Saturday, April 21, 2012

The Birth Story

Just when you least expect to go into labor, you do!  I had gone to the doctor on Wed and I was 4 cm, so not a whole lot of change in over a week.  I was a little disappointed, but luckily I got the forms filled out so that I didn't have to work anymore.  Also, induction was set for the 24th (Tues).  I went home and crashed on the couch.  I hadn't been feeling great, but thought it was tied to the stomach bug that Kaylie had earlier that week. I had quite a few things planned for the 19th.  There were things that I just wanted to get done before the baby came.
I woke up around 4 am having cramps, but due to the way I had been feeling I thought nothing of it.  Then around 6 I realized that I had been having these cramps and Braxton Hicks contractions sort of frequently and I couldn't sleep.  By the time Justin was awake and ready to leave for work at 6:30 I told him not to leave yet until I was sure I wasn't in labor.  At 6:45 I called my mom to ask what she thought and if I should go to the hospital.  The "cramps" were getting stronger and more frequent, but hadn't lasted very long really (maybe 30 minutes).  So, my mom came over at around 7:15 to get the girls and take them to school and Justin and I were going to go to the hospital to get checked out.  Getting gas in the van was one of the things I was planning on doing that day (and my mom was about out of gas too), so we had to stop at the gas station to get enough gas to get us to the hospital.
I posted on Facebook at 7:25 on the highway that I thought I might be in labor.  I was pretty sure I was in labor, but because it hadn't been that long that I had been in pain I was worried that it would go away.  I even said to Justin on the way to the hospital, "I'm going to feel bad if this is false labor!"  We got to the hospital around 7:40, filled out a small amount of paper work and went into triage.  I was about 6 cm at this point and begging them to get me the epidural quickly.  The nurse was working on getting me into the system and getting me checked out.  It seemed to take forever and she didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry.  Then, at about 8:05 I was technically admitted into the hospital and moved into the labor and delivery room.  I was having pretty strong contractions and screaming in pain already.  I was still begging for the epidural.  They wanted to get a bag of fluids in me before I got the epidural though and they had a little bit of trouble getting my IV in (I guess due to my low BP).  I was laying on my side trying to make it through the contractions, the nurse was having me sign all of this paperwork and probably telling me some semi-important things.  At about 8:20 I felt my water break and told them.  8:25 was about when I knew she was coming soon, told them, and they told me not to push yet.  They were still working on getting me hooked up to the monitors and into the system.  Finally, I said "She's coming now!" and a couple of pushes later, she was born at 8:31.  A couple of minutes later it dawned on me that I had just had a baby!  A doctor came in to finish things up after she was born.
Later, the doctor that was supposed to deliver told us that they called to say that she needed to come in to deliver, she brushed her teeth and got into her car, and they called back to say that she had been born!
I can't believe it happened that fast, but thank goodness it was that fast because it was crazy painful without any "help" as I was screaming for in the middle of everything.
Praise God that everything turned out all right.  There are so many things that could have happened to cause a delay of getting to the hospital and most likely resulted in Brynlee being born on the side of the road or somewhere equally disturbing.  Now, we have another miracle from God in our home and our family feels complete.

1 comment:

  1. imagine that feeling for 19 hours, and your "help" not working (not to mention the 40 stitches)! that was my birth experience...seriously horrible, so i can totally relate! so happy that it was quicker for you and brynlee is so cute! (love love the name!)

    ReplyDelete