Brady's Birth Story

Ok, this is LONG. There is no short way to accurately describe it or remember the experience. If you want to read it, go ahead. If not, or if you get bored, that's cool too. I just had to put every detail in so that I don't ever forget, and I know some people really like birth stories (myself included). So take it or leave it.

Brady’s Birth Story

It all started one cold and rainy morning in February (the 26^th to be exact). But let’s actually back track to Thursday, the 24^th of February.

Before Birth Day

I was 38.5 weeks pregnant and had just left a doctor’s appointment feeling VERY defeated. You see, I had been 1cm dilated for 3 weeks and at each weekly appointment I hoped for progress and got NOTHING. I had really been hoping to have the baby a few weeks early and was now thinking he’d probably be late. I’m a little dramatic and somehow assumed that if I hadn’t progressed to more than 1cm by now, he would SURELY be late.

On Friday, the 25^th, I woke up early and drove to Orange County to watch John and Tylyn’s 2 year old twins, 4 year old, and 6 year old. I typically would not have taken on such a task at nearly full term, but I was still feeling pretty good and knew that at 1cm, I wasn’t going anywhere, so I might as well. The two older kids had school and the babies take a long nap, so I only had all 4 at once for a few hours. It was hard though and the babies kept wanting to be held. I knew I shouldn’t be lifting them, but how can you say no to a crying baby?!? HOW I ask?!? Anyway, I left at 4pm and was EXHAUSTED.

I met up with Ryan to waste a few hours before a double date we had planned with Andrew and Kristin. We went to The Block @ Orange to walk/shop around. I was feeling pretty good and enjoyed wandering through the shops. At 7:00 we met up with our friends at Shiki, a teppanyaki grill in Orange. It’s one of my FAVORITE places. We had our regular waiter and thoroughly enjoyed our meals. I had steak and chickenJ. After dinner as we said goodbye to our friends, we mentioned: “we’ll probably see you in a few weeks when we have the baby”, and we were off and driving back to LA.

We got home and sat to chat with Ryan’s mom, aunt Janice, and Grandma (who were down visiting from Canada) for a bit before heading up to bed. On our way up, Janice said: “Missy, you have 12 hours to have that baby before I go back home”. I laughed. I also mentioned to Ryan as we headed up that I was so tired from the day’s events that I just KNEW I’d sleep well that night. I hadn’t been sleeping well for over a month because of the discomfort of pregnancy and all, but I knew that my exhaustion would let me get a good solid night’s sleep that night.

Birth Day

I had been sleeping really well until about 2:45am when I realized my back hurt and I needed to roll over. As I did, I felt a small gush and thought, “Oh crap, did I just pee my pants?” I’ve never done that before but I hear it’s common in late pregnancy. I was sad because I’ve managed to avoid MOST of the more obnoxious pregnancy side effects (nausea, stretch marks, etc.) and here I was, wetting myself. I thought it COULD be my water breaking but I didn’t want to get excited. I went to the bathroom and all seemed pretty normal until I stood up and kept dripping. I sat back down thinking I still needed to go and when I was done, I got back up and dripped more. I did this several times before finally realizing that it MUST be my water and I went to alert Ryan. I WANTED to say “Ryan, I think my water just broke”, but what really came out was “Ryan, hahahathink hahahahahahwater hahabroke”…or something to that effect. I could NOT get the words out without laughing hysterically. Once he finally pieced together what I was trying to say, he had me call the doctor.

I had not started having contractions so the doctor told me to go back to sleep for a few hours and then head over to the hospital. I told him that we would be driving from LA and asked if I should still wait that long. He said “well that’s a whole different ball game. Take a shower, get your stuff together and come to the hospital”. As I stood there telling Ryan what the doctor had just said, my legs were quivering. I said “I must be really cold”, but Ryan thinks that between the laughing and shaking, I was just in shock.

I showered, put some make-up on, did my hair, (HEY, there were bound to be pictures!!) gathered some last minute comfort items (laptop, ipod dock, pillow, etc.) and we were on our way by 4:45. ACTUALLY, when we got in the car, it was 4:44 and 44 degrees outside. I decided Brady’s lucky number must have a 4 in it. It was raining pretty steadily, but there was no traffic, so we made it to the hospital in about 45 minutes. They wheeled me up to Labor and Delivery and checked me into my room at around 6:00am. By now I was noticing some uncomfortable contractions, but it wasn’t too bad. They hooked me up to a monitor and could see that I was having regular contractions every few minutes, but I still couldn’t feel them very strongly.

At about 9:00am I was starting to feel pretty uncomfortable and had to close my eyes and focus through contractions. The nurses were surprised at how regular my contractions were since I wasn’t on Pitocin or anything, but they wouldn’t check my cervix because they were sure I wasn’t dilating yet…something about how there was no point in checking until I wasn’t smiling through contractions anymore because if I could talk or smile through them, then surely I wasn’t progressing much. A little after 9:00 Ryan ran across the street to Ruby’s to grab some breakfast and finally the nurse checked me after I mentioned that I was feeling some pressure in my bottom. She was shocked to discover that I was dilated to 3cm, but I was disappointed, I hoped to be at 7. This was REALLY starting to get uncomfortable.

