Braden Rainier Retterath
I still can't believe that Braden is already here. Tuesday night I had just started packing our hospital bags and put in an online order for some newborn sized clothes thinking I had more than enough time to finish organizing our bags and washing his new clothes before he was due to arrive on the 19th. Wednesday morning I woke up at 6:30am with what I thought was just a random Braxton Hicks contraction. Three minutes later I had another one...and then I another. I lay there in bed wondering if I should wake Dave up or not. Wake him up for a false alarm and now we're both extra tired for no reason; wake him up and it's actually labor and now we're both extra tired and have to go through labor.
So I lay there, using some random app to track my contractions until 8am when we had to get up to go to my scheduled 38 week OB appointment. I told Dave, "I'm having regular contractions, but I bet they go away as soon as I get up and start getting ready". They didn't go away. They got stronger. I was still in denial though. So I did my makeup, got dressed, and told Dave "naw just leave the bags, they're not fully packed and I bet we don't get admitted".
By the time we got to the hospital I realized I may actually be in labor... During my checkup I was most afraid to hear that my blood pressure might be high again. In fact, I had brought a little home blood pressure kit with me that we had just bought to use to at home for the last two weeks of the pregnancy (our OB wanted to check it to see if it was accurate).
"You're having this baby today!" - Dr. Kipa
Sweet music to my ears. Let's do this. They wheeled me over to labor and delivery where a super sweet nurse checked my blood pressure again and gave me the second greatest news of the morning - blood pressure is normal. No preeclampsia. No magnesium drip. Thank you sweet baby Jesus.
When Connor was born, my labor was pretty brutal because of the preeclampsia. Imagine labor + the worst flu you've ever had. Magnesium makes you feel just awful. You also are stuck in the hospital bed the whole time because they have to take your blood pressure every 30 minutes and you're hooked up to a bunch of different monitors/drips. I remember thinking afterwards, holy crap this is why some people only have one.
Compared to that, Braden was a walk in the park. I know its probably some sort of blasphemy to say that about labor, but seriously...especially once I had the epidural it was really, comparably not bad. We got checked in to the hospital around 10:00; Dave ran back to the house to drop off Connor with my mom and to pick up/pack our bags; I went on the epidural around noon; and after ten minutes of pushing, Braden was born at 2:52pm. The only "invasive" procedure that they did was breaking my water (because, no it hardly ever happens right away like it does in the movies). Also Braden did have his umbilical cord wrapped twice around his neck, so I'm glad he came early and didn't have the chance to grow much larger and potentially make that a bigger complication than it needed to be.
Braden being early was a relief for us for a couple reasons; my parents could easily watch Connor for us, I got to not be pregnant an extra couple weeks, and I didn't have to give birth to a 9 pound baby (Braden was 15 days early and already 7lbs 4 oz...and at this stage they gain 1/2 pound per week).
I'm excited to see what this little guy is like as he grows. So far he shares a lot of physical similarities to his big brother. However Connor most definitely did not come out with a full head of dark brown hair. Who knows what that could mean! All of Dave's siblings were born with full heads of dark brown hair that fell out and turned to bright blonde. I was bald like Connor, and Jon came out with a full head of dark brown hair too...Guess we'll have to wait and see!!
The important thing is; everyone is healthy and we absolutely adore our newest little addition. Welcome to the world Braden Rainier Retterath. We love you so much.
