Little Grady is here!

I can't believe he's here! All those days talking to my belly, feeling him kick and daydreaming about what he'd look like are over. Now I have a little bundle of love. Today I'm writing about Grady's birth story (you've all been warned). I am always extremely interested in others' experiences so I thought I'd share mine. Also, when Grady isn't nursing I need something to do!

 Grady's due date was July 13, 2014. Since Graydon works a 7 on/7 off schedule at work, we were nervous that Grady was coming on a work week. Because of this, Graydon continually talked to Grady in my belly. " come early little guy!" Every morning and every night for a week or so he did this. I just laughed it off, enjoying the moment. On July 4th, Gray and I had slept in. The night before we had enjoyed Thai food and a swim at the gym. We were so relaxed and happy, just daydreaming about the sweetheart in my belly. That morning we were laughing and enjoying the fact it was a holiday with nothing for us to do. Gray turned to my belly and again reminded him " you need to come today, bud. We want to meet you." With dreamy eyes, I smiled and rolled over on my side, started to drift back into a lazy slumber when POP! Ouch. It felt like a balloon popped inside me. Then a contraction, my first one ever. Soon the fluid flowed and I knew that Grady had listened to his daddy. My water just broke!

 We didn't rush to the hospital. I was still feeling good. We showered, I gathered my packed bags, then suggested going to eat before going to the hospital. I thought labor would be at least 12 hours. Once we got closer to Arby's, the contractions grew closer and more intense. I started to get snippy. " why are they taking so long with our order???" I felt guilty later because they ended up being the nicest Arby's employees ever when I looked back on it.

 Finally, we arrived at the hospital. I could barely walk at this point and it had only been an hour since my water broke. The nurses were understandably skeptical about my being in active labor and whether or not my water broke. We were immediately escorted to a room where I was told to change into the hospital gown. I couldn't do it because of the pain and the feeling like I had a horrible case of food poisoning. I just sat on the toilet, saw blood and immediately tried to get on the bed. I had no idea how they expected me to give them a urine sample at this point. It felt like forever before a nurse came in.

In the meantime I used deep breathing techniques to work through each contraction or "surge". It helped but I didn't want to do it for hours. I thought it'd be a long labor. When the nurse came in to check me, she said "8." Immediately the whole dynamic changed. People were paged and equipment was being rolled in. "Are you sure you don't want to do this naturally?" My nurse was kidding but a contraction had been coming on so I didn't feel like laughing. They hooked me up to an IV and the epidural was quickly and thankfully administered all within about 45 minutes of me checking in. I couldn't believe I was at an 8. I had seen my OB just the previous day and I was a 2, which I had been for about 3 weeks. Here I was, ready to have a baby on this day. Independence Day!

 I was the happiest person after the epidural kicked in. I was laughing and alert, completely involved in conversations with my parents when they visited. I could feel tiny pressure, like my stomach was growling for food but not much else. At 2:30, we started the pushing process. I was warned that it'd be difficult with an epidural but I didn't care. I didn't want it risk having a painful and miserable experience with my little guy that was coming so quickly. I did ask for a mirror though. I always like watching when I get shots, blood drawn, my dad drilling and extracting teeth so I thought why not. Also, it helped me focus my pushing.

 After an hour and a half of pushing (I was so glad I worked out three times a week during my pregnancy!) little Grady was born! He had beautiful dark hair and chubby cheeks. When they placed him on my chest, I fell in love immediately. His tiny hands with super long fingernails made me laugh and his button nose melted my heart. Graydon cut the umbilical cord and I continued watching as they cleaned up our bear cub. Was it really possible that just 6 hours ago we were dreaming about this guy? Here he was, perfect and sweet. I will never forget the feeling of becoming a mother. I also loved watching Graydon become a dad. He was so quick to catch on and know how to help. Love emanated from his eyes as he rocked Grady. We looked at each other and cried. We fell more in love with each other on Grady's birthday. Like I said, I am so interested in birth stories. People have completely different experiences and learn different things from it. I know that my first experience delivering a baby wasn't perfect but after it all happened, I felt like I just experienced the most perfect day of my life. I look at Grady now and just feel so overwhelmed with love and emotions (of course). I also look at Graydon and am so thankful that he is mine and I am his. There is no other person that I could imagine sharing such an amazing experience with.