Braelyn Samantha's Big Arrival!

Our little angel made her appearance December 20th, 2011 at 5:07am weighing in at 7 pounds 1 ounce and just over 19 inches long.  Here is her birth story:

Sunday we did our traditional routine of Buffalo Wild Wings and the Bears game with our neighbors.  While we were there Danny and our neighbors decided I should try some blazin sauce and then have the jalapeño on the nacho’s.  I obliged while laughing because I really thought this little girl had decided to make a late arrival.  We got home shortly after that game and my nesting instincts went in to overdrive, I scrubbed everything I could get my hands on! 

The next morning, Monday December 19th, I woke up and decided I hadn’t quite done enough and needed to wash our sheets and do some laundry, I stripped the bed, sorted the clothes and headed down to the laundry room around 7am.  I got everything ready and started to throw the sheets in when I felt a gush, followed by another while running to the bathroom.  I called Danny who had to leave early that morning for a work meeting, I said I am pretty sure my water broke.  He said ok I am on my way home, a little freaked out :), I said hold on let me call the midwife and get confirmation on what to do.  The midwife said yep sounds like your water broke, have some breakfast, take a shower and head to the hospital.  I did exactly that, I also shaved my legs, did my hair and put on a little makeup!  Danny got home around 8:45am and was pretty amped up, I have to say I was more relaxed than I really thought I ever would be.  We took my last pregnant pictures, dropped the dogs off at my grandparents, picked up breakfast for Danny and got to the hospital shortly after 9:15am.  They got us checked in and let us walk and walk and walk the hallways, they didn’t want to check me for a little bit to give us some extra time since the contractions weren’t bad at all.

Our last picture as just "us" (with Brae in my tummy)

They did our first check at 2pm and I was ONE AND A HALF centimeters dilated, I was one the week before at our 38 week appointment.  We walked more, I bounced on the ball while the contractions got worse and worse.  At 4pm they checked again and we had gone up to 3 centimeters, I could hardly focus anymore so we got the tub started.   Around 5:30pm I finally got to the point where sitting in the tub wasn’t doing a thing to relax the pain at all, which was my “pain management plan” from the beginning.  Finally they came back to check me at 6:15pm, I was sure things had had progressed, no such luck I was at 4 centimeters.  At this point I was getting nervous that if labor continued so slowly I would not be able to push by the time I was 10 centimeters.  We decided at this point it was time for the epidural, the 30 minute wait for the anesthesiologist was enough to convince me I did the right thing!  The epidural took a couple tries because of my scoliosis but wasn’t horrible, I did still have some “zinging” on my left side with the medication so we knew it may get a little more numb than the right.  Things started feeling better after I got the epidural placed and everything set up but I could absolutely still feel the contractions and wasn’t able to sleep through them.  They did try to flip me from my left to my right side to keep the medicine even but Braelyn’s heart rate dropped down to 60 and we had to flip back on to my right side right away.  I progressed slowly but surely, 5cm at 8pm, 6cm at 10:05pm, 7.5cm and at 12:05am (we had officially gotten to the 20^th of December).  They decided at this point they really wanted to start me on pitocin, which I wasn’t thrilled about since the contractions were still so strong for me but agreed because I was ready to have this little girl!  At 2:25am I was 9cm and finally at 3:15am I was complete, TEN CENTIMETERS, we made it!!  When they said they wanted me to wait a little while to feel more pressure before I pushed I was ready to cry, I thought making it to ten meant we were good to go.  Finally around 3:45am I said I was ready and the pressure was strong, they checked and Brae’s head was at +2-3 station and Megan (our wonderful nurse) wanted me to start practice pushing before our midwife, Noreen, got there.  Noreen got there around 4:15am and we got started with actual pushing, finally!  Because I was on my right side the entire time my back was killing me between my shoulder blades and I wasn’t able to put my chin to my chest and “crunch up” during pushing.  It took a little longer to push like this put around 5am Noreen said she had so much hair and was now beneath my pubic bone, just a few short pushes later the pressure was gone and there was our screaming, crying, kicking baby.  

our board

first family picture (excuse my fabulous "post labor" look)

She was immediately put on my chest and her cord was able to finish pulsing before Danny cut it about 5-10 minutes later.  I didn’t even realize that they delivered my placenta and stitched up my 2^nd degree tear while she was there.  They moved her over to weigh and measure her while they finished cleaning me up.  I heard them say 9 on APGARS and that her measurements were 7 pounds 1 ounce and 19.2 inches, the entire time she screamed and Danny looked on.  They brought her back all wrapped up, we took our first family photo and Braelyn nursed for the first time.   Around 9am we were moved to our recovery suite and spent the day bonding with our little girl and letting the family come meet her.