The Ross Family: Brady's Homecoming

We are home! It has been a crazy couple of days but we couldn't be happier! I'm going to start from the beginning and then I'll update you on what's new with us. On Thursday night at 10:45 I started having contractions. I thought nothing of it since I had been having so many braxton hicks contractions so I just tried to ignore it and go to bed. I slept for about 45 minutes and the contractions woke me up. I got excited and thought maybe this is it?! My contractions were about 3 minutes apart and I woke Brian up at 4:00 am and said hey honey, I think I'm in labor. Go back to sleep but I just wanted to let you know in case they start getting stronger and we have to go to the hospital right away. Well of course, neither of us could sleep so we got up, showered, straightened up the house and left for the hospital at 7 am. I got there, they hooked me up to the monitors and could see my 3 minute apart contractions but when they checked me I was still 2 cm. They thought that I was probably in labor, but since I made no cervical change in 11 hours, they sent me home to have me rest. I tried to sleep, but after about 30 minutes I was awoken by much stronger contractions. By 2:00 I knew this was definitely the real thing. I toughed it out until 6:00 and by then I had to hold Brian's hand every contraction so I knew it was time to go to the hospital again. I was checked and was at 4 cm so they admitted me and got my iv in. I got my epidural at about 8:00 and I was at 9 cm by 11:00. However, my labor stalled and I was stuck at 9 cm until 2:15 am. My epidural started to wear off and I was feeling a ton of pressure and pain so I was ready to be done! Brady's heartbeat dropped and it was time to push. I almost had him out on my own but he was in distress so they had to pull him out with forceps and at 2:22 am he was born! They had to suck meconium (his first bowel movement) and fluid out of his lungs so I didn't get to see him until 5:30 am. The forceps tore me pretty badly so I had to be stitched up too but after that it was smooth sailing! Brady is a strong little man! We got to go home on Monday afternoon and we had a rough first night but things have been getting much better now that we're getting used to each other. It's been quite a change now that we have a baby but we're so happy and can't wait to see what kind of a kid and a man he'll turn out to be! Here are some more pictures: