brighton's birth story

so, my body is great at making big babies but sucks at bringing them out. because of this, i got induced this last tuesday the 21st. it was a week before my due date, same exact story with crew baby. i was secretly excited about getting induced just because i am a very plan oriented person and with getting induced, you know exactly -- when, where, and what is next... i always have these horrible fears about going into labor while i'm at the grocery store and having my water break and not knowing what to do. so, an induction was a pretty good idea :)

our induction time was at 6 AM. they told me to call ahead two hours prior just to make sure not too many ladies went into labor and that they had enough room for me. well, we got lucky and there weren't a whole lot of babies popping out that night! we were good to go. soooo... i finished packing  up my bags and we headed out to the hospital. 

we got admitted and the nurses kept apologizing that they were so slow right then and they were about to change shifts of the night nurses to day nurses so we didn't really get seen until 8, which was totally fine with dev and i. we knew the drill and he brought all of his glenn beck books and i played sudoku for a while. then our nurse, tammy came in. SHE WAS THE FREAKING BOMB DOT COM. oh, i got so lucky with nurses. i got her from start to finish too which was awesome! she started my pitocin and then the waiting game really began. she kept coming in every half hour to up the dose and honestly, i was feeling great! i kept thinking, gosh i must've been a huge baby to think that pitocin made my contractions so hard with crew. ha ha ha... that's because it wasn't upped very high yet. around 11-ish my contractions were starting to get reallllly painful. my mom was in the room and she thought i was asleep but i was on my side and dev was playing with my hair and squeezing my hand while i.... cried haha. i HATE contractions and i think i HATE pitocin even more. at one point my mom was like, wow i'm so impressed she's sleeping through these contractions, (as she watched the monitor) they are spiking so high. then she proceeded to tell me how to breathe properly and i may or may not have told her to leave. yes, i told her to leave and then once the contraction was over, i apologized.... i think they bring out the best in everyone.

my doctor had come in periodically to check on me and see my progress. she told me she would come in at noon and break my water and around then i could get my epidural. GREAT! noon came and went and no doctor :( i was so upset. i was in a lot of paining and trying to be hopeful of when she would come in. finally, i decided to ask for my epidural around one. my favorite guy ever (the man with the epidural) came in a few minutes later and gave me the nicest present ever. it took a few minutes for me to start getting tingly but once it started working, man oh man was i a happy girl. i could still feel the pressure of the contractions but totally could relax. night and day difference. i don't know why anyone wouldn't opt for one. I LOVE DRUGS! 

just a few minutes later my doctor came in and broke my water. that's when things started rolling. i was only at a 3 when i was admitted to the hospital and wasn't really progressing a whole lot from the pitocin until after my water broke. in an hour and a half i went from a 5 to a 9. for me, that was huge! around 4 i felt like i was having a lot of pressure from down under and was ready to start pushing. the nurse checked me and told me to wait a little longer so the baby could move down a little more so i didn't have to push as long. i waited until i felt like there was so much pressure that he was going to fall out. it was around 4:45 that i started practicing pushing and then around 5:10 the baby was crowning. NOT BAD! with crew baby it took me 3 hours to get him into this freaking world. wayyyy too long!!! 

the nurse called my doc and she said she was on her way. but she took half an hour to get there! mean while i'm trying not to breathe or move in fear that the baby would plop out. yes, plop.

{at one point, dev started to feel really sick during all of it haha he had to sit down. he told the nurse, hey look -- i don't want to be all down up in it because i did that last time and i'm good to go without all that this time, HA!}

 i told the nurse i didn't think i could hold him in any longer and lo and behold, in walked my doctor! good timing. so she put her gloves on, and got down to it. i only pushed for 5 or 6 times maybe and the baby was out! it was so surreal to have him completely out of me and to hear his sweet little newborn cry. you know the one, they sound like cute little goats. they layed him on me and the nurses kept saying how big he was. i just remember thinking he was so warm and heavy and so much whiter than crew was at first. he had a cute amount of hair and a chubby little face. oh, that face is so sweet. i love it. i love nibbling on those fat cheeks and double chins of his. i felt an instant connection with him. with crew, i felt like he was such a sweet little baby but a complete stranger to me still. i got teary and put my hands around his cute long fingers and studied his face. oh, it was such a sweet moment. i remember looking at devin and he just stroked my hair and was smiling so big and couldn't keep his eyes off the baby. i love how much this boy loves being a father. oh, don't get me started on how sweet of a dad he is to these boys. it freaking melts my heart and i can't get enough of it.

they weighed him and i was a little bummed that he didn't break 9 pounds. i honestly felt like he was going to be 12 pounds. but he was perfect at 8 10 and 20 inches long. my cute little dirty blonde, pasty white, goat crying baby. he didn't cry after initially being born and i was kind of worried but the nurses kept saying to count my blessings.

they cleaned him up a little and dev followed him around the room while i got sewed up a little. it was so sweet to see dev hold him for the first time. he just beamed. 

the nurses had helped us figure out the baby's name all day. we told them all of our favorites and they ALL voted on brighton and so, you never fight with a nurse, right? brighton it was.

we named our sweet little guy Brighton Edward Woodruff. Edward is after my grandpa and great grandpa and my maiden name, Edwards. we thought it was a good fit. 

after we got cleaned up a little bit, my family came back in the room and in walked crew! i thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest. i seriously had so much love for these two little guys and they were getting to meet for the first time. brighton was on the table and they were doing a few little tests on him and so dev picked up crew so he could see him. crew kept pointing at brighton and smiling and saying babbbyyy.      it was so sweet. he was really curious about this new little man. i loved it. when they gave brighton back to me, crew sat on the bed too and dev stood right next to the bed. it was such a tender memory for me. my first time of being all together as a family of four. i seriously didn't think i could love dev or my babies any more than in that moment. i won't forget it. 

brighton is such a sweet baby. he's sooooooo sleepy. i forget how much new borns sleep! so far, he's very go with the flow and sleeps through his brother's loud noises and cars and music. he makes lots of funny man noises in his sleep and he likes to toot on me a whole lot. he eats pretty good and he's getting better at figuring out his days and nights. thank goodness! because this momma needs her sleep. 

we are so grateful to have had everything go so smoothly and have such a healthy big boy. we just love him!