Brayden Michael Bishop

Brayden Michael Bishop was born July 2nd, at 5:05 pm. He is 19 inches long and weighs 9 lbs 14 oz. And both Adam and I are completely in love with him!

I woke up that morning around 3 am with contractions. I had been having contractions, as well as some pre-labor signs for a few days, but these were different. Everyone told me I would know when it was real, when I was really in labor, and they were right. I could tell that they were getting both stronger and closer together. I alternated sitting on my "birth ball" (just an exercise ball) and getting things finished up around the house like dishes and my hospital bag. I woke Adam up around 5:30 and then called my midwife about an hour later. She told me to head to the hospital around 7:30 or 8:00. When we got there, she was there already (she delivered 3 babies that day!) and she checked me. I was dilated to a 5. She had me walk the halls as much as I could (which wasn't very much because of the contractions). I kept having to stop walking wherever I was, and lean against Adam or the wall through my contractions. Eventually she broke my waters. It got worse after that. The babe was face first, which led to some really intense back labor. The tub helped somewhat, but not as much as I had hoped. At one point, I was SO ready to beg for an epidural. My midwife was seeing patients at her office across the street at the time, though... which I am thankful for now. I'm also so grateful for Adam, my mom and my sister. Everytime I begged for one, they reassured me that this was what I wanted and that I could do it. Once my midwife got back, she was with me the rest of the time. She made me do some really uncomfortable things to try to get the baby to turn, but he didn't until I was pushing. I think I pushed for about an hour, although I am not sure. The room was pretty dim. I kept looking at the clock in between pushes, but couldn't see the time. It sure felt like forever. I really felt like I must be doing something wrong, like it was taking too long. His heartrate went a little low at some point, so they put oxygen on me. Finally, she told me to reach down and feel his head. After that, it was probably only 10 more minutes to get his whole head and then his body out. When she told me to reach down and take my baby, I just could not believe I was done. Her and the nurse immediately started wiping him off while I was holding him, and they went on and on about how big he was. After I held him for a few minutes, they took him to weigh him. And then Adam got to hold him for a little bit while my midwife finished with me, and then I got to feed him.

The rest of my stay had its ups and downs. There were some great nurses, and there were some terrible ones. There were some things done that I didn't want done, but people kept pressuring me and telling me it needed to be done. By the time Saturday morning came along, I was more than ready to go home and be in charge of my own baby and his care. And now that we are home, I am loving it! I get nervous that I am doing things wrong, or not well enough, but I am slowly learning to trust myself. We both stop and just randomly say things to each other like "We are so lucky!" or "He is so perfect."