It all started last summer when I least expected it, of course. Looking back it's so clear that if I had paid attention to my symptoms a bit more I would have known right then that Grant had started his life. Patrick, Miles, and I were on vacation with my family at my family's favorite past time camping resort Lake Pearrygin for the Fourth of July. The entire time we were there I was tired and felt like taking naps all day. Napping was a huge pregnancy symptom when I was first pregnant with Miles too. As time went on I had a couple more symptoms that were similar to the ones I felt before but just played it off as being busy and tired from chasing Miles around.
The next week Patrick came home and told me that his employee had a dream that someone in the office was pregnant (she said when she dreams about fruit, someone she knows is pregnant. She had the dream when I was pregnant with Miles). We both thought it might be another one of his employees that recently got married but in the back of my mind it clicked and all of the sudden every symptom I'd been having made sense. The next day I took a test and sure enough, there on the stick, positive. Little Grant was there.
Around 12 weeks I was able to get an ultrasound to see how far along I was. My instincts told me we were having another boy and at 20 weeks we found out it my instincts were right! The entire pregnancy felt almost identical to my first pregnancy which was nice because I knew what to expect and didn't have to deal with new symptoms or complications.
By the time week 36 rolled around I was ready to meet Grant and be done with the pregnancy. It became increasingly difficult to bend over, roll over in bed, walk up the stairs, hold Miles, and I would feel my pelvis crack throughout the night when I readjusted myself. I kept telling myself that I only had a couple more weeks left thinking that he would be here around the same time Miles was (6 days early) but little did I know that I would go a week over with no signs of labor beginning on its own!
Finally, after what felt like 4 more years of pregnancy, not 4 weeks, my doctor said we could induce since I hadn't made much more progress and wasn't feeling very many contractions and was going to hit 41 weeks later that week. I was so relieved to know there was an end in sight I almost cried!
Now I had a birthdate for little Grant. March 8th was the day.
Patrick and I arrived at the hospital at 7:30am. I was admitted, got an IV hooked up, and finally the pitocin was plugged in. I began feeling some contractions as the dosage was turned up and finally I was feeling some strong ones coming every 3 to 5 minutes. When the nurse came back in I asked for an epidural because I figured it might be a while until the doctor could be in to break my water. That turned out to be great timing because originally I was just going to wait to get the epidural until after she broke my water but she ended up being 1 1/2 hours later than she said she'd be. I don't know how I would have done that! The epidural was amazing!
Finally the doctor came in around 1:30pm and broke my water and said she'd be back when I was fully dilated and ready to push. Patrick and I talked with the nurse for about 45 minutes and then she said I was probably at 10cm and ready to get the baby out! I was surprised that it only took 45 more minutes to be completely dilated! So, my doctor came in at 2:15 I started pushing.
At 2:24pm, after four sets of pushes, Grant was born.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him. A full head of dark hair! All along I thought he might have a little hair because I had heartburn but I never thought he'd have that much and that it would be dark. I guess I expected it to be like Miles hair.
He was placed on my belly and we cuddled while daddy took pictures and video. Then he nursed for a good 45 minutes. He must have been hungry! Later the nurse weighed him and what a surprise that was!
9 pounds 2 ounces!
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