HERE HE IS!!!

Brayden Taylor Peterson

May 14, 2009

7 pounds 6 ounces

20 inches long

He is the sweetest little guy. Came into the world on Thursday morning at 10:54 a.m. after about 10 hours of labor. The hospital called us on Wednesday and asked if we wouldn't mind going into the labor and delivery at midnight for our induction. Of course we THRILLED to oblige! Luckily, Steve's awesome sister, Sunnie, offered to take Lewis and Conner for a sleepover so we could do it. It was fun to arrive there with everything so quiet and peaceful in the maternity wing of the hospital. Exciting really! Here is the birth story in a brief nutshell:

So, we arrived at the hospital shortly after midnight and had such a great time making our way through the first stages of labor. I guess it is good I had been having contractions for those past couple of months because I surprised myself with how long I was able to go without the epidural. When they finally DID hook me all up to the epidural, I asked for the very lowest dose and that served me well for a good few hours. Actually, the biggest relief to me, from the epidural, was not necessarily the pain relief, but more so it was not having to use the bathroom every five seconds! I can't count how many times during this pregnancy I wished for a catheter and I was THRILLED to finally have one! I know that sounds so ridiculous, but my entire pregnancy has been one big TRIP to the bathroom (one of the side effects of heparin) and I was SOOOO relieved to take that out of the equation finally!

Anyway, after a few more hours, I was only dilated to a 4 and so they broke my water. The pain was a little more intense at this point, but I began to notice that it was only really painful on one side. I decided to push the little button to give myself more of the medicine and that's when I realized the epidural was not working!!! It was making my left side complete dead and numb, but doing NOTHING for the right side. At first I thought I could probably just endure it. But as the hours went by, I realized I was not equipped. The nurses and anesthesiologist kept coming in and asking me if I wanted ANOTHER epidural and I kept telling them "no thank you." Then, right there toward the end, when the contractions were super close and intense, I started PANICKING!!! I finally told Steve (who was peacefully reading off in the corner there) I don't think I can DO THIS!!! And then I lost it! The nurse came in and checked me and I was at a NINE PLUS! They hurried and grabbed the anesthesiologist and he said there was only a 50% chance that redoing the epidural would work but it was the only shot I had at getting through the last stretch. So, he redid it and not two minutes later, I was PUSHING!!! Luckily, God heard my pitiful prayer (that I am a HUGE WOOS and I need the epi to work) and he granted me the ability to push, PAIN FREE! I really am not one of those gals who could have been born before the invention of modern medicine. I just don't have it in me! Not even the DESIRE! I kept beating myself up about it, but Steve reminded me that NONE of that matters! All that matters is that WE are now the proud owners of a SUPER SWEET, DELICIOUS and BEAUTIFUL baby Brayden!
And we lived happily ever after! The End