He's finally here!!

Tuesday October 2^nd I was 41 weeks pregnant and woke up to contractions that were about ten minutes apart. They started around 6:50. I didn’t think anything of it until my water broke at 9:30. At first I didn’t know what happened, I coughed and then it felt like I peed my pants! Luckily I didn’t pee my pants and it kept coming out, not the most comfortable feeling in the world haha. Blake and I were jumping for joy that something was FINALLY happening and we were going to meet our son soon… well, kinda soon.

We got all checked in and they put in my IV to start me on Pitocin. They checked me and I was only a fingertip dilated and a little effaced, so it wasn’t looking like I would be having him anytime soon. The contractions started getting pretty painful pretty fast and I was huffing and puffing through them. I got in the Jacuzzi which felt AMAZING and was able to hold off on the epidural for another couple hours. Then the contractions started getting way too painful that I couldn’t take the pain anymore and asked for some pain meds. The nurse put me on some narcotic that lasted an hour and I could take 3 doses of. It really only helped with the pain for the first 30 minutes and then the next 30 minutes was spent in pain waiting on the next dose. After the narcotics I was ready for the epidural. The anesthesiologist came in and quickly became my best friend haha. They checked me after being in labor for 24 hours and I was a 3. I stayed that way for awhile and it was looking like a c-section might be in my future. Brayden’s heartrate was slowing down and the nurses were pretty concerned so they stopped the Pitocin and gave me a thing that filled me back up with water so that Brayden was able to move if he needed. After a couple of hours they started me back on the Pitocin and things weren’t progressing for a long time. A doctor came in to talk to me about how much longer I wanted to wait before I gave in to a C-section. I told them I really didn’t want a c-section and I have made progress since getting there so I would wait as long as it took for a normal delivery unless it takes too long and becomes dangerous for Brayden. An hour after they came in the nurse checked me and I had dilated to a 5! This was such exciting news after being told I probably wouldn’t be able to delivery vaginally. Then my epideral started not working in one spot that was VERY uncomfortable and so I had to get a second epidural. They checked me again about 50 minutes after and I was an 8! Shortly after I told them it felt like I needed to push and was in a lot of pain. The epidural still wasn’t getting everything numb, but it was too late now. Around 11 pm on October 3^rd I started pushing. Not to toot my own horn, but the nurses and doctor said they haven’t seen such a good pusher in a long time J After being in labor so long, people telling me that made me feel a lot better. The contractions had actually slowed down from being every 2 minutes to every 4 minutes during the delivery, and waiting was not easy because I was so ready to meet my baby! An hour and 22 minutes later, at 12:22 am on October 4^th Brayden was born! 7 pounds 12 ounces and 21.5 inches long. The umbilical cord had been wrapped around his neck twice so he was pretty purple and had a definite conehead! Words cannot describe the happiness that overcame me when I got to hold my precious little angel for the first time. He was absolutely perfect in every way. He was wide awake and we just looked into each others eyes for a few minutes. It was such a long wait, but SO worth the wait. I’ve already forgotten about how hard it was to be in labor for 30 hours because I got a beautiful baby boy in the end, the rest doesn’t matter.  He hardly cried at all and was more interested in looking around. The nurses kept saying how funny it was that he was already so awake, he stayed awake for a few hours after being born and loved looking at mommy and daddy.

Since I was in labor over 24 hours after my water had broken, they had to run more tests on Brayden and I. Poor Brayden had a low blood sugar test result for one of the pricks so he had to be pricked 5 more times L So hard to watch! That’s not including the other 4 or 5 pricks he had to get anyways. He only cried during 2 of the pricks! Mommy’s little tough guy. He started out nursing like a champ and still is! Such a blessing for me, so much stress is taken off of me because he’s such a good eater. The next day he got circumsized and didn’t even cry! The doctor said that he was one of the best babies they had ever seen during that procedure, Blake and I were so proud! He is such a good baby and we are so blessed to have him!