A Birth Story

I'm just going to warn you now - there are a LOT of pictures.  I was lucky enough to have my sister take pictures for us.  The pictures are just spread throughout the post and don't really go along with what's being said by them.....so just fyi.

This pregnancy was not an easy or fun one for me.  I basically hated it.  I was almost always uncomfortable or didn't feel good in some way from start to finish.  So when I reached 37 weeks I just wanted this baby OUT of me (I wanted him out long before - but obviously not really because I wanted a healthy baby more.)  I hit 37 weeks on the 30th of May - which happened to be the last day of preschool.  I had preschool graduation the night before and I had joked that maybe it would be stressful enough that it would put me into labor.  It didn't.

Really I actually picked June 5th for the day I wanted to have him.  After preschool ended I wanted a few days to relax from all of the end of year stress.  I wanted a few days to just play with Jackson.  I also wanted to be able to go to my baby shower my mom and sister threw for me on the 4th.  I kept saying I was good to go into labor that night because there wasn't anything else I was looking forward to so it would be perfect.

Well, somehow my wish came true.  

I woke up at about 5:30 am having contractions.  At that point they weren't really anything to jump out of bed and go to the hospital for.  But, I felt like these were different.  They were more than Braxton Hicks.  After a little while I decided to start timing them.  They were about 5 minutes apart - but not super regular.  They were never more than 5 min apart (except 2) but were sometimes closer.

I decided it would probably be a good idea to text my mom, sister, and Karen to give them a heads up we might be going to the hospital that day.  I still wasn't sure but thought it might happen.  My mom of course was really excited and my sister told me to wait because she had a busy day ahead of her. Ha.  (Karen was watching Jackson and my mom and sisters were coming to the hospital with me)

At 6:30 when Juston's alarm went off I told him what was happening and that he couldn't go to work yet.  I STILL wasn't sure if these were real contractions or not so I told him to get ready but also let his coworkers know he wasn't coming on time.  As he got ready the contractions got more irregular with their intensity.  Sometimes they would be super intense and sometimes I could barely feel them.  Finally at about 7:30 I decided we should probably go to the hospital.

Juston called his mom and she got there about 8:00.  As soon as she got there it was like my body knew we were good to go.  My contractions suddenly went to 3 minutes apart and got really intense.  It was hard to walk, stand, or talk.  But, I made it to the car and yelled at Juston to drive more carefully the whole way to the hospital. Ha.

Funny sidenote - this pregnancy I had no insurance coverage (not the funny part).  If I paid for the hospital stay and epidural ahead of time we got a major discount.  I had Juston pay the hospital bill the day before and we called from the hospital parking lot to pay for the epidural.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

When we got into the hospital Juston asked if I wanted a wheelchair.  For some reason I still wanted to be tough and said no.  I still don't know why I said no.  That walk was so hard.  We made it up to the third floor and as we were walking to the check in desk we saw my doctor.  I was SO glad he was there.  I didn't want to be sent home unless he had been the one to check and decide I wasn't in labor.  He joked with Juston as we walked past about us just being there for fun.  Thankfully when we got to the desk the nurse took one look at me and knew I was having bad contractions and got me into a bed right away.

We went into the room I was in the first time I went in with Jackson.  I got all changed and checked pretty quickly.  To our huge surprise - I was already at a 6! We called my mom and sister and told them they needed to get to the hospital asap.  Darci was afraid she wouldn't make it because she had to wait for Devin to get home to watch the kids.  My mom also had to wait for her because Darci only has one working car so she would need a ride to the hospital.

I feel like I made Juston call them 50 times to find out when they would be there.  At one point the nurse wanted me to push a little.  I think I panicked a bit because they weren't there.  Juston called to tell them to hurry and luckily they were in the parking lot.  At that point they literally ran the whole to my room.  I was so happy they were there.  When they got there they told me Dakota was also on her way.  They had called the school and gotten her out of one of her finals (student council) to be able to come.  The nurse wasn't very happy about it because it was one extra person than was supposed to be in there.  Thankfully she let everyone stay.

At that point they weren't really having me push.  They just wanted to see if they could change his position a little bit - but it didn't work.  That was partly because my epidural wasn't really working that well and I was having a hard time actually pushing.  They brought the anesthesiologist back in to up my epidural.  It helped but still wasn't that amazing.  I could feel more on the right side of my body and definitely wasn't all the way numb.  During the contractions I hated that - but later was actually glad about it.

Grayson was in a weird position and the nurses were afraid if they broke my water or had him come down too fast the cord would get wrapped around his neck.  They did a few things to help move him.  One thing was to turn me over and have me on my hands and knees.  Because I had the epidural I couldn't do that on my own and had to have at least 4 people moving and holding me.  That was such a weird experience.

Unfortunately it didn't work.  At one point one of the nurses checked me and accidentally broke my water.  Thankfully everything with Grayson was fine and the cord didn't go around his neck.  At this point they called my doctor (he had gone to his office which was just in the next building over) and had me start pushing.

I honestly don't know how long I was pushing.  It definitely seemed a lot shorter than with Jackson.  Because my epidural only kind of worked I could feel a lot - which was actually really cool.  It was awesome to just feel my body do its thing.  When the doctor got there and was getting ready they told me not to push.  HA.  That was really impossible.  My body just knew it needed to and I really couldn't do anything to stop it.

Finally, at 11:30 am Grayson Shaun Pace was here!!!  He came out and didn't scream or breathe at first but was really gurgly.  I could feel everyone around me basically holding their breath waiting for him to breathe.  I know it was a normal amount of time but it felt like forever.

As soon as Juston cut the cord they put him right onto my chest and let me hold him.  I could never describe the feelings I felt at that moment.  But it is one of the best feelings in the whole world to have your brand new baby on you for the very first time.  It's amazing the amount of love you can feel in that moment.

But he is here!!! Grayson Shaun Pace entered the world at 11:30 am weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces and 20.5 inches long.

I'm so glad he is here and healthy!  At the hospital he slept, and slept, and slept.  He was so hard to wake up to eat.  I wasn't that concerned about it at first.  But he didn't pee for almost 24 hours so that raised concerns.  Then, what we thought was him being cold from us trying to wake him was actually him having low blood sugar.  He had to have a bottle to help bring it back up.

Other than that it was an easy hospital stay.  I got REALLY itchy from the epidural for a few hours after delivery.  Other than that I felt great - just tired.

While we were at the hospital we had Karen, Greg, Jackson, my mom, Tevin, and my dad come to visit.

We are so happy to have him here and with our family.  It has only been 2 weeks and I just can't seem to picture life without him.  He is such an easy going baby.  He eats, poops, and sleeps.  He only cries if he is hungry.  Thankfully we have started to get his days and nights figured out.

Jackson LOVES having a little brother - maybe a little too much.  He is always wanting to hold him and throws big giant fits if we don't let him or take him away.  He is always making sure we have his binkie or bottle or blanket.  It is the cutest thing to see him love Grayson so much.  I was really nervous about bringing him home.  I thought with Jackson's lack of ability to communicate and his clinginess to me it would be a disaster.  It has been quite the opposite.  Sure, he sometimes wants more attention than normal.  But overall it has been one of the most amazing experiences to be part of.  I 100% feel that they already knew each other.

Adjusting to two kids has gone pretty well.  I am a walking zombie and am afraid to leave the house.  Other than that everything is going well.