( CNN ) -- Tears flowed and hugs were traded on Thursday in an Oklahoma maternity ward as four nurses saw for the first time the baby whose birth they helped safeguard during a direct hit by Monday 's tornado . `` Look how handsome your boy is , '' said one of them , when she saw the 4-day-old boy . But baby Braeden 's birth came only after a very close brush with the twister . His mother , Shayla Taylor , was already in labor when the tornado turned toward Moore , Oklahoma . She was so far along -- dilated and going through contractions -- that in spite of the approaching storm , there was no way to evacuate her . `` She could n't move , '' said Alyson Heeke , nurse supervisor at Moore Medical Center . `` She 'd had an epidural anesthesia , which meant that it numbed her enough that she could n't walk . '' As the tornado came closer , the medical staff moved Taylor into a hallway , then to a windowless operating room that offered more protection . `` Her baby was not doing the best , '' said charge nurse Cindy Popejoy , `` so I really needed a way to monitor her baby to see how the baby was tolerating the labor process -- especially since she was so far dilated . So the only place to do that would be the OR . '' With the twister bearing down on them , the four nurses -- Popejoy , Heeke , Barbara Brand and Bonny Stephens -- covered their patient with blankets , pillows and even their own bodies . `` We actually were on the floor , '' said Heeke . `` Bonny the scrub-tech was kind of leaned over her a little more . We had blankets and pillows all around her . We were holding onto each other -- and the bed . '' Within minutes , the hospital was hit with massive force . Taylor said she did not know whether she and the baby would survive , but she kept praying . `` I knew we were getting hit directly , '' she said . `` I felt the floor start shaking . It feels like an earthquake . '' The outside wall of the operating room was ripped off , but everyone in the room survived . Afterward , debris was lying everywhere , including heavy equipment and lighting fixtures strewn across the floor . There was wreckage in every direction , there was a gaping hole where the wall once stood , and the baby-warmer was silhouetted against the open sky . `` I opened my eyes , I could see I-35 , '' said Taylor . `` And I could see the movie theater . '' But Shayla 's husband Jerome -- who had taken cover downstairs with their 4- year-old son Shaeden -- did not know whether she had survived and did not know how to find her . `` They were saying 'No , everyone 's out of the building , ' `` he said . `` And I was like 'No , my wife - my wife is upstairs . '' He soon found her , and she was transported on a flat board down a stairwell and through the debris . Shayla Taylor was closer than ever to giving birth . She was taken to the nearby hospital in Norman and gave birth within hours . Braeden weighed in at 8 pounds , 3 ounces . `` He probably will sleep through anything now , '' Heeke said with a smile . Shayla Taylor is herself studying to become a nurse . Seeing these nurses put a patient 's welfare ahead of their own , she said , has made her more committed than ever to becoming a caregiver . `` Those nurses are amazing , '' she said . Students , teachers from tornado-leveled school say goodbye . A mother 's instincts saves her three sons -- here 's how . Piece of a children 's book reflects the loss .
Shayla Taylor was already in labor when the Moore tornado roared toward her hospital . The storm ripped through a rural area of southeastern Alabama on Friday afternoon, leaving behind an eerie landscape that included twisted trees and downed power lines. As her labor intensified , `` I knew we were getting hit directly ''