Bryant's baby story......

Pictures of baby Bryant!!!!

First bath at home....

Cute face Bryant...

Happily asleep...

On our way home from the hospital!! (his finger looks like he is giving the bird. funny)

Well hello there! It has taken me some time to work up the energy to write about the first few days of Bryant's entrance into the world! Sorry if it is scatter-brained, it has been a LONG few days.....

Feb. 1st-3 AM ( I knew I was going to go into labor at 3. I knew it! 3am=ugliness)

I woke up at 3 am with a little bit of pain & then realized that I might be in labor. I immediately woke up Travis and then walked around my apartment for an hour trying to count contractions. I'm ashamed to say I also put on a little bit of makeup (yes I'm that big of a girlie girl). They came pretty fast and were soon 3 minutes apart and lasted about 1 minute (but not too painful) so we headed on over to the hospital.

4:30 AM

Checked into the hospital. Dialated to about 3 cm. I immediately asked when I could get an epidural. haha. The nurse was going to send me home but then Bryan't heart rate didn't have a lot of variability so they decided to let me stay and suffer. :)

5:00-8:30 AM

Worst 3 1/2 hours of my life. No joke. Imagine the worst pain you could ever feel (or a knife stabbing you in the stomach) that's what labor felt like to me. Holy crap. ouch. I managed to hold it together and not shed a tear........... and just resorted to making really ugly faces and looking at Travis in panic. (Am I freaking out the pregnant girls out there? be afraid. very afraid. haha).

8:30 AM

I was finally dialated to a 4. Hurray! The doc came in and gave me an epidural. Joy. Seriously. It started working within 3 minutes and I was so relieved! I could actually speak again and make conversation. Epidurals are beautiful things I seriously don't know how women do it without them. I must be a pansy...:)

10:30 ish AM

Fully dialated. Wahhooooooooo. Now I did what they call "rest & descend" where the baby makes his way down before you push. Very nice :)

11:00 ish AM

Started pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing......I finally cracked and started to cry at this point. I remember looking up at the ceiling a lot and wondering how in the world I could push anymore..... a little after that I had my legs up in stirrups barfing into a bag (awesome visual right?) I looked over at Travis and he had tears in his eyes because he felt so bad for me. My heart melted. I love that kid....

1:26 PM

Bryant is finally born! I was seriously shocked when I found out how big he was! I pushed THAT out? Seriously? I'm cool.

The days in the hospital are such a blur! The first night was especially hard because Bryant's respiratory rate was too high and his O2 sats were low....plus he had low blood sugar. The doctor came into our room around 1 AM and told us that they had taken him to the Newborn ICU for a million tests and monitoring. The next morning after being put through SO many things Bryant's breathing was finally getting better and I could FINALLY try and feed him.

When Bryant was finally released from the NICU I was so thankful!! What a relief to know that he was going to be ok!

The days since have been full of SLEEPLESS nights and a lot of tears but so worth it to have him here. I love to just stare at him and wonder what his personality will be like! Thank you to everyone who has brought food/gifts/encouragement our way! We are seriously so grateful & blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Ps. Bryant's first "weight check" was today! He is back to his birth weight. He eats.....a lot. ha. More pics to follow of the little guy! Sorry if this post was WAY too long and a little DULL. I'm still a little out of it I'm afraid!