Bradley's Arrival

Bradley D. Cann was born on the 20th of December, the last day of Fall at 9:00am. He weighed 6 pounds, was 20 inches long.  The night before he came I was awakened by the sound of rain hitting against my window. The sound of the fierce falling droplets brought such joy to my heart; something about rain just melts me.

I wasn't able to fall back to sleep after that, my excitment was too great. It had been a long, hard pregnancy, and I really couldn't wait to meet my little one! I wandered out to the computer for a few hours before I decided I needed to try to go back to my bed.

5:30 rolled around pretty quick and Damon and I were up and beginning our day. We need to be at the hospital by 6:45 to be ready to have the baby by 8:45.

Prep for my C-section came off without a hitch.  When it was time, they walked me into the operating room. I sat on the bed and the anesthesiologist got ready to place the spinal block into my back. In the past, this has been the worst part for me. Usually Damon was not permitted to be in the operating room with me for this part and that alone would cause me anxiety. Then, for some reason, the anesthesiologist would pound on my back for no apparent reason.  It hurt and was scary and I hated that part. However, this time Damon was there to hold my hand, just having him by my side brought me so much more confidence. Also, this time they didn't pound on my back. What a relief!

I felt a great amount of fear this time as they worked on me. I don't remember being this scared with my past  C-sections. But this time I couldn't relax.  I could feel what they were doing, and it made the experience nerve-racking for me. Then it was time to pull out baby. They were pushing down on my chest. They were pushing and pushing and finally they pulled him out and announced he was a boy! I was a little stunned with the news and kind of just sat there in a daze. Damon had to call my name a couple of times to bring me back to reality as he told me to look at my new son. They didn't bring him immediately over to me, so I had to gaze at him from afar as they rushed him off to the cleaning table. Then Damon was able to bring him over to me and we sat and admired him for a while as the worked on closing me up.  Then Damon went with this new boy over to the warmer.

When in the recovery room they brought me my new baby to hold and feed. Damon and I just could not stop admiring our new precious boy. His special spirit shined through so strongly and we both knew how great this little person was who was now placed in our care. The love we have for him is so strong and we are honored to be his parents.

Prior to the delivery, we had a girl name picked out but couldn't agree on a boy name. I was rattling off names when Bradley popped into my head and we both were certain that was the name for our new darling baby boy.