Brady Birth Story Final Chapter

 Brady's Birth story parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were told throughout the past few weeks, and here is the final chapter of his Birth Story... just in time for his first birthday next week.

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The next contraction, with Chris beside me, positioned half in/half out of the bathtub (remember, on my knees in the tub but leaving my arms over the back ledge of the tub) with no warning to my surrounding people, I began to push the baby out (approximately 3:44am).

When Chris saw what was happening I heard him yell (with a tone of panic I’d never heard from him before) for the doctor. No, he did not use the call button she so nicely pointed out to him. 

Brady took longer than most of my babies to actually enter the world once I started pushing. They teach you in childbirth classes to push through several contractions to push out the baby. Easier said than done when the baby is half-born. Both my twins, Lee Lee, and Hunter, each were born in about 2 pushes or less. 

Because of my position in the tub, and the fact no medical staff was in the room when I started pushing, I actually waited and pushed through several contractions (which was not fun) before he fully entered the world.  I do remember at one point telling the Dr. to pull the baby out, and she told me she couldn’t so that - I had to push.  So, like all birthing Mothers since the Eve from Genesis, I gathered my strength and pushed my final baby into the world.

Once he was born… there were some logistics to handle because of the position I was in – in the bathtub, on all fours, with the baby now delivered… the doctor holding the baby behind my rear end, umbilical cord still attached.  Of course the birth plan (and best practice) dictated that the baby would be placed immediately on my chest for skin-to-skin contact… but first I had to get off my knees and out of the bathtub and somehow get the baby to the front of my body.

As everyone in the room paused and took a breath when the baby emerged, I remember yelling to remind everyone not to tell me the gender yet, “Don’t tell me the gender!  DON’T SAY THE GENDER!!”

As an aside, you may remember that Hubby’s job is to announce the gender of our babies after they are born. Coming in to this birth, I had asked him to wait a moment or so after the baby was born before he told me - and to prepare me before he announced it.  With Hunter, I remember I was still in some shock of having just delivered a baby, standing over a toilet to fully absorb the joy that Hubby was telling me we had a baby boy.  I had talked to Chris about this prior to this birth, and asked him to say to me, “Are you ready?” before he told me the gender - and to expect that it was going to be a minute after the birth before I was ready to hear.

This is a PERFECT example of a situation where I was not ready to hear the gender quite yet. 

I was still in the tub on hands and knees… and my baby was born—behind me. We were still attached by the umbilical cord, and the cord wasn’t supposed to be cut until the baby had come to my chest and the cord blood had flowed into the baby. But getting the baby to my chest wasn’t an option the way we currently were positioned. 

The doctor told me how I was going to get out of the tub (a benefit of no epidural is that I have always been able to freely move around immediately following the births of my babies) — I carefully stepped out of the tub and they brought the baby up in front of me and we awkwardly hobbled from the bathtub to the bed. 

As I was starting to position myself on the bed, I got nervous that I would accidentally feel if the baby was a boy or a girl because by then, I was cradling the baby’s rear as we were trying to get in the bed. 

Based on what I felt, I thought we had had a girl and I wanted Hubby to tell me before I was sure of the gender based on what I was feeling.  So I told Hubby I was ready to hear the gender.

And he told me the news:

“WE GOT OUR BRADY BUNCH!”

To which I responded, “It’s a Boy?!?!”

I couldn’t believe it. 

Brady Christopher Miller 

Born May 19, 2021

3:48am

7 lbs, 15.9oz —Chris makes sure everyone knows he was 8 pounds. I make sure everyone knows he was less than 8 pounds. 

20 inches long

Brady and I settled in bed for a few minutes before the rest of the day began. 

I took a quick shower, Brady and I switched rooms, and Hubby hustled home to get our oldest out the door for school. He told the children that the baby was born, but didn’t tell them the gender yet. 

And with five kids at home, even with my parents there, Hubby did not come back to the hospital except with the kids and my parents for the gender reveal. 

With Brady born at 3:48am, I really wanted them to let us go home that afternoon, but they insisted Brady get a check at 24-hours old and said I could leave first then Thursday morning, which I did. I loaded the car myself after discharge and drove Brady and myself home. 

For as miserable as the labor was, and how long it took to push Brady out, I do feel this was my easiest postpartum recovery following a birth, which was such a blessing given the crew I keep up with at home. 

Also, I’m so glad this was my final birth experience because, like with Lee Lee’s and Hunter’s, I learned how completely miserable it is to labor at the hospital, but how quickly I can go from 5 or 6 cm to birthing the baby.

I truly admire the women who can go to the hospital with false labor on or after their due date and decide to head back home because the labor wasn’t the real thing yet. You ladies are my heros. 

When it’s my due date and I’m at the hospital … the baby is going to be born.

Sometimes I still am in shock that our sixth child is a baby boy.  I was sure we were having a girl – we were going to end with four girls and two boys.  I’m sure much of that comes from that fact that we had three girls so quickly - Tracey, Caroline, Lee Lee in three pregnancies back to back.  Howard was outnumbered for all those years before Hunter arrived, I figured Hubby made more girls then boys.

That said, Hubby and I had a lot of discussions before adding Hunter and Brady to our family.  Hubby would have been very content with a family of six – four children and two parents.  I wanted a larger family – I wanted six children, and Hubby’s love for me led him to agree to and become excited about babies five and six.  I truly believe that God gave my Hubby two more boys as a reward for Hubby giving me two more children.  Hubby is going to have so much fun with those three sons throughout life, and each of our girls have a brother for a pair, and I have three wonderful daughters, and three wonderful sons.

On May 19, 2021, our family was made complete when Brady Christopher entered the world.