Wow, I can’t believe today marks one month since Graysen was born. Even though we have tried to make these past few weeks go as slow as possible they still seemed to fly by! The story of Graysen’s birth could be a long one since it took almost four days till he finally decided it was time to be born but I’ll just summarize. Since this was our second child – I thought I knew a little more of what to expect. Labor does not happen like how you see it on tv. There’s no sudden start of horrible contractions and your water hardly breaks on its own. But I knew to labor at home first and not to go to the hospital till the contractions were unbearable. So when I started to have contractions consistently every 10 minutes I knew it was the start and I was in labor. But almost 24 hours later with my contractions still 10 minutes apart and with little to no pain at all – I was beginning to think something was wrong. Mikey decided it was time to go to the hospital to just check to see how my body was progressing. At the hospital they had me walk for an hour and still I was only 3 cm dilated. Since the plan was to have a natural labor they sent us home and told us once the contractions were closer or I started to have real pain then come back. We went home that evening, Mikey and I decided we would wake up early and go to the mall for a nice lunch and then a day of shopping. We hoped all the walking would help. When I woke up that Monday morning I had a feeling our peaceful day of lunch and shopping would not be happening because the first serious contraction felt like someone was slowly hitting my back with a tractor trailer then evenly rounding to the front of my torso. The pain was unreal. I tried to be cool about it though because if you know me – you know I love a good meal and I really wanted to go to lunch. As we left the house I joked to Mikey that we would probably not be shopping today but eating lunch then going straight to the hospital (yes, I was still set on eating)! But as we passing the hospital the pain was too much and I had to say forget it and go straight to the hospital. Between contractions and making the very painful walk up to labor and delivery I made myself take a few bites of a cliff bar because pregnant first time moms – my biggest piece of advice to you is make sure you eat something before you get admitted because you won’t see food till after the baby and like in my case it could be another day! The labor and delivery ward seemed like miles away but when we finally arrived the nurse just looked at us and said ‘how can i help you?’ I literally broke out in a full ugly cry because seriously she couldn’t tell I was in labor? All I wanted her to do was save me from this pain. Thank goodness Mikey was there to save me from fulling embarrassing myself since all I wanted to do is fall back on the floor and just die. She immediately helped us into a room and let us know another nurse would be in soon to evaluate me and let me know if I was in a labor or not. I told her to forget that and just send in the anesthesiologist. The plan of natural labor was long gone and my back contractions were screaming for relief. With Cohen I pretty much had him naturally since the epidural didn’t work – I thought his labor was terrible but nothing compared to this pain. Two hours later I received the epidural at the 6 cm dilated. It was amazing. I had begged the anesthesiologist to do the best epidural she’s ever done and man I could have kissed her because honestly she saved my life. After that the rest of the experience was a breeze. It still took another 15 hours but the doctor and nurses were so wonderful and patient. Finally, on Tuesday morning it was time to push and after three contractions Graysen Liam Smith was born sunny side up (posterior) – oh that’s where all that extra pain came from.
Well if your still with me thanks for reading what was suppose to be a short little blog!
Happy one month birthday Graysen! You have been such a wonderful baby since day one and I can’t imagine life without you. Thank you for completing our family!
Graysen Liam Smith 3/3/15 @ 7:04am 7lbs 14inches 20 1/2 inches long
And here’s just a ‘few’ of his newborn photos
