Tempe’s Newborn: Alistair

My dear friend and past roomie from a missions trip in Santa Monica through Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) was blessed with a precious gift. Desyré, and her husband just had a handsome baby boy, Alistair. Alistair was born on February 25, 2015 in Tempe, Arizona. Below is Desyre’s birth story of her newborn son.

“We had expected Alistair to arrive a little early, as most babies in my family do. We had a false alarm at 35 weeks that kick-started the final preparations for baby (final details in his nursery, installing the carseat, etc). So the day after our 37 week appointment, when I had contractions all morning we thought, “This really could be it”. Keith and my mom convinced me to head to the hospital once the contractions were 3minutes apart. I was hesitant to go because they weren’t really painful, nothing like I was expecting them to be. But we went anyway, it’s hard to argue with your husband AND your mom.

Keith and I arrived at the hospital at 2pm where the triage nurse was quick to tell us “This isn’t it honey”. But after an hour and a half of monitoring my contractions and the baby’s heart rate, I was admitted. This is when things started happening very quickly. We thought we were being admitted because the nurse suspected my water was slightly ruptured. But as we gathered my things to move to a labor/delivery room she casually mentioned “I’m admitting you because I’d like your baby to be more perky”. What did that mean.

Within minutes of settling into the new room, I was given an IV and oxygen. This was NOT in our birth plan. I wanted as few contraptions connected to me as possible so I could move around during labor. When I asked a nurse about this, she just said “We’re trying to perk the baby up. Then we’ll talk about the plan”. Then she crossed the room and wrote “have a healthy baby” under “goals for the day” on the nurses whiteboard. I remember thinking “Well, that’s strange”.

When we had a few minutes alone Keith looked at me and asked the question I’d been thinking the last few minutes “What the heck do they mean by perky?!” “I don’t know, ask them”. When the nurse returned we asked and she explained that Alistair’s heart rate had not fluctuated at all in the last 2 hours, not during the contractions, not when I moved, nothing. His heart was beating but it wasn’t showing signs of “responsiveness”. That’s why they gave me the IV and oxygen, to see if his heart rate would increase with the boost of sugar and air. It should have, but it didn’t.

At this point the doctor came in and explained all this again. She said the baby could be sleeping or something could be wrong, it’s hard to know. So they ordered an ultrasound. They would watch him for 30 minutes and monitor his movements (opening and closing his hands, practicing breathing, kicking, shifting, etc). After 30 minutes they would give him a score of 0-8 depending on how much movement they see (the more movement, the higher the score). As the doctor was explaining this test, I felt a strange pop on the left side of my belly followed by a gush of water. My water had officially broken and the contractions got more uncomfortable.

Within five minutes the ultrasound technician arrived and started the test. As the minutes ticked by, her face got more and more serious. After ten minutes the doctor returned and watched the screen with her. Soon they started jabbing my belly as they moved the wand around. Neither of them looked pleased. At the twenty-one minute mark our doctor shared what we had expected, so far our boy had scored a 0 on the test. He had not moved at all. She said “everything can change in the last nine minutes, but from what I know right now we need to get this baby out. I am getting the OR ready for a c-section”. They handed Keith a set of scrubs and told him to get dressed.

Keith fumbled for his phone to send a quick text to our family and friends to pray for Alistair as he pulled the blue pants over his. Then he was back by my side. I will never forget the look in his eyes as he held my hand, prayed for our son and said “We might not get to see him grow up”. We were preparing ourselves for the worst. During the last nine minutes of the test Keith and I poked my belly and pleaded with Alistair to move. Keith sang to him, something that had caused him to wiggle and kick throughout my pregnancy. But still no movement.

The nurses were rolling me down the hall to the OR the moment the test was over. It was 5pm, just three hours since we had arrived at the hospital. As we headed for the OR the doctor explained “I have a team from the nursery in there for him. Sometimes these babies come out and they are perfectly fine, and sometimes…they need some help”. Something about the way she finished that sentence made Keith and I think “and sometimes they don’t make it”. Keith has to wait outside the OR for the 15 minutes it took to prep me for surgery. Everyone was moving so fast.

When they brought Keith in the surgery everything started swiftly. We were so scared but it seemed to be only minutes before the doctor shouted “Dad, stand up! Watch your son be born”. I felt a tugging as they pulled Alistair out. Keith and I held our breaths waiting to hear our son scream…it only took seconds. It was the best moment.

He cried as the nurses took him to the corner of the room to run a few tests. Soon they invited Keith to the corner to be with Alistair, take pictures, weigh him, etc. A nurse came over and told me that everything was fine. He was healthy and didn’t need any help from her team. As the doctors finished the surgery the nurses put Alistair on my chest and took our first family picture. We couldn’t believe it, our boy was finally here in our arms.”

Praise God for this miracle and healthy baby boy! We took Alistair’s first professional pictures in their Tempe condo. It’s a wonderful blessing to see your friends having children.

I love Desyre and Keith’s story on how they decorated Alistair’s baby room. Desyré and Keith lived abroad in South Africa doing missions for CRU. They documented their African experience and framed those moments above Alistair’s crib.

I love Alistair’s newborn hair.

Every feature of a newborn is so adorable, all the way down to their toes.

Desyre seeing you with Alistair brings me so much joy!

Newborns are a miracle and children are a blessing.

Thank you Desyre for sharing his newborn story! Alistair welcome into the world; we look forward to seeing God shape you into a Godly man!

IF YOU LIKE THE EXPERIENCE SEEN IN THESE PICTURES YOU CAN BOOK YOUR MEMORY MAKING NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHER TODAY!