Broderick Gordon Price is Born!

This past week has been the most incredible week of my life. As I sit here and reflect on the events and all that has happened, I can't help but feel an overwhelming sensation of gratitude and pure joy. I have lived an incredible life up to this point and have had wonderful opportunities to do great things, but nothing comes close to comparing to this experience. I have discovered that there is nothing greater in this world than being a mother and holding your very own little one in your arms. I am absolutely loving every second of it (yes, even the sleepless ones!).

I've been meaning to write everything that happened with Brody's birth down in detail so that I wouldn't forget any of it, but things have been so busy that this is the first chance I've had to sit down and do it. And even now as I sit here writing, I keep nodding off because I am so dang tired! Must.... write... before I... forget...

I was totally desperate to go into labor by the night of my due date (Wednesday), so I decided to take measures into my own hands and took a couple shots of castor oil. I had heard and read mixed things about this at-home labor-inducing agent, but I was feeling pretty desperate to get things going. Biggest. Mistake. EVER! At first I thought it had worked because I was having really strong contractions that got down to about 6 minutes apart, but these contractions were extremely severe and sharp. By the time we decided to head to the hospital, I had been having them for about 7 hours straight and was sure that I was in labor. By the time we were checked into the hospital, the contractions had disappeared all together. Talk about a disappointment! I was dilated to a 2, which was progress, so the nurse told me to go walk around for 2 hours and come back to see if anything progressed further. I am sad to say that after walking flight after flight of stairs for two hours straight, I was only dilated to a 2.5 and they sent us home with heads a hangin.

I had a doctors appointment that afternoon and my doctor stripped my membranes, so we decided to stay in Salt Lake at my parents' house that night to be closer to the hospital. It was a good thing, because by late that night I was having contractions again and we headed to the hospital at about 4 am. Because of what had happened that morning before, I second guessed myself as soon as we pulled into the hospital and decided that we should go back home since I didn't want to get sent home yet again. Two hours later, I was having much stronger contractions and we headed back to the hospital. It was pretty ideal timing, because as I was standing up to get out of our car my water broke! 

We got into a room by about 7 am. They broke the remainder of my water, which was just about the funniest experience of the whole day because it literally gushed all over the doctor- there was so much fluid! By 12:00 I was dilated to a 5 and they decided to put me on Pitocin to get things moving along a bit faster. I got my epidural and immediately fell asleep until about 3:00 when I was just about dilated to a 10. Neither Eric or I had had more than 2 hours of sleep over the past 48 hours, and it was so nice to be able to just relax and enjoy some time to rest. My whole family was at the hospital that entire day, waiting for our little guy to be born- talk about troopers! It was so nice having their incredible support throughout the whole process.

By 3:35 I was ready to get pushing, and after pushing through only 3 contractions our little guy's head was already crowning and the doctor came flying in. I have never seen someone put on a gown so quickly, and by the 6th contraction of pushing our little guy was ready to arrive! At 3:51 pm on Friday, February 24th, our incredible son Brody was born and our lives were changed forever.

Everything happened so fast that it seems like such a whirlwind of events and it is hard to remember a lot that happened. But some of the moments I will never forget include seeing our little man's perfect face for the first time as the doctor was pulling him out. I remember thinking that he looked exactly like Eric and I was overwhelmed immediately with this wave of love for this little one like I have never felt before. I remember Eric cutting the cord and having the nurse put Brody on my chest and just staring at this perfect little being. He had the most incredibly soft skin and these beautiful full lips, and Eric and I just stared at each other in amazement at this wonderful miracle that we had created. I will never forget those moments of pure bliss and peace. Truly incredible.

Before Brody was born, we all took bets at how big he would be, but none of us could have predicted he'd be 9 pounds! What a chunker! Our absolute perfect little chunker.

When we got to our post-partum room, Eric got to give him his first bath which was a really special thing. He did such an amazing job, and Brody absolutely LOVED it! The second Eric laid him into the warm water, his whole body and face completely relaxed. It was so much fun to watch Eric bond with our little guy.

We kept Brody in our room with us that night and it was so special to just spend time with this little guy who we'd been so excited to meet. We ended up staying two nights in the hospital at the advice of our doctor, and I'm really glad we had that time to just be together and start our lives as a new little family. I love Eric so much and this experience has brought us so incredibly close. I am so grateful that I will have him by my side always through this adventure of parenthood.

Here are some more pictures from the hospital stay. Enjoy!

Just lovin this new little man in my life.

Proud father.

Proud Gramps!

Aunt Erin

Aunt Kel Bel

Aunt Tay

Aunt Syd

Our family!

This was right after our little Bro Man got his circumcision done. I love the loving and sweet look on Eric's face.

Open eyes

LOVE his little feet

Soaking it all in...

Going home! Brody SCREAMED the entire way out of the hospital. I guess he was nervous about leaving the hospital and only home he'd ever known. We decided to give him a binky for the first time just to calm him down! He is just lovin it in this picture.