we were all set up to push, it was about 5:30 AM.

Mason was born on Friday February 19th, 6:33 AM, weighing 7 lbs 14 oz, and 21 1/2 inches long. We were sooooo grateful to have a healthy little boy! It was a very long day but it was all worth it and we love him so much already. We feel we have been blessed in so many ways throughout the whole ordeal.