Its a boy!

I've been a bad blogger... but I have an excuse! I've been busy with my adorable son!

People keep asking, so here's my birth story. Don't worry, its watered down, so no blood and gore and gross stuff. Just happy, fuzzy, babies-are-a-joy type stuff :)

Wed night/Thurs am I woke up at 12:40 with a contraction. I had been having cramps and stuff and was so worried I wouldn't know the difference, but somehow I did. So I fell back asleep, and kept waking up with them. They were about 15 to 20 minutes apart, so I didn't wake Brandt up. About 4 though, I did, and told him I was going to take a shower. My aunt had told me that was a good way to find out if they were real contractions or not, if they weren't, a hot shower would stop them. He was up impatiently waiting for me to get done, and we sorta ate breakfast and about 6 started timing them, but they felt different, once again. Right away they were about 5 minutes apart, a minute or so long. This varied of course, some were 3 minutes apart, some 8. But they got more regular. We went for a walk around the block too, b/c we read that they should be consistent regardless of activity.

About 9 (so 3 hrs of timing) we decided to just go. By this point we had loaded up the car seat, gotten all our stuff together, and were ready. We had bags packed, but then a list of things to add, like laptop, phone chargers, etc. So we just decided to go up there and risk getting sent home. But I was starting to be in pain when they would come, so we figured we had held off long enough.

So we got up there and walked up to the nurse's station and I felt like an idiot, "hi, I think I'm in labor!" They put us in a labor & delivery room. The nurse was super concerned though since we were still 2 1/2 weeks early. They put the monitors on my belly and she was like, you are def in labor! She called my Dr a few times, but she really felt strongly that I shouldn't be having him already. I was still only 2cm dilated, and my dr wanted to start me on pitocin to get things going. Nurse, on the other hand, handed me a big jug of water and told us to go walk and we would hopefully chase the contractions away. That was depressing, if he was ready to be born, we wanted to do it! Not go home!
But after the walk, they were getting stronger, so they went ahead and put in an iv for the pitocin. It wasn't till then that we got to call our family, they suggested us waiting to find out for sure if they were going to keep me or not. I guess this was around noon. Then the nurse acknowledged that things were moving along pretty quick, and that I would be having this baby before her shift ended! As against the early birth as she was, she was a great nurse, we really liked her. She also had them give me some demerol to dull the pain until I could get the epidural.

*from here on out everything blurred together and stuff, so I hope it all makes sense*

So I guess it was around 1 or so, maybe closer to 2, the demerol made me feel soooo tired and way woozie. I know I was slurring my words, but no pain! It was just to tide me over till the anesthesiologist could come in. They told Brandt I would be out for at least 2 hours, so he should go get some lunch. He went down to the cafeteria and swears he was only gone 15 minutes, and when he got back I was already 7cm and writhing in pain! I had about 3 contractions that made me (somehow, I didn't think it was possible) curl up into a ball and I couldn't even open my eyes! Then I got the epi and all was well. No clue what time this was. It was good though, she said I had the "perfect epidural" b/c I could move my legs and wiggle my toes, everything, But I was for sure having contractions like crazy, according to the monitors! My Dr also broke my water then, but I couldn't feel anything or tell that anything happened.

My parents came in, his did too, and I think my sis was there. Brandt said something about getting some rest, and everyone just stood there and were like, Ok. Uhhh no, that was your cue to leave people! Then I said I was nauseous and they handed me a bucket thing and I started the throw up. Thankfully, that got everyone out of the room. I hadn't eaten anything in forever, but they said it was from the meds. The nurse said something about the 8cm sickness, not sure what that was about. So they checked me and were like, its time to push!

The bed was a "break away bed" so the end of it dropped down or came off or something. My dr was like, Ok, are you ready? And then told Brandt (Mr not going past my elbow) to grab my leg and hold my ankle. The nurse was on the other side, and poor Brandt could see everything haha.

I started pushing at 4:05 they said, and he was born at 5:24. So not much more than an hour. I could feel the contractions towards the end, but it wasn't too bad. But no way I could have done it without the epi!!!

When he was born, the Dr held him up and said, "ok mom, what do we have?" so I got to say "its a boy!"

Garrett sounded like he was congested, they ended up taking him pretty soon to the nursery. He wasn't warm enough and he had mucus built up in his airway or something. He's fine though, we just had to wait longer than we had liked to see him. I think it was almost 9:30 before they brought him to our room. I got moved close to 7 or so, maybe 8, to a postpartum room, thats where the family was waiting (with Chick fil a!)

Thats pretty much it! Here's the first pic of our little man :)
(he's gonna hate this pic when he's older)



(i love the flat ponytail in this one lol)

This is my all time fave