Brayden Tyler has arrived (pip and birth story)

ShariJenn · August 2012

What a crazy week!

Early labor actually started 2 Saturday's ago. I had contractions daily until last Saturday when they became steadily (but irregular) painful throughout the day. The stopped around dinner time, and picked up a little around 10:00PM. I was able to get to sleep for a bit.

At 1:00AM I woke up in the worst pain i've ever felt, and it was immediate, no gradual build up. I woke DH up and said we need to go to the hospital. He wanted to wait and time them, so we waited a bit and saw they were 6 minutes apart. He suggested we wait until they were 5 minutes apart. The pain got worse and worse, very quickly. I looked at him and said we are going now...and he didn't argue with me that time.

It took us 5 minutes to get out of the house, thankfully DS1 slept over my moms that night since I had such a rough day. By time we got to the car, my contractions were 2 minutes apart. I started to fear that we might not make it to the hospital.

I was barely able to walk into the hospital, so DH ran and grabbed a wheel chair and got me upstairs quick. I got upstairs and was just about 4cm. They admitted me and got me to a room quickly due to the pain level I was in.

They gave me the epidural (3 freaking times) at about 2:30AM. I had the worst anesthesiologist in the world. The epi didn't hurt at all with DS1..but this guy didn't know what he was doing. He had to ask the nurse for help and then asked DH to come hold me up...while he looked like he was about to pass out himself.

After the epi, I felt like a million bucks. Labored nicely for the next few hours. About an hour later, I was 5cm and my water broke on its own. By 10:30AM, I was 8cm and just patiently waiting to make it the next 2cm to start pushing.

At that point, my little guy's heart rate dropped and they had to start flipping me. They were able to get me into positions that were keeping his heart rate up, but then they ended up trying to fill me back up with fluid and putting a monitor on his head (no fun).

At 11:30AM, the head doc came in and said that just in case it was necessary, they needed me to sign off on the c-section papers. I started crying hysterically and freaking out. That was not part of my plan, especially after having a successful version at 37 weeks.

They were able to keep his heart rate a good rate again,and then at 11:45 it dropped again and all the monitors started going off. The head doctor came in again and said, that's it we're going to go give you a c-section. I started crying and the rest of everything happened so fast.

At first DH was holding my hand and walking with us and then he was pulled away to get scrubbed in. My mom was just coming back from talking to my dad and found out pretty quick what was going out. Looking at her face while they were wheeling me down the hall killed me. After all, i'm her daughter...and watching your kid go through anything like how I was thinking about my LO is the worst feeling in the world.

Even though it seemed like a year before I saw DH again, he was there in 5 minutes, and 5 minutes after that he said "do you hear him crying??" I couldn't focus on anything because of how out of it I was. DH got up for a minute and came back with our perfect little boy.

Brayden Tyler entered the world at 12:01PM, August 19th weighing 7.9lbs and 20.5 inches tall. Almost a full head of black hair and striking blue eyes .

After falling in love quickly, they said DH and Brayden had to leave to go to the nursery. Evidentially my heart rate picked up pretty quick and they were forced to knock me out so they could finish putting me back together. My vitals dipped a little so that was their solution. I woke up in the Post Partum ICU room an hour later begging to see DH. They made me wait an hour before my vitals were at a good level. I was forgetting to breathe somehow and my blood pressure was very very low.

After everything leveled off, DH got to come back and he was able to bring Brayden with him. I wasn't feeling much pain yet and it was just a really nice few minutes of appreciating life and our amazing little man.

Finally at around 4:30PM I was brought to a normal L&D recovery room and my mom dad and sister came in. It was such a long day, but so worth it..

Recovery has been a little rough on me, but we were able to come home today and I'm feeling a little better now. I'm sure every day will get easier from here on out.

I did spend my 30th birthday in the hospital yesterday, but jeez I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present .

Brayden is eating almost every 2 hours and 2oz each feeding. He's a hungry little guy but, he's so perfect and i'm so in love and I cannot stop starring at him.

Hopefully when his big brother Bryce comes home tomorrow, he'll be excited and the jealousy will be minimal so we can get some normalcy going on in our lives.

Here's a picture!

Congrats to all of the other August mommies who had their little ones in the past week .