My birth story

I have been asked by people to post my birth story... so here it is.

I had a doctors appointment Monday, the 12th. The doctor was going to strip my membranes at that appointment. He knew my mom was coming and wanted to make sure she made it in time, so he decided to not do that. He set up my induction for the next day, Tuesday, the 13th at 6am.

We picked up my mom at the airport that night.

The next morning, my mom, Christina and Grace headed to the hospital. I got all processed in, and around 7:30 they started PIT. The PIT worked super fast, and I started having some pretty major contractions.

I called the 1st Sergeant and had them tell Blake that the baby was a-comin'. Christina left and went to pick up Blake. Meanwhile, the doctor came in and broke my water around 8:30. The doctor got super wet and the nurse had to jump out of the way to avoid the stream. They both commented that they had never seen so much water. Nice.

Blake got there, and they came and gave me my epidural around 9:30. I got super sick and started throwing up my guts. The nurse came in and drained the rest of the water (she said it was like trying to drain a lake... again, Nice.) I could feel her down there, but only on one side, and told her that, but no one really listened.

She said I was ready to go and not to cough or sneeze before the doctor came... :) I tried not to throw up too hard, as I might just push him out. The doctor came around 10:15. Christina took Grace on a walk and my mom and Blake each took a leg. :) I started to push (feeling the contractions and pain on one side...) and Grant was instantly crowning. But he decided to be a little stinker and burrow himself back. After pushing for a little bit longer, they decided it was doing nothing, so the got out the "hoover" and sucked the poor little guy out. Grant Alan was born at 10:45am.

He was so cute, even with his swollen round head. They cleaned him up, and he was breathing kinda weird, but the nurse said he was fine. Everyone got to hold him and then they moved me to a recovery room. They brought Grant up and we all just stayed and hung out for a while. Grant is a super eater and was eating right away. We had several visitors, and then everyone left around 7:30. It was just Grant and I, and with the quiet I could see he wasn't breathing normally. I called in the nurse and she decided to take him to the nursery to have the other nurses look at him. They brought him back and said he was just trying to poop. Okay then.

I watched him for a while longer and called the nurse back. Something definitely wasn't right. They took Grant, and the nurse came back without him and said they were going to watch him overnight, because something was wrong. I felt so alone! I needed someone there, but Blake had to be at work at 4:00 am and my mom was watching Grace. They hooked him all up and took blood to test it. They said his white blood counts were off, and so there was something up. His pediatrician came the next morning and took an x-ray of his chest and found the problem. During birth, Grant's lung got pierced. Air leaked out of the hole and got trapped in his chest cavity. The hole was already healed, but the air bubble was trapped. They don't know what causes it, but its called pneumothorax.
They kept him in the NICU all day Wednesday, and decided to take another x-ray on Thursday morning to see if the air had been re-absorbed. It was heartbreaking to leave my baby after feedings. I felt like I couldn't get to know him! Grace hated not being able to hold him the second day. Wednesday night was hard again for me. Sleeping all alone in a hospital room, without my baby or anyone to talk to.
On Thursday morning, they took the x-ray and then we waited to hear the results. The doctor said he would come and let me know. They brought Grant in around 10:00 and said that the air was gone and that he had been circumsized. Well awesome! Got that all done while only having to worry about one thing. I would have been stressing over the circumcision for sure. I was happy it was over. Grant was super happy to be back with mommy. We took him home that day, and things have been smooth sailing since!