Everett’s Birth Story

So this is super late coming but I thought I should just recap my pregnancy and then share Everett’s birth story!!

In a lot of ways his pregnancy was much the same as Via’s, no morning sickness very chill. Then I had horrifying hemorrhaging at almost 12 weeks, and I never want to experience something like that again. Then I ended up measuring 4 weeks ahead, he was still measuring good but he was over 30 weeks along and he was breach!!!! So I was really nervous about that and wanted him to turn so badly.

Alright into his long birth story… so I was 35 weeks 5 days when I decided to go to costco and trader joes…and I was SORE when I got home. I was unloading and putting the cold stuff away and Nick came in and wanted to go pick up his new work truck ( a literal ambulance) so I was rushing and trying to get things put away. I told Nick to go ahead and put Via in the van so I could get water and get in the van too…well I bent over to get ice and…felt a big gush!

I called for Nick and ran to the bathroom..and my water had broken! So we headed to the hospital, and my mom who was about to leave for Arizona met us there and got Via from us. Well I went in and went through triage and all that fun stuff and they swabbed me to see if it had indeed broken, and it had!! They also did an ultrasound and said baby still had plenty of fluid and was head down!!!

My doctor was out of town so I had another doctor who was also pregnant which was fun! She told me that I wasn’t leaving without a baby ( that was all Friday night). I stayed all night and nothing happened…no more leaking fluid, no contractions, nothing. Saturday morning they swabbed me again to see if I was leaking amniotic fluid at all…and I was NOT! So it seemed like I had started leaking and then it sealed back up and the doctor came back in to let me know that I could go home! Ha! And I was so tired, you know how they always come in to check on you through the night, the bed is awful and they were giving steroids for the baby’s lungs.

Via spent the night with my mom and Nick had gone home, so he came to get me at like 9am Saturday and we went to my moms to pick up Via…and she was checking under my dress for the baby… I was sad and I was amused that there was no baby yet and telling her so. We grabbed breakfast on the way home, so thankfully I got some real food and was feeling pretty good just sleepy and had plans to take a nap with Via when we got home.

I just had this gut feeling that things were not finished…that leaving the hospital wasn’t the end…so we got home and unloaded our bags and then I started picking up the house and putting dishes away before going to take a shower…well got undressed and nearly made it to the shower and I started pouring fluid all over my legs and the floor. I called Nick back and was kind of like light headed and laughing…and just didn’t even know what to think. I said ” Do you think this is enough to go back to the hospital?” So he kind of just stared at me…and Olivia came rushing in the bathroom afraid she was missing something..so I told her we had to go back to grandma’s and he hospital because the baby is coming. She looked up at me with her hands on her hips and said “Again?!” HAHAHAHA

So we loaded back, mom got Via and we went up to have a baby.  I sat in triage for what felt like hours, they came in to test for amniotic fluid, I was positive again. Then did an ultrasound and said that there was no fluid around baby so they were going to get me to a delivery room! Finally!! Ha

We were in a delivery room around 1 or 2pm, and I was definitely having a baby but literally nothing was moving along. Nurses came back and forth asking how I was feeling and I was still laughing and smiling all through the afternoon and evening.  Finally they decided to give me Pitocin to get things moving, and they started going and I got the epidural around 4cm, used the peanut, rolled over 100 times…. and then after midnight I went from about 6cm to 10cm in about 5 minutes. The nurse had just give me a dose of Pitocin and left the room, I waited until I was SURE something had changed..literally no more than 5 minutes and I called her back in to check me, she almost looked like she was doing it just to please me because she knew I was so done with sitting there. Sure enough I was ready…beyond ready. She called the doctor and everyone else and they started setting up while I laid there, a few minutes had passed during this prep time and she came back to see and she immediately closed my legs and said don’t do ANYTHING, don’t laugh or sneeze or anything the doctor is on the way. It was that quick, the doctor came in put my legs up I gave one full push and started another and out came our perfect son! Everett Graham Bradley was born July 26, 5 pounds 13 ounces and 18 inches long at 1:22 am. He never had to go to the NICU, they just monitored him closely with sugar and temp the first 24 hours. He latched on immediately to nurse, we struggled a little bit because he literally only wanted to sleep, as soon as he latched he was out. So they recommended I start pumping in case we need to give him a syringe so he could get enough milk in before falling asleep again. I am telling you we could not wake him back up, naked, wiping him down..nothing worked. I pumped for a couple minutes and filled up 2 one ounce bottles and surprised the nurses and pediatrician with my supply..heck  I even surprised myself. haha But everything was perfect, he lost a little bit of weight in the hospital but once we got him home he packed on the pounds!! Over 10 pounds at his 2 month appointment, we are so proud of him!! He is now 3 months and nursing every 3 hours like clock work, except he is sleeping through the night and I am so so blessed and thrilled. Olivia didn’t sleep through the night until after she turned 1.

I hope you enjoyed Everett’s birth story and these photos!

XO,

Carissa