Story of Bridger's Birth

We were scheduled to be at the hospital at 7:30 a.m.

We got up, got everyone ready and took Brynlee across the street to a neighbor who was going to take her to the bus stop and Gracen got to spend the day with my visiting teacher Sister Thiesens.

It took about an hour to get everything hooked up and going.  

When the nurse first checked to see how far dilated I was, she said I was at a 3.  Things weren't too bad in the beginning.  My contractions weren't terribly uncomfortable, but the little guy was still sitting so high that the contractions were hurting up under the right front half of my ribs around into the right back of my ribs.  

This was probably the worst pain I had.  

I finally decided around 10:00 to go ahead and get the epidural even though my pain was still tolerable.  I wanted it before the doctor came to break my water, and that rib pain was starting to get annoying!

Nurse checked me again, I was at a 5.

Epidural was placed.

It was so much nicer to have it done while I wasn't in pain rather than my past experiences of having it done about 30 minutes before I delivered.  

My doctor came in just after the epidural was done and broke my water.

Unfortunately for me, the epidural wouldn't go high enough to relieve me of my rib and back pain, so I had to suffer through it until about 30 minutes or so before he was born when he finally decided to drop. 

My blood pressure dropped down to 88/30 something, and I think I had a bit of a panic attack.  I can't remember much.  Everything went kind of dark, I felt really lightheaded, and couldn't talk very well.  I kept asking Nate to figure out what was wrong with me and telling him I couldn't breathe.  He got the nurse and she came in and checked on me.  It came back up and I was much better.  

She checked me again and they had the doctor on his way.  Bridger's heart rate dropped a little, so they had to put an oxygen mask on me.  

At 12:31 p.m., after 4 hours of labor and pushing through 2 contractions, we were surprised by a sweet baby boy!  I was still trying to get myself together, but remember the look on Nate's face when he saw that our baby was a boy.  Seriously priceless!  He looked so surprised and happy!  I wish I had someone there to capture that moment.  Nate said to me, "It's a boy!" and had the biggest smile on his face.  It all happened so fast, but it was fun not knowing what we were having until he was born.

Bridger in the little hat that was put on him after his bath.

Things went pretty well.  Just a few minor issues, but I really can't complain much about 4 hours and a healthy, beautiful baby boy!