Grayson Pierce Berg

Me and Grayson

September 4, 2010 at 9:23pm Grayson Pierce Berg was born weighing 6lbs 13oz and measuring 20 inches long.  He truly is the most handsome baby in the whole world.  I never actually thought that I would say that, but it's true. It's so hard to describe the experience but I'll try my best.

At 5:00am this morning we were instructed to call the hospital and inquire if they had any rooms available for Shelby's induction.  As suspected they did not because Shelby's induction was elective and considered low priority,  and we were told to call back in 2 hours.  This happened again at 7, 8:30, 10:30, and 12:00.  Luckily around 11:00 Shelby's parents had come over and we decided to go driving around town to get our minds off the baby.  We drove all around Hermann Park, the Medical Center, Rice Village, Downtown, and every road in between.   It was a lot of fun to say the least.  

Grayson just saying Hi

Then around 12:15 we called the hospital and they had an available room for us if we could show up at 12:45 exactly.  Of course we accepted and headed straight over to get things going.  The check in was quick and not before long fluids and meds were being pumped into Shelby.  Very quickly around 2:00pm she started having rhythmic contractions every 2 minutes.  Slowly and slowly she became more dilated until about 7:30 when the doctor just casually came in for another checkup and turns to us and says, "Okay, it's time to start pushing!"  I myself was taken back by her laid back attitude to the point that I became so nervous so quickly that I almost wet myself.  Shelby on the other hand I believe was ready to go!  

Shelby and Grayson

The pushing lasted about 2 hours until Grayson finally popped right on out.  It truly was amazing in a nerdy scientific way how the body is capable of doing such incredible things like delivering a baby.  I was so taken back when Grayson was out and set on Shelby's chest.  I just couldn't believe that I was part of this new little creature in the world.  I was touched.  

Grayson hardly made a peep during the whole process.  Sadly though, there was one little hiccup to the story.  Grayson was born with hypospadias, which by definition is an abnormally placed urinary meatus, or pee hole.  On him his urethral opening is just angled a little downwards opposed to straight out (some might even argue this isn't a problem at all).  His case is very very mild, in fact I didn't even notice it when they told me.  The neonatalogist recommended that we just follow him up with a urologist and if it requires, have a small surgery to correct it 100%.  (Beware - the Wikipedia article on this condition has a very weird picture of a penis, so just be careful)

Grayson Pierce Berg

Altogether I feel exhausted and can't imagine how Shelby feels.  The epidural definitely helped alleviate the pain but the sheer amount of effort port forth has drained her.  Right now Grayson is in the nursery and will be brought to us in an hour or so, so that we can try to feed him again.  Earlier he latched on to Shelby but just didn't seem to be very hungry.  Hopefully things will go better the second time around.  I'm so proud of Shelby and her courage throughout the whole process. She never said one negative comment throughout the whole night.  I love her and Grayson sooo much.