Introducing
Porter Cannon Brough
Born on February 7, 2012
6:30 PM Timpanogos Hospital in Orem, Utah
7 pounds 6 ounces
20 inches long
So I always thought that when I was pregnant I would go blog
crazy and post every day about being pregnant and everything I was doing to prepare for a new baby... clearly that didn't happen. But he's here now!! And posts about an actual baby are probably more fun than the prebaby stuff anyway, right??
Maybe not.
Anyway, here's the story.
It all started on Monday the 6th. I was 4 days over due at this time, but wasn't going crazy or feeling too ginormous, just ready to be done.
I went in to the doctor at 9 AM to get my membranes stripped. At this point I was only dilated to almost 3 centimeters. Getting your membranes stripped is not the most pleasant of experiences, but it was definitely worth it for me! Once I got home the contrations started. First just tense and crampy then more and more frequent and clearly not just Braxton Hicks.
Zach came home from school and after feeling things out for a bit we decided that even though I didn't think the contractions were hurting enough ( like I could still talk and breath and stuff) that they were too close together to not at least be real labor.
So we drove to the hospital and got all set up to find out that I was only at a three. So we stayed for a couple hours to see if I could make it to a four but nothing was happening even though the contractions were good and real. So they decided to send me home with some pain killers (morphine and phenergen... I know pretty nice pain killers) to help me relax and get through the night while still contracting.
This was the best thing that could have happened to me. We got home, and by this time my mom and flown in and made it to Provo, and I had SUCH a good night's sleep. And once I woke up and got moving the contractions came back on and we were working towards baby again. These contractions were a bit different though. I don't know what other people's contractions feel like but these ones felt like big, heavy rocks weighing down on my hips and pelvis bones... Anyone else feel like that? Like it was more of bones rubbing pain than whole stomach, cramping stuff.
Anyway. I was scared to go back to the hospital and be sent home again. But once I couldn't do anything but scream OUCHY OUCHY OUCHY OOOOUUUCH through my contractions my mom said that we should probably go in.
We got there and found that I was still at a three... seriously? After contracting all night long? But after an hour of more ouchy contractions I finally made it to a four and was admitted!!
I had never been a patient in a hospital so all of this stuff was new and fun to me. The needles not so fun but still a new experience.
So the got my I.V. in, hit me up with an epidural, and I was in a very happy place. Getting the epidural was totally fine because the anesthesiologist was super cool and talked me through everything. The only hard part was dealing with contractions as all of this is happening. But let. me. tell. you. This stuff was awesome. To me it felt like that feeling when you're sitting on your bum for too long and it gets all numb and tingly... like that but down both legs. I didn't have total loss of feeling, like I could feel when someone was touchy my legs and stuff but when they would come to check my dilation and break my water and put in the catheter I was sitting pretty. One of the best things was not feeling baby squishing my bladder any more.
Ok continuing forward.
They broke my water and started me on Pitocin to try and really get things rolling. I was surprised they gave me pitocin so early since I was already in labor and stuff, but it worked really well and around 5:45 I was ready to start pushing!! Pushing was interesting because I could feel the urge to push (like the urge to poop... TMI?) and I could feel all the pressure and all the pulling and stuff the doctor was doing but I couldn’t feel actual pain. Crazy stuff.
I don’t know how many of you parents used the mirror to watch the baby come out, but I did and I really liked it and thought it helped me focus a lot better. I could see when he would get closer and closer to coming out and it helped me work that much harder. Oh it was so awesome and so much fun to be there with Zach working so hard to get this little guy out. This is the part that I thought was the most like what you see in the movies. Even though I wasn’t in pain, it took so much effort to breath and push and breath and push. And all the nurses and my mom and Zach were cheering me on and then he was out! It was the most amazing and exhilarating moment of my life! My baby boy was out. It took him a second to make some noise, but with that first breath of air and cry, I was in love.
Loving life!
