Stetson Travis King was born at 2:28 am on September 8th, 2009. I went into labor on Labor Day morning at 6:00 am. Contractions woke me up and they were a little stronger than what I had felt the day before. Even though my contractions were every 10 minutes, I wasn't convinced it was true labor until 11:30 am when I lost my mucous plug. It was at that time I decided to call Red Cross to contact Sean, but after not having much luck I decided to contact him myself. I called our recruiter, Sergeant Catlet, in Placerville and he told me to call Fort Jackson. I reached the post locator and to make it short... I was able to talk to Sean's drill dergeant who said he would give Sean the message that I was having the baby today! Sean called me about an hour later and talked for a few short minutes. He said the first DS that had given him the message said, "Your wifes's in labor, I'll let you call her later today."... A few minutes later another DS came in and said, "Your wife's in labor, GO call her!" I was so thankful to hear his voice and his encouraging words. At that time, I didn't know if I'd be able to talk to him again until after Stetson was born.
My mom called our midwife, Rebekah and left a message that I was in labor. Rebekah was on her way home from Haiti and was about to land in Fargo, ND. After her mom picked her up from the airport, they would head straight here. I wasn't too worried at this point, as my contractions really weren't getting any closer together; however, we weren't sure if Rebekah would make it and prepared to have the baby without her. They arrived at 3:00 pm and my contractions were still only eight to ten minutes apart, but I had lost more mucous plug and things were definitely progressing. I was still walking around a lot and began to feel a little pressure (baby dropping lower). Finally.... around 8:00 pm they were getting a lot harder and stronger. Sean called again for a brief moment just to see if the baby had been born. I told him no... it was going slow but I thought once I hit transition (dilated from 8 to 10 cm) that it would go fast. To my surprise, Sean called again a couple hours later!!! He was on night guard duty and the woman DS let him make a call from the pay phone, we were able to talk for 30 whole minutes! Our longest conversation since he started boot camp. I was so thankful to Jesus that I was able to hear his sweet voice while laboring. Transition went really well... contractions were three to five minutes apart and very strong. I had to really concentrate and breath through each one. Some were only two minutes apart, but by this time I had no concept of time. I either leaned over the bed on my knees or sat on the birthing ball, which seemed to help my lower back. I walked around between contractions and tried to keep my hips moving. After Rebekah checked me and I was dilated to ten, we prepared the birthing tub and I got in about 1:00 am.
Baby is dropping...
(click on pictures to enlarge)
Future midwives....
Dilated to 10 and ready to go....
Love at first sight....
Having a little chat about what was in there....
Grandma Kelli putting on his first diaper....
Grandma and Grandpa Hewitt
By the time I called Sean's DS at about 5:00 am, he was out taking his PT test. He was able to call later in the afternoon, and I described to him how precious and handsome our new son was. Unable to see pictures, Sean can only imagine what he looks like until he receives the pictures I sent him.





















So, back to what else the Lord has done.... he got my family out here safe! Our friends, John and Debbie took our last horse and John is going to finish breaking him so that he'll sell... John is also helping Sean pick up his last three cords of firewood to sell. We sold our Toyota Turcel to their son, Stephen. Our storage shed is packed FULL, and last but not least I finally got a new mini-van! We actually had room for Mom and I and all five kids plus all of my stuff! I can even see out my back window! 



























