Liam's Birth Story

~ Liam Richard Braham ~

August 17th, 2015

Liam was born on Monday, August 17th, 2015 at 2:38pm.  He weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces and was 19 inches long.  He was 3 weeks early with a due date of 9/6/15 and a c-section date of either 8/31/15 or 9/1/15 (was 3rd on the wait list).  

~ Liam's Birth Story ~

I took a shower and noticed some blood so I called the doctor's office and they paged the doctor since it was 7am.  The doctor on call told me to go to the hospital as it could be labor, my cervix or the placenta.  My next call was to Allison and she said that happened with two of her kids and she started getting contractions about 30 minutes later.  I was in shock.  I was very scared as I didn't know if something was wrong and didn't believe it was labor as Grayson had to be induced.  I thought there was no way I was having Liam earlier than my c-section date a week before my due date.  Luckily I had my hospital bags packed as well as the extra diaper bag to leave for Grayson.  I gave Grayson extra hugs in case this was the real thing, but was 99.99% sure that was not the case.  

We checked into Northwestern - Prentice Hospital and got in right away.  They put on a heart monitor and did an exam and said everything was fine with the baby.  I was so relieved and happy.  The nurse asked if I was sure the blood came from my cervix as she didn't see any remnants of blood.  She said they wanted to monitor his heart rate for 2 hours to be sure and I would be released.  We waited and waited and she came back in and said his heart rate dropped so they wanted to keep me for 2 hours to monitor his heart rate.  After what seemed like 3 hours she came back and said everything looked fine with the baby and I would be released in 10 minutes.  We waited and waited and when she came back she said his heart rate dropped twice and I would be having this baby today.  I was in TOTAL SHOCK.  After my doctor and several other doctors reviewed the stats they decided to deliver him today especially since he was considered full term at 37 weeks.  They prepped me for the c-section (2nd picture) and this time the actual procedure took a lot longer as I had scar tissue from the first c-section with Grayson.  They also told me it would be very hard to have a third c-section with all of my scar tissue.  I was so shaky from the medicine, tired and hungry, but was so excited to meet our sweet little Liam.  He finally entered the world at 2:38pm with a big cry.  It brought tears to my eyes and I was so excited to hold him.  Daddy did a great job taking pictures and video of Liam's birth.  He was so itty bitty weighing only 6 pounds 7 ounces.  I was so happy to hold him and know everything was okay as they weren't sure since he was 3 weeks early.  What a blessing!  

Big sister Julia (JuJu) and big brother Ethan (E-T) came to visit baby Liam that night.  We were so happy they were able to meet him the first day, especially since Julia would not have been able to meet him for a while because she was leaving for college.  The next day Oma, Marta (Grayson's nanny), Angie (Marta's niece) and Grayson came to visit.  They brought flowers and a teddy bear.  I cried when Grayson and Liam met for the first time.  It was such a special moment.  We have been talking about Grayson being a big brother to baby Liam for a while now so it was such a sweet meeting.  They also came on Wednesday and spent the day with us.  Grayson adores his baby brother Liam and we know they will be the best of friends. My best friend Allison stopped by and met Liam and brought a cute Ralph Lauren outfit with socks.  My friends Holly and Stacey also came to the hospital and brought a cute Ralph Lauren blue onesie outfit.  

We stayed at the hospital Monday through Wednesday and left Wednesday afternoon.  Craig had to take Julia to college at Iowa on Thursday and I wanted Craig to be there when we were released.  Surprisingly, I felt much better after the c-section this time around and didn't even need the pain medicine (except for Advil and Tylenol).  I moved around sooner this time, which I think helped with the recovery.  Liam was down to 6 pounds when we left the hospital so he lost 10% of his body weight.  They don't want it to be below 10% so we were lucky we were able to leave when we did.  I had to give him a tiny bit of formula as my milk had not come in and he was losing so much weight.  He passed all of his tests and they released us Wednesday night.  It was so good to be home again.  We really missed Grayson and couldn't wait to be home as a family of 4.  

~ Pictures ~   

The first picture is after they told us we would be released in 10 minutes.  I was thinking of where we would go for lunch as I was so hungry because I had not eaten since 9pm the night before.  I took this picture to use in my blog post detailing my "scare" and how we thought we were going to have Liam early.  Little did I know several minutes later I would be told I was delivering him today.  The second picture was right before the c-section.  I was prepped and ready to go in and was still in shock, but very eager to meet him.

I love all of the pictures of Liam especially the ones of Liam and Grayson together.  Craig got a lot of great shots of Liam when he was first born.  The last few pictures are of Liam coming home.  He wore a cute blue and white striped Ralph Lauren outfit.  He was so tiny in his carseat and I was so afraid to drive home with him.  Grayson was so much bigger so I never imaged Liam would be so small.