Grady's Birth Story

Okay... I know it's been six weeks, but here it is.. .finally. More to come!
Grady Cole was born on October 19th at 2:00 a.m. We could not be more thrilled. I began having "need to breathe through them" contractions on Friday night about 9 p.m. I stayed up all night pacing, breathing, and then finally getting ready to head to the hospital early Saturday morning when they were finally about 4 minutes apart for a couple hours. We were (thankfully!) admitted when they confirmed my water had broke (oops- I didn't even know) and I was SO relieved they didn't send me home because I was already exhausted.

Then the fun began with more regular contractions, pitocin to speed things up after a few hours, and what seems like a blur of back rubs, monitors, and staff shift changes. I had great nurses- and since I was progressing slowly I had a lot of time to spend with them. Grady's heart rate dipped a little low a time or two, but I'll never forget sometime onSaturday evening when the doors opened and staff came rushing in. I was suddenly getting a shot to stop labor, being flipped over and having my belly rubbed- all eyes were on that monitor and I could see Grady's heart rate dropping off the graph. A few moments seemed like an eternity, but everything was okay after that and we were back at square one. Late Saturday evening we decided something was wrong after his heart rate dropped again with strong contractions, so the C-section was set in motion. I was terribly dissappointed, but so relieved knowing our baby would arrive safely after 20 plus hours of laboring.

During the operation (it's now Sunday by this time) they confirmed that the cord was wrapped around his neck 3 times and that part of it was up by his head which explained his distress. I am so thankful for a capable hospital staff! God is so good.

We are having a BLAST and learning so much- the pics above are from his first moments of life... more to come on the amazing moments of the past six weeks.