Welcome to the world Grant!

Grant William Bailey was born on October 30, 2009 at 4:14 pm at Newton Wellesley Hospital in Newton, MA!

Let me get the stats out of the way first... 7 lbs 11.8 oz (smaller than Natalie who weighed 7 lbs 14.4 oz!) and he was 20.5 inches long. (One inch longer than Natalie).

Okay, now for my birth story!

In the 2 am hour early Friday morning (Oct. 30), I was woken up with contrations about every 15 minutes or so. They weren't too bad, so I fell back asleep afterwards until another one hit. I honestly have little memory of them because I was in a fog. Kind of thinking, "Are these real? Or just round ligament pains? No they feel different... ugh, I'm so tired, who cares..." Then around 3 am, I woke up and they started coming a little more rapidly. Finally at 3:30 am, I woke Todd up and told him what was going on. We laid there for a while, and I think finally somewhere around 4 am, we finally got up, knowing it was the real deal! We hadn't even packed a bag, plus, we had to pack for Natalie to go to Todd's sister Helen's house for 2 days. (If you have a toddler, you know that this requires about 2 suitcases and numerous duffle bags of toys, gear, pack and plays, etc.) Everything seemed to just work out perfectly, time wise. I couldn't have asked for better timing! Go into labor on a Friday morning, still be able to take Natalie to daycare, and have Todd's sister pick her up Friday evening and spend the weekend with them, and we all go home on Sunday! We dropped Natalie off at daycare at 7 am (her usual time) and headed right for the hospital. Dr. Sharon Margulies was on duty from my practice and at first, I was a bit bummed. She seemed to be the only one I met with who wasn't 100% pro-VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). But in the end, she was really cool. More on that in a bit...

I was checked out by a nurse and I was already 4 cm and 100%! Whoo hoo! The contractions were pretty painful at this point, but I think I was handling them okay. Todd was funny- I had previously told him not to touch or talk to me when I'm having a contraction. I just deal with pain better that way. Meanwhile, I'm on the table being monitored and I'm having a contraction and we are just sure the nurse was looking at Todd like, "You total nitwit, comfort your wife!" She was touching my arm and telling me when the contraction was peaking, etc. (Meanwhile in my head I'm like, "STOP TOUCHING ME! SHUT YOUR TRAP!" :-)

So then I get to head to a labor and delivery room. I had a SUPER cool nurse Lisa (if anyone births at Newton Wellesley, I totally recommend you ask for her if you can! She rocked!). I found that standing or moving definitely eased the pain of the contractions (I mean... they still hurt, but it definitely took the edge off). Of course, at this point, they offer the epidural. Naturally, I say YES! Anyone who goes through natural childbirth is completely insane in my opinion!!! And you'll read why I am allowed to say that in just a minute...

So the same anesthesiologist that was present for Natalie's tube surgery in September wound up being my epidural man! Can't remember his last name, but his first name was David. They checked me - either right before or right after I got the epi, I can't remember - and I was already 6 cm (around 10:45 am), so I was progressing really fast and glad I said yes to the epi!!! Of course, after about 20 minutes or so, my contractions were not easing up any. My legs were completely numb, but I could still feel the contractions in my belly. NOT COOL. So they came in with some fentanyl (more powerful than the morphine I got with Natalie and TOTALLY worth it). This did the trick. The contractions subsided (and I felt absolutely nothing from the chest down) and by 1 pm, I was 9 cm. This is also around the time that the fentanyl wore off! BOOOOO... they gave me more of the epidural, which in hindsight, even though it didn't ease the contractions, I am glad they gave me more because it completely numbed my... um... nether-regions! The anesthesiologist also came back in with more fentanyl, but I swear they never gave it to me or something because I continued to feel each and every contraction. I had absolutely the worst outcome of the pain medications! I couldn't feel the pressure you are supposed to feel when you need to start pushing, and yet I still had every single freaking contraction!!!

So after 3 hours of pushing - in which they said I was doing very well and he was only a few pushes from being born on his own - I finally caved to the vacuum because I was just totally exhausted. So exhausted, I was falling asleep in between contractions. Out cold. Then another contraction would come, wake me up, I'd push 4-5 times, and be out cold again. Seriously, who falls asleep when they are in the worst part of labor????

I don't even remember much of the last part of labor... I was in another world. The pain was insane and I was so tired. So when Dr. Margulies offered the vacuum, I was like, "YES!" If it took 2 suctions/contractions to get him out, and I could save on the pain and exhaustion of 5 more contractions, it was worth it. That's how tired I was. Dr. Margulies said that she didn't think I needed the vacuum- that I could do it on my own, but it was up to me. I was glad she left the decision to me! Oh, and some poor med student came in and I remember her saying, "Colleen, my name is such-and-such and I'm a student, blah blah blah, do you mind if I observe?" WTF ever lady! Don't talk to me, I'm having a contraction, can't you see that??? Clearly, she has never had a baby!

But in the end, I did it! I had a VBAC! And overall, I think it went pretty well. It was about 14 hours from first contraction to his birth, and although he was born a little jaundiced, Grant is healthy and doing well! I mean, that's all a mama can ask for, right?

And of course, I posted on facebook during the entire labor (up to the pushing part... just couldn't do it!). Everyone thought I was insane. Well, because of the epidural, I was just laying there with Todd. He was reading a book and we were listening to REM and Vertical Horizon on the ipod, talking with Lisa, our nurse. I think some people don't realize it's kind of a boring process, especially if you can't feel a darn thing! I was too foggy from the fentanyl to read, but too excited and nervous to nap... so I just had my BlackBerry and posted on FB! I knew I had a lot of friends and family members on there who were wanting updates, so that was the best way I knew how to get word to the masses!!

Anyway, here is Grant William Bailey, aka: Snack Attack; aka: Little Man; aka: Snugglesaurus!