He's Here!

I am just so thankful for my little man. He has been such a blessing to our family- I can't believe he's already been in our lives for over a week! God has blessed us so much.

My pregnancy and delivery were so wonderful. I sometimes really hate saying that because so many people go through so many troubles and rough times, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the past 9+ months, and I would do it all in a heartbeat..without flinching. I think I'll wait awhile, but...just saying...

Anyway, Grayson's birth story....it's going to be long.

Sunday, August 1 was my due date. I know everyone says your baby WILL come, but I swore on Sunday that he wasn't ever going to come. I was crabby, bummed, and I just felt lousy (ding ding ding!!). I was just feeling achy and kinda sick but didn't have any contractions or anything. I took a nap in the afternoon (which I hadn't done in over a month-another ding ding ding!!!) and took a short walk with hubby. For dinner we ate spicy chicken enchiladas because I was going to try anything to get the baby to come. We headed to bed around 11:30. Right before we fell asleep, Jared asked if he should stay home the next day but I said "No, nothing's going to happen."

Then around 12:15 I woke up and felt awful! I can't say I was having contractions, but there was something going on down there and it didn't feel good. I felt like I had to poop really bad, so I went to the bathroom and it just HURT. My whole butt area and upper legs and lower back were just aching! Finally I woke Jared up around 12:45 saying that I felt terrible and that I think something was happening. I started walking through the hallway upstairs and the contractions weren't too intense but were coming about every 10 minutes. We both took quick showers and Jared started finalizing stuff around the house. We went on a quick walk outside, I sat on my ball for awhile, and then they started coming every 5 minutes or so. So, we started heading for the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 5 am, and they checked me right away. The first nurse checked, looked at me, and said that she couldn't find my cervix. What!?! I asked her if it ran away. I think she was embarrassed. Another nurse came in and she said, "You go girl! You're at 5 cm and that bag of waters is right there." Yeahhh!! I was excited. They got me hooked up, etc. and then the nurse came in and told me that I might not be able to have an epidural. My white blood cell count was high and a lot of anesthesiologists won't give an epi if that's the case. WHAT TO DO!?! Well, he ended up giving me one, but I was frightened at the thought of doing it without. So, the contractions were intense before the epi, but I could do it. But, then they kinda pushed the epi on me right away once the doc said it was okay to have one. So, I felt like they were giving it to me too quick, but oh well. I got the epi around 8:00.

After the epi, I felt fabulous. The doctor came and broke my water shortly after that and I guess the contractions started getting a lot worse and quicker. Jared was looking at the readouts and saying "Did you feel that one?" Nope. I didn't feel anything. No biggie. I got checked again around 10:00 and the nurse said that I'd be pushing soon, I just needed to efface a tiny bit. They started getting things set up, the doctor came in and checked me, and said, "Lets try a practice push." Well...I did a "practice" push, and she said, "Wow! Look at all that hair on him!" I was having this baby! I remember looking at Jared and shrugging my shoulders after pushing and saying, "Am I doing okay? I don't feel it!" Well, I ended up pushing for 11 minutes, and Grayson Taply was born at 10:51 am. 7 lbs 7 oz and 20 inches long.

Everything at this point went really fast because the cord was wrapped tight around his neck twice so Jared wasn't able to cut the cord and there was a lot of fluid in his lungs so they had to work on him for about a half hour before I got to hold him. But after all that, I got to hold my son, and I praised God! Seriously...such a gift. I'm in awe.