Introducing.......

Brody Tyler Workman!!

He was born April 28th at 11:54 am. He weighed 7 lb 11oz and is 20 3/4" long. At first we thought he looked a lot like Brooke did when she was born, although I didn't think that he looked as much like Tyler as Brooke did. His hair seemed to have some strawberry color to it, but every day it seems to be darker and has lost the tint of red.

I need to write down the details of his birth since I'm not good at journaling any other way.

Monday the 27th was my last day at work. I was very tired that night but looking forward the days ahead when I would have time to catch up on things and get the house all ready for the baby. Because I wasn't due until Saturday and I went 6 days overdue with Brooke, in my head I thought that would be the case with this pregnancy as well. I had Braxton-Hicks contractions and some that were definitely real over the previous 2 weeks, but nothing consistent. I saw the OB the week before who said I was only dilated to a 1, which was normal for 38 1/2 weeks but my cervix was still very high.

Tuesday morning I woke up about 5:45 with a lot of lower back pain. I had pain before so I thought that I was just getting to the point that I needed to sleep with a pillow behind my back. I tried to change position and finally got another pillow to put behind my back. As I laid there I started to have pain in my belly like some bad cramps. I laid there for about 30 minutes then decided to get up and see if that made the pain go away.

Tyler and I went downstairs, I had some Cheerios and just kind of waited for the contractions to go away like they always had in the past. As time went on they definitely were not going away and I knew that it would be the day. I started to kind of freak out about all the things that I was going to get done that weren't done yet.

I went upstairs and started packing a bag (I had it in my head so much that I would go overdue that I didn't even have a bag packed). I packed one for Brooke also and Tyler called my sis Emily to see if we she could watch her while we went to the hospital. I decided to shower and get ready and just keep track of the contractions. The last thing I wanted to do is get to the hospital and have them tell me that I wasn't far enough to admit me and to go back home. As I was showering and getting ready I was having steady and worsening contractions. By the time I was done and dressed it was about 10 and I was definitely needing to get to the hospital. We dropped Brooke off at Emily's and Tyler dropped me off at the door of the hospital.

I walked into the Woman's entrance of the hospital and walked up to lady that was sitting at the desk. I was in so much pain I couldn't talk and she said something about registration and to have a seat. I sat down, Tyler came in. After a few minutes I told him to ask how long it would be. He went up there and the lady hadn't told them I was there yet. The hurried and got a wheelchair and took me back into the labor and delivery triage. I was thinking I was at like a 3-4. She checked me and said it was at a 7-8 with a bulging water sack and the baby's head right there.

They immediately got me back into a delivery room and had the anesthesiologist there in minutes. I was so grateful for that epidural! Those who can endure that without one are amazing! A short time later Dr. Beck showed up and told the nurses to prepare for delivery. My water still hadn't broken, so he broke it. On the next contraction they had me push. One more contraction and we had a baby! The hospital has us checking in at 10:54 and he was born at 11:54. It definitely was a different experience than with my 17 something hour delivery with Brooke.

When Brody was born he took a big gulp of amniotic fluid. The nurse suctioned out 25 mL of fluid from his stomach (that's about 5 teaspoons). He has been such a good baby, the only time we heard him really cry for the first 24 hours or so was when he was first born even when they kept sticking the tube down his stomach to draw out the fluid. He also had bruising on his nose and upper lip from being delivered so fast. He caught on to nursing right away.

The first night in the hospital he went 6 hours without eating- I would try feeding him and all he wanted to do was sleep. The only way I knew he was hungry is that he kind of whimpered. We ended up staying an extra night just to make sure all the amniotic fluid was out of his stomach.

The first time Brooke saw Brody she kind of didn't know what to think, she just looked at him. Once she sat on the bed with me and I helped her to hold him she didn't want to stop giving him kisses and saying "My baby". She is such a good big sister, always showing us how she can be soft and helping to burp him.

We are officially a family of 4!!
Brody had lots of family visit him in the hospital, including: Grandma and Grandpa Workman, Grandma and Grandpa Carling, Deena, Landon, Ryan, Camilla, Kayden, Sherri, Mallory, Taylor, Kylee, Emily and Kyden.