Happy Birthday Claire and Brady

I had every intention of posting this on June 8th, Claire's birthday, but it turned out Claire had other plans for us that day. Her little brother, Brady Marshall, was born on June 8th, exactly one year from Claire's birthday. I have no explanation for this, other than there is some higher power and this was how it was supposed to be. Claire wanted to share her birthday with her little brother to make sure it was always a happy day for us. It's beyond bittersweet.

I had a routine weekly dr, visit Friday morning and was expecting to be told I was still stuck at 4 cm dilated and hadn't made any progress despite the fact that I had had contractions off and on the night before. I expected to stop at the cemetery on my way back to work and then work the remainder of the day, hoping that Brady would be born over the weekend. That's not what happened. I requested to be checked because of the contractions the night before and was told that I was 5-6 cm dilated and they wanted to hook me up for a NST to see if I was having regular contractions and just not feeling them. Turns out I was contracting, just not regularly. They sent me home since I wasn't in pain, but said they were sure I would have this baby today of all days. I was secretly hoping that Brady would hold off until 12:01 AM, but that didn't happen either.

It was around 4PM that I finally started feeling regular contractions about every 3-5 minutes lasting for a minute or more. I still wasn't in much pain, but figured I better call the on-call Midwife and let her know what was going on. She told us to eat dinner and then head in to be checked for progress. We got there around 6PM and I was 7cm and 90% effaced. They admitted me and broke my water shortly after being admitted. I was able to get a room with a tub, and that was absolutely wonderful. I recommend laboring in a tub to everyone! The contractions got intense as soon as my water was broke. I labored until about 8PM when I started feeling the urge to push. I was checked again and was 10cm and ready to go. Unfortunately, the MW was delivering another baby right at that time so they brought in the on-call OB. She was wonderful. I pushed for not even a half hour and Brady Marshall was born at 8:26PM! His cry was the most wonderful sound I have ever heard.

We are all doing great! I was able to go completely med-free and I truly believe that my recovery has been so easy because of that. I would definitely do it again in a heartbeat. I also believe that Claire has been watching over us this entire pregnancy, and that is part of the reason everything went as it did. Brady is so amazing and I've never loved anyone so much. He is (so far) a very easy baby and is breastfeeding pretty darn well.

So Happy Belated Birthday Claire Bear! We love you and miss you so much! Your little brother will know all about you, although we know that he already knows you. 

And here's Brady! He weighed 8 lbs. exactly and is 20 inches tall.