Party of Five: It's A Boy!!!

On Thursday night, April 4th, I was bound and determined to get the baby to "drop" so that when I went to my 39 week appointment on Friday my midwife would tell me I'd progressed. I got online and researched all sorts of exercises, stretches, etc. that I could do and I worked hard. For probably 2-3 hours straight I bounced on my birthing ball, sat in different positions, stretched, side-stepped my stairs, etc. I actually went to bed more sore in my hips than before...if that's even possible.

All night long I was feeling kind of crappy...I felt like the baby was hitting my pelvic bone all night, my stomach wasn't feeling right, and I was having a hard time sleeping. I had a dream that my water broke as well. I may have been having contractions all night and didn't realize it, but at almost exactly 5am I was woken up by a contraction. I laid in bed for about 30-40 minutes timing contractions and had them about every 10 minutes. I decided to get up and get in the shower just to see if anything changed. They kept coming so I grabbed my birthing ball and sat on it in the bathroom and continued to get ready.

Around 6:30am Tony realized I was up so he came in to see what was going on. I told him I thought I was in labor, so he made some phone calls for work. I texted my mom to see if my dad had left for work since he was my on-call person to watch the kids. He had left but thankfully she was able to get a hold of him so he turned around and went back home.

The kids got up around 7:30am so Tony got them ready and helped finish packing my hospital bag and got things ready to go. Contractions were about 8 minutes apart at that point.

I decided to head to my parents' house since they are closer to the hospital and wait it out there. We left our house at about 8:00am and in the less than 10 minute drive to my parents' house I had 3 contractions so when we pulled up I decided we should just go to the hospital. Tony took the kids in and I stayed in the car with my hypnobirthing affirmations playing in my headphones. I had prepared Macie to be in the room when the baby was born but I left the decision to her. She decided to stay with my dad at that point but we told her if she changed her mind she could come later with someone else.

We got to the hospital around 8:20am and had to do all of the check-in crap...I don't think they realize how ridiculous it is for me to be sitting there in full labor and have to be signing documents. That's why I pre-registered!!!

Anyway, they finally got me to a room (I requested a room with a tub) and I changed into a gown and we waited about 20 minutes for a nurse. Finally our nurse Paige arrived...she was darling...I feel very blessed that we got her because she was awesome! She checked me and I was 5.5cm dilated and almost 100% effaced. That made me happy because I was scared she was going to tell me that I wasn't very far. She put me on the monitors for a few minutes and gave me a heplock IV (it's a start to an IV that isn't attached to anything but can be attached at any time...my midwife was concerned about my post-partum bleeding/fluids so she had requested I get one.) In the meantime, I was texting/facebooking/talking between contractions...things weren't too intense so I didn't feel like I needed to get too relaxed at that point. I sat on the birthing ball while she finished the monitoring then once it was done I got in the jacuzzi tub. It felt really nice so I just sat in there for awhile. By then my mom had come and soon after that Tony's mom arrived.

Around 10:30am I started feeling like things were progressing but I wasn't sure. I was feeling a lot of back labor so I was worried the baby was posterior (Pax was posterior and the contractions were similar.) I asked Tony to have the nurse check me so she came in and checked me while I stayed in the tub. At that point I was dilated 7cm and she said my bag of water was "bulging" and would break anytime. I decided to have everyone who was planning on being at the birth come at that point.

I got out of the tub and got back in my gown then got back on the birthing ball to finish out labor.

At that point my contractions started getting more intense and closer so I put in my headphones and tuned everyone out so I could get into a deeper relaxation zone. My friend Holly came to take pictures. My grandma came at the same time my sister-in-law Mackensie came with Macie who had decided she wanted to be there. I got a little emotional when Macie came in and I hugged her...I had really wanted her to be there to experience the whole thing and I was really glad she came. I really wanted her to witness a real birth so she could see that it's not like TV or the movies that make it look like some sort of terrible, horrific thing.

