Grady Pate- the Birth Story

Grady Allan Pate decided to make his debut on October 30, 2014 at 6:54am. He weighed in at 8 lbs 14 oz and was 20" long. Here is his birth story...

Tuesday night, the 28th, Griffin decided he was going to be awake from 11pm- 6am. Whew. We tried crying it out, taking turns laying with him, giving him time limits before we would come back in etc. Nothing worked. He would be quiet for ten minutes and you would think he went to sleep... But then he would pop up and start talking. It was exhausting. Utterly exhausting. So I called into work and said I would be late.

Once I woke up for the day at 8am, I realized I was having some contractions. They were sporadic and varied in intensity too. I thought they could just be Braxton hicks from getting up so much the night before. I went to work and just watched them. I made it through the day without them being regular. I decided not to go see Dr.Gass. I felt like they would just say, let's have the baby it's 39 weeks already. Why that made me not want to go I am not sure?! I think I just had in my head that we would have him Nov 4th. And I didn't want to miss Halloween with Griffin.

Anyhow, that night we had people over for dinner and I continued to have sporadic contractions. I went to sleep hoping that would make them stop. Instead, they got regular and more intense throughout the night. At 1:15am I woke Mr.Pate and told him it was time to go to the hospital. We called Uncle D and he came over to stay with Griffin (thank you!). We got to the hospital a little before 2am.

I told them I was scheduled for a repeat c-section so they set me up in the new recovery rooms in labor and delivery. It was slow getting admitted and then getting ahold of Dr.Gass. Meanwhile I was in pain with contractions. Yay. Dr.Gass told them to schedule the c-section for 7am and go ahead and prep me. I felt like that was forever away! I asked for the epidural and they began fluids. I guess Gass knew what he was doing bc getting the fluids and epidural took quite awhile anyhow. Every time I had a contraction I stared across the room at a plug and sang "I Need You Lord, I need you".

My epidural went horribly this time. I apparently had a "wet tap" which meant he didn't get into the right spot. My hands tingled from it and I could still feel quite a bit and way more than with Griffin. I kept telling him but he assured me I should feel some. At this point I was begging for a catheter too, because I needed to go so bad! Ha. My nurse checked me bc I was still feeling the contractions so much, she thought baby could be coming. I was at 7cm! So I was pretty much laboring almost to the end already. Not what I had pictured at all.

So we went into surgery early since things were progressing so quickly. I felt way more pressure and tugging this time around. I think bc of my epidural issues. But I was awake and did hear my son cry for the first time! He was loud and apparently came out peeing all over the nurses. Ha.

When I went to recovery, I told them I was having lots of pain. So they tried some medicine in my epidural and it did nothing. Then because of that, they had to wait and figure out what else they could give me. Plus people hadn't charted right so the new nurses where trying to get that right. It was a mess. I do not recommend birthing during shift change people! The anthesiologist was so ready to leave and even said it in the OR. Wasn't a fan of him!

But the good news is they did bring Grady right to us in recovery and I did skin to skin and got to start feeding. Much better start than with Griffin! We were in recovery forever... Our poor families were waiting and waiting.

Finally we got a room and Uncle D brought Griffin up to be the first one to meet Grady. He was soooo sweet with him! Seriously was such a perfect time.









After that our family came up and loved on Grady a bit too.

The real downfall of this birth story is that I ended up with a spinal headache from the botched epidural. I didn't figure out what it was until two days later. I decided to just go home and bear through it instead of getting a blood patch, which would require another needle in my back. It took a week for it to completely go away, which put a rough start to being home with a newborn. But thankfully family and friends came and helped out, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been!

Welcome to the world Grady Pate! We love you so much already!









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