I've put an alarm on my phone to blog every week! We'll see what that does. This is serving as my journal and I haven't even blogged about our son Bradley yet! So that needs to happen, and will right now!
Pregnancy: We found out we were pregnant on a Sunday in April (the 27th to be exact). We were so excited to be pregnant and also I was shocked. It didn't seem like it was real. I showed Mitch the pregnancy test and he thought it was a joke because I didn't tell him I had taken one. He just came into the bathroom when I called for him and Surprise! Baby on the way! After the shock wore off for both of us we were so happy it made me feel a lot better about it all! I figured I was pregnant when all of the foods I normally liked tasted gross to me and I had next to no energy for anything. Plus, I would cry over so many things! I got really nauseated and just felt gross that first trimester, but second trimester I felt back to normal which was a blessing for me.
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We went on a cruise with the Gill's in June 2014.
I was just barely 8 weeks pregnant in this photo.
Kind of sick to my stomach the whole time but it was really a fun trip! |
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We got to go on a "baby moon" in October 2014 before Bradley came.
We went up to Stein Eriksen Lodge and had a beautiful 3 day weekend up there.
It was so fun to pretend to belong and to just relax. We needed it!! |
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I am 9 months prego in this photo.
I was so ready to be done when I was done! Being pregnant was amazing and I can't believe I grew a baby inside of me and got to feel him growing and hear his heartbeat. Those doctors appointments were my favorite things because we would know that he was alright and growing. Towards 35 or so weeks though I was so uncomfortable. He dropped into the ole pelvis and I was waddling and using the restroom all day long!! |
Birth Story:
Welcome to the world Bradley Clayton Gill. He was born on January 5th, 2015 at 1:01 a.m. He weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz and was 21 inches long. Getting him here was quite the adventure for Mitch and I!
On the 4th I had a lot of back labor pains from about 2 a.m. until 8 a.m. I didn't sleep hardly at all because I had contractions coming every 8 minutes or so. Around 5:30 a.m. I started counting the time in-between contractions and it was about every 4 minutes, so Mitch and I decided to go to the hospital and see if we could be admitted. I called my mom on the way down there and Mitch called his. Mom told me that if I just made sure to breath it would all be easier. That advice, though simple and I knew that she was right, was so hard!! The contractions hurt so much, it was easier to just not breath during it. I did try to make sure to take deep breaths and Mitch helped me a ton to do the same and the car ride to the hospital was more comfortable than I had been all night.
When I got checked by the nurse, she said that I had not dilated at all from my previous number at my last doctors appointment so I couldn't be admitted. I was beyond bummed! We had geared up so much to be able to have our baby that day sometime and so I cried a lot on the car-ride back. Mitch was such a kind and supportive husband to me the whole time though. He was definitely my strength!!! We went back home and watched a lot of friends while I continued to have contractions about every 8 minutes again from 10-2 p.m. they slowed down in intensity so I was thinking we would be waiting another few days. My doctor wasn't in town until Monday morning anyways, so waiting till the next day was fine by me for that reason and that reason alone. Around 3:30 I woke up from a nap in so much pain! The contractions had come back and strong. We went on a walk around 5:30 to try to help speed the contractions up a bit and it worked! by 7ish I was having them every 3-4 minutes and they hurt sooo much! Mitch convinced me, after I had a nervous break-down about not being admitted again, to get in the car and try again.
The second time coming into the hospital, when I was checked I had dialated 2 and 1/2 centimeters! Wahoo. I was at a 3 1/2 so they admitted me. I was so relieved and excited! We got the best nurse ever that night. She was calm and kind and very understanding, way better than the one from the morning. My doctor (Lister) was out so I ended up having doctor Jerico. I loved her! She was so informative but not pushy. It was like being an obgyn was her hobby. My kind of doctor. I started on piton around 11:00 p.m. to speed the labor pains along, and then promptly decided to get an epidural. Those contractions hurt and I saw no reason in waiting longer for the epidural. I had dilated to a 4, but my water hadn't broken yet so Dr. Jerico came in to break it. As she was checking me, she felt something off about where the water should be, so she decided to have me get an ultrasound. Sure enough, Bradley's dumb was where his head was supposed to be! In all my checks over the week and day the nurses etc. had all said he was head down, so they thought that somewhere between me being admitted and getting the epidural, Bradley had flipped. I felt a strong movement right when I got the pitoson, but it didn't hurt like they told me it should have, so we are not sure what happened! So around 12:00 this happened. Dr. Jerico looks at Mitch and I and tells us that the recommended thing to do was to get an emergency c-section. She said we could try to flip Bradley back around, but there were risks involved with the umbilical chord and other things that we just didn't want to do and they didn't recommend doing anyways. So surprise! What I had expected to take all night with laboring happened suddenly, this baby was coming now!
