Welcome Brazos Hays Hogg!

Tuesday morning, we headed to our 39 week doctor appointment hoping for some progress towards labor soon.  Let's face it, I was hot, uncomfortable and now that we had made it through youth camp, we were definitely ready for Brazos to arrive!  Until then, I had not made much (if any) any progress towards labor, but I knew that Brazos was very low in the nether regions, so as soon as I started dilating, it probably would not be long until he arrived!  At our appointment, we were excited to find out that I was 3 cm dilated (after not even being 1cm only five days before) and I was over 50% effaced.  I was pumped because this meant we could schedule an induction for that Friday, July 20.  I know some people are against inductions, but we had to have one with Hudson because he was late and it was a pleasant experience for us, so neither I nor my doctor was worried about any complications this time around.  We headed home to make sure everything was ready to go for Friday and called our parents to tell them the news.  As we called Travis' parents, we found out that his mom fell that morning and broke her arm, right at the top next to her shoulder.  She was in an enormous amount of pain but had a doctor appointment on Thursday so they were hoping she would still be able to make it on Friday for the birth, since she was in the room when Hudson was born and did not want to miss out on this grandson's birth either. 

  That night, we ate a nice home-cooked meal just the three of us and as we were sitting in Hudson's room playing nintendo with him (the old-school nintendo, btw), I felt like I was, for lack of better words, leaking....  I got up and told Travis, but there was definitely no gush of fluid, so I was pretty sure it was nothing to do with my water breaking, and Travis just thought I needed to go the bathroom. Well, the leaking continued, slowly but it continued that night.  I went to my parents' house down the road at midnight and asked my mom what I should do.  What if it was my water breaking? I've heard stories about people who leaked amniotic fluid, instead of a big gush. I wanted to be safe, especially since there is a high risk of infection to the baby if you don't deliver within 24 hours of your water breaking, so we went back to the doctor's office that next morning.  Sure enough, I was not crazy, I was leaking amniotic fluid, so we checked in to the hospital immediately to have a baby! 

  It was so exciting, just the impromptu labor story I always wanted but never got with Hudson!  The best part was that I was technically "in labor" without any strong contractions so no pain yet!  That meant that I had to be started on pitocin to induce contractions and right away, I opted for my epidural and settled in for a good day of birthing a baby.  We had some excitement along the way (you can ask about that story another time), but the labor process was in full swing!  It was a relaxing day, and the delivery room was full of loved ones all afternoon.  Finally, around 5:00, I started feeling intense pressure and needed an increase in my pain meds.  I don't think those meds actually alleviated any of the pain, but I knew I was definitely ready to push!  My dad, brother and Hudson left the room and they finally let me start pushing!  I pushed for only 22 minutes and there was a beautiful, 7-pound 3-ounce baby boy greeting the world with an awesome set of lungs! It was such a great experience, just as it was with Hudson, truly a miracle of God. 

  Brazos Hays Hogg
7 pounds, 3 ounces
19 inches long
Born at 6:12 pm on July 18, 2012