Mason's Birth Story

Well Mason is 5 weeks old today... so before I forget or block it out of my memory I thought I should post his birth story. I have already said to Frankie maybe we should have just one more kid and he gives me the look like I am completely crazy but Mason is such a good baby that it makes all the hard things about pregnancy and delivery totally seem worth it. So anyways here is my story.

Tuesday night (Jan 25th) we decided to get out of the house a little being as the baby didn't seem to have any desire to arrive anytime soon. We went to Target and did a little shopping and then went to McDonald's for ice cream treats and more importantly so Colton could burn off some energy in the playland (being cooped up in the house all winter was driving us all nuts). We got back home around 8:30 and got Colton into bed. I then jumped on facebook to update my status to " Mandy is wondering why my baby doesn't want to come out and meet everyone? We are really nice people I promise.... now please come out"! Then it was off to bed. Seriously we were in bed and watching TV at 9:30. I was having some contractions but they were at least 10 minutes apart and not at all regular, similar to the ones I had been having for the past two weeks so I didn't think anything of it. Lucky for me there was a marathon of "The Nanny" on TV so I was set. At 2am I was still awake watching that stupid show and wondering if my contractions were ever going to organize and get this baby out. At 2:20am I felt an extremely sharp pain in my stomach, I got up to go to the bathroom and my water broke!! I woke up Frankie and told him it was time to go to the hospital. By 2:30 my contractions were already 2 minutes apart. I called my mom and told her that we needed my dad to come over and stay with Colton so we could head to the hospital. My dad didn't exactly rush over to our house and I don't blame him - I figured you have many hours after your water broke before the baby would arrive. While we waited for my dad Frankie called the hospital to let them know we were coming in and that I was in active labor! My dad got to our house shortly before 3am and we were already in the van waiting to leave!!

Frankie drove to the hospital a little faster than he should have but with contractions every minute or two he knew he needed to get me to the hospital. We may have went through several red lights and raced across the train tracks in order to beat the train but we arrived safely at United Hospital in St Paul at 3:15am. They made me sign a couple papers (which was tough with the contractions coming one after another) and then got my to a delivery room. My nurse was amazing and very patient with me. I got into a gown and she checked me around 3:30 - yup almost 10cms already and almost 100% effaced. It was just about go time! The nurse was trying to do my registration but I was having a hard time answering any of her questions so she pretty much gave up and finished her paperwork once the baby was born. Another nurse came in to let us know that my doctor was in the elevator and should be in my room shortly and you guessed it... no time for drugs. I started pushing at 3:45am and after only a couple pushes and some screaming the baby's head was out. At this point it hurt like I could never explain and when both the doctor and the nurse told me to push I told them I couldn't and then proceeded to tell them "Just pull it out"! What I didn't know was that the cord was around the baby's neck twice... Frankie of course could see that and he looked right at me and said "You need to focus". Was he kidding? I wanted to punch him right in the face but instead I gave one more big push and at 4:01am Wednesday January 26th our baby was born. The doctor placed him on my stomach and instead of me hugging and embracing my newborn I put my hands up over my head in relief that it was all over and started crying. After about a minute I heard "It's a boy" and immediately I wanted to hold and kiss him! It was such an amazing experience, I wouldn't change any part of it. Mason Bradley weighed in at 8 pounds 2 ounces, 21 inches long and was welcomed into this world before daddy even got a chance to take his coat off!

We spent the next 2 hours admiring our newborn son. It was so early in the morning that we didn't want to call and wake everyone up (although Frankie did text a few people to tell them the good news). It was a very relaxing time with our new son. Then shortly after 6am my nurse came back and said it was time to move to the recovery room. She helped me to the bathroom so I could empty my bladder and change gowns. While going to the bathroom I could feel that I has lost a lot of blood, which the nurse ensured me was completely normal. Well when I got up to was my hands I started to get dizzy, turned completely white and then I passed out. The nurse was able to kinda catch me and lower me to the floor. Frankie was sitting right outside the bathroom door holding Mason and I guess he also came to help hold me until I woke back up. Once I was alert again he went to lay Mason in his warmer and then came back to help the nurse get me back to my bed. They got me on the bed and again I passed out. I woke up to both of them yelling my name. I was shaking, sweating and cold. Frankie had placed a wet towel on my head while I was out because I guess I started sweating really bad but when I woke up I was freezing. It was a very scary experience, this was my first time ever fainting and I hope it never happens again. I was so extremely tired after this but I was scared to go to sleep, I didn't know if I would ever wake up. I ended up falling asleep for about an hour and once I woke up I felt 100% better. At 8am two nurses came in to move me to my new room, I was nervous to stand up but it went just fine this time and before I knew it was in my room holding my son again!

My parents brought Colton to the hospital around 1pm - it was awesome to see my first born son holding his little brother. I was the proudest Momma in the entire hospital. We had several more visitors throughout the afternoon and early evening. By 7pm it was just Frankie, Mason and myself. Frankie hung out with us until about 10pm and then went home to sleep (the tiny little chair in our room really isn't meant to be slept in)!! I sent Mason to the nursery around 2am so I too could get some sleep. The next day was filled with visits from lactation consultants, my doctor, nurses and of course Mason's circumcision. By noon my doctor said we were free to leave whenever we felt comfortable and at 3pm we were completely checked out and on our way home with our new son. I never imagined that I would check in to the hospital, deliver a baby and check back out within 36 hours. It was quite the adventure and everything happened so fast it almost didn't seem real. It was exactly the delivery I had always dreamed of but didn't think I had to strength to do it. I was so proud of myself that I had delivered my son without any drugs (of course it wasn't by choice but becuase there simply wasn't any time but so what) and I must say my recovery was so much faster than it was with Colton.

Our first week home was great, we were now a family of 4 and enjoying every minute of it. When Mason was 6 days old he had his first photo shoot. I was approached by a high school classmate several weeks earlier. She needed a newborn to use for some new props and wondered if I would be interested in newborn photo shoot. I of course said yes... why not it was free and I had seen some of her pics, they were amazing. If anyone wants to check her out here is a link to her site... Kari Layland Photography. Here are just a couple of the pics she took that day.

Auntie Melissa also did a newborn photo shoot with Mason - he was 10 days old when she took his pictures and oh my gosh, they turned out absolutely amazing! I had planned to use one for Mason's birth announcements but they all turned out so good it was way too hard to narrow it down to just one so I used four! Thank you so much for taking his pictures Melissa, you are so talented it almost makes me sick. Maybe when I get my new camera you can give me some tips on how to get pictures that look this good!