The Schulers: He's here!

So, Braysen decided to arrive a little sooner than I would have liked him to. I really wanted him to wait until at least his due date, but he decided that 39 weeks was long enough for him.

Sunday the 14th was supposed to be our big moving day. We spent all of Saturday getting everything ready for the big move. After my mom and I cleaned the house from top to bottom, I was pretty tired and still needed to finish packing, so I went home. Tony was out at our new house finishing everything up so the house would be ready for the next day. I was at home packing up the last of our things. At about 10:45 that night, as I was sitting on the living room floor packing up our plates and glasses, my water broke. I called Tony to come home and off to the hospital we went. We finally got checked into the hospital at about 1:00. After they hooked me up to an IV with pitocin, I was given an epidural. They wanted to start pitocin because my water had already broken and they wanted to get my contractions moving. They also said that they suggested I get the epidural right after the pitocin because the contractions would start coming quickly and much stronger (they were already about 3 minutes apart). Since I planned on getting an epidural anyway, I told them to go for it.

Things started to get rough after that. The baby's heart rate was erratic and kept dropping. My blood pressure was extremely low. At one point it was 78/30. They had me switch from different sides to help the baby's heart rate. At some point they took my temperature and noticed I had a fever, so they started antibiotics in my IV.

They continuously checked my dilation and things started off pretty slow, then progressed very quickly. When they checked me at 3:00 I was 2 cm, shortly after this is when they started the pitocin. Then at 6:20 I was at 4 cm, then when they checked me at 10:15 am I was at 9 cm! It was at this point when they told me that the baby was what they call "sunny-side up", meaning he was face up instead of face down. Babies are much harder to deliver this way because of how their heads and necks have to bend to come down under the pelvic bones.

Once I began pushing, the nurse told me that if I wasn't able to deliver the baby quick enough, they would have to take him C-section. I was really frustrated because I felt like I was pushing and pushing but he just wasn't going anywhere. Finally, They decided he was close enough, and had to use a vacuum to assist the delivery. After I finally delivered, the doctor told me that if I hadn't gotten him out with that last push, she would have taken him C-section.

After he was delivered, I didn't even get the chance to see him. The doctor plopped him on my stomach for a split second, but all I could see was his back, then the assistants took him immediately. My mom and Tony got to take pictures as he was cleaned up. Because I had a fever during the delivery, he also had a fever, and they were concerned that he was very tired after the delivery, so they took him to the nursery. After I finally got checked into the postpartum room, Tony brought him there 2 hours after delivery.

I know, long birth story, but I feel like it is easier to write it than to keep telling it. :)

So after that long night and long morning, we finally have