I continued to labor on the birthing ball and everyone just kind of sat around waiting for me. I decided to have my midwife Lindsay come. I just felt like I needed her to help me through the rest and she had told the nurse to let her know when I wanted her to come.

She got there around 11:30ish and was able to help massage my lower back during contractions and help me relax. She offered to break my water which would defintely get things moving faster. At first I declined and wanted to wait, but I got to a point where I was just exhausted and decided to just go for it.

I got onto the hospital bed and she broke my water which was painless. My contractions got stronger and faster after that, though, and I could feel the "transition" period where things get a lot more intense. I felt very much in control, though. Lindsay really helped to keep me relaxed with each contraction...she knew just what to do. Within about 1/2 hour of breaking my water I started feeling the urge to push. I had really wanted to focus on "breathing the baby down" this time and not so much "pushing/bearing down" and Lindsay helped with that. She laid me back into a different position, propped my left side up slightly, and gave me the best position to deliver. I felt like I did really well staying in control during the "pushing" process and she helped by guiding me and telling me what to do. I could feel tons of pressure and the urge to just push it out as fast as I could but she would just tell me to give a gentle push and just how much or how little.

I had been so afraid of tearing "down there" but I didn't end up tearing! Lindsay said I had a slight tear but that stitching it was optional since it was so small...I ended up getting one stitch. I had a class II episiotomy with Macie, a class II tear with Paxton and on my biggest baby of them all I didn't tear, despite scar tissue and all...there's something to be said about that. Calmness, control and someone who knows how to deliver a baby gently!

Anyway, Tony helped Lindsay bring the baby up between my legs and the umbilical cord was right between the legs so we couldn't see what it was. I said "What is it?!!!" and finally Tony said "It's a BOY!!!" (He was born at 12:28pm.)

I think I would have been surprised either way since we had no idea. I had thought it was a girl all along up until the last few weeks then I had started thinking boy. But I really didn't know. As soon as they put him on my chest and I held him I thought "Of course he's a boy!" I couldn't imagine him being anything else! It was love at first sight and I bonded with him immediately. I held him skin-to-skin and everyone gathered around to meet him. Macie loved him immediately and she did so great throughout the entire birth...she wanted to see EVERYTHING, and she did. She thought it was the greatest thing. I think having her there kept me calm and quiet as well.

They let the cord pulsate until it stopped on its own before Tony cut it which was cool...I've read that it's really healthy to do that. I finished the delivery process while holding my sweet boy...we named him

Brady Garrison Davies.

(Garrison is combination of my dad Gary and Tony's dad Dennis)

After awhile they took him and weighed him and he weighed 9lbs 12oz!!! I knew he'd be a big baby but when I went into labor 1 week early (my due date was April 12th) I thought he'd be in the upper 8lb to lower 9lb range. Nope, he was still huge! Thank goodness I didn't go another week or he would have easily been over 10lbs!

Brady latched on and started nursing right away which made me happy. My dad came soon after with Paxton. Pax didn't really want to have anything to do with me or the baby which made me really sad, but he eventually came around. Tony and our moms and my dad held Brady, then Macie and Pax held him, then Tony's brother Kip who had come soon after held him. Mackensie and my grandma had left by then.

I had a lot of post-partum bleeding like Lindsay had thought, so I had to have the IV started with pitocin and some other meds to help everything. I also ended up getting a fever so I had the dumb IV until about 1am the next morning. Brady had low blood sugar as well but he had 3 normal readings by the next morning so they weren't concerned.

Anyway, we are completely in love with this little boy. I was kind of concerned that because we didn't know the sex it might take longer to bond but it didn't at all. It was so fun to be surprised...if I was going to have a 4th baby I think I'd do it that way again!

Tony and I took Brady down to the nursery later on that night and gave him his first bath...I let Tony do it but it was fun to watch and take pictures.

After his bath Brady's body temp was a little low so he laid under the heat lamp for a little bit then we went back to our room and I put him skin-to-skin on my chest for awhile to get his temp back up.