Welcome to the world, Brantley!

I'm trying to get caught up on my blogging, so here is Brantley's birth story. Hard to believe he is already 1 month old!! :)

We proudly welcomed Brantley Richard Smith into the world on March 8th, 2011. Here's how it happened...

I was on the "waiting list" to be called if the hospital had any room openings to be induced on Monday, March 7th. If not then, I was going to go in on the Wednesday, the 9th. Well, on Monday morning at 5am, I got a call from the hospital asking if we could be there at 6:30 because they had an opening! It was definitely not what I expected, but we were both really excited! So we got up, showered and prepared to go to the hospital. We got there right at 6:30am and got all checked in. Around 7am, we were taken to our room. My nurse came in and started my IV drip with pitocin to help jump start my contractions and get me to dilate more. She also hooked up the fetal monitors to keep track of Brantley's heart rate and my contractions. Monday was pretty much spent with me hooked up to the machines and laying in bed. My mom arrived mid-afternoon also. The doctor on call and my doctor checked on me a couple of times, but I was only dilated to 1 cm. So at 5pm the doctor on call decided to turn down the pitocin drip and let me eat and get some rest and they would start the process again on Tuesday morning. By this point I was starving (since I had not eaten since Sunday night) and I knew I wouldn't be able to eat until after he was born on Tuesday, so I sent Mike to Chili's for me and had Southwest Eggrolls and a chicken caesar pita! Very yummy! After I ate, we had some visitors. My cousin Rebecca and Rick and Terri came by. We visited with them for awhile and then my mom came back to our house for the night. Mike and I stayed at the hospital and tried to get as much rest as possible (which was not very easy!).

Before we left for the hospital...a family of two!

(And yes, the year is set wrong on my camera! Whoops!)

All hooked up and patiently waiting!

On Tuesday morning, my day nurse came back in and bumped up the amount of pitocin that I was receiving. Around 10am, the doctor came and checked me and I was dilated to about 3 cm, so they decided to break my water. After doing this, the contractions started coming more regularly and a lot stronger. My nurse went ahead and ordered the epidural for me which was put in around 11am. (That was no easy process! Very hard to sit still while having major contractions!! But the epidural was worth it in the end, because I didn't feel a thing!) The doctor came back in a little later and I was dilated to 5 cm, so I was making progress. However, I ended up being "stuck" at 5 cm for a couple of hours so another nurse came in and help to turn me from side to side every 15 minutes to get the baby to move down and for my cervix to dilate. (This nurse was not the nicest...just ask Mike..., but her process did work.) At about 6:30pm, I was at 10 cm!! Finally! :) My doctor came by the hospital and stayed throughout the delivery even though she wasn't on call (which was very nice of her!). Anyway, she told the nurses to help me start pushing, so we did. Mike helped to coach me and did an awesome job! (Funny story...the Clemson v. Carolina baseball game was on the tv that night, so in between pushes that's what Mike was watching! It was a nice distraction for me too though!) I pushed for about a hour and Brantley had moved down a little bit. The nurses said that she could see part of his head and that he had a lot of hair. However, he was not making a lot of progress moving down further so my doctor checked him and said that he was face up. She ordered for the epidural to be turned off so that I could really "feel" the pushes. I pushed for another 15-20 minutes (very painfully, I might add!) but still nothing. My doctor was very disappointed because she knew I really didn't want a C-section but she felt that was the best option because he seemed to be stuck on my pubic bone. At that point, I honestly was so exhausted that I didn't really care about the C-section; I was just ready to get it over with and meet my son! So, the nurses and my doctor began to prep the OR and everything needed for the C-section. I had to sign a consent form and they turned the epidural back on. I think this was the longest 30 minutes of my life!! Finally, around 9pm, I was taken back to the OR to begin. Mike was able to come in with me, while my mom, Rebecca, Rick, and Terri waited in the waiting room. My doctor and another one of her partners began the C-section as I exhaustedly laid on the table waiting to meet Brantley. At 9:32pm, they announced his birth and we got to see him before he was cleaned up. :) He weighed 8 lb, 3 oz and was 22 inches long! After he was all cleaned up, Mike went with him to the nursery as they finished with my surgery. He got to see him as he had all of his tests and was given his first bath. After the C-section, I had to wait in recovery for an hour, but my visitors were able to come back and see me. I finally got to go to a room around midnight to get some rest!

Mike is ready for surgery!

Hello Brantley!! :)

Once we were in our room, they brought Brantley to us and I finally got to hold my sweet baby boy! :) I nursed him and we got settled in for the night. My mom stayed with me and I sent Mike home to get some rest since we had had a long two days! Brantley stayed in the room with us and my mom helped me when I needed to feed him and change him. He did great on his first night in the world!

We stayed in the hospital until Thursday and then we were finally released to come home. I was still in a lot of pain from the C-section but was definitely ready to be out of the hospital! We got home around 4pm that day and got to introduce Brantley to his new home and to Maggie.

On the way home! :)

Coming home...a family of three! :)

It was a long process, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! Brantley is just perfect! :)

Already a Tiger fan!