Welcome Brayden James

Brayden made his entrance into the world on Saturday February 9, 2008 at 4:22 am. He weighed 5 lbs 12 oz and was 19 ins long. He arrived a little over 3 weeks early....and just missed my birthday by 4 days.
Brandi called me at 1:30 am Friday morning to tell me that her water broke. I arrived at the hospital at 2 am. She wasn't dilated or effaced at all. They were going to give her a few hours to go into labor on her own....finally at 9 am they were told to insert a tablet to soften Brandi's cervix, but they didn't do that until around noon due to all the ladies in the last stages of labor. Finally at 3 pm they started Pitocin to get the labor moving along. They increased the Pitocin frequently. Brandi was getting uncomfortable and the pain in her back was bad so they gave her a couple of pain med injections....when this didn't help they gave her an epidural. It didn't take so they gave her another one.....it also didn't last long. She ended up with 2 epidurals and an additional dose of the epidural medication....none of them worked. She was in a lot of pain and this was killing me....every time she cried I started crying.

Finally at about 1 am they told her to start pushing. She pushed for about 2 hours.....the doctor even tried 2 different vacuums but they couldn't get the baby out. His heart rate dropped dangerously low so they immediately rushed her to the OR for an emergency C-section. They were unable to give her a spinal block...even though they tried twice....so she was put under. No one was allowed to be in there so we all stood by the OR doors waiting to hear the baby cry......what a sweet sound! Brandi was finally able to see him about 2 hours later.

As far as labor/delivery goes.....this was a tough one. She labored for 27 hours and basically went through both a vaginal (since she received the epidural and his head was right there) and a c-section so her recovery is going to be long. Momma and baby are doing fine....here are some pictures.