Grayson's Birth Story

Yes, it's a little late. I have been working on it for a while but kept getting sidetracked...story of my life right now. 

When 37 weeks past I knew baby M could arrive any day, however I didn't really seem to have anymore signs of labor so I was starting to think baby was going to take its sweet time. We had a busy labor day weekend and on that Sunday we headed to the Zoo (which I already posted about here). When we got home Ryan and I took a nap and I remember getting a text from my mom asking if I had any signs of labor. I texted back - no. I had no idea that in a few short hours that would all change.

It was about 5pm when I noticed the first contraction. I didn't say anything for a little bit because I wanted to make sure. I have no idea why I always start second guessing myself...clearly they were contractions.  Anyhow, when I told Kevin that I was having contractions we decided that we would get all our stuff ready but still go to the party - I mean we already had a sitter on the way and we didn't want to just sit at home and count contractions. We figured it would help pass time - and it did!

On the way out I had Kevin take one last picture....

So we headed over to the Sun's house and hung out with friends and ate some yummy hamburgers from the Hamburger Man - delicious! I even had myself a glass of wine but then started to get worried that they wouldn't give me an epidural if I had been drinking (even though I am pretty sure one glass probably wouldn't have hurt anyways). My sister-in-law bought up a good point when she said...Well they usually don't ask you if you have been drinking...ha! So true. Anyhow, I sat there on a comfy chair and timed my contractions.  Then about 10pm we decided we should probably head back home and make sure we had everything ready.

My sister-in-law took this picture as we were heading out...

As soon as we got to our car the pain increased 10-fold. Wowzers. I remember this...

So now I am having excruciating contractions and mad at myself for waiting this long to get to the hospital. It just happened so fast...they were manageable for so long then BOOM all of the sudden they were crazy!

We made it to the hospital around 10:35ish and it was EMPTY....just like last time. Checking in is such a pain when you are in SO MUCH PAIN!  They brought me right to the delivery room. I quickly stripped off my clothes and hoped in bed so we could get the show on the road.  I just wanted the epidural. I kept asking over and over. I was being really dramatic...I kinda felt like I was in a movie and I was surely playing it up but it was so painful I felt like I could act however I wanted. The nurse was trying to get my IV in but they couldn't find any veins. They couldn't order the epidural until the IV was in so I was getting so angry. FINALLY after three different pokes they got a vein in my hand and called for the epidural. When the anesthesiologist rolled in he was all calm and I feel like he was moving in slow motion. Goodness! Speed it up man. The nurses kept telling him that he needed to hurry...so he finally did.

Once that was in things were good. The nurse told me that I was actually 9cm when I checked in and if we hadn't gotten that epidural in I probably would be giving birth right then....and it would have been naturally. Oh dear! That's scary!  After a little chatting all I wanted to do was rest. All of those contractions had left me so exhausted and I wasn't ready to start pushing. Luckily since my water hadn't broken we were able to get some rest in.

Around 2:20ish the nurse came back in and I was worried that my epidural was starting to wear off so I wanted to go ahead and get baby out. So we did. I pushed four times and we had ourselves a little baby.

The doctor said and "It's a ...." and no one said anything....hello daddy! Finally Kevin realized they were waiting for him to make the announcement and he double-checked before saying BOY!!!

Kevin was able to cut the cord (for some reason they didn't let him with Ryan). Once the cord was cut they let me hold him right away. 

After some snuggling they took him away to get all his measurements and clean him up a tad. Once they were done they gave him back to me and we did some skin to skin.

Picture of the clock at time of birth - 2:51am

So much love for this little guy already!

Getting poked

I held the little man for a long time and even was able to nurse him. It's amazing how your heart grows for each child - love this little boy so much. 

I think we finally got moved to a room around 4:30am. On the way we had to stop at the nursery to drop   the little guy off so that he could get nice and cleaned up. They brought him back to us in the room about 30 minutes later.  So it was basically morning and with all the nurses coming in for different reasons we clearly didn't get any sleep. Luckily since he wasn't born until early in the morning we go a full extra day at the hospital which was amazing!

We spent the day loving our new little man!

 I was so excited for Big Brother Ryan to come and meet him!

First picture as a family of four!