Branden and Aubri: krozby's birth story

***if you aren't wanting to read labor details, don't read this post.

you've been warned.

i was scheduled to be induced at 4am on monday december 9th.

i was told to call labor & delivery at 3am to make sure they had rooms available before we came up.

obviously i couldn't sleep that night anyway and before we knew it, it was time to call.

we got the thumbs up that they had room for us, so i got up, freshened up, had a piece of toast, woke branden up, and we were off!

(last belly pic before we headed up. kinda sad!!)

the time and temperature (-6!) on our way up to the hospital

we got to the hospital and checked in a little after 4am.

they showed us to the room where our little boy would be making his arrival!

i got changed into my super cute hospital gown and we met our first round of nurses.

our first nurse was SO NICE, we loved her! unfortunately we got there right before a shift change, so about 30 minutes later we got a new nurse who wasn't as friendly.

anyway--a different nurse ended up putting in my IV and i could have punched.her.in.the.face.

the first attempt she made, she blew out my vein and had to try again on the other hand.

both tries hurt!!! luckily the second try was a success.

after all of that fun we had the resident doctor come in a check me to see how far dilated and effaced etc i was.

(the week before i was dilated 3cm and 75% effaced)

she strapped on her gloves and got down to business...in my business ;)

after some feeling around she said "well you definintely aren't a 3 anymore!! You are 5cm dilated, completely thinned out, and have a bulging sac."

so right then and there she broke my water. k...it doesn't feel like peeing your pants so much!

it's a huge gush of warm water, which is really awkward feeling while your laying in a bed and it just keeps coming!

before they checked me or broke my water i told them i wanted an epidural as soon as i could get one. i'm a total wimp and didn't want to feel any pain if i didn't have to!!

right after she checked me and broke my water i asked if i could get the epidural. they said i could, they just had to wait to get the labs back from my blood work to make sure i was cleared for it.

branden kept telling me i should wait to at least feel a contraction before i got the epidural! ha!

(he was freaked out about me getting one... a shot in the spine is kinda intense!)

i'm glad i ordered that baby up when i did, because a few minutes after they broke my water the contractions started coming!! every few minutes they came on and it was ~~no fun!~~

after about 30-45 minutes of feeling the contractions i got the ok for my epidural, the anesthesiologist came in and gave us the "run down" on all the risks blah blah blah...

i signed the consent form and told him to get that sucker going!!

(p.s. he was a really cool guy! thank goodness for nice hospital staff!)

getting an epidural is an interesting experience for sure!!

first of all- they give you a shot in the back to numb you (not pleasant, but not as traumatic as i was anticipating) and then they insert a tube into your spine, which is a totally weird feeling! it's not necessarily painful but you can feel the tube moving around your spine... yuck!

doing all of that while having contractions wasn't great, but it was over pretty quick!

(this all was a little before 6am)

it took a little bit for the epidural to fully kick in (i could still feel cramping type pain down my left side and in my groin area) but once it kicked in, it was heaven!!!

seriously-- if you are having a baby GET AN EPIDURAL!

after i had the epidural i got comfortable and started watching Friends while branden took a nap.

i ended up randomly puking shortly after... not really sure why haha but it was a one time deal and luckily i had a barf bag handy!

branden's mom stopped by to say hi around 7:30 and then my mom did shortly after that.

i still hadn't been checked again, but i had a feeling i was going to progress fast.

the nurse came in to check in on me and see how i was doing a little after 8.

she asked if i was feeling any pressure in my bottom (sorry for the tmi!) and i told her i was.

she decided to check and see how far i was dilated and guess what? i was at 10cm!

i wasn't expecting that!! i thought that meant go time, but dr. carlson came in to check on me around 9am and decided to start me on pitocin and let my body move the baby down so i wasn't having to waste all of my energy pushing until he was as far down as he could get on his own.

i decided to try and nap while i waited to push.

the nurse came in and checked me a few times to see how far down he was.

she decided to have me lay on my side to see if that would help at all since he wasn't moving as much as she was hoping.

it was around 10:15-10:30am when the nurse and resident doctor came in to check me again and when they did he was in position and ready to go!

right after checking me said "well your baby has lots of dark hair!"

i was so excited to hear that!!

they had me start doing "practice" pushes while we waited for dr. carlson.

i asked for the mirror so i could see what was going on "down there"

definitely a crazy sight! super cool though.

dr. carlson showed up and they took my bed apart and got the room all ready for the little guys arrival. (it turned into chaos with all of the stuff!) branden didn't know where to stand without being in the way of someone! once it was time to push for real though, he was right by my side.

i pushed for about 15-20mins and at 10:56am after one final push baby krozby let out his first cry!

i didn't get to see him come out because there was too many people standing in front of the mirror but the first thing i remember seeing after hearing his cry was one of his little feet.

so sweet!

(wow i am looking good!)

i'm so happy branden got these pics of our baby's first moments in the world though :)

after i held him for a minute they took him away to be measured while they stitched me up

(thanks to the epidural i had no idea what was going on down below... but dr. carlson gave me an episiotomy and i tore past it... yikes! branden said it was a scary sight when he looked back and saw what they were doing. he ended up leaving the room before he got too light headed ;))