Friday, August 1, 2008

Introducing: Brody Lawrence Griffin!

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our sweet baby boy! Brody was born at 5:29 this afternoon. He weighed in at 7lbs even, and is 21in long, both Brody & Mama are doing well!


After a slow morning for us things picked up and progressed very quickly towards the end. As I mentioned in my 4:00am post, I was 2cm dilated when they first checked. After they started the pitocin the contractions came on pretty strong almost right away. Around 10:30am they gave me some Stadol, it knocked me out right away and took about two hours to wear off. After a long morning of labor they checked me again and found I was only 2.5cm, that was disappointing because I had expected after all those painful contractions that I would have been closer to 4cm. The nursing staff decided to move me over into one of the delivery rooms at this point, and strongly encouraged that I take the epidural. I reluctantly agreed because I had planned to go without, but in the end I felt like it was the best decision for us. Basically the nurses felt the main reason I wasn't progressing was because I was too tense and unable to relax during my contractions, they thought it would actually speed things up if had the epidural and it would also allow them to up the pitocin a little to make things happen a little faster as well. At around 2:oopm the doctor came in to break my water. Immediately following the anesthesiologist came in to administer the epidural. I do have to say the combination of these two procedures were actually very traumatic for me. No one really tells you what you are in for when you get an epidural! I thought they'd come in, give me a quick shot to numb the place where the big scary needle goes... and then use the big scary needle to get things started and get the catheter in place. No one ever told me it would take about thirty minutes and that I would have to sit completely still in the same uncomfortable position while enduring the most intense contractions I had ever felt. Once that was finally over it was only about 15 minutes and I was feeling much more comfortable. By 2:30pm I was at 4cm, I got to 5cm by 3:30, 7cm by 4:30 and fully dilated and ready to push by 4:45. Everything progressed very quickly after I got the epidural. The nurse had me do some "practice pushing", but realized in the process it would probably happen pretty quickly. I only pushed for about 25 minutes, and the doctor barely arrived in time to catch the baby. His head actually out before the doctor made it in the room. It turned out he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and they couldn't get it loose, so the doctor cut it, suctioned him and then he pretty much slipped out on his own without me even pushing. I will post more pictures of him tomorrow, but for now we are all exhausted and need to get some rest!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Mommy and Daddy! I am so glad he is finally here. I hope your all doing well. Get some rest!!

Sandy

Kim said...

Congratulations! He is so cute! I'm glad that you did well!! I so happy to hear that Brody is healthy and happy and finally with you!

Flo Paris said...

Soooooooooo CUTE! I'm SO glad your long wait is finally over, YAY!
Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

He is so cute and he looks older than a newborn, I guess he didn't want to come out looking like a newborn so he waited a couple of weeks! Good job Sarah and Sean!
Love, GREAT Aunt Marla

Elizabeth said...

Hi Sweet Sarah,

I am so proud of you !!! Being induced is so hard and you did such a great job and look at that little boy, he is just precious!!! Congratulations to you !! I wish I was there so I could come and see you and hold that beautiful baby. You did awesome !!! Love you loads,

Beth
LIFL

Mommy to 4_littleindians said...

He is adorable! Congratulations mommy and daddy! And Grandpa & Grandma and family! Sarah you are amazing to go through all that, but it is so worth it in the end! I can't wait to see him and show you my girls! YAY!

Anonymous said...

Sarah and Sean,
We are so proud of you! It is wonderful that Brody is finally here. He looks great and so do you. I am so honored that you chose to use my name for his middle name. We can now see the answers to the prayers of many. It has been a joy to read all the accounts of your journey to this great moment in your lives. I'm sure both of you will be great parents. God has truly blessed us all. We are so thankful!
Praise be to God!
Love to you!
Dad (or)
Grandpa (Lawrence) Larry

Jerissa said...

Hey Chickie,

I am so happy for you guys and congrats for a job well done! I can't wait to meet Brody. Welcome to Motherhood!

Beth McDermott said...

HOOOORRRAYYYY!
YOU DID IT, thats NO small task... way to go.
Welcome beautiful boy!
xo
Beth McDermott