As I am sitting here typing there is a little voice in my head that says I should be sleeping while the baby is, but I wanted to update the good old blog instead. Big announcement in case anybody missed it, our cute, son Jayce Everett Bradford was born on April 25 at 12:11 pm weighing 7 pounds and 6 ounces ( a midget my eye!:) The events of that week were nothing short of craziness. What else can you expect being a Bradford though! On Tuesday the 22 I decided that I was going to drive up with Trevor because I did not want to miss out on his brother's wedding. Trevor had also acquired some free tickets to the new living planet aquarium up in the Salt Lake area. The tickets included a nice dinner and free admission to the aquarium. It was fun looking at all the water creatures. My favorite was the water otters! My sister Rachel also got to tag along. The next morning was the wedding. I woke up feeling just dandy and was getting myself all beautiful when Trevor called and said he had found a truck. Now we had been looking for a second vehicle for awhile but Trevor happened to find one for a killer deal and was going to buy it right then. The only problem was, was we were supposed to pick up Trevor's mom for the wedding ceremony and drive to American Fork. Our timetable to get the money from the bank (the seller wanted cash), buy the truck, and pick up Trevor's mom was only 30 minutes. Somehow it all worked out and we made it to the wedding ceremony on time. As the ceremony went on I noticed I was having some slight cramping and it seemed to get steadily worse. Thankfully, I drank some water and the cramping went away. Spent the rest of the day going to the wedding luncheon, doing pictures (not my favorite at 39 weeks pregnant), being at the reception and royally destroying my brother in laws vehicle. It included some live goldfish in a little pond, two live ducks, window markers, rice cereal, Oreos, and other materials to make the car all beautiful inside and out. I did not feel any remorse because I vividly remember the turtle, dead fish, and frogs at my wedding, courtesy of the same brother in law.:) The next morning I work up at 5:40 am to some sharp cramping. I spent the next two hours walking around my parents house and would throw myself over a cushion when it got intense. At around 8:30 am I told Trevor that we needed to start driving down to Cedar because I did not want to have my baby up north. So we got in our new truck, told the family goodbye, and started driving down to Cedar. My contractions as I then acknowledged what they were, were only about 20 minutes apart. Surprisingly the drive down to Cedar was not that bad. I had plenty of leg room and the truck drove smoothly. We did stop in Fillmore briefly so I could use the restroom. It was then I noticed I was leaking a tiny bit. Trevor asked it we needed to stop at the hospital there, but I said no I want to be in Cedar. We made it to Cedar around noon and he again asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I told him no and that I was hungry. So we drove through Costa Vida and got me a raspberry chicken salad. It was delicious. I then spent the rest of the day with Trevor watching Disney movies and rolling on my yoga ball. At around midnight I told Trevor that we should probably try to get some sleep. He fell right asleep and I tried. The contractions were getting more intense and closer together. However, I did not want to go to the hospital yet because I just knew they were going to send me home. So I climbed in the tub instead. At around 3:00 am Trevor woke up to me whimpering and said lets just go to the hospital the worse they are going to do is send you home. I finally agreed and off we went. I even waited while he parked the car because I did not want to go in by myself. We walked in to Labor and Delivery and I asked if I could be checked. A nice nurse led me to a room and handed me a gown to change into. The whole time I was telling Trevor they are just going to send me home. I also couldn't figure out how to put on that complicated hospital gown. It finally took me, Trevor, and the nurse to get it on. I was then checked. The nurse smiled and said honey you are not going home you are at about 6 cm right now. I couldn't believe it, I thought it was supposed to be more intense. The nurse called my CNM to let her know I was in labor and checked in. The nurse then asked me if I wanted an Epideral and I said no thank you. I did ask for a yoga ball and if I could get in the tub and they got me a ball right away and let me climb in the tub. Which was wonderful. For the next couple of hours I switched between the tub and the yoga ball while I listed to my Hypnobabies tracks (which is the best program ever if you ever want to give birth drug free!) The nurse would come in about every 20 minutes to hook me up to the heart machine so they could check on the baby and then they would unhook me and let me go back to doing my thing. I had the best labor nurses ever! At around 8 the nurse asked if I wanted to be checked and I said sure, I was then at an 8 1/2 cm At around 10:30 am my CNM showed up, she had told the nurses to let me know if I wanted her earlier she would come right in. I was doing okay dokey so she decided to come check on me. She check me again and I was still at 8 1/2 cm. She then noticed that my water was not really broken yet. She said I was probable leaking because there was probably a tiny leak on top. She suggested breaking my water to move things along. At this point I had been in labor for 28-29 ish hours. I agreed. Surprisingly it didn't hurt. In no time I was at 10 cm and ready to start pushing. Since I didn't have an epideral the nurse and CNM let me get in multiple positions on the bed. Some of the time I was on my side, on my back, on all fours, you name it I probably did it. I also ripped off my hospital gown in the middle of it because the darn thing was just in the way. That's right ladies and gentlemen I was in the nude and I didn't even care. Throughout the whole thing the nurse, CNM, and Trevor were so calm. Even though I made some pretty loud animal grunts and yelps. I do remember them checking the babies heart rate often and the CNM saying that the baby was facing down, but was turned the wrong way so she had to stick her hand up my yahoo to turn him. I did let out a screech then when she did that. I also remember telling Trevor that this was intense between the sips of apple juice that he was giving me. The CNM said that I really needed to get the baby out so I hunkered down on all fours and grunt/ pushed with all my might and ta da the baby slipped out! Later Trevor told me that the baby had the cord around his neck and the nurse and CNM were whispering debating about doing an episonomy if I didn't get that baby out soon. As soon as the baby came out about five more people whisked into the room. I was helped onto my back given a quick shot in the leg to slow the bleeding and handed my beautiful baby boy. As I was holding him the respiratory therapist checked him out. The CNM also informed me that I had some second degree tears so she was going to stitch me up. The numbing shots she gave me caused me to yelp some more. Luckily I had my baby and adrenaline
to distract me through most of it. She kept having to tell me to not push out my leg because she needed to see what she was sewing up. Overall, the whole giving birth thing was a bit intense, but me and the baby are happy and healthy. Trevor was super calm and positive through the whole thing (even with all that blood!) Now it has been 2 weeks and the hard part is just starting, but it is going to be an awesome adventure! Mommy and Daddy love you little Jayce man! PS Jayce also made it out into the world in time to see his daddy graduate! We watched Trevor walk from the bell tower to the auditorium. He earned a Bachelors degree in Information Systems. Super proud of you honey!!!!!