The whole experience of having a C-Section is a little blurry to me. I got a huge dose of the epidural from the anesthesiologist that made it so I was numb from my toes up to my chest. Because of how quickly you get this medication for a c-section, I started shaking uncontrollably. They put me in a different gown and made sure my stomach was ready to get cut into. Mitch got a yellow poncho type outfit to put on and we were off to the operating room! While on the operating table, I kept on telling Mitch, I am shaking so much. Is everything okay? How's my heart-rate etc. etc. Poor guy was freaking out inside but he kept it together so well and made me feel confident and calm about what was going on. I couldn't feel anything but pressure on the area, but apparently with a c-section they just pull and tear and cut for about 20 minutes until they safely make their way to the baby. They have a heart-rate monitor on the baby so they can make sure he's not under stress while this is happening. Dr. Jerico said "This little guy has no idea what is about to happen. He's just enjoying his cozy home and then, surprise! He gets pulled out and is supposed to breath etc. without moms help". Around this time I started having trouble breathing, and asked Mitch to check with the Anesthesiologist to make sure that all my vitals looked good still and that it was normal to feel like I couldn't breath. He said it was just an effect of the epidural. But when I asked Mitch apparently he was more scared than he had ever been. He felt like he might lose his wife and his baby in the same night!
Bradley came at 1:01 a.m. and was blue and purple and big! They lifted him above the curtain I was covered with for a second so I could see him. He wasn't crying or anything, so they started doing all they could to get him to breathe. They took him to a separate room from me and put him on breathing treatments. His apgar scores were good besides his oxygen. He started breathing with the support of oxygen and I finally heard his cry! So cute and not shrill, the perfect baby. The nurses came in to tell me things that were happening with Bradley and Mitch was going between my room and Bradley's giving me the details too and holding my hand through it all. The whole experience took about an hour and all the sudden we were parents!
I was wheeled into a recovery room and Bradley was taken to the small NICU/Nursery place in the hospital where he could be monitored by nurses and stay on his oxygen. I was really sore and tired, and I guess Bradley was too! Look at these little breech legs.
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| First photo of him ever! So handsome and Big! |
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Our first meeting. around 3:30 a.m. after my drugs
had warn off a little and his breathing was stable. |
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around 7:00 a.m. I got to really hold him and feed
him and it was incredible. He looked up at me like
he knew I was his mommy. I'm so glad Mitch captured
this moment. |
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Mitch's first time holding Bradley. What a proud papa.
Bradley has been a daddy's boy ever since. |
0-3 months:
Oh, the first few months! What a whirlwind of emotions, experiences and joys! We were in the hospital for 3 days because of the c-section. We got to go home Wednesday night. We had lots of visitors in the hospital including all our family members (except kyle/ashley b/c they live in CA and Chris/Jacee came Wednesday night to our house). My mom had a Chemo treatment the day Bradley was born so she came down when she finished that even though she wasn't feeling well which meant the world to me. Mitch's mom came every day to visit her new grandson and help me figure out how to breastfeed and not stress too much about c-section stuff. She had one with Mitch and is the only person in my family who had so it was nice to talk to her since she had been through it all before. We had some really great nurses, and loved our experience at McKay-Dee hospital in Ogden.
