Brady's birth 9-22-13

Brady was born on Sunday, September 22, 2013, at 12:03pm. He weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces and was 20 3/4 inches long. The day he was born was far and away the most emotional and fulfilling day of my life so far, and I want to make sure I remember it, so I wrote a timeline of that day and the days before a few months ago while it was still somewhat fresh in my memory. I figured what better day to share it than his 1st birthday!

Friday, September 20

I had a doctor appointment that morning and my doctor checked my cervix to see if I was dilating any. I was only dilated 1.5 cm and my cervix had softened a little. She stretched out my cervix (ouch!) and said that would help speed things up if my body was getting ready at all to have the baby. I told her I thought that maybe I was losing my mucus plug the day before, but she said that didn't necessarily mean labor was close. My due date was the following Thursday, September 26, so we thought we'd give the baby a chance to come on his own and scheduled to be induced on October 1 if he didn't come before then. 

After the doctor appointment Blake and I went to eat at Le Peep, which was our little tradition after my Friday doctor appointments. The blueberry pancakes there are to die for and are a perfect pick-me-up for a 9-month-pregnant woman.

Saturday, September 21

Saturday morning, Blake went hunting with one of his friends from work. Willa and I slept in and cuddled in bed before getting up and waiting on Blake to get home.

That afternoon, Blake, Willa and I went on a 2 1/2 mile walk. We saw the hospital while we were walking and talked about how exciting it would be when our baby was born. We thought we were still over a week away. Little did we know!  

Once we got home from walking I took a shower and did some things around the house while Blake went to get hamburgers to cook that night. Courtnie and her mom came over to see the nursery and luckily her mom made us get a pregnant picture together (the only one we took together while we were pregnant! I'm so glad her mom made us do that). After they left Kate and Steven came over for dinner with their daughter, Fiel, and Kate's brother, Paul. We ate hamburgers and hung out and Kate and I talked about the birthing process and what I had to look forward to (she had given birth to Fiel just three months earlier, and had the same doctor as me). 

I had noticed earlier that afternoon that I was leaking fluid, but during the evening it got a little heavier so I texted my mom and she said to call my doctor just to make sure I didn't need to go to the hospital. Luckily my doctor was on call that weekend and she called back and asked me to describe what was going on. She said it sounded like amniotic fluid and told me to go to the hospital to get it tested. I told Blake we needed to head to the hospital and we both got pretty excited.  We hadn't packed our hospital bags yet, so Kate helped me figure out what to take while Steven helped Blake put the car seat in the car. I was so excited/nervous/anxious and felt like I was walking around in a daze. Finally, about 11:00 Saturday night we said bye to our friends and headed to the hospital. When we pulled into the garage Blake pressed the intercom button and said "Um, yes, we're here to birth a baby!!" I couldn't stop laughing. When we got to the lobby he pointed at my belly and told the guy at the desk "We're headed to the third floor." (the labor & delivery floor). As if that wasn't obvious. :) He was so proud and excited.  

Once we got to the third floor, they took us back to a room where a nurse came in and told us what was going to happen: She would test the fluid to see if it was amniotic fluid and if the test was negative we would go home and wait for the baby to come later, but if it was positive we'd be admitted to L&D and wouldn't leave the hospital without a baby!  She took a sample of the fluid and put the testing stick in it then asked a bunch of questions while we waited for the results. 

It took about ten minutes before she told us it was positive and that we would meet our baby some time in the next 24 hours! We texted my parents and they were on the road shortly thereafter. The nurse loaded me onto a bed and rolled me to the L&D room, where we would spend the next 12 hours. Blake and I were both giddy with excitement. 

Sunday, September 22 

Another nurse met us in the L&D room and asked a bunch of other questions, gave me my IV (the most painful part of the whole process), and hooked me up to a machine to monitor my contractions. My doctor could also monitor the contractions from her home so she knew when it was time to come to the hospital for the birth. 

Monitoring contractions.

The nurse gave me a small dose of pitocin and a bit of pain medication to help me sleep through the contractions. The pain meds sent me into a laughing fit which was funny for Blake to see. I couldn't stop laughing. The nurse said she'd never seen anyone react that way. It was pretty funny. Actually, it was hilarious. At some point I stopped laughing and got a little bit of rest.  I could feel the contractions and the nurse offered the epidural but I wanted to feel a few more contractions before I became numb. They checked my dilation a few times throughout the night. I think around 3:30am I was 4 cm dilated and my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart. I had the epidural around 6am when I was about 5 1/2 cm dilated. At 8am they checked again and I was 9cm dilated so we thought it was almost go-time. My sister had left Grapevine at 5 that morning so we thought she was going to miss it! Luckily my dilation stalled and we sat at 9cm for a few hours.

Once everyone got there (Mom, Dad, Kerri, Dex, and Anna) we just kind of hung out in the L&D room and talked and laughed. This time is kind of a blur for me, but I do know that it was such a happy time. I enjoyed having my family there and was looking forward to meeting my boy soon! It was such a special and exciting few hours.

The nurse came in to check me around 11:30am and said it was time to push! She gave me breathing/pushing instructions while everyone left except Blake and Kerri. My doctor got there and we started pushing. 33 minutes later, at 12:03 pm, we saw our son for the first time. It was surreal. I will never forget touching his tiny, slimy body for the first time and looking into his pretty blue eyes. I couldn't believe he was the one in my belly the whole time. There are no words to describe that feeling.

The first picture of our family of three.

I look at this picture and feel like I'm back there. I can remember so vividly all the emotions rushing through me. Relief/love/terror/excitement... the most emotional moment of my life. I still can't believe he's mine.