He's Here!

Brayden Michael Bligh was born at 3:31 PM on Tuesday, November 27, 2012. He weighed in at 8 lbs, 5 oz and was 21.5 inches long. We are in LOVE.

We got a call from the hospital at 7:15 Tuesday morning, "inviting" us to come in and have our baby. I was not expecting to be called in so early, so I actually missed the call. We called the nurse back and rushed off to Swedish Hospital. While I knew I was on the induction list for Tuesday, I had mentally prepared to sit and wait all morning (or all day) for the call. I was in disbelief that we were hours away from meeting our baby as we drove through rush hour traffic to downtown Seattle.

We arrived around 8:30. The nurse, Rosie, was waiting for us and got my IV started right away. As with Matty, I was already contracting regularly without any pitocin. The nurse seemed impressed that my body had been doing this for so long without going into labor on its own. Regardless, she started a pitocin drip to move things along. My OB broke my water at 11:15. By 12:30, I was begging for an epidural. At 1:15, I was 5 cm dilated. An hour later, I was 9 cm. By 2:40, I was fully dilated and encouraged to "labor down" for as long as I could bear. This phrase took on a new meaning to me with this delivery because I could feel the ridiculously strong contractions and was in tremendous pain. The epidural was not working yet it was too late to increase the dosage. I started pushing at 3:23. Eight minutes later, our little boy was born. He arrived peacefully and barely made a sound.

Our first impression of Brayden is that we can not believe how small he is. While he is just over a pound smaller than Matthew was at birth, that one pound makes a huge difference. I never felt like I had a newborn with Matty. With Brayden, he feels/looks like a premie to me (despite being over 8 lbs!). He is snuggled up on my chest as I type this, and I know this is the position he enjoyed for nine months in the womb. Watching him sleep is priceless. At this point, he resembles his sister much more than his brother. Brayden's hair is lighter than Taylor or Matty's was at birth. It will be interesting to see if he stays a brunette or becomes a blondie like his bro.

We came home from the hospital on Wednesday evening and have been adjusting to our new family dynamic (and sleep deprivation) since. I'll post more stories and pictures as I'm able.

Thank you, friends and family, for all of your well-wishes. We feel so incredibly blessed and can't wait to introduce Brayden to you in the coming weeks/months.