The birth story of Micah Joseph Pratt, Jr.

I woke up around 2:00 in the morning with some uncomfortable contractions. At the time I thought it was just Braxton-Hicks as I had been experiencing them most of my pregnancy. I knew that it was possible that I was headed toward real labor as I had just hit 34 weeks and that's when Brighton came, but I still wasn't quite ready to jump to that conclusion. I walked around my bedroom for a bit, going back and forth between my bed and the bathroom. Poor Micah could not sleep through my motions. Just after 3:00 I told Micah that I thought we should maybe take the kids to my mum's and then head to the hospital. Of course, we did not have the hospital bag ready to go. You'd think I would've learned from our experience with Brighton. I got in the shower, then prepared my hospital bag. We woke up the kids and got all of their stuff together to have a fun day at grandma's.

{Did I mention that I had a birthday party scheduled for them that day? Yeah... June 9th was supposed to be Lila and Brighton's combined "Magic School Bus" party at my mum's house. Thankfully, I had packed all of the stuff I would need in a bag the night before, so that it would be easy to grab everything and head to my mum's house to set up for the party. The little things, right? I'll blog about their party later.}

During the 4:00 hour I called my mum to see if my kids could come over and finish out their sleeping at her house. Of course, she said yes. By 4:30 we were on our way over. While driving there, my water began to break. At first I wasn't quite sure if it had broken or if the contractions were making it difficult for me to control myself. TMI, haha. With every minute passing by and with each slight movement in my seat in the car, I became more and more sure that my water was broken. This baby was coming today. We pulled up to my mum's house at 4:58, Micah ran the kids inside, then we sped to the hospital. Thank goodness it was in the middle of the night!

I felt bad walking into the hospital. There was a trail of fluid following me everywhere I went. The reception desk in the maternity ward had a puddle by them by the time I was done there. They checked me in and the next phase began.

I had hoped to have a VBAC again after my success with Brighton. Little baby boy was not having it, though. His sweet little arm was up over his head and his hand came down across his face. The nurses and doctor tried to move him around. They had me laying in different positions to see if he would budge, but he was firm in his position. Finally, the decision was made to have a c-section. It was nice that it wasn't an emergency like with Lila.

We went into the room to have the surgery and everything went fine. I felt pretty out of it again, like I did with Lila, but it was still a great experience. Before I knew it, our little guy was here at 8:18 a.m. Micah Joseph Pratt, Jr. was just as beautiful as can be. I cried the moment I saw him. I couldn't believe that our family was finally complete. I could just feel it in my heart that he was meant to be with us. You could tell which arm had been stuck on top of his head. The poor thing was a dark purple. Thankfully he could at least move it. The nurses said only time would tell if any problems would come because of it. (Later we knew that there were no lasting effects. It was just a giant bruise. :( )

     

He had some difficulty breathing on his own, like Brighton, and a few other problems, so I knew that he would be admitted into the Level II nursery. I struggled with my recovery a little more this time, as well. It took more than a day for them to get my blood pressure up. When I first saw him again in the Level I nursery, they wheeled me in on my hospital bed as I wasn't strong enough to even get into a wheelchair. I almost passed out while holding him for the first time, and threw up only a few moments after seeing him. I had to ask them to take him back before I dropped him. The next time I went in to see him, I was in a wheelchair, and a similar thing happened. I would pass out in my room while the nurses were in talking to me, but eventually everything evened itself out.

The rest of my time in the hospital went pretty smoothly. I knew the drill from doing things with Brighton. Pump in bedroom, get up and walk around to help me recover from the c-section, walk down the hall to see baby Joe, watch him in his bed, and occasionally get the chance to hold him, head back to my room and watch TV alone, then start the routine all over again. (The other kids didn't come the first day because they wouldn't have been able to see Joey)

It's pretty monotonous for me in the hospital because I can't have my babies in my room with me. The boredom makes me go a little stir crazy, so as with Brighton, I left the hospital a day before I had to, to get back to life. The hardest part was walking out those doors without my baby. I, of course, cried, but I also knew that he was in very capable and loving hands.

I can't believe it! He's finally here! Our precious little one that made our family whole. 💕

Welcome to the world, baby Joe!