Bless Our Nest: One of the best days of my life!

With Braden's birth coming next week (not 100% sure when) it has made me a little emotional/reminiscent/scared/ more prayerful/ thankful/etc this week. I have never blogged about the day that Brooks was born. We began this blog right after he was born and I just never wrote about it. I am pretty sure it is 26 hours I will never forget, but I did want to write it down because I hope to one day turn our blog into some sort of scrapbook. (I also want to have something that Brooks can read when he is going through that sassy-you don't know anything- teenager stage..... I WILL remind him during that time what I went through to bring him into this world!)

*DISCLAIMER ---- This is a fairly detailed account ....... you may want to skip to the next post!

I went into the hospital on Wednesday night, January 25 to be induced. Jeff and I were so excited. (I don't even remember being scared at all.... like I am this time!) They began helping me dilate about midnight and then gave me something to help me sleep. Another doctor broke my water about 9:00 am and then I began having some REAL contractions. Patocin(?) was started to help me dilate and after a few hours of pain I got REAL smart and asked for my epidural! After the anaesthesiologist came me my epidural I told Jeff to take my picture with the woman who just saved me life! I was VERY comfortable after that. My parents came, Jeff's parents came, and later in the afternoon we had LOTS of company to come see the baby..... except there was no baby to see yet! I bet we had 10-15 visitors by 8:00 that night, still no Brooks yet! I was told if it took me much longer I would have to have a C-section, which I REALLY did not want. Finally, at about 10:00 pm on January 26, I was fully dilated and ready to push. I just knew we would still have our baby on 01-26-06. However, after many pushes Dr. Roberts realized that Brooks was facing up instead of face down. On top of having a very large head, it was turned the wrong way so he wasn't making it through the birth canal. With each contraction she began trying to turn him, she would always get him half way and then he would turn right back over. This went on for over an hour. Dr. Roberts then decided to use forceps. She assured me that she had used them many times and preferred them to the vacuum..... it was 1:00 in the morning, I think I would have gone for bulldozer by that point! She tried the forceps, but could never get a good grip because of how he was facing. Then she broke out the vacuum. (Apparently, hospitals have a policy on how long the vacuum can be used, but I did not know that at the time.... FYI .....they are allowed 3 pop offs.) We were on the third and final pop off when all of sudden Jeff and I see something sail across the room. I honestly thought that it was Brooks' head! (It was a bulb from the vacuum!) But, during the time that Jeff and I were looking across the room, Brooks Lamar Bird was born..... at 1:21 am on January 27th! Truly, one of the hardest, but BEST days of my life! Our families were still there so Jeff wheeled Brooks out into the hallway so that they could take a look and they all commented on how
wide-eyed he was. Everyone got to come back into the room about an hour later and hold Brooks and then about 3:00 am all the grandparents went home.
I thought all our worries were over until about 5:00 am. The pediatrician from the hospital came in to discuss Brooks. She was "concerned" about Brooks' head size. They were afraid that he had swelling/fluid on the brain. She said that they would watch him closely over the next several hours.... we were scared to death! Then a few hours later he began to spit up blood clots.... again we were struck with FEAR! Several times during the day the nurses would put a tube down to his stomach and suction him out. Finally, by Saturday they sent over a nurse practitioner from Children's Hospital to take a look at him. They said that if he spit up anymore blood then they would have to admit him to Children's. Thankfully, he NEVER spit up anymore blood after that!!!! They finally determined that because of the way he came through the birth canal (face up) he had swallowed some of my blood and that was what he was spitting up. We were finally released on Sunday and were so happy to go home with our sweet bundle of joy! I remember that the first night was rough and then when we took Brooks for his regular pediatrician visit the next morning, they took one look at him and said, "He's yellow." I thought he had a great "tan" look. After pricking his heel, they determined he need the lights, so later that day, home health came to bring the suitcase.... or as I hormonally described through tears.... a little coffin! Poor Jeff, he was so great during all of this. He not only had to deal with Brooks' scares, but he also had to deal with my hormones.... I cried everyday for weeks! Even though we had several little scares with Brooks, he was completely healthy and after about 6 weeks or so I realized... I am not going to break him, he is OK, and I can do this! We are so thankful that God answered our prayers with Brooks. He an absolute blessing and a true JOY!

****I am praying everyday that Braden will be a little easier on me/us. I would LOVE to have a very uneventful/safe delivery!****

Brooks was so alert after he was born.... it was almost like he was saying, "What the heck did I just go through?"