Bryson's Birth Story

Recap: On Jan 4^th, we had a scheduled ultrasound to make sure baby was head down & to check his weight. The tech said that he was weighing about 7lbs. 7oz.on that day. I met with Dr. Bills the next day and after checking the ultrasound report, thought that I wouldn't have any problems delivering the baby whenever he decided to arrive since he would be “so much smaller” than Sariah had been. On that day he checked my cervix & I was dilated between 1 & 2 cm.

Our next appt. with Dr. Bills was Jan 12^th. By this point we figured that baby had to be just over 8lbs. After reviewing my records on Sariah's birth about my 4^th degree tear & checking that I was dilated between 3 & 4 cm, Dr. Bills offered to induce us the next time he was on call, stressing that it was totally elective, but we could go ahead and do it anyways. Since I had to deliver at St. Mary's Hospital, the choice was to induce the next day or wait until the 22^nd, which was after my due date. So we decided to go ahead and induce on the 13^th since they had a bed for us.

The next day we had to be at the hospital at 5:30am. Needless to say, I did not sleep very well the night before, even though I knew I needed to, since I was going to have a very big day. We were very thankful that Doug's mom had arrived on the 11^th,so she could stay with Sariah at home while we were at the hospital.

We took the long walk to labor & delivery and made it there right at 5:30am. It was a little weird to walk up to the desk & the lady there already knew our names, but it turned out we were the only induction that day. They showed us to our room & we got checked in. I got changed, and our first nurse, Billie Jo, got my IV set up. I had tested Group Strep B positive, which meant I got a round of IV penicillin before they started the induction.

Nurses changed shifts at 7:30, so we got a new nurse, who was wonderful and who we spent the most time with, yet I can't remember her name. (I wish I had written it down!) I know it started with a “j” so I'm going to call her Janet. Dr. Bills came on call at 8am, so he came in & broke my water & we started pitocin. He had checked before he broke my water & I was already at a definite 4 cm & 90% effaced, so I was pretty much on my way anyways. As Dr. Bills said, we were going to have a baby that day, there was no turning back now!

Forty-five minutes later Dr. Bills came back & jokingly asked if I was ready to push. I don't think I was even feeling the contractions at that point. I started feeling the contractions in the 9am hour. I was doing my best to relax & ignore them, which was something I failed at miserably when I had Sariah. So we hung out and watched some tv (Let's Make a Deal to be specific, its pretty entertaining.) Janet made sure to know that I wanted an epidural, and she was prepping for it way before I thought I needed it.

Ten o'clock rolled around, and I'm not sure if the contractions started getting stronger or if it was just harder to ignore them because people came in to check on us often & every time Doug would turn off the tv. By 10:30 I was dilated to 5 cm, so even though I was breathing okay through them, they went ahead and called the anesthesiologist for the epidural. I was pretty grateful he was on his way by 11am, I was getting ready for the relief. The exhaustion had started to set in, and I was falling asleep between the contractions.

The 11am hour is kind of a blur. I'm not sure how long it took to get the epidural in, but it was done sometime between 11 and noon. I thought I had been relaxing, but he had a really hard time getting the epidural in. Janet was wonderful during this time and even though I don't like being touched while I'm having contractions, she held my hand through them while he was trying to get the epidural in & it was really helpful. I thought I was relaxed, but at one point Janet had to remind me to relax my shoulders. I didn't even realize they were so tense. It was quite a relief once the epidural was in. I couldn't feel the contractions anymore, but then I got pretty itchy for awhile. Dr. Bills checked me again and I was at 6cm. I think at this point he turned up my pitocin drip.

I was pretty tired at this point, so I decided to put my headphones on and listen to my mp3 player and close my eyes for awhile. I figured I still had a couple of hours or so before I had to push. Imagine my surprise when about 45 minutes later I started feeling the contractions again. I thought the epidural had stopped working, and Janet was out of the room, so I pushed the button I had to up the epidural medicine. That didn't work though, I was still feeling pain. When Janet came back in, she checked me and that pain I was feeling was the baby descending down & it was time to push!

Okay at this point I should mention that I was totally not ready to push. I was having some anxiety from remembering pushing Sariah out. I thought I had a couple of hours to rest and prepare and next thing I know, its time to push. I'll admit, I slightly freaked out. Janet rolled me over on my right side for a little while before Dr. Bills came in. He got there shortly before 1pm with the resident (who's name I also don't remember, but I do remember that she was also pregnant because Dr. Bills said we had something in common, but not for much longer.) Dr. Bills asked me if I was ready to push & I remember asking him if he meant physically or mentally, because mentally, I didn't want to push.

They got me ready & I started pushing anyways. It was not fun. I hate pushing. Janet & the resident were very encouraging though and that was nice. There was lots of screaming. But I did a better job getting Bryson out than Sariah. At one point Dr. Bills said there were some scar tissue that they wanted to cut through because the baby was having a hard time getting past it. I was hesitant, mostly because I don't think I was really comprehending, but Dr. Bills was like, trust me, you want us to do this, so we went ahead. About 20-30 minutes later at 1:24pm, Bryson Douglas was born. I ended up with a 3^rd degree tear, but Dr. Bills said it was more of a 2^nd than a 3^rd. (Which is better than last time when they said it was a 3^rd but turned out to be a 4^th.) All in all, the labor took about 5 ½ hrs.

They let me hold Bryson while the worked on stitching me up. At one point the resident said that she thought he looked about 9lbs 3oz and Dr. Bills said “don't say that.” Remember that we thought he was going to be about 8lbs 2 oz according to the ultrasound. After Dr. Bills and the resident left, they took Bryson to get weighed and cleaned up and do his paperwork. Janet laid Bryson on the scale and we found out he was 9lbs 2oz, a whole pound bigger than we thought he was going to be. I cried. We'll blame it on hormones but it was really upsetting that he was so big. I really didn't want to push another 9lb baby out, and even though I had already done it, I was very upset about it. So yeah, I guess we just have big babies. I'm glad we had induced a whole week early. I can't imagine how big he would've been if he had been born on his due date a week earlier.

We were moved to our recovery room around 3pm. I was ordering dinner by 4:30pm. Sariah got to come and be our first visitor that evening around 7pm. She brought Bryson his own rubber ducky. Bryon had gotten Sariah a My Little Pony. Sariah is smitten with her baby brother.

Bryson had been a great baby. He took to breastfeeding better than even Sariah did. Every nurse & lactation consultant that came in was impressed with how well he was doing. It probably helped that I knew what I was doing, this being the 2^nd time around. We enjoyed our time in recovery. Bryson was such a quiet baby, we didn't even bother sending him to the nursery during the night like we had Sariah. Actually that first night both Doug and I kept checking on him to make sure he was breathing, he was so quiet. (Since then he's gotten nosier.) We left the hospital to go home Friday morning (we were going to wait until the afternoon, but we decided we were ready to be home.)

The worst part of recovery for me was actually my back. It was really sore from the epidural. I managed to walk out of the hospital by myself though, carrying Bryson in his car seat. All in all, it was a good birth experience.

Holding Bryson, moments after birth

our big boy

Daddy holding his son

He found his thumb really quickly, I'm talking like an hour after birth

meeting Big Sister