The beginning of our REAL JOURNEY...

Monday we had our 41 week appt with my midwife. I went into the appt with no contractions or labor like symptoms and wasn't sure what was going to happen and Jeremy went in hoping we could get things moving along NOW! The midwife gave us some options and the one she most suggested is going with a folley balloon, or catheter, to try to move labor along naturally, so I had this "procedure" done. It was about 5pm when I left the dr and we knew leaving that we would be going into the hospital the next morning, early, and probably moving along with delivery sometime on Monday. I decided to go back to the office, even though I was feeling a little uncomfortable and anxious, to finish some things before my departure. I got home around 7pm, even more uncomfortable with cramping and abdominal pains, and was pretty much worthless through the evening. Fortunately for me, my husband is WONDERFUL, and got everything together we needed for our early trip to the hospital the next morning. I was sleeping by 10/10:30pm, but woke up a few times for bathroom trips and early in the morning with contractions. Around 3:30am I was feeling pretty uncomfortable and we decided to start getting ready for the hospital around 4:30am. We got to the hospital around 5:30am and I was in pretty intense pain already. I was worried because my contractions were really intense and lasted a little long and I wasn't sure how far along I was and how long labor would be for me. The midwife came in around 7:30 am, just in time to see me getting sick and at this time the catheter came out. She checked my dilation and I was at approx 7cm. I was shocked, but didn't want to get my hopes up thinking I would be in labor most of the day. My other midwife came in around 8:30/9am and checked again and I was at about 8 1/2cm. Jeremy was getting really excited and I was thinking, "Holy hell, this is seriously painful and I'm not sure I can go through with this." I asked for some medication a little later and they got it ready, but then sidetracked me by telling me it was almost time to start pushing. They did have me move positions a few time because the baby's heartbeat was dipping. After a while of pushing we had our little boy, Braylen Jacob, at 10:30am. I was unaware of anything going on other than trying to get the baby OUT, but Jeremy was a little worried when Braylen was born because he saw the cord was wrapped around his neck pretty tight and he was nearly purple. The pediatrician was in the room and got Braylen's vitals up and he was whimpering within moments. I asked what it was because we didn't know the sex and Jeremy looks at me with a HUGE grin and told me it was a boy. He, of course, was beautiful and was so bright eyed for the first few hours. Jeremy and I had a few boys names and after looking at our little boy, we decided Braylen was the best fit and Jacob was a perfect middle name for him. Now, we're a complete family!! It was truly the happiest moment of my, our, life.