Brady Walter DuRant

Brady Walter DuRant

Born 9/20/11 at 10:07pm

5lbs 8 oz

18 1/2 inches

Absolutely perfect!!

The last week has been an absolute whirlwind!  Never in my dreams did I imagine I would have a week old baby by now.  I have been meaning to update my blog and tell my crazy delivery story, but it is hard to find a free moment.  This little boy is growing and has to eat about every 2-3 hours.  In between feedings I am either trying to clean stuff up around the house, entertaining visitors, or catching up on some much needed sleep.  It is quiet in our house right now...all the boys are sleeping, Paul, Brady, and Riley.  So, where do I begin?!

Last Tuesday started as another normal day of bed rest.  After I came home from the hospital everything had calmed down and by all accounts the bed rest was working.  I was not having any more contractions, and I was just spending my days lounging.  I set up a phone interview with a pediatrician since obviously I could not come in to his office to meet.  Our appointment was at 6pm, so he called and we chatted for about 45 minutes.  I decided that I liked him a lot, and he would be our choice.  He knew that I was on bed rest, but we ended the conversation with hopefully we will see you at the end of October when the baby is born. 

About 15 minutes later I started feeling some contractions.  Paul was down the street at a friends house, so I called him and said something was going on and he needed to come home.  The contractions quickly became very painful and steadily coming every 2 minutes.  I called the doctor on call and he instructed me to take the medicine they gave me to slow the contractions, drink a large glass of water, and lay on my left side.  If they did not stop within an hour call back.  Well, they were not stopping.  They were to the point of absolutely excruciating pain. (Side note: props to those moms who have natural births.  I can officially say I would NEVER opt for a natural birth.  I felt like I was dying.)  While this was going on I told Paul to pack my hospital bag.  I had been unable to do this since I was on bed rest, but luckily I had made a list.  Paul then asked me if he should go ahead and start cooking the pork chops.  Umm...no, I don't think it's time to start cooking anything!  I don't think he understood the severity of the situation.  But, he got my bag packed, and we were on our way to the hospital.

We checked in and everything just happened so fast.  Paul was frantically calling everyone to let them know what was going on.  As soon as they checked me out, they discovered I was already 5 cm dilated and 100 effaced.  So, I asked the lady does that mean we are having a baby.  She said, oh yes, you are having a baby tonight.  They quickly wheeled me to a labor room.  I was getting so frustrated because they had to ask me 100 questions to get me checked in to the hospital, and I could barely talk!  Luck would have it that I happened to pre-register at the hospital the day before.  I mustered up enough breath to tell the nurses that at my last visit the baby was breech.  Which, the doctors told me if he didn't turn meant automatic c section.  The doctor came in with the ultra sound machine and discovered the baby was still breech. (The doctor on call that night happened to be the one doctor in the practice I had never seen- typical)

From there everything just moved super quick.  They wheeled me straight to the operating room and Brady was here by 10:07 pm.  My labor story really was like something out of the movies (they always tell you it doesn't happen like that), but apparently sometimes it does.  As much as I didn't want to have a c section at that point I didn't care how he got here I just wanted some drugs!!

They warned me before hand that depending on how big he was, there was a good chance that he would have to go to the NICU with some help breathing or eating.  Our little guy defied all the odds.  He was able to go to the regular nursery, and was perfectly healthy.  The pediatrician showed up the next morning and joked that he would be telling this story for a while. This past week has been crazy, but he is just such a blessing.  I never knew I could love this little person SO MUCH.  Although I spend my days catering to his every need on very little sleep, I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.  Being a mother is the greatest gift.  Here are a few pictures from the past week: