Conrad Jeremiah Brown

Once the craziness of summer camps and swim lessons ended the first week of August, it was time to focus on getting ready for baby. I signed up for water aerobics, which I absolutely love doing while pregnant and especially at the end when my body can't handle any impact really. I would be exhausted the days that I did it, but it felt so good while I was in the pool that it was worth it. All of my babies have come early and from my doctors appointments it was looking like this one would follow suit. Just in case he didn't we had an induction set up for Tuesday Aug 21, which would have been 6 days early. My parents had limited time when they could get off of work and come to visit so I had to make sure I had the baby before they came. Well the whole week before the induction date I was feeling pretty sick and out of it. I kept getting hit by waves of nausea and dizziness. When I went to the doctor on Friday the 17th, my blood pressure was elevated for me and there was a trace amount of protein in my urine. My doctor wanted me to really watch over the weekend for other signs of preeclampsia. Well Sunday morning I felt horrible and I started seeing black spots and my doctor said that if that happened I needed to come in. Just to be sure I also went to grocery store to check my blood pressure and it had skyrocketed to 157 over 105. When my blood pressure got that high with Netta they induced me, so I called the on call doctor and she said it was time to come into the hospital to get checked out. 

So at about 12:15pm my friend Richelle came to watch the kids for us and we headed to the hospital. When we got there they had to do a bunch of tests to see if I actually had preeclampsia. In the end it turned out that I didn't, but the gestational hypertension was bad enough to warrant an induction. You never want to be sick, but I can't lie I was very ready and willing to be induced. At this point I was already 4 cm and 90% effaced, so the doctor decided to get things going by first just breaking my water. That was at 2:30pm. After 45 minutes my contractions hadn't really gotten started so they started me on the lowest dose of pitocin. Well after about 30 minutes of that, so around 3:45pm, the contractions were extremely strong and I requested my old pal the epidural. Luckily, there was pretty much no one else in labor and delivery so the anesthesiologist arrived very quickly. By 4:30pm the epidural was up and running and all I could think was how grateful I am to have the option of this kind of pain management. The nurse checked me again and I was 6cm, which was awesome to hear. She said she would come back in an hour to check on me again. Well 20 minutes later she was in the room and I told her that my butt bones were hurting. I thought it was just the affects of the epidural, but she decided to check me anyway to see if anything was going on. She had me turn onto my back and as soon as I did she said "I know why your butt hurts. It's because your baby is crowning!" I couldn't believe it. John was over in the corner doing his own thing and I said "Did you hear that?" and he hadn't so I told him the baby is coming and as soon as he walked over I could see the surprise on his face cause he could see what I meant. The nurse quickly told me to close my legs so she could call the doctor. The doctor took 5 minutes and almost missed the birth. Basically the contractions were pushing him out and even though I wasn't pushing there was no stopping him. You could see the surprise on the doctor's face as well when she walked in and she quickly ran over and told me just to give one gentle push and viola Conrad was born at 4:59pm just 2 1/2 hours after they broke my water. I teared up a little but mainly I was laughing because I just couldn't get over the shock of how quickly he had come. I am glad I had a great nurse who took my butt hurting comment seriously and didn't just write it off like I am sure some people would have. 

So here are some pics from the hospital stay. First me getting checked in to the triage room. Words cannot express how good it feels not to be pregnant anymore. Conrad was so low at the end that it was basically impossible to be comfortable ever. 

Me and my baby boy. I was grateful that I got to take a shower before going into the hospital and that my time on the pitocin was very short so I wasn't swollen like a balloon from the iv. 

We thought the babysitter would have to be at our house through dinner and then put the kids to bed, but things happened so quickly that John was able to bring dinner to the kids and then bring them to the hospital before bed time. Of course the kids were so excited to meet the baby and just as excited to get to play in the hospital room. There was some serious fighting over the remote. 

King really showed no interest in Conrad. In fact he didn't acknowledge the baby during my hospital stay at all. Instead he preferred to fight over the remote and play in the closet. 

Netta joined in on the closet action and John took what is one of my favorite pictures ever of the two of them. 

I wanted a picture of me and all the kids, but like I said, if the baby was involved King refused to cooperate so I could only get a picture with EZ and Netta. Of course as soon as I put down Conrad, King was all over me and wanted to sit directly on my stomach. 

Here he is Conrad Jeremiah Brown. He was 8 lbs 8 oz and 20 inches. Not my biggest baby, but still pretty good sized. The doctor was impressed that I popped out a baby this size so quickly. 

The next morning John came back with the kids again. I loved having them there, but unfortunately they could never really stay more than an hour because King would get too antsy. Netta was beyond excited to get to hold the baby. 

EZ loves him too and just keeps saying how cute he is. 

And of course here is my handsome hubby with Conrad. It took us quite a while to come up with the name. In fact we had 3 names in mind when we went to the hospital and it wasn't until the second day when the birth certificate lady kind of gave us a deadline that we were able to finally choose. 

I got asked so many times in the hospital whether or not we are going to have anymore kids. When people would ask me at the end of the pregnancy my initial reaction would be "no" because I was uncomfortable and cranky, but after such an easy delivery and while holding such a precious beautiful boy, I don't know for sure but I can't rule it out completely just yet.