Brayden's Birth Story Part 3

Hello and welcome to the third and final part of Brayden's birth story. I didn't intend it to be this long, but I had a lot to say so there's that. :)

If you missed parts 1 and 2, check them out below:

• Brayden's Birth Story Part 1
• Brayden's Birth Story Part 2

 I left off from part 2's recap with us being wheeled to our postpartum room....

As we visited with family and friends, I couldn't help  but notice the strange way I felt. I honestly felt as if I had done some kind of crazy drug and was on a really strange high. Seriously, I kept telling people I felt as if I were on Mars. I also had to think twice about everything that came out of my mouth because I didn't want to say anything stupid. It really was the strangest feeling! I felt MUCH better after a few hours of sleep! :) I guess 38 hours of broken sleep mixed with the post-birth endorphins was coming back to haunt me!

My face also felt really swollen and after looking in the mirror, I noticed that it was. The area underneath both eyes were puffy and so was my face in general. Nothing a little makeup couldn't hide! :)

My church sent us flowers!

Jason's sister and brother-in-law also brought flowers and cupcakes for us to celebrate Brayden's day of birth!

The glove and baseball from my dad.

Brayden's stats and our room!

We visited with family and friends throughout the remainder of the day. It was really nice to have so many people come to the hospital and show their love and support for our newest little addition!

As a congratulatory dinner, we were given steak, potatoes, greens, a roll, and yummy cake. The steak wasn't all that it was cracked up to be but it was a sweet gesture from the hospital, anyway!

My little Mousketeer!

We ended up staying in the hospital an additional night because Brayden wouldn't urinate. It took him greater than 24 hours, but he finally urinated in the middle of our 2nd night in the hospital. We also allowed the nursery to take him so we were able to get some much needed sleep.

Our discharge date also fell on our 9th wedding anniversary! What a cute little present to take home with us! :)

 

I definitely wasn't used to being on the "other" side of things! 

We arrived home to a few surprises that were set up by our friends! 

The exterior and interior of our home welcomed us and our new little boy with a banner and balloons!

Our doggies even had a few new accessories of a bow and bandana! 

We ended our first evening at home with an anniversary dinner/welcome home with my parents! Although it wasn't glamorous by any means, it really was one of our best anniversaries to date!

Let's recap:

• My water broke on a "green" or unripened cervix
• A band around my cervix prevented dilation
• Cytotek/Pitocin had to be started
• A lip around my cervix slowed progress
• Baby was in the posterior position

For those who are reading this right now and are wanting an epidural free childbirth, know you CAN do it. It's going to be hard but it is doable. Would I do it this way all over again if I had the chance? That I can't answer. The  world of childbirth is so unpredictable and there's never a way to tell how things are going to go. Had I known ahead of time of all the road blocks I would have faced, I can say that I might have done things differently...but I'm stubborn and once I get an idea in my mind, there's usually no changing my mind. If my body had cooperated and done everything like it was supposed to do (contractions on its own, dilate on its own, etc) I can say that YES I would do an epidural free (and hopefully medication free) childbirth all over again. The addition of pitocin made it that much harder, but again...it's totally doable if that's what you desire and if you put your mind to it.

Do I think epidurals are "bad"? Absolutely not. For me personally, I just did not want one. If you birthed a baby period, I think you're superwoman no matter how the baby was born (vaginally, c-section, meds, no meds, home birth, standing on your head, etc)!!

Also, my natural childbirth class instructor compared giving birth to running a marathon. After thinking through the logics, I understand what she meant by that because just like ticking off the miles of a marathon, your body "counts down" during childbirth so to speak as well. When she found out I've run more than one marathon, she brushed the thought of natural childbirth off like it was no big deal..."oh, you so got this"! Again, I understand where she was coming from, but marathon running is fun to me...childbirth is not...and it was definitely no walk in the park. I told my running buddy that I would rather run a 100 mile ultra through the dessert over doing that again! However, this whole experience did give me the urge to run another marathon! Goofy's Challenge, anyone?? :)

Alrighty...whew...if you made it through all of that, thank you for following along! :)

Jason and I are so incredibly in love with the newest member of our family and are excited to watch him grow! For all the well wishes, prayers, and congratulations on facebook, twitter, and instagram, I thank you!! You'll never know how much they meant (and still mean) to us!