This whole event began on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006. The doctors scheduled Cory an induction due to her gestational diabetes and their fear of the baby’s size being large. This evening went smoothly. Lisa kept us company for a few hours.
The next day, we woke up at approximately 8am. Cory unfortunately could not eat due to the fact that the baby’s birth was theoretically supposed to take place this day. My parents came to visit in the morning,as well as Cory's two best friends Delia and and Lisa.At 10am or so, Dr. Stephen Belton came to visit Cory and broke her bag of waters and left with the intention of coming back soon to deliver. Cory screamed for a second, and immediately calmed herself after that. This day was also full of visits and phone calls. Noticeable contractions began around 12 noon. We later received phone calls from Melissa Morales and Uncle Walter. Things were progressing slowly but surely. Cory’s threshold of pain lasted until 4 centimeters or so before asking for pain relief with the help of a narcotic. Another couple of hours passed. At this point, the Vierra gang (Cory’s Mom, Aunt Alice, Heidi, Aunt Norma, Rosie, Andrew, Cesaleigh, and Sierra) arrived to greet us with laughter.
Cory’s labor pains were increasing steadily. At this point, narcotics were not getting the job done. That once one hour a night discussion during her pregnancy about whether or not to get an epidural turned into a one minute cry of “Please make this pain go away!” Needless to say, she ended up being in favor of the epidural. This immediately eased her pain as well as her husband’s pain and the pain of her visitors. After the specialist finished that procedure and the visitors returned, we all noticed a dramatic change in Cory’s demeanor--it was pleasant again.
Unfortunately, things were still moving rather slowly. We were now at approximately 12 midnight, April 20th, 2006. Cory was finally feeling the need to push. The pushes were not productive. Dr. Belton returned around 1am to attempt to deliver this baby. I vividly remember these next events. The first moment that the reality of me being a father finally hit me was when the doctor told me to come next to him, and he asked me if I could see the head. Indeed, a tiny head was trying to make its way into the world. The doctor unfortunately had some difficulty delivering Brandon. Cory’s pushing continued until about 230am. The doctor then expressed his concerns that due to the baby’s heart rate dropping and not much progression in the pushing, a natural childbirth was not going to be successful. He then explained the procedures of a c section to all of those that were still in the room with us. Which was Lisa, Delia, Heidi Cory’s Mom and Patrick’s Mom. After his explanation,
I put my scrubs on to follow the doctor and Cory into the room where they performed her emergency cesarean. Another thing that I found interesting was that they brought me into the room by way of a wheelchair to prevent any fainting episodes. Cory had a curtain covering her delivery; therefore I could not see anything if I wanted to see. They did however allow me to bring my video camera. I remember Cory being delirious from her epidural. The next thing I knew, at 337 am, I heard the doctor’s voice say “And, here’s your baby!” I got a minute or so of video footage before the nurses sprinted into the room to clean him. It took me a couple of minutes to find where this room was. These nurses moved fast. My first thought after seeing Brandon was “Oh Lord, he looks JUST like Cory!” I felt a mixture of emotions from excited to being a father, to nervous about being a first time father, to relief due to the fact that this had been a long three days. At the end of this day, I could not thank God enough for a beautiful wife and baby boy.
Dr. Stephen Belton, Brandon( 1 day old) And Cory
Brandon James Hightower
April 20, 2006
3:37am 7lb 1oz. 20 inch
