The day everything changed

For those interested, here in the long-awaited birth story for Brooke.

September 10th 2012, the day our lives changed forever. We are now parents and will be forever.

After many prenatal tests and ultrasounds it was decided that I needed to be induced early. There was concern that Brooke was not growing properly and that things would be better for her outside the womb. Although this was stressful and worrisome, having a scheduled delivery plan was helpful. Of course, we wanted to wait as long as possible to ensure she was as full grown and healthy as she could be.  The plan was to induce me at 28 and ½ weeks, a Monday morning at 5:00 am. We spent the weekend trying to prepare mentally and physically but ultimately decided we were as prepared as we could be and that somethings you just can’t prepare fully for. Brett was able to take three days off from teaching so we packed up everything we thought we’d need for the next three days and attempted to get some sleep Sunday night. 

 

Headed out! 

Monday morning came early but I was awake and ready to go. We drove to the hospital and got checked in at 5 am. They put me in the room and the first order of business was to put an IV in and take some blood. I have been notoriously bad at getting my blood taken and was not looking forward to this part of the process. As expected, it was miserable.  It was actually the worst part of the whole experience but I made it through. Once my IV was in my arm and I had regained my strength we were ready to move on. A monitor was also hooked up to my belly to track Brooke's heart rate and monitor the contractions. 

Waiting to get all hooked up

At 6am the nurse started my pitocin drip through my IV. The pitocin is what artificially starts the contractions and progresses labor. Since my cervix was already favorable, we didn’t have to do anything to get it ready. I was dilated to a 1.5 and mostly effaced when we started (and had been for a few weeks). The contractions started off slow. Since I was hooked to the monitor I could see when a contraction was occurring, but at the beginning I couldn’t feel them. They started of as just extra pressure which was similar to feeling Brooke move around. Then the pressure increased and before long there was cramp like pain to accompany each one. Although I was stuck in the bed, I was able to move around somewhat and ease the beginning pains. I can’t remember exactly, but I think they were coming every few minutes and each one was stronger than the last. The nurse would come in and check and up the pitocin every once in awhile to make sure things were progressing.

At 9:05 am my doctor came up to see how I was doing. She measured my cervix and decided we could go ahead and break my water. This would help things progress even more. It was an odd, odd sensation to have my water break. It wasn’t painful but suddenly I felt the gush of water and knew there was no going back. I can't even imagine having that experience unexpectedly! When the Dr mentioned breaking my water I looked at Brett and we both shared the “oh wow, this is serious now” look. After about an hour and a half after breaking the water, the pain was starting to get serious and I was pretty uncomfortable. My lower back especially was tight and achy. I was experimenting with positions on the bed and had Brett massaging my lower back and applying pressure during each contraction. We also tried some heat but I was quickly realizing things were getting serious and it was getting serious fast. 

 

All hooked up

I decided it was time to ask the nurse about pain management. We discussed (again) the options of IV pain relief vs epidural and I was really unsure at first what I wanted. At this point I was dilated to a 4 and was unsure how long it would take to get all the way to a 10. I was hesitant to get the epidural because it still felt too early but I was also uneasy about the IV medication and possible transfer to the baby. I actually told the nurse I wanted to start with the IV but by the time she got back I had changed my mind. I had several contractions while she was gone and with each being worse than the last, I knew I couldn’t handle it much longer. They were coming faster and harder. I also wanted to be as coherent as possible and was worried the IV meds would knock me out since I'm such a lightweight. I told her I had changed my mind and she called the anesthesiologist. 

 
It was 11:00 am when the anesthesiologist came up to give me the epidural. I was nervous but the procedure was surprising painless. I didn’t feel nearly as light headed as I did when the IV was put in and the promise of pain relief was comforting. It took a few contractions (5 min or so) to get the full effect but the pain was fading and I had a slight tingling in my legs. I was able to relax finally and it felt nice not to be so tense from the contractions. Unfortunately my body wasn’t so sure what to do with the epidural. My blood pressure dropped and so the nurse began working to try and stabilize me. I felt a little light headed and I was put on oxygen. The anesthesiologist also gave me some ephedrine to raise my BP. Any type of complication can be scary but we made it through and I was once again stabilized.

