Life with Brandon

So life has been a whirlwind of craziness since Brandon came along!

He was born on 8/4/2010 (40 weeks and 1 day) at 5:11pm, weighing 6 lbs 12 oz, 19.5in long. He was absolutely perfect when he was born, and still is :)

So I went to the hospital on the 3rd at 6:30pm to receive what I thought would be cervadil (as did my ob) but my ob on duty gave me cytotec instead at 2am. At 7am, my OB came in and broke y water, then we started pitocin to speed up the contractions. Dr. R said I can receive an epidural anytime I was ready to get one. Contractions were not too bad until noon or so. I remember the nurse saying, oh did you feel that one? To my surprise (and the nurse - whose name was Hope), I replied by saying no. Hope asked if I wanted an epidural and I replied by saying, "I will go natural if possible. If I can make it to 6-7cm without it, then I shall go natural... or unless my pain threshhold hits a 7 or 8 out of 10 and actual birth was still long ways ahead." Hope replied by saying "Up to you but can I ask why you don't want an epidural asap? Because you know, you don't really get a medal of honor for not getting one." I told her my concerns with epidurals... the foley cathetar, possibility of worsening my migraines, complications... and she said headaches don't really happen unless your spinal fluid gets tapped into, which RARELY happens. I told her I would think about it, but I am usually that 1% where things like that happen. Around noon, my contractions intensified. On a pain scale, it went from 2 to 7 in a matter of minutes. Dr. R came to check how far I was dilated and told me that I was only dilated 4cm. Sad. I tried to stick through it but by 12:30 Hope came in to say she will be gone 30 min for lunch and I begged for my epidural at that point. IV fluids were started and an anesthesiologist would be called as soon as IV fluids were almost done. At 1:30 I got my epidural. While in the middle of it, I hear the dude mutter under his breath something along the lines of "uhh...." He tapped into my spinal fluid. surprise surprise. Got the worst headache of my life, which would be exacerbated by sitting up, changing positions, moving, yea. They said I had to stay on my back through the entire delivery and for a few days. If headache persisted the following day, they would have to go back in and do a blood patch to patch up the hold they created in my spine. So I laid reclined through the whole thing. I went from 4cm to 10cm from 2pm to 3:45pm. Crazy. By 4pm, Dr. R said I was fully dilated, but she didn't want me to push yet. She wanted to up the pitocin in order to help the baby come down the birthing canal more so I wouldn't have to push as hard due to my headache. So I laid there for another Then at 4:30pm, I was told I can start pushing and my precious boy was born at 5:11pm. With all the epidural madness, epidurals are awesome. My first reaction to seeing Brandon was... you're the squirmy thing that used to move around in my belly! Second? You look exactly like Elliott. :)

I got to hold my blessing in my arms and it was perfect. I was in love instantly!

Now Brandon is 3 weeks and 4 days old. Week 1 and 2 were crazy, with him nursing every hr and 45 min to 2hr and 30 min. Breast feeding was tough, and still is and we're struggling. He was a big tongue tied so we had his frenulum clipped. He is now having GI issues so we will probably go see a gasteroenterologist today.

Depsite all the sleepless nights, crying (both him and me), frustration, when I see my little man in my arms all the bad seems to disappear. Our place is being over taken by his stuff everywhere but we are so happy he is finally here with us! :)

I will probably start another website to post pictures of him growing so stay tuned!



Week 1


Week 2


Week 3