Hey Y'all, sorry this post has been edited to take out many pictures of my son to protect him. Sorry if the post is now choppy and doesn't make sense, I hope you understand.
Oh man!!! I can't believe all that has happened so far this year, it's been a big one for our little family! As you can tell by the title, this post is going to be very informative (and of course have LOTS of pictures!) so hopefully you brought snacks!! ;)
First, I finished student teaching, which was amazing and exhausting all at once (probably exhausting because I was nine months pregnant) and so worth it!! Everyday the students asked me "When is your baby going to come out?" I'm sure I got more and more grumpy with my answers the closer I got to my due date haha! I finished student teaching March 4th, and our sweet baby boy made his appearance not even a week later - talk about perfect timing!
Brayden Arthur Peel - a birth story
After student teaching ended I was starting to get stir crazy, although as you can tell by the picture below I probably should've put those nesting instincts to better use organizing my house haha!
I took this picture the day I went into labor, March 9th - I felt HUGE!!! Blake got home from work and we immediately left the house to go on a walk. We walked up the hills above our house, ran around the parking lot of our church (well let's be honest, I was waddling by that point) We did that for about two hours, and we started getting really discouraged because I was only having braxton-hicks contractions. Later that night though (around 11pm) I started getting more braxton-hicks contractions, so many that Blake started timing them. They were TWO MINUTES apart and consistent! Blake started freaking out, but I was like "These don't even hurt, we're fine! We aren't going to the hospital!" But I kept getting the feeling to start packing and loading the car. So after about a half hour we left and around midnight we arrived at American Fork Hospital. Then the REAL contractions hit. From 12am-4am we were in triage, and I remember just being in so much pain. I don't remember much else (those hormones really do make you forget!!), but Blake tells me it was very scary and there was lots of screaming. Finally at 4am, they said I could get the epidural, which I was really scared of getting but I wanted the pain to go away. I felt the first numbing shot - it felt just like a bee sting - and then lots of pressure. After about 10 minutes everything calmed down and I felt so much better :) seriously, I highly recommend the epidural :) I know it's not for everyone, but it made my birth experience so much more enjoyable.
In the hospital after the epidural - obviously :)
We had a room where you could see the Timpanogos temple from the window! Too bad I couldn't get out of the bed at that point haha.
topline baby's heartbeat
bottomline contractions
Around 3pm my nurse told us I was at dilated to a ten, but my dr. couldn't make it for another few hours, we were so anxious but we had to wait for him. Around 4:45 my nurse helped me do a few practice pushes, and around 5pm my Dr. came into my room and started getting everything ready! At 5:35, Brayden was born :)
Isn't he so perfect?!
My boys!! I love these two so much!! Also I have the cutest husband on the planet, he stayed up all night and day so excited/anxious to meet our boy.
Life after that - Eleven Sleepless weeks of pure happiness :)
Last Thursday marked Brayden's 11th week of life, and while motherhood definitely is not easy, it's so rewarding. He is the sweetest little baby ever, so cuddly and smiley!!
More pictures to come! I have two more pending blog posts, one for our time in Disney and one for our recent move to Tennessee!!
Love you all!!! I promise to be more consistent on the blog!! ;)
