his arrival

The last few days have been so wonderful - I have loved spending time with Nate and our two boys.  Aiden is adjusting so well to being an older brother.  He loves helping out and giving Brennan lots of kisses.  Nate has taken the whole week off of work and he has become Mr. Mom while I have been able to rest and cuddle with Brennan. Right now all 3 boys are sleeping and I wanted to write down my labor and delivery story while it is still fresh on my mind.  I love hearing other mom's stories so I thought I would share.

Sunday night around nine I started to feel some little contractions - where my tummy would get tight but I didn't feel too much pain.  I didn't think anything of it...I figured it was just Braxton Hicks and they would go away.  They started to slowly get worse and come about every 4 or 5 minutes, so I started getting a little concerned.  My actual due date was March 31st, which was 3 1/2 weeks away so I didn't think it could be actual labor yet.  So Nate and I watched an episode of LOST while these contractions got a little worse.  After the episode, I told Nate that it was starting to feel like the contractions I had when I was laboring with Aiden.  But I was still in denial it was actual labor, so I researched online fake labor vs. actual labor to see the difference.  I had a doc appointment at nine Monday morning so I figured I would just have to deal with the contractions all night until the doc could see if I was in actual labor.  But they were quickly getting worse and lasting longer.  I called my mom around midnight to tell her we might need her to come watch Aiden for us in the middle of the night.  I hopped in the shower to see if that would be relaxing and the contractions would stop, but they definitely just got a lot worse.  By the time I got out, I called to Nate that he needed to pack our bags now and we needed to go to the hospital now.  He was nearly asleep and he had to hop up and scramble around the house throwing stuff into his basketball bag. I knew it couldn't be false labor at this point because the contractions were pretty painful.  We called my mom and as soon as she arrived we raced out to the car and went to the hospital.  Well actually, we had to stop and fill up on gas first, which was the longest 5 minutes of my life.  Never leave your car on empty when you are nearing your due date! :)  So we went right up into labor and delivery and they checked to see how far dilated I was.  The nurse told me I was a nine and immediately went out of the room to call the doctor, call the anesthesiologist, and grab me a wheelchair. When she said I was a nine, I was so happy to be so close to meeting our little boy, but I was panicking that there wouldn't be any time to get an epidural.  And I was definitely planning on an epidural.  I was not mentally prepared to be going through labor so soon and definitely not mentally prepared to go all natural.  They quickly wheeled me over to a room and began my IV.  I kept having Nate check out in the hall to see if the anesthesiologist was coming yet.  At this point, some of the contractions were so painful I was praying I would have time for some pain relief.

Well, the anesthesiologist finally came and told me I didn't have time for an epidural so he was going to do a spinal block instead.  He did the spinal and I immediately felt numb from the waist down.  I couldn't even move my legs.  Right after the doctor came in and told me I was dilated to a 10 and that I needed to start pushing.  About fifteen minutes later, at 3:55am, little Brennan joined our family.  It all happened so fast and seemed surreal. It was such an amazing experience to hear his little cry that first time.  Because he was 3 1/2 weeks early, it was a relief to know he was a healthy boy. He's just a little guy at 6 lbs 1 oz (Aiden was 8 lbs 9 oz and we thought Brennan would be closer to that size too)

Here Nate and I are holding him just a few minutes after he was born:

 

Aiden had to wait a few hours (until he woke up) to meet his new brother, but he was sure excited when he did!  

And I had to share this picture of his tiny little feet.  So precious!  We love our new little boy so much!