By the time Ryan got back I wasn’t smiling or talking through my contractions. I was starting to have to breathe through them and it got to the point that I was moaning through some of them as well. I think Ryan was shocked to see me get so uncomfortable so fast. Eventually they checked me again and I was about 6cm. Within a half hour of that, the contractions were so bad that I wasn’t interested in getting out of the bed to walk, rock, shower or use the birth ball. I just laid there gripping Ryan’s hands and breathing. I guess I was breathing a little too deeply though because I was starting to hyperventilate. My face and hands were all tingly and they had to give me some oxygen.

Ryan was doing a great job at comforting me. He held my hands, was very encouraging, reminded me to breathe, and even put chap stick on me (I sure do love him). At one point though, I got a little frustrated with him. He reminded me about my birthing class when they told us not to hold tension anywhere in our body. We were supposed to relax every muscle. Ryan brought this up as I squeezed his hands and I snapped back about how I didn’t care, I needed to squeeze. Other than that, I think I was pretty nice to himJ.

At this point I decided I wanted the epidural. I was undecided up until now, as you may have read in a previous post. My main reason for not wanting it was because I didn’t want it to slow things down and then require me to get Pitocin. I figured I’d SURELY end up with a C-Section if I had the epidural and Pitocin battling each other in my body. BUT, because I was moving along so quickly, slowing my labor wasn’t much of a concern, so I requested a visit from the anesthesiologist. I cried when I asked for it because (even though I promised I wouldn’t), I felt like I failed a little bit by giving up on the natural birth experience. A few minutes later my nurse returned and told me that there were 2 women in line before me and it might take 45 minutes for the anesthesiologist to get to me. Now I cried because I might not get it in time!! Things were getting really intense and I had less than 1 minute of relief in between contractions. I COULD do this without drugs, but I sure as heck didn’t want to anymore.

My nurse checked my progress again and I had jumped from a 6 to a 9.5 in about an hour. I remember hearing them call for the doctor because I was almost ready to push and someone mentioned that they hoped he could get to me on time, as I was moving SUPER fast. Just then, the anesthesiologist walked in and asked if I still wanted it. I asked if there was any point…like would I get relief before the baby was actually born? He explained that since it was my first baby I’d most likely be pushing for over an hour so I would definitely get relief in time. I decided to go ahead and get it then because I had already experienced SO much pain, if I could avoid the rumored “ring of fire”, I was all for it.

The next 10 minutes were probably the worst and the LONGEST of the whole labor process. As I signed for the epidural, my first name is all neat, but I started to get a contraction as I signed my last name, so it was just a scribble. Now it seemed like there was NO break in between contractions and the anesthesiologist was taking FOREVER. Finally he was ready and had me get in the fetal position and expressed how important it was for me not to move. That’s about when I felt pressure to PUSH and I was having to fight SO hard not to. I kept saying “I HAVE to push” and Ryan, my nurse, and the anesthesiologist all kept “yelling at me” (Ryan says they weren’t yelling at all, but that’s how I remember it) not to push. The doctor did a spinal on me before the epidural because it’s more direct and more instant. The epidural can take up to 30 minutes to work sometimes and he could tell I needed relief faster. It didn’t hurt going in AT ALL (I had always feared it would) and in a matter of 2 minutes I could feel a difference. Soon I was just breathing deeply through my contractions and a few minutes later I felt complete relief. I was smiling and joking around and was able to rest for a few minutes before it was time to push. Once comfortable, I told Ryan and my nurse that natural childbirth is OVERRATED. I get it that some people are into it and all, but I decided then and there that it is not for me.  

I was fully dilated, but we waited about 10 more minutes for the baby to drop in station a bit more. It’s not necessary to do, but my nurse said it would save me a few extra pushes so she recommended it. I was relaxed and comfortable, so I was happy to wait a little longer.

I started pushing at about noon and much to my surprise, it was EASY. Having a fresh epidural helped me to not feel A THING. I wasn’t screaming or yelling through them, I would just quietly bear down and do my job. Ryan held my leg up the entire time and kept telling me how great I was doing. He would look up at me after each contraction with teary eyes and tell me how much of the head he could see or how much hair the baby had. Eventually I let them put the mirror up so I could see what was happening down there. They tell me that as soon as the mirror went up, my pushes got MUCH stronger, so I guess seeing it really makes you work harder. I remember looking in the mirror at one point and it hit me “He’s NOT GOING TO FIT”…but, the doctor assured me that he would. A few times the doctor said, “ok this is the last one, we’re going to get the baby out on this contraction”. I teased him that he was just leading me on, but eventually I took it as a challenge and pushed longer than the 10 seconds they were counting and more than the 3 pushes that they were telling me to do. I just wanted to meet this kiddo! After just 1 hour of pushing, at 1:04pm, Brady was born. Ryan cried, I sobbed, Brady screamed. All was right in the world.

(Afterthoughts coming in a separate post…this one is LONG enough)