Brayden's birth story

I meant to write this right after he was born... but... I obviously didn't get it done. Brayden is now three months old. None the less, this is the story of his arrival.

I had a pretty easy pregnancy. I gained 29 pounds total. My pregnancy seemed to go pretty quickly. Every Thursday I was another week along and boy, did Thursday come fast. I didn't have any real problems the whole time. In the beginning I had morning sickness and throughout the pregnancy my only issue was I was always SO hot. My back never hurt but my feet always did. I had a pretty low and typical "boy" belly. In the end I was absolutely ready to have him out. I wanted my baby in my arms. 

 Last picture I took. 39 weeks, 3 days.

I had an induction scheduled for August 19th, his due date. (For the record, I am waiting till that baby comes out next time. F Pitocin. Never again.) Anyway, August 18th was a Wednesday. We went to the hospital  at 7pm. We checked in, got my room, etc. Dr. came in not too long later and started the Pitocin. Over the next 24 hours they kept pumping the devil medicine. 

To my dismay, in 24 hours I dilated to 1.5cm. THAT'S IT. That made me feel pretty bad. He wasn't ready or something is wrong with me, I thought. Dr. said "We can try some other methods to try to dilate you. You are likely to end up in a c-section though. Also, if you have your baby tomorrow Dr. Mixson nor I will do the delivering. You can come back Monday and we will try to induce again." I WAS NOT HAVING A C-SECTION. I said "See you Monday, Doc!" 

We checked out and went home. It was sad going home without Brayden but it was for the best. I continued contracting. I had been contracting for over 24 hours. I didn't sleep very well at home through the pain. All Friday I continued to be in pain. I have now had contractions since Wednesday. It's now 1am on Saturday. I am still in pain. It's gotten worse but they are not steady "labor" contractions. Rj calls the doctor's office for me. The on-call doctor calls me back. She is not my doctor. but oh well. She tells me "Honey, I don't think you are in labor but if you want, you can go to the hospital. they will give you pain meds and you can sleep there." WHOO HOO. 

I go to the hospital. I check in and get the same room. The doctor checks me. I was still 1.5cm. Damn. They gave me pain meds and I went to sleep. I did not get amazing sleep. The meds only helped so much. At 7am the doctor comes in to check me again. If nothing was going on I was going to go back home. She told me I was 5cm and in labor. WHAT?! YES!! I told my mom and husband. They came to the hospital. The doctor gave me a small amount of Pitocin. 

I napped on and off throughout the day. It felt like I progressing SO slowly. Around 7cm I had the epidural. The progression was so slow I had to have 3 pumps from the epidural and more injected. His head was hitting the worst spots. My back was killing me. 

Finally, it's around 3:30pm. I am around 9cm. The on-call doctor will be the one delivering. She says I can push and they will stretch it to 10. I begin to push.


I have a nurse there that is VERY rude to me and my husband for no reason. She makes snarky comments and we are not going to mention that. I am not dwelling on that bitch and Karma will get her. ;) 

At 4:30pm the other doctor is called to come use the suction to try to help him along. His head was having quite a bit of trouble coming out. The doctor gets there around 5. They use the suction and of course, I continued pushing for what felt like forever.  

At some point they turned the epidural off so it was easier to push.

The doctor. seriously said "one more push!" like 15 times. She's lucky I didn't scream at her. Haha. I wanted him out. 

At last, 5:30pm on August 21st Brayden Joseph Carvalho was born. He weighed 8 pound and 12 ounces. I was completely baffled when the doctor said that. I didn't think my baby would be that big.

Rj was with me the whole time. Right after he was born my family came in. Later, Rj's family arrived. :) I'm so grateful for my amazing husband and family.  

He was and is absolutely perfect.

I do not regret a thing. My healthy and beautiful son arrived without c-section. Just what I wanted. :)

:D