The first week was AMAZING and HARD. That first night alone in our home with a new baby was so awesome and overwhelming. The responsibility to take care of this new little life with no professional help! We really thought that we were done being in the hospital, but when Mitch's parents left that night, we were just surprised at the weight of the responsibility and overjoyed with the reality that he was ours. We enjoyed having our baby in his home and giving him a bath and into his jammies for the night. And then he wouldn't go to bed! How crazy right? He had his days and nights mixed up for about a week so Mitch and I shared the staying up with the baby duties and learned a lot of patience with being new parents. Bradley only took a little while to adjust to the day vs. the night and by two weeks old he was waking up pretty regularly in 4 hour intervals. He got used to nursing pretty quickly too. Though it was painful and frustrating, we learned how to do it together and Bradley is still a great nurser to this day. Mitch and him have just grown to be the best of buddies. He took to being a Dad so naturally and it has brought me more joy than I could ever have imagined to see them together.
Here are some first weeks of life photos including some of my favorites from a beautiful photo session of Bradley when he was just 10 days old.
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Bradley and mama. I love that he is looking up at me.
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So small he fit in a kitchen bowl!
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| Bradley with his nana. This is at 3 days old! We got to go to my mom instead of her coming to us because of the chemo treatments. My mom still jokes about how Bradley and her have the same amount of hair ha. |
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| I took this photo the Sunday before I went back to work. I got 6 weeks maternity leave. He was smiley even then! |
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| First day of Church! March 2015 |
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First ever cougar bball game. Many more to come I am sure.
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| He's just so cute! And independent. He sat and held up his head so soon in life! |
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| Blessing Day! March 8th, 2015 |
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| The family on Blessing day! Mitch did so well! |
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| Look at those cute big eyes!! |
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| Grandma Ballard and Bradley share the same birthday. I think they even look alike. These photos are precious to me. |
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| We took a photo like this of us as roommates when we were all single, and now we all have children! I am so grateful for these three ladies so much. (Hannah & Ella, Kelly & Maggie, Whitney & Macklin) |
3- 5 1/2 months: Bradley is moving toys from one hand to the other, focusing on us, eating baby food, and smiling back at you! That first purposeful smile was my favorite thing! He still smiles at us all the time and I melt. Look how cute my boys are!!!
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Bradley loves the water. We got him this crab in preparation
for a big trip to Hawaii. We swam a lot this summer and he
hardly ever got burned... |
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| Uncle Scott's farewell. He left on May 5th, 2015. This is our best family photo so far. I love how handsome we all look dressed up for Scotts big event. We miss him! He's in the Independence MO mission. (Whitney lives in his mission!) |
5 and a 1/2 - now:
We got to go to Hawaii in the middle of June this year with Mitch's family. It was so beautiful there! We went down to Kauai for the first time and the scenery was unreal. It was pretty rainy there but that added to the beauty of being there truly. We had the best view from our window. Bradley did so well on the plane rides. I read up a ton and stressed a ton about traveling with a little one, but now that we've done it I think I stressed too much ha. We didn't sleep well, but I don't blame him with the dramatic time change and probably uncomfortable pack-n-play but other than that he was a dream baby as he's always been. We ate delicious food, adventured and played outside a lot. It was wonderful!
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"The Dolphin" restaurant was Mitch's favorite
food of his whole life. It was so pretty and yummy. |
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| Helicoptor ride! I had a panic attack but Bradley did amazingly well and fell asleep pretty soon into the journey so I took comfort in that and calmed down and enjoyed the experience (though my face here says something totally different than that ha. This was at the beginning, it got better!) |
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| Bradley and Daddy on the beach in Hawaii. Both my babies burn so easy... They hung out in the shade most the time! |
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| "Look Mom! No hands!" |
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| If you know much about our family it is that in the summers, we boat. We were so nervous about it this year with having a baby and that Bradley would hate it. He actually likes it aside from the uncomfortable life jacket! He would get lulled to sleep on the boat if we got him into just the right position... |
Boating is so fun. I'd say that is our favorite activity to do as a family. Mitch and I both love being pulled behind the boat and wake boarding but we also enjoy just relaxing in the sunshine. We live up in Kaysville/Fruit Heights now so it is a 50 min. drive to Jordanelle and a 1 hr 10 min. drive to the Gill's house, so we didn't get to go as much this year as years previous, but it was definitely still fun to use the boat and enjoy it with a baby. Mitch almost landed a 360 this year and I finally am comfortable going in and out of the wake on both sides (Only took me 6-7 years, right Brandi!?!)
It was a great first 6 months! We love being parents and love our Little Guy so much. He has a fun, strong and loving personality. We have been very blessed!
