Braxton Ty Koch became the first child of our family on December 21st, 2001 at 8:01 pm at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, CA after 24 hours of labor. Length at 21 inches and weighing 8 lbs. 1 oz. (Funny how it worked out that way, huh?) He was originally due the 18th, but there was no way I was waiting for him to come naturally and risk being in the hospital over Christmas. His birthday is close enough to the holiday as is. We had a scheduled induction at 8pm on the 20th, if he hadn't come before then. Well, Colby, my mom and I went to the hospital and I got checked in and all hooked up to things, and we waited. I was having very mild contractions all night long. Enough to not get any sleep, whilst my mom and Colby slept on the hardwood floor because the reclining chair was way too uncomfortable. By 7am I had not even dilated to 2cm. My doctor came into the room exclaiming that it looked like a bunch of dead bodies were in there, and then proceeded to break my water. If you have ever seen how they do that, you might be able to understand why Colby almost passed out when waking up to a guy jamming a hook into his wife, while she gasped in pain. He stepped out of the room, while the nurses told him to sit on the floor and put his head between his legs. Anyway back to the birth. I had gone all night and morning without any pain medication, but by noon I was exhausted. They gave me a half dose of something to take the edge off, and I pass into a nice nap right away. Finally by about 6pm there was still no progress with dilation or any of that other good stuff, so they talked me into an epidural and emergency C-section since it had been almost 12 hours since they broke my water. Colby held my hand while the epidural was put in, that was the most scary part of the entire day. They then prepped me and wheeled my into the OR. More prep work while Colby and my mom were getting dressed and ready to come in. Finally, everyone is ready and waiting, Colby by my head, and my mom with the camera to record the event for me. A slice with the laser, and lots of tugging. Colby later told me that the doctor put my guts and stuff up on my belly, while he knelt on me tugging on Braxton, because he was lodged in my pelvis. And again he had to turn away, because he almost passed out again. It was painful even with the epidural, although the anesthesiologist was assuring me that it didn't hurt, it was just a lot of pressure. How would he know? Has he ever had a child? No! Braxton came out pretty messy and peed all over my doctor (Braxton loves telling everyone that part of the story).
My blood pressure had gone crazy, so I wasn't allowed to hold him for most of the night until it stabilized. 
I had trouble feeding him, we didn't get the hang of it until he had been home for about a week. (That's probably why he still doesn't like to eat, and is my skinny little stick boy.) I should have stayed in the hospital another day, but I asked to be released on Christmas eve, I did NOT want to be in the hospital during my first Christmas as a mom. Besides, I did have the baby blues, I hadn't made that many friends yet, so not many visitors came in. And, Colby hates hospitals, so he and my mom went to a movie and dinner without me. Yeah, that didn't help the postpartum depression. I also shared a room almost the entire recovery with a woman who had a normal birth, and tons of visitors. She was also always in the bathroom. And when you really have had a C-section it's not the most fun thing to get up and walk over to the bathroom, you put it off as long as possible. (It may sound weird, but thank goodness for catheters.) So, picture this, you've held your bladder as long as you can to avoid the pain, then when you finally manage to painfully get out of bed, there is someone in your bathroom. You figured they would be out by the time you got out of bed. Nope, then she starts the shower up.....let's just say that was not a fun night. I am so grateful for my mom, she helped Colby and I so much with that first week of transition. Because she had 6 C-sections, she understood the pain of recovery and coached Colby and I with diaper changes and bathing the baby. She also took some night shifts to help us out, since she was sleeping on the couch and awake because of the crying anyway. We finally got to week 3, and my mom was back in Utah, we new parents were getting the hang of things, and I was moving around a lot better. From then on, Braxton was such a good baby. We could take him everywhere, and we did. He went to San Diego 
at 3 weeks old to see my brother Seth graduate from Marine training. We then flew to Utah and had him blessed in my old ward. He and I flew to Utah again in February to meet Colby's family. We took him to movies, and dinner, to friends houses and other functions. We took our first family vacation when he was 3 months old, to San Fransisco. He went to the beach (Warning: Very unflattering picture of me coming up.).jpg)
and to Disneyland. 
Then we drove to the family ranch in Utah for the Fourth of July. 
He was just a great traveler. He has become a normal, not always easy and happy child, now. We love him so much! He was so excited to become a big brother with Gabe and Tristan, and he is such a huge help to me. He loves video games and basketball like his dad. He loves movies and music like me. Last Wednesday, we had a birthday party for him. 
Thanks to all his friends who came, 
we had so much fun. 
And he got some great loot! Sunday, his actual birthday, we celebrated with grandparents, one uncle, one cousin, one aunt and a partridge in a pear tree. Who doesn't love ice cream cake?! 
We love you Braxton, and I can't believe you will already be 8 years old next year. Time flies when you have kids, whether you are having fun or not. But we love each and every one.
My blood pressure had gone crazy, so I wasn't allowed to hold him for most of the night until it stabilized. I had trouble feeding him, we didn't get the hang of it until he had been home for about a week. (That's probably why he still doesn't like to eat, and is my skinny little stick boy.) I should have stayed in the hospital another day, but I asked to be released on Christmas eve, I did NOT want to be in the hospital during my first Christmas as a mom. Besides, I did have the baby blues, I hadn't made that many friends yet, so not many visitors came in. And, Colby hates hospitals, so he and my mom went to a movie and dinner without me. Yeah, that didn't help the postpartum depression. I also shared a room almost the entire recovery with a woman who had a normal birth, and tons of visitors. She was also always in the bathroom. And when you really have had a C-section it's not the most fun thing to get up and walk over to the bathroom, you put it off as long as possible. (It may sound weird, but thank goodness for catheters.) So, picture this, you've held your bladder as long as you can to avoid the pain, then when you finally manage to painfully get out of bed, there is someone in your bathroom. You figured they would be out by the time you got out of bed. Nope, then she starts the shower up.....let's just say that was not a fun night. I am so grateful for my mom, she helped Colby and I so much with that first week of transition. Because she had 6 C-sections, she understood the pain of recovery and coached Colby and I with diaper changes and bathing the baby. She also took some night shifts to help us out, since she was sleeping on the couch and awake because of the crying anyway. We finally got to week 3, and my mom was back in Utah, we new parents were getting the hang of things, and I was moving around a lot better. From then on, Braxton was such a good baby. We could take him everywhere, and we did. He went to San Diego at 3 weeks old to see my brother Seth graduate from Marine training. We then flew to Utah and had him blessed in my old ward. He and I flew to Utah again in February to meet Colby's family. We took him to movies, and dinner, to friends houses and other functions. We took our first family vacation when he was 3 months old, to San Fransisco. He went to the beach (Warning: Very unflattering picture of me coming up.)and to Disneyland. Then we drove to the family ranch in Utah for the Fourth of July. He was just a great traveler. He has become a normal, not always easy and happy child, now. We love him so much! He was so excited to become a big brother with Gabe and Tristan, and he is such a huge help to me. He loves video games and basketball like his dad. He loves movies and music like me. Last Wednesday, we had a birthday party for him. Thanks to all his friends who came, we had so much fun. And he got some great loot! Sunday, his actual birthday, we celebrated with grandparents, one uncle, one cousin, one aunt and a partridge in a pear tree. Who doesn't love ice cream cake?! We love you Braxton, and I can't believe you will already be 8 years old next year. Time flies when you have kids, whether you are having fun or not. But we love each and every one.
1 comment:
haha, wow. what a story. I LOVE your last line about time flies...ohhh so true!
And what would we do without our mothers?! Mine was there the first two weeks of my motherhood. Life saver!
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