Bradley's Birth Story

What a journey that past almost 10 months have been. Bradley was born April 9, 2009 @ 12:35am. At this point I was 39wks and 4 days.
His birth story really starts on Tuesday April 7th. I worked all day which was good cause I was on my feet. I have been dealing with contractions off and on and was hoping they would get regular. That evening I was just in so much pain and could barley walk Josh and I decided we should go in and get check out just in case. When we get there doctor was there already so he decided to check me and go from there. I was still only a 4 so he said monitor me for an hour and see if there was any change. Hour later no change and the baby was still really high barley a stage -3. He said he could break my water but that was to much of a risk for both me and the baby with him that high. So we go home. I got no sleep that night with all the contractions.
Wednesday morning still contracting like crazy. Go to the doctors office to have my blood pressure check (last few weeks its been high) and it was high but not too high that the doctor felt it was okay for time being. Around 11am my contractions really start to get stronger and are about 5-7 mins apart. Josh set up the room so that the kids wouldn't bug me and I can try to get some rest. 3pm rolls along and now we are dealing with 3-4 min contractions. Some put me into tears some were okay. At around 6:00pm we decided to call the doctor to give him an update by this time they are 2-3 mins apart and my hips are starting to kill me. Doctor knows how much I hate being sent home so he said give it 30-60 mins if they get worse or stronger come in. Josh and I start to get everything situated between the dogs and the kids. We get to the hospital about 7:30. Nurse checks me I am about a 5cm and baby has now started to lower. They call doctor and he heads in. He gets there about 8pm checks me and decides baby is lower enough to not be at risk so he says lets get this really going and breaks my water. What a relief I am finally going to have my baby boy!!! At this point the girls are still in the hospital with us. Dad came and brought Beverly and she watched the girls out in the waiting room. At about 9pm my contractions were so hard I was having a hard time breathing and consintrating. I started to feel pressure. The nurse check me and from what she could tell I was an 8cm. I think woot its almost over. Ofcourse at this point I was in so much pain I was ready to be over. Doctor comes in and I am only a 8cm on the out but still only about a 6.5-7cm in but baby was pushing doing. At this point even though I wanted a natural birth like the girls I opted to try the IV meds that is suppose to take the edge off. Yeah no luck! So I ended up getting an Epideral. By 10:00 I was finally able to relax. I could still feel some of the contractions but I was able to breathe so much better. Around 10:30 dad heads off to take Beverly and the kids home so they could get some sleep. Now it is just Josh and I and all the nurses .
Around 11pm I started to feel pressure. I got checked and we were almost ready to start pushing just had a little bit more to go. Bad thing is they had to put me on Oxygen cause Bradley's vitals looked a little low. He was also still very high and it was going to take a lot of pushing to get him out. 11:30pm we are pushing, and pushing and pushing. OMG I swear this took for ever. Here it is midnight and we are still pushing! Finally 12:30 we start the finally pushes and try to turn him cause he decided he wanted to come down not facing the correct way which makes sense after all that pushing and pain. 12:35am on Thursday he is finally here! They put him up on my chest and I got to touch him before they took him to get weighted and measured. He was also doing a wheezing noise so they had a nicu nurse come in and check him out. Of course I have no idea what is going on cause I had some pretty bad tears that required a lot of time to take care off. Josh was able to get a few pictures of him screaming. That was the last time I would see Bradley for almost 5 hours .
I finally get to get into the Nicu u to see him and I wanted to cry. He was hooked up to all kinds of machines, had a tube in his mouth, IV in his hand, on Oxygen. I couldn't believe that after all this and him being full term he was having issues. They took the tube out of his mouth around 9am and I finally got to try and breastfeed him at 10am. By Thursday evening the doctors were letting me feed him every 3 hours. Friday morning around 11am, they had the IV out and he was off the oxygen. We also got to start demand feeding him. He was looking a lot better and if all went well we could bring him home Saturday.
Saturday morning I was discharged but could stay until midnight. I went in to feed Bradley around 8:30am and the doctor was there. He explained that though Bradley looks fine his blood work show that he is fighting an infection. They want to keep him 3 more days for IV antibiotics. As long as blood work was good Tuesday morning he would be able to go home. I was so upset all I really took from this is I have to go home without my baby. It was such a hard and long day Saturday I cried a lot. I leave the hospital around 6pm after Bradleys feeding and told them to call me for the next one. Went in feed him around 9pm and than went back home to sleep. Not that I really did sleep at all. Sunday same deal back and fourth to spend time with him and the kids. Here it is Monday and I am getting ready to go down there to spend an hour or so with him. Hopefully tomorrow we get the good news and can bring him home. I just can't wait to finally have him here. I know its better him there until he is a 100% than he can finally come home and his sisters can finally spend some time with him!!

***Bradley came home April 14th 2009. Since he has been home we have had no issues woot!***