He's here!!

Announcing....

Andrew Jacob Bradley
Sunday April 25th, 2010
1:36 A.M.
7 lb 8 oz 20 in

I have to admit - everything went a little too quick! I feel like I didn't get to enjoy the moment because it went so fast!! I shouldn't be having Andrew until Saturday... and he's almost a week old! :)
It all started Saturday evening. The only sign I had all day Saturday that I might be having a baby soon is that I lost my mucus plug - gross, I know - but that doesn't necessarily mean anything so I quickly moved on. I went garage sale shopping Saturday morning, grocery shopping Saturday afternoon, the kids sold lemonade with their friends on the sidewalk, Chris went golfing... and we had Jen and Trevor over for dinner before Chris and Trevor tackled a project downstairs. We had tacos (while I was making them I thought to myself... I had tacos the night I went into labor with Abby... kind of funny!) Still - I wasn't expecting a baby to come even through all of this. I did have a few contractions throughout the day, but more like Braxton Hicks - nothing serious.
While the guys were downstairs mending a wall, Jenny and I entertained the kids upstairs. We helped a little with the guys. I wasn't noticing any contractions... 8:30pm - I started noticing that I was having a few contractions - but thought nothing of them... 9:00 - I was reading stories to the kids to get them in bed and I had to stop reading once in a while through a contraction - I blew them off as nothing, they didn't really hurt... 9:30 - Jen and Trev went home and I finally got the kids to go to bed. I was noticing that I was having contractions pretty regularly, but they didn't hurt and I thought they would just go away. I started helping Chris clean up the mess downstairs. 10:15 - we decided to get ready for bed, even though I was having contractions. I figured they would just go away, like with Eric and I wasn't about to get too excited. I didn't want to get sent home from the hospital, so I thought I'd try to get a bit of sleep and I figured if they were real contractions, they'd wake me up eventually. 10:30 - they were stronger than I thought, and so we decided to time them... they were every 4 minutes and lasted about 30-40 sec. I still figured I was a long way off from going to the hospital, even though Chris kept thinking we should just go up there. I decided to take a shower... When I got out of the shower, they were 3 minutes apart. Chris wouldn't let me drag my feet anymore - he insisted that we go to the hospital.
We took the kids to Grandma Bradley's - and headed to the hospital. We got there a little after 11 pm. We went to the wrong door - and had to walk to the right one. My contractions were starting to hurt finally... and I was frustrated when the ER made us check in (it only took like 10 minutes, but I was in no mood to answer questions!) We finally got up to the maternity ward - and got checked situated. She got me strapped up to a monitor, then started asking me the check in questions. I was having pretty frequent contractions, and they were finally starting to hurt - but I still questioned if they were doing anything and wondered if they would send me home... I was nervous, honestly!
11:30 the nurse finally got done with her questioning and decided to check how dilated I was... She checked me and she looked quite quizzical - and said - "you're a seven! I'm surprised your contractions don't hurt more." Then she said she was going to have another nurse check me, because she was new and maybe she was wrong. So, still I didn't get my hopes up - but wow, a seven?!! Better than I had hoped for! The other nurse confirmed the seven - and they went into a frenzy of getting things going, calling the doctor and the epidural guy!
My nurse never did get to sit down, things progressed rather quickly after that. I got my epidural at 12:30 - I was so sick and hurting at this point. The nurse had to hold me up since Chris can't even see that kind of needle without fainting! I was very nauseous, and the nurse was saying that I was green - Chris confirmed that. I also felt very light-headed, so they gave me oxygen. The epidural guy kept saying he thought I might be progressing too quickly for this to work - and he was trying to hurry... I just wanted the pain to go away and was trying really hard not to just rip everything out and get the baby out!
I finally got the epidural in - and it was so nice! The doctor came in at that point - it was about 1:00am. He checked me- I was a 9 and he said I was about ready to start pushing. He got everything ready, I pushed through 4 contractions and out popped Andrew (with a little help from a vacuum because he was turned a little).

The kids came to see him Sunday morning - Eric was really nervous about everything at first - and didn't want to come near me in the bed. When we let him hold Andrew, he was patient for a sec with it - then said "Can you get him off me?" Abby was in love with him from the first minute!!! She is so excited to hold him and cuddle him and love him.. It's actually been nice to have her be so excited.
He is such a great baby - he's been sleeping good, and he isn't colicky like Abby was - he's a lot LOT like Eric. He even looks like Eric! Both Chris and I have called him Eric countless times... I'm sure we'll get used to calling him Andrew - but he seriously is a clone of Eric so far (maybe they were meant to be twins, but they knew in heaven I could never handle that!)


Eric has definitely warmed up to Andrew the last few days. He's even started sharing his blanket with him. If you know Eric - that's quite a sacrifice!!!! We've had a lot of questions about what the baby's eating...and how that milk gets in me... at least he isn't asking how the baby was made :) He has started telling people "my mom makes milk!" - so don't be surprised :)

Abby loves being the big sister - she's just great with him and loves to just be with Andrew. She'll be a great big sister!!!Tiny toes - I just LOVE tiny toes and fingers!!!

He loves sitting in the sun in his bouncer - especially with our little space heater on - oh it makes him crash when he gets all snuggly warm either with the sun, heater or when you hold him close. He loves to be snuggled! I'm in heaven!!!

When Abby goes to school Eric likes to just sit by Andrew and watch over him. He says he is making sure he doesn't cry. :) I think it is the most adorable thing ever. He often drives his cars around the bouncer... he's ready for Andrew to play. I think they will be good friends, even though they are kind of far apart in age!
I really wanted to get some cute shots of Andrew when he was so tiny - so I wore myself out the day after I got home from the hospital - but it was SO worth it! I had a LOT of fun taking oh - only about 200 or so pictures of Andrew. Someday he'll think I'm pathetic!! But - his wife will hopefully appreciate it LOL...


I'm already loving every moment I have with this little guy. I'm so glad he came -even if it didn't happen how I expected... :) I'm all weepy just thinking of him - such a little guy and so sweet. He's very calm and easy to please - I'm so blessed!!! SO BLESSED!!!