Here Comes Brooklynn!

Just to forwarn you there will be no pictures on this post but I promise in the next few days I will be downloading a load of pictures and posting them! Just to forewarn you too - this is not a simple straightforward story so this might be a long post!! Hope you enjoy...

Friday was a big day in our household. Sam had a surgery that morning to remove a cyst from his neck (good thing it was only local anesthetic with what came to happen that day...). He went into work about 10:00. My mom and I went and ran some errands, ate some lunch with my sister and Izzy and than went to Baby's R Us. During this time, starting at 12:30, I started having contractions. I really did not think much of it because I have them all the time. They were not regular at all, any where from 5-15 minutes apart, but they did not go away the whole day. We went home and my mom hung out "just in case". Well good thing she did. Starting at 3:30pm I started having contractions that were 5 minutes apart. I waited until 4:30pm and than called daddy to let him know I am going to be calling the doctor and he needs to head home. I called the doctor, doctor said to come in, so we made it into the hospital at 5:30pm.

They hooked me up to the monitor and now I was having contractions every 2-4 minutes, getting pretty intense. They checked me and I was 4-5 cm 80% effaced. The nurse said she would fall on the floor if it was more than that - good thing it wasn't - we needed her around. Well, as every one knows - my labors can NEVER go as planned so here is the LONG story of what happened.

My contractions would be regular (at one point they were 1 minute apart for about 10 minutes), than they would die off. So after a couple of hours of this they decided to start me on pitocin (knowing I was 36 weeks but also that I had a sumo wrestler as a baby the decision was there was no point in not having this baby). The nurse you will be having this baby tonight. Well...guess what people - it did not happen that night. After gradually increasing my pitocin throughout the night and my water finally breaking around 3am and the oh so wonderful epidural being started, I finally progressed to 9 cm at 07:00am. You thought it would be easy after that right?? NOPE!!

I reached 10cm by around 8am but they decided to not have me push, but to let Brooklynn try to decend down since she was able to be bounced up back into the uterus. Sam and I decided to let my mom stay in the room for support...Sam had not been feeling great that morning and we were unsure how he would feel. He finally started perking up though once the action started. Oh ya - and the exciting news - she was OP. What does that mean?? She was facing the wrong way. What is it with my children wanting to come into the world facing sunny side up? The doctor had thought a few times she had turned, but she never did. At 10:30 am they decided to let me start pushing. I worked REALLY hard - trust me I did all I could. At 1:00pm they finally decided that Brooklynn was not coming that way. They had been able to see her hair for about 1 hours of pushing at least, but she finally ended up betting stuck. I was so tired by this time, and my back was KILLING me - to the point where I couldn't even lift my head to push any more. Dr. Rosbrugh decided at this time that I would not be having this baby vaginally and we will be going into C-Section. I cried, Sam looked at me and he said we knew this was a possibility with the size. Let me stop here and say if it was not for Sam I would have quit a LONG time before that. They prepped me for c-section, and wheeled me in to the operating room.

I do have to say even with all the action, I did take a look at my husband all dressed up in garb - he looked pretty darn handsome!! Again I want to stop and say THANK YOU for his wonderful encouragement! The c-section was a little hard for me. It was weird having a drape over my body and me not be able to be the one to bring my daughter into this world. They obviously numbed the area with my epidural, but I still felt A LOT of tugging, a couple of times some pain. Finally Sam said that they had the head out, they suctioned her and I heard the most wonderful sound in the world - Brooklynn's cry!! They than took the rest of her out - Sam watched the whole thing. I was balling my eyes out the whole time. He ran over to check on her, and I was laying on the table just shaking. I never knew after a c-section that the shakes are common (I dont' just mean a little shake here and there - I mean the full out my arms and upper body and chin were shaking like I had took a dip in 0 degree lake but did not feel cold). Sam came back over, said she was beautiful and held my hand and encouraged me to try to relax.

The NICU staff came and showed Brooklynn to me, and yet again just like Isabella they whisked her away before I could hold her. They had to use some oxygen on her and a little CPAP to get her to breath normally - they said she was breathing hard at first. Her oxygen levels had been around 75% but went up to over 90% with the oxygen. Sam and I were anxiously wanting to see Brooklynn, but knew we had to wait until I was all "sewed back up".

That is the birth story - both of my children are crying so I better go rescue my amazing mother! I will tell you about the rest of the hospital stay later.