Brady’s Birth Story

As July 11th was approaching (Brady’s official due date) everyone kept saying they thought he would make his debut early. This was probably due to the fact that I looked 8 months pregnant when I was only 12 weeks along! The week before he was due, we went in for our weekly visit. During that appointment, my Dr. said I wasn’t progressing and we needed to “make a plan”.  Though I didn’t like the thought of being induced, the thought of not being able to strap my sandals myself for another week was daunting. We decided if Brady didn’t come on his own before, we would induce on July 18^th. My parents and mother-in-law arrived in town the weekend before so we were all waiting together, anxiously, secretly hoping he would surprise us and come on his own. I was trying everything in the book to get him to come out, but it turns out he is stubborn like his mom. On Sunday evening, the night of the 17^th, we were scheduled to go into the hospital to start the process. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to eat for the next 16-24 hours was torture so that evening we went to get pizza before leaving for the hospital. We checked into the hospital at 7 pm. That’s when the nerves started setting in and every thought you could have imagined entered my mind. I prayed he would be healthy, I worried something would go wrong during labor and delivery, I thought what if I am a terrible mom, what if I die during labor, what if, what if, what if, the list went on. Then it came time to complete my paperwork and start the process of getting my IV put in. My amazing nurse, Danielle, came in and started my IV. Unfortunately, I was so swollen, she was having the hardest time finding my veins. After the 2^nd try, and prick, she got the IV in my hand, only for it to immediately start swelling to a golf ball sized knot on my hand! She took out the IV and called in another nurse. The 2^nd nurse had just as hard of a time with my swollen arms. She pricked me 3 times before they decided to call in an anesthesiologist to put in the IV and it was in around 9:00. Since I had 2 swollen hands from the IV catastrophe, I had to have Drew get up with me to help me every 30 minutes when I went to use the bathroom. The negative thoughts started coming back “if the IV situation was a preview of what labor was going to be like, I was screwed!” It was around 2 am and after many times of getting Drew up to help me to the bathroom, I decided to let him sleep and have the nurse help this time. When I stood up, my water broke -on its own! I was in shock. I finally felt like okay this is REALLY happening today. My birth plan was to hold out as long as I could without medication. I went from 2:00 am – about 9:00 am when I told Drew to tell the nurse I wanted the epidural. At that point I was dilated to a 5 and my contractions were very strong. After I got the epidural, everything slowed down but I was definitely enjoying labor more. My parents and mother-in-law were there visiting and we basically hung out all day just waiting for me to get to a 10 so I could start pushing. At around 4 pm, I was there. It was GO time. I pushed for around an hour when Brady’s heart rate dropped to 60. The Dr. came in and they got it back up, but after pushing again it dropped again and so on. My Dr. said she thought the cord was wrapped around his neck and she recommended a C-section. This was definitely not the ending I had hoped for, but at 6:03 pm, Brady James was born and he was everything I had prayed for and more. Drew and I feel so blessed and I am so excited to share this journey of being a new mom with all of you.

Photography Credit: Andi Allison Photography (If you live in San Diego, CA I highly recommend her for newborn and maternity photos!)