Bryce Patrick

Two years ago when I was pregnant with Cason, I had a placental abruption that required an emergency c-section. I thought the recovery from that was pretty rough and I couldn't imagine coming home to a very active toddler while trying to recover from another c-section. So early in this pregnancy, I decided that I wanted to try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian section).

Here are the details of Bryce's birth, as much as I care to go into them:)

Tuesday night (May 12th), I started having contractions around 10pm. They came pretty steady every 5-7 minutes all night. I didn't get any sleep because they were fairly strong and would wake me up if I did doze off. But they didn't get any closer together or stronger so I was a nice wife and let Kelly sleep.

Same thing all day Wednesday. About 5-10 minutes apart so we just waited around at home all day. Kelly even went to the gym that afternoon while Cason napped. At 3:30, he finally came home and the contractions were very steady and getting stronger so I told him I thought we needed to go. Kelly scrambled to get some stuff together and drop Cason off at the neighbor's house.

We got to the hospital around 4:30. I went to triage and I was at 4 centimeters so they moved me to a labor & delivery room.

Half an hour later, I was checked again and was at 7 centimeters.

About 7:00 I got checked again and was only at 8 centimeters. I caved and got an epidural. That totally stalled me and I got stuck at 9 cm for a couple of hours. They gave me two small doses of pitocin which barely worked. Then Bryce's heart rate kept dropping so a repeat c-section was mentioned several times. My doctor gave me an ultimatum of one more hour to be ready to push or else he was going to operate.

I guess that was the threat that Bryce and I needed to hear because a half hour later, my nurse gave me the go ahead to try pushing. After about 40 minutes of pushing, Bryce was born at 10:42 pm on May 13th. He weighed a whopping 8 pounds, 15 ounces. We were shocked because Cason was only 7 pounds, 3 ounces. Bryce was 21 1/4 inches long.

When I first saw Bryce, I didn't have a clue who he looked like. He looked nothing like Cason did when he was born. Now at 4 days old, he is starting to grow into his cheeks. He reminds me of a kitten because he rarely opens his eyes. He is a really good baby who loves to sleep and is pretty mellow.

These are all pictures from the hospital. I haven't really taken any since we got home so I will update soon with better pictures.

He looks really chunky in this picture. I assure you, he's not that chunky!

Cason meeting Bryce and giving him a kiss. Cason is pretty indifferent towards Bryce. I'm sure that will change in time but for now, I'm glad that he's not jealous.