welcome to our blog.: Brantley James

December 17th, 2019 I wasn't supposed to be welcoming a baby into this world yet.

his due date was December 25th, but my scheduled C section was for the 18th.

he decided he needed to make his entrance a day sooner than we planned for,

This picture below was just hours before giving birth, I went in for my pre-op appointment, only to be told "you've had two high blood pressure readings, you need to head to the hospital to be prepped for surgery, you're not going home today.. we're gonna have a baby"

excuse me.

what?!

no bags, kids were in school with me having all intentions on getting them and being able to see them one more night before surgery.

no JD either because he worked the night before so he was home sleeping.

I had zero plans of having a baby that day, so by then my blood pressure was really up.

I called JD as I was checking out of my appointment to let him know I was about to be prepped for surgery for 5pm that evening.

I was a nervous wreck until he got there because of how sick I was with the girls, the doctor flat out said "no, you were very sick with your girls so we're not playin' with you"

I was terrified of it getting bad quick and JD wouldn't make it in time.

thankfully, after lying down and relaxing my blood pressure went back to normal.

I still swear it was just nerves, but at least I got to meet our sweet boy a whole day sooner, and my doctor was doing what she felt was best.

I remember feeling so nervous this time around and I wasn't even deathly sick like I was with the girls. I almost died with the girls, and went in like it was nothing.

with Brantley, I was so scared and my anxiety was at an all time high.

having children at home this time around made it so much scarier for me.. I just kept thinking what if something goes wrong, what if I leave the girls without a mom. so much went through my head.

as they walked me into the OR, I heard Christmas music playing which was so eery to me, and something I will never forget lol it was like "oh, you're about to get cut open, but deck the halls and fa la la la la" lol!

once they did the spinal, and got me all settled I remember starting to worry they would forget to send jd in, so I said " are you going to bring him in now?"

they finally brought him in, which felt like forever.

then surgery began.. everything was going good, but it's never easy just lying there listening to them talk.. wondering if things are going ok or going to go bad quick. I was so thankful for such a wonderful anesthesiologist this time around who continuously stood right by us, making sure I was ok, letting me know my vitals were good. I had Brantley in Martinsburg, and I can honestly say my birth experience was much better than it was when I had the girls in Winchester.

not that theirs was a bad one, but so many things happened differently with Brantley that I was so thankful for. I would totally have another one in Martinsburg regardless of what anybody else says about them. They never once made JD leave while stitching me up, they never took the baby to the nursery after birth like they did with the girls, they only separated me and jd for maybe 10 minutes long enough to get me switched to another bed and wheel me into recovery. I instantly did skin to skin with the baby, I was never even told about skin to skin with the girls.. and both of my birth experiences were c sections.

anyway, we heard them talking about how they thought this one must be a "10 pounder"

so I said " did they just say 10lbs?"

and jd informed me how he wasn't here yet.

finally I was told he's almost out and that I was about to feel a ton of pressure, and I did.. I felt so much pressure at one point I remember looking up as two of them were just raising their bodies up over the sheet, and then pushing down with all that they could. the pressure made me feel like an elephant was sitting on my chest, I remember just honestly feeling like at any minute I was going to either pass out or die.

the room was going in and out to me, I kept looking at jd and saying "am i ok? i'm really scared"

not even 2 minutes after asking that, they held him up over that sheet and said "look at this big boy, he's a tank"

I cried so hard, and with the girls I was so sick, I couldn't even see them until after birth so I never even cried at all. I was miserable.

the anesthesiologist leaned over once they took him to wrap him up, and asked me "are you ok?"

I remember wanting to say no but I was just so afraid, so I asked him if suddenly feeling weak and tired was normal.

his response was "your body knows you just gave birth, you can take a little nap if you want while you are stitched back up"

but there was nooo way I was going to let my eyes shut, I was way too afraid I wouldn't wake up.

this baby was so big, they actually had to give me pitocin after he was born because they told me my uterus wasn't contracting due to the size of the baby.. it was just wore out, and they had to get the bleeding to stop.

they weighed him soon after that, and yelled over "10lb 2oz"

I thought to myself "I just gave birth to a 2 month old"

he was so chunky, had rolls on top of rolls.

he was H U G E through out my entire pregnancy, and even now at 1 month he is fitting into 3 months clothes.

December 17th, 2019

5:09 pm

Brantley James Hayslette made his entrance

weighing 10lb 2oz - 22 1/2 inches long

we kept visitors to a minimum due to breastfeeding not going as planned, I was up walking within 12 hours of surgery so that was no issue, but the pain of breastfeeding was so bad I had to sit without a shirt on for the first two days. it was miserable..

long story short, we made the decision to switch to formula, and baby boy was much happier and so was momma.

however, the big sisters got to visit the very next day after school though..

and they were over the moon. they love their baby brother so much, both are so motherly to him just as I knew they would be.

going home.

Brantley got to visit with Santa for the first time while we were in the hospital, and the crazy thing about that was we actually had brought a Santa suit for him to wear home that day.

the girls had a sleepover with family the evening we came home which gave us plenty of time to get settled in with a new baby, and the entire next day as well.