Gage Alan Bradford

I had a pretty easy pregnancy. Besides wanting to eat my increasing body weight in donuts, chocolate milkshakes, and coke icees, it wasn't too bad.

My work is pretty great in that they give you 4 weeks off before your due date. That gave me plenty of time to get things ready, make returns, and REST!

We went to the doctor on October 21 (due date), and she said I was still measuring small and to just wait it out. I told her, "Dr..this kid is huge. I really don't think he has any more room to wait it out." She checked me out some more and sent me down to ultrasound. To the doctor's surprise, my sweet Gage had a 39 week old body and a 42 week old head - not too exciting for the mom! After giving us a lot of scary scenarios based on my height and size and the size of my baby, she encouraged us to go the route of a c-section.

I left the office with Les and cried. I hated the idea of having a c-section. It scared me and that isn't what I pictured in my head all my life. But, it needed to happen that way, so we scheduled it for the next day!

We didn't do much to enjoy our last night...I ate a bowl of cereal for dinner and my parents brought us a blizzard. I was too full of nerves. After not a lot of sleep (if only I had understood the extent of the lack of sleep I was soon to get, I may have tried harder), we got up and got ready for the hospital!

Traffic was horrible so we ended up being a little late - we would have been REALLY late if my hero husband had not taken every shortcut in the book to get us downtown. We sat in a triage room for a few hours while they took care of emergencies and then we were off!!!!

At this point, I was excited, but I also thought I was on the verge of a freak out because I was about to have major surgery while I was WIDE AWAKE (and no matter how many times people told me, "you won't feel a thing!" I didn't believe them). My nurse was awesome though, so while Les sat outside while they got me ready, she helped me calm down and get settled.

After that...it was awesome. No pain, just the anticipation of meeting our baby and having those moments with my husband. Les actually stood up and watched. We have it on video, which is gross, but awesome all at the same time. I'm so glad he got the pictures and video that he did.
We heard those sweet cries and they brought him over to snuggle with us and take pictures and then they finished up with me and whisked us all down to our room. It was so quick!
We got to spend about an hour or so in the room, just the three of us and some nurses before family came in. But we couldn't keep them away for too much longer....they were excited!
Over the next few days, we spent time with family and friends (thank all of you that came. We remember it and it meant a lot to us). The worst part by far was having to stay in the hospital. They come in your room at all hours of the night...I understand the need, but goodness...let a family get a little sleep!After three nights, it was finally time to take our little man home. What started as an experience that I was fearful and anxious about, turned out to be wonderful. The Lord has blessed us with the sweetest baby boy that we are in love with!