Funny thing when you complain...
Brazos (pronounce with short vowels instead of long vowels) was born on his due date! So little did I know as I was complaining about my ticker mocking me with one day remaining - I was going to go into labor that night!
So, here's the Birth Story:
On Monday night (24th), I started having mild contractions around 10:45, which would have been no big deal except I had yet to have ANY painful contractions at all. Jason and I went ahead and laid down and tried to get some sleep and to see if they went away on their own. I didn't get any sleep and the contractions just continued and started getting stronger. I decided to try a hot shower. I thought maybe that may make them subside or at least if they didn't stop, I would have gotten a shower in before going to the hospital (very thankful for this later). The hot shower only made my contractions harder. When I tried to lay down, I was struggling to breath through them and they were coming pretty quickly one right after the other - 45 seconds to a minute. I told Jason we better go ahead and get everything rounded up and head to the hospital. This was around 12:45 am.
We called out parents on the way to the hospital to let them know we were going in. Once we got there, they set me all up and checked me - I was only 1.5 cm but they said they would check me again in an hour and let the doc know where I was and decide from there whether to admit me. She asked me how far apart my contractions were and I told her 45 seconds to a minute and she looked at me like I was crazy. After the crazy look, I thought maybe I was counting them wrong or something. After an hour she came back in and checked me and confirmed that yes, I was having contractions very quickly, one right on top of the other practically, and that I was having three contractions in one. (Another instance where I'm right, big surprise :) She checked me and I was at 3 cm. Whoo hoo! So, they admited me, time was 2:30 am. So Jason called/text everyone to let them know. Fifteen minutes later the anestesilogist came in and gave me my epidural, I hated every second of it but LOVED her afterwards. Epidurals are beautiful things, I don't know why any mother wouldn't get one. The rest of my labor was a breeze. I progressed steadily - getting 1-2 cm further every hour or so.
Once I was to an 8, my Dr. came in and broke my water. It was a big pop and a HUGE gush came out and hit the doc in the arm and went all over my leg - I was numb and I could feel it hit my leg if that gives you an idea. Sorry if this is TMI, it was just too funny. The doc jumped back when it hit her and then she laughed and said that was one of the top gushers she ever had. Not an accomplishment I'll be hanging on the wall any time soon, but again, funny. They got me all cleaned up and checked his head location and he was still way too high (and his head was huge - nice little side note she added when telling me the location). So the nurse said we'd try moving him down ourselves by having me lay in different positions to naturally push him down instead of having me push for hours and hours. I was fully dialted to 10 cm about an hour or two before he actually got his head down far enough. It took three or four hours of manuevering me around and laying in funny positions but I finally got his head down to where I could push. And, the pushing began. The pushing didn't hurt (God bless the epidural) but it was hard work! I thought my head was going to explode from bearing down so hard and how the hell do you know where to push!? You can't feel where your butt is, how do you push through there?? I must of figured it out because they said I was doing good so I kept pushing to nowhere and he kept coming down. I looked over at Jason at one point and asked him if he could see anything. He said No, I said Good. The nurse said I only pushed a total of 20-25 minutes and it was ALL to push his head out. Once his head was out, the rest of his body squirted out too and they plopped my beautiful gooey baby boy on my belly. I cried. I was too dilirious to see if Jason cried. (I need to ask him!) Then they carried him away to do whatever it is they do over there to check him, wipe him off, stamp his feet, measure him, etc. He was 9lbs, 1 oz, 20.5 inches long. Born at 12:49 pm, Tuesday, January 25th - his due date :)
I couldn't focus on his for too long cause they were still working on me, a little frantically. All I could really see was that there's 100 people in there and the doctor was sewing, sewing, sewing....and sewing some more. And there was lots of blood. They were having trouble getting my bleeding to stop and it seemed like it took forever. I stopped watching her sew and just stared at my baby.
He latched on and breastfed right away, he didn't pass his gluecose test a couple times and had to have a couple of bottles of formula in the hospital but I'm very proud to say he hasn't had another one since we left the hospital (and they gave me the ok to stop supplementing of course).
My mom, step-dad, and dad were all there at the hospital patiently waiting when he was born. My friend Lindsey was there up until about an hour before he was born but had to go to work. Dustin and Amelia came up to see him that afternoon. Danny, Christina, Lauren and Cody came that night. And Lindsey returned to see him that night even though she had been up all night with us and was exhausted - she was just too excited to meet him. Leah and Drake came to visit us the next day. Tom and Pam arrived Thursday night to meet him (my mom came back up that day to help get me home from the hospital since Jason had to pick his parents up from the airport and she stayed with us the first night to help me out). Jason's parents stayed for four days and it was so great to have them here. Pam was too awesome having around - she did laundry, dishes, cooked, grocery shopped, etc. Wish I could have had her here for a couple more weeks!! But she was exhausted after a couple days (she was trying to help me at night as well as do all that stuff during the day) so I was glad she got home to get some rest.
We are all doing great now. I couldn't be more in love with my little man and I'm already dreading the day when I have to leave him to go back to work. He's such a snuggle bug and is such a sweet baby. I'll update more details in another post. I hear my baby waking up from his nap. :o)
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