Brynnley's birth

Thursday morning I woke up and knew something was off. But I went about my day, got the kids ready, took Logan to school, and ran some errands with Nixon. Around 11 in the morning I called Kyled and told him I was feeling a little funny which means nothing to him, although I've said it each time I am in early labor. Around 3 in the afternoon I knew the end of my pregnancy was near. At 4 I texted Kyle and said, "what would you say if I told you I was in labor." His reply, "I'd ignore you." (I'm usually late, so 10 days early was probably odd to him. Although I'm not really a faker when it comes to pain so he should've known better). At 5 I decided to take the kids for a walk. I called Kyle to see when he was getting home from work, no answer. At 5:15 I called Kyle to see when he was getting home from work, no answer. So I texted him something along the lines of, "I tell you I'm in labor and you don't answer your phone." It may have been a little bit meaner of a text than that if I'm being honest. He called me right back after that. At 5:30 he got home and we loaded up the car to get dinner as planned. We went to Chipotle because of the buy one get one free facebook deal. When we pulled up to the restaurant the line was wrapped around the store and so for about 45 minutes we waited in line, all the while I'm contracting. Not sure why I didn't just cancel that meal plan and grab some real fast food. About an hour later we made it home and Kyle fed the kids while I called the doctor. I was completely happy and releaved to find out that my doctor was on call for the night. After talking to my doctor, I took a shower and got ready while Kyle got the kids ready for bed. Around 8 I told Kyle I was ready to go, the pain was so bad and frequent. He told me he had to run to the office. Every single time I have gone into labor he has had to run into the office to get a few things, frustrating yes! Since I was early I hadn't figured out a plan of care for my kids. But my younger brother Lance packed up and came to stay for the night with the boys. As we were getting ready to walk out the door my brother said to me, "I have to leave for work at 5 in the morning, so do I just lock the door when I leave for work?" Like he was just going to leave my kids sleeping in an empty house. The whole drive to the hospital I kept thinking, are my boys going to survive with their uncle Lance? Fortuanately, my friend Melissa met Lance at 5 in the morning so he could go to work. I owe her big time.



I told Kyle to just drop me off the the hospital entrance because I was having such bad contractions. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors and checked me. I was only 2 cm at that time. She said I was still really early in labor which was crazy to me because I was in more pain than I had been further along with the boys. She monitored me for 30 minutes and then told me to walk for an hour and if I wasn't further along I may have to go home. Kyle and I walked for an hour in the basement. I had to stop everytime I had a contraction. A couple of staff walking by asked if I needed help. Yes! I needed someone to get this baby out of me. After an hour of walking I decided to take the stairs back up to my floor hoping that walking 5 flights of stairs would help. Wouldn't you know that their was no access to the L&D floor unless you had a badge. Kyle told me to wait and he would go get it opened for me. But I refused to be left in a stairwell, at night, alone, in labor so I waddled behind him.



Back in my room, I got checked and I was 3cm. But they decided to keep me. Since I was trying a VBAC they didn't really want to help my labor move along at that point. They wanted me to be in good active labor on my own. The nurse asked me if I wanted to sit on a birthing ball and for some reason I said sure. So for about an hour I sat on that ball hoping the baby would drop further down. After every 3 minutes of contractions I decided it was time for an epidural, actually Kyle suggested that I get one at that point. Anesthesia came and had me sit up to insert the epidural, which I wasn't happy with. I much prefer the laying on your side insertion. After about 10 minutes of having it in the sweet medicine kicked in and I was a happy girl hoping to get some sleep. But sleep never happens in labor now does it. Especially when you have a snoring husband. Once I was in good labor the laborist came and broke my water, which had meconium in it, little stinker baby. He checked me and said I was 5-6 cm dilated. About an hour or so later the nurse checked me again prior to starting pitocin and said I was only at a 4 (which I was really bummed about). She started the lowest dose of pitocin. Within an hour I was having a lot of pain so I called the nurse. My nurse was on break but the covering nurse came and let me push the bolus button on the epidural. She asked me on a pain scale how bad the pain was and I said 8. She was surprised it was that bad but said to see if the bolus helped. 5 minutes later I was dying from the pain and Kyle told me to call the nurse. I told him a didn't want to bother them (aren't I a kind patient? I still remember how annoying it is to be called every minute as a nurse). But I called her and she decided to check me. In one hour I had progressed from a 4 to a 10. Anesthesia came back and fixed me up with a little more medicine. I pushed twice with the nurse to see how it would go. They didn't want me to have to push much because of the VBAC. My doctor showed up within 30 minutes. I pushed about 2 times and the babies head came out......and then she got stuck. Her shoulder got stuck. So for about a minute or two things got kind of hectic in that room. The NICU was called to resusitate her, which was then cancelled when my doctor was able to get her out. She got a lower 1 minute apgar score because of her breathing and color, needed a little bit of O2 and pinked right up.

The doctor and nurses were saying how huge she was but to me she looked tiny. I guess they have more experience at sizing up babies because she was 9 lbs 6 oz. Thank goodness she was early. She was much easier to push out compared to her brother and less damage was done although I did require an episiotomy. I have to say that I enjoy the delivery process more than the OR experience, but I still prefer the c section wound over the pushing a baby out wound. Unfortunatley, most of my hospital pictures I look naked in because Brynnley had a little trouble warming up so the nurses always wanted her tucked in my gown on my skin. I guess she was a pretty big baby if you look at this picture. I think her cheeks were so chubby and her eyes so swollen so I didn't see her eyes for at least 24 hours. Poor thing just couldn't open them up.

Kyle went and got the boys a couple hours after Brynnley was born. They were very interested in her, wanted to "pet" her, but didn't want to hold her. A hospital room is no place for two active boys, so they only stayed about an hour.

Brynnley's first bath in the hospital.

We had to stay in the hospital for 2 full days after delivery because she was LGA so her sugars had to checked every 6 hours for 48 hours. Her poor little heels! It was odd being in the hospital for a couple of days with a no name baby. We literally signed the birth certificate on our way out of the hospital. On the way home from the hospital we picked up the boys from church. They were thrilled to have their sister home. They have been surprisingly gentle and love to hold her (although it only lasts about 30 seconds).

I love having a sweet little girl. She's going to stay sweet....right?!