January 26th, 2009

It is about time I write Brandon's birth story down, now that he is over 1. Brandon's story was very similar to Brooke's but it was much shorter the second time around.

His story starts on January 25th, 2009. I had been having minor random contractions for a week or two, but on the 25th at around 5PM, I started having them all of a sudden 15 minutes apart or so. By 7PM (they still weren't painful) I had already made some calls to family telling them we would be headed to the hospital that night. I knew it was coming! We called the hospital and I told them I didn't think I needed to come in just yet, but that it would be at some point that night.

Since this was the second time around, we had a plan for grandparents to come and watch Brooke, so we were all set in that regard. By 8:30ish or so, we were on our way to Morristown Memorial Hospital in NJ. I wasn't in too much pain, so I wasn't rushing around or anything, but Eric was really concerned that we needed to get to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital at 9, my contractions were pretty intense. They checked me and told me I was only 2cm...lovely....and that unless I progressed they were going to send me home.

After the nurse walked out, I told Eric that I would leave the maternity ward and the room if they made me, but that I was not leaving the hospital and that they didn't know what they were talking about because he was coming. So I got my lovely hospital gown on and started walking to try to get things to progress and we would meet the nurse back in my room at 9:45 for another check.

By the time I walked from my room, to the nursery (for a little inspiration) I couldn't stand through my contractions, and they were every 1 to 3 minutes apart. It took me 15 minutes to get back to the room because I had to stop so many times. We got back to the room around 9:30 and by 9:45 I was in agony. By 10 the nurse wasn't there and I yelled at Eric to go find her. Reluctantly, he went to get her....As she was checking me, she said, "Wow, you aren't going anywhere." In my head I was saying "no sh*t now will you get your hand out of my V and call anesthesia" I don't quite remember how far along I was at this point, but I think it was around 5cm or so. So I had gone from 2cm to 5cm in about an hour.

This labor was incredibly faster and much more intense than the first time. I was literally rolling around from side to side, squeezing the bed rails with each contraction almost in tears. Having been through this before I thought I knew what to expect, but this was a million times more painful than the first time. It literally felt like a giant was on each side of me pulling my hips apart. It was at this point that they told me I had to wait until a whole IV bag was emptied before I could get the epidural. Thank god I remember it being awful, but I don't actually remember the pain.

SO.....water broken, IV bag done, epidural done! They actually did my epidural mid contraction. I was in so much pain that I told him to just do it an not wait until it was in between contractions. In all honesty, sitting on the edge of the bed was the least painful position, so I didn't mind it really. At this point it was about 10:45PM. The doctor was in and was guessing he would be there around 11:30PM.

Needless to say, I wasn't surprised when lo and behold, my right side went numb and not my left. Before I got the epidural, I told them this happened the first time just so that they were aware of it. But hey, one side numb is a much bigger improvement than not being numb at all. I was left laying on my left side trying to get the medicine to trickle to the left side to get me numb (same thing as last time....that didn't work....Last time I was ready to push before the anesthesiologist came back so I delivery Brooke feeling everything on the left side) This time they called the anesthesiologist back to give me another round of meds in the epidural so that I was comfortable. Well that did the trick...I was so numb it wasn't even funny. I could not feel anything at all from the waist down...but it was so great not to feel after the past few hours!

They let me hang around for about an hour to progress. They came back in...I was ready to go!!! By the time they got everything set up, it was about 1:35AM. I still could not feel a thing...no really...nothing at all. I couldn't even feel the doc checking my cervix! I told them I couldn't push because I couldn't feel anything at all, but they told me, pushing is like riding a bike, you don't forget, so just try like I was going to push.

I just remember the delivery room being so relaxed (probably because I couldn't feel a thing...TMI Warning...I didn't even feel him come out I was so numb). Dr Culin was awesome. She was reassuring and calming through the whole thing. I think there was only one other woman in labor besides me, so that probably helped too.

At 39w2d, Brandon Jon was born at 1:58AM on January 26th, 2009. He was 7lb 2oz and 19 3/4inches long.

His APGAR scores were great and he cried as soon as he was born, but he didn't cry as much as the nurses would have liked. They really wanted him to cry to get his lung clear and everything. I held him for a few minutes afterwards, but they wanted to get him to the nursery to get those nurses to check him. He was a pretty calm baby, they were really trying to piss him and he wouldn't get upset...but he did pee all over the nurse! They did some tests, his sugar was low and he was having some problems regulating his temperature so they wanted to keep him in the nursery through the night and give him some formula to increase his sugar levels.

All I wanted was to have him in our room, so I was kinda upset, but I was trying to rest until after the 7AM pediatrician rounds when they would bring him back in. Our hospital lets you keep the babies in your room except for the pediatricians rounds and various tests (hearing and so forth) Just typing this up makes me a little sad because I remember our room felt so empty. I laid in there until they gave him back to me, but I didn't sleep...at all. I was thinking about him, I could hear trucks out side (the annoying ones that beep when they back up) and not to mention I could hear every other noise outside of my room.

He ended up being fine...and was just a really chill baby. The 1/2oz of formula seemed to do the trick to get him back on the right track.