The Juarez Family: Introducing Grayson John Juarez!

So I realize that our baby boy is a month old and I pretty much haven't blogged since he was born! I will attempt to catch up on our whirlwind that was the last month starting with his birth story. If you really don't like the whole birth detail thing, I suggest you just skip this post. :)

Friday, May 10th I wrote this post about being 39 weeks pregnant. Little did I know that that was about to change very soon! That afternoon, Rylie and I went to Target to get a few things and when we got home, I just wanted to sit down and do nothing. We were supposed to head over to the mall when Brandon got off to walk (we had been doing that a lot lately...trying to walk that baby out!) but I really didn't feel like going so Brandon went and grabbed Chipotle for dinner and we hung out at home. At about 7:30, he decided to take Rylie and go to a local golf store just to get her out of the house for a little bit and give me a break. I laid down on the couch as soon as they walked out the door and almost immediately I felt and heard a pop...my water broke! I jumped up and stood on a blanket that was on the ground (I did not want to get it on my new couch or rug!) and then hobbled to the garage where Brandon was just putting Rylie in her carseat. It was a bit of chaos for a moment while I ran to the bathroom and jumped in the shower, Brandon started gathering the bags and stuff we needed, and Rylie (being her ever curious and talkative little self) walked around asking what was going on. :) Brandon also called my parents to have them come and pick up Rylie (funny side note...my dad didn't answer his phone when Brandon called and sent a text saying they were in a movie. Brandon responded with "pick up the phone!" so my parents left with 15 minutes left in their movie...sorry guys!) Rylie soon left with Papa and Grandma and we headed to the hospital.

I had had a few contractions at this point (really, I had been having sporadic but painful contractions for weeks at this point) but they still weren't that bad. We checked in to the hospital and were wheeled up to labor triage. We got the funniest triage nurse, she was great! It didn't really take very long for them to realize that yes, my water had broken (duh...as it was with Rylie...it was very obvious!) and they moved us to a delivery room to continue the labor process and attempt a VBAC (vaginal birth after a c-section) delivery. There the waiting started. Brandon and I turned on his Ipad and watched the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy to try and help distract me from the now regular, and getting more and more painful, contractions. After a few hours of labor, and now very painful contractions, the nurse came in to check me and I was unfortunately, only dilated to 3...this was going to be a long process.

I knew that I wanted an epidural and I was pretty ready for one at this point. However, I was only at a 3 and you have to be at a 4 before they can give it to you. My nurse told me she could help the process along, but that it would be extremely painful. I said go for it since I wanted that epidural. She then proceeded to scrape my uterus or something and I literally cried. It was, by far, the most painful point of the entire process. After she was done, I was at a 4, so they started the IV bag and after an episode of Friends to distract me, I could finally get the epidural.

Our little baby boy wasn't a huge fan of the epidural and my nurse had to come in constantly to move me around so that his heart rate would stay down. I also was given an oxygen to wear and I ended up wearing the mask until he was born. At one point our nurse came in and starred at the monitor for a little bit and then all of the sudden there were 3 other nurses in the room and our doctor came in. I really thought, at that point, that they were just going to say that I needed another c-section, but they moved me around some more and got his heart rate down and my doctor said everything was ok. At about 3:30am, my mom came to the hospital and Helen, Blake and Sarah arrived from California. Labor continued for the remainder of the night.

At 7:00am, my new nurse came in to meet us. I was a little bummed that the nurse that had been with us all night wouldn't be the one to help with the delivery, but our new one was great! She decided it was time to start pushing, so she pretty much stayed with us non-stop for the rest of the time. We met our baby nurse at this point as well, as she came in to get the room ready for the delivery. I was exhausted by now (I had been awake the entire night. After I got the epidural, I had a blood pressure cuff that would go off every 10 minutes, so it was impossible to sleep), but seeing all the activity got me really excited. Brandon was such a great labor coach and was really encouraging to me during this whole process. There were definitely times I didn't think it was ever really going to be over, but he got me through it! Dr. Kale came in and it was time! After pushing for an hour and a half, Grayson John was born at 8:37am on May 11. It was so surreal when they laid him on my chest immediately after he was born. I will always remember looking up for Brandon and he was crying. It was seriously one of the coolest moments of my entire life. He weighed 6 lbs, 6oz and was 20 inches long.

We got to spend a few hours with him just holding him and letting him try and eat a little bit before they really bathed him and did all his testing. My dad brought Rylie over as soon as he was born. I will never forget her little face as Brandon carried her in to meet her little brother. She has been nothing but super gentle and loving from that very first moment. She is a very proud big sister!

After a few more hours, we were moved to our regular room. We had some people stop by throughout the day, and I napped periodically. Grayson pretty much slept through it all. We actually had to check his blood sugar levels because he was sleeping right through feedings. It was actually a pretty quiet and peaceful afternoon. By that evening, we had decided that we would like to go home the next day. I was feeling amazing (now, I really only have a c-section recovering to compare to, so this was pretty nice)! Helen ordered pizza for all of us that night and we just had a fun time in the room with close family.

Grayson slept a few long stretches that first night, so we were actually able to get some sleep. He just seemed so easy! The next day was Mother's Day so it was fun to be able to go home and spend the evening with both of my babies. We got released that afternoon and headed home to start our adventure as a family of 4!