Birth Story - Brooks

Here we are with a sweet 5 week old baby boy already!  I wanted to get the story of how he joined us down while its all still pretty fresh.  I know everyone says each birth is so different, but it was really hard to believe his was going to be any different than Reese's.  In the weeks leading up to it I had my mind made up he was going to come early, earlier than she did really, but it just didn't happen that way.

I had been having braxton hicks my whole pregnancy and they really started getting stronger and a little painful the last few days maybe week before he was born.  I also started loosing my mucus plug over a week before he came.  Both signs, among others, that made me think he was coming any day.  The final month of pregnancy makes your mind go all over the place analyzing every little feeling, wondering when that sweet little baby will arrive. 

Two days prior to labor, Saturday the 1st, I woke up and just felt off all day.  I felt like I was nasueas as well as coming down with a head cold.  I was also having strong and somewhat painful braxton hicks that I decided to go ahead and time.  They were getting close to the 10 minutes apart range and stayed that way or closer for that evening.  I wondered if labor was coming or if I was just getting sick and dreaded not feeling well if it was going to happen soon.  Thankfully by the evening I started to feel better and me and Corey were able to enjoy a date night out to celebrate our 6th anniversary that night. 

The next day, Sunday, I felt the same contractions, but more painful.  However I was still unsure if they were real ones or not.  I continued to time them throughout the day and noticed they were in the range (under 5 mins apart, lasting over 1 min long) to head to the hospital, however I still felt unsure as they weren't too painful.  We had planned to have Reese's 3rd bday party that night, so we decided to move it to our house in case things picked up, and head to the hospital after depending how I was feeling. 

My contractions majorly slowed during the party and after, however with how quickly my labor moved with Reese we decided to go ahead and head to the hospital to get checked after speaking with the doc on call around 930pm.  I felt sort of rediculous heading in as my contractions were so slowed and almost painless.  We left dissapointed, as we discovered I was still shy of 3 cms, exactly what I had been at my appt Wednesday.

We headed home around 11 and headed straight to bed.  The next morning, Monday the 3rd, I woke up around 630 needing to use the restroom and immediately noticed a painful contraction unlike any I had the days prior.  I had 3 while up, but knowing my experience the night before (and still being tired), I crawled back in bed to go back to sleep.  I tried to lay there through 2 more very painful contractions and thought to myself, holy cow if the next one is this painful, I have to get out of bed.  And oh it was.

I got up immediately after the 3rd one and headed downstairs to walk around and start timing them.  They very quickly got increasingly painful and I realized they were coming around 2-3 mins apart and lasting over 1.5 mins long.  I started getting a little scared as I realized I wasn't getting too much of a break and they were pretty intense.  I ran up to wake up Corey around 7 and we were out the door and on our way in morning rush hour traffic.  When we arrived around 730 to triage, they found out I was already 7 cms.  I was starting to freak out at this point that I was going to have to deliver this baby without an epidural. 

I couldn't tell you what time I got my epidural, but I know right after I was 9 cms.  Oh the wait was excruciating!  I just felt like everyone around me was moving so slow and no one seemed too concerned where the anastetialagist was.  Thankfully in the car on our way to the hospital, Corey told me to breath through the contractions and I'm so glad he did.  He got me focused on that early and I think that is what saved me and made them managable (and the fact that my water hadn't broken yet).  This labor seemed much more under control to me than Reese's.

I was so happy to have my epidural, but quickly discovered that it wasn't working on my right side.  We tried everything to get it to flow to that side, they gave me as much as they could and also gave me another med to try and numb the pain.  Eventually it worked and I couldn't feel a thing.  I had the most amazing nurse, she was so compassionate and knew exactly what to do to help me relax and get through each contraction.  I was so thankful for her that day! 

She left us to hang out and relax for a bit after that as the baby looked great in there and my water still hadn't broken.  They wanted to just let him move down the birth canal on his own.  However, I quickly started to feel extremely tired and numb and was mentally freaking out a bit.  I kept almost drifting off to sleep, but then thought to myself what if I don't wake up!  I was so out of it and not feeling right at all.  I called the nurse back in to ask her about it and she went ahead and checked me again, which broke my water.  I was 10 at that point and he was ready to come out so she called the doc in.  I pushed for 5 minutes and Brooks was here at noon, August 3rd (two days early), all 9 lbs 15 oz and 22 inches.  I was able to have immediate skin to skin and nursed him for almost 2 hours.

I can't describe the feelings we had when they pulled him out and placed him on my chest.  I was in immediate tears, filled with so much love, relief, and gratitude.  This sweet baby boy we had prayed for and waited for, for so long, was finally here.  There is nothing like that moment.