Things were mellow and calm for the next hour or so. But then it was Brooke’s turn to struggle. This was probably the scariest part for me because I had no control over how she was doing. With each contraction her heart rate would drop. The nurse had me try a number of different positions, with and without oxygen. A few of the positions that were supposed to help her move down faster made it difficult for the monitor to get a good reading of her heart rate, so that was no fun. Brett and I found ourselves just watching the machine and praying and hoping that her little heart rate wouldn’t drop too low. It looked pretty bad a few times but the nurse never seemed too panicked. I actually asked her about what would happen if the baby’s heart rate dropped when we started and she said that she would try a number of things and that I shouldn’t worry unless suddenly there were lots of other doctors in the room. Luckily we never made it to that point, but I couldn’t help by worry. 

 
At about 1:30 I began feeling pressure related to the contractions. I could see them on the monitor and could definitely feel them in my body. Not painful, just pressure. We were so worried about Brooke at this time that the pressure was the last thing on my mind. But eventually I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I told the nurse what I was feeling and asked what I was supposed to be doing (push? not push?). She said don’t push but it was getting harder and harder not to push.

Spoiler alert... she made it

It was 1:45 when she measured my cervix one last time. With a little bit of surprise she announced that I was fully dilated and ready to go. Wow. I was more than a little shocked because it seemed to happen so fast. The last measurement was barely a 5 and still very far back. It was almost game time. She said she was going to go let my doctor know and that she’d be back. 

 
At 1:50pm the nurse came back and told me it was time to start pushing. Because I could feel the pressure I knew exactly when to push. I can’t explain how glad I was that I could feel the pressure (but not the pain). That was my ideal situation and it actually worked out. I knew exactly when to push and it was easier pushing against the contraction. The nurse was great and helped me stretch out with each one. Brett was right there and was a great support. He kept telling me how good I was doing and it was so encouraging when he would tell me that he could see her coming. I was in a zone and mostly had my eyes closed and wasn't very responsive to those in the room. I didn’t make much noise and tried to focus on keeping calm. I was still on oxygen for Brooke’s heart rate and had to focus really hard between contractions to calm down and help her do okay. Brett would take the mask off and put it back on for me between contractions. 

We continued with the pushing stage until about 3:15 when the doctor came in. I really like my doctor and was glad to see her. She took over for the nurse and had me push a few more times really hard. I could feel the pressure of Brooke moving down and with each contraction she would get closer and closer. 

 

The official weigh in

Brooke arrived at 3:22 pm. I was in the middle of a push when the doctor told me to “open your eyes, open your eyes!”. I opened them and saw my precious little girl half way out and then all the way out. She was covered in goo but was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen. They wiped some of her off and brought her up to see me. At the same time Brett was cutting the umbilical cord. He said it was surprisingly tough and took him a few times to get through. Brett then followed Brooke as the nursing staff cleaned her off and weighed her. I laid on the bed in shock that she was finally here and just watched in amazement. I also had a minor 2nd degree tear so my doctor was stitching that up.

Brooke was screaming pretty loudly but I could tell she was doing good.

The stats page and adorable foot print! 

She came out weighing 6 lbs 4 oz and was 19 inches long. We were surprised by how big she was. It was definitely a pleasant surprise! It wasn’t long before they brought her back to me and I held her and looked at her and started to cry. She was beautiful. I couldn’t hold back the tears. I spent some time holding her and trying to nurse her and just enjoying Brett and I officially being parents. After about an hour Brett and Brooke went with the nurses to get all cleaned up and have some test etc done. We moved to the postpartum room and there started our life as a family of three!

Love at first sight!

So happy to have her! 

All cleaned up

Its a girl! 

We spent two nights in the hospital and went home Wednesday.

Home Sweet Home