Brooklyn's Grand Entrance

Alright people keep asking me to write about Brooklyn's birth so that all may know what all went down.

If you are not into long drawn out stories then feel free to exit your window and just know that in the end the baby came out healthy and everything is great :) 

Here we go.

Saturday, March 15th:

We wake up and anxiously wait for the hospital to call us in for our scheduled induction. It's 10 am and still no call so we decide to call in and make sure that we are even on the list. I made Danny call because if we didn't get to go I was going to be super sad. I watch his face for any signs of good or bad news...he looks crestfallen and starts asking where we are at on the list and if she knows when we might be able to go in after all. I start to cry...meanwhile he hangs up the phone and comes to give me a hug and says that we are #4 on the list. #4!!!! This is horrible news to me to have to wait even longer than I have already waited for my little one to come. The nurse told him that by Sunday afternoon we should get to go in. 

Sunday, March 16th:

We wake up anxiously waiting for the call to come yet again...and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait. Then, Danny decides to call again. He talks to the lady and she says we are now #1! Yay!!! She says that we will most likely be called in that evening to be induced :) We are super excited. They tell us to come in and do an NST to make sure that baby is ok. We go and get the test done but they send us home with the promise that early Monday morning we will for sure get called. More crying ensues... so Danny needs to take off work. Danny tells his boss he isn't coming into work. 

Monday, March 17th (Morning):

We wake up at 9am...(not early) and still no call. Danny calls the hospital to find out what is going on and she says that the earliest they can get us in is maybe maybe that evening but most likely Tuesday. He hangs up the phone angrily and I cry yet again...

He calls work to try to get his shift back but they have already given away the first half of the day. We decide to eat, shower and get on with our day even though we are both unhappy (I was devastated at this point). When I got out the shower Danny came running up the stairs yelling "Yatta" (from Heroes meaning I did it). He tells me that we both have a missed call and voicemail from the hospital! We get to go in :) :) :)

Monday, March 17th (afternoon):

We get to the hospital at 12:30 pm and get checked in and are told that they will be RIGHT with us...yeah, right. We are in there for 3 hours waiting. Finally the nurse comes back in and gets all our information. Then the doctor comes in and says that they are going to try to soften my cervix by using this pill that is not taking orally...no fun. The pill takes 4 hours to work. The doctor says she'll be back at 8pm to check. It's 4 pm. So Danny and I decide to play games and watch movies to pass the time quickly. At about 6pm I start to really feel the contraction hit every 2 mins. The doctor comes back at 8pm and checks. I am now dilated to a 3. She says that the next step they want to try is this weird string thing that also is not taken orally. But, she says that my contractions are too strong and too close together to try it yet. It's 8pm...they want me to eat dinner and let my contractions lessen. What the heck? Why do they need to lessen? I thought that they were a good thing. Apparently the contractions weren't moving the baby down and if they tried the next thing right then the baby would most likely be in distress from too much going on. So I was to eat dinner and wait an hour...

Monday Night 11Pm:

Doctor comes in and puts in the string thing and says that it take 12 hours to work. 12 HOURS!!! So I have to have this weird thing that she described as a string but really it's more like a half and inch ribbon that is like 6 inches long...up in my business for 12 HOURS! O and by the way, this whole 12 hours is late at night when I should be sleeping but instead am in active labor with 2 mins apart contractions that are hurting...like crazy. I could've gotten an epidural at any time but I didn't want one because the labor process was already slow enough as it was. 

Tuesday, March 18th (Morning):

I get out of bed to use the restroom at 7am...the ribbon thing falls out...it's not supposed to come out til 11am. I call the nurse and she says its fine and it happens all the time anyways. 8am the doctor comes in and says that I am now contracting on my own and she wants to wait and see if I progress any further before trying the last thing: pitocin. 

So here I am laying in bed with really fun contractions...(not really) and just waiting to see if it does anything. 8am-12pm....more contractions more waiting. Still nothing. 12pm the nurse comes in and offers me some pain medication but not the epidural...just fentanyl. But it kicks in and feels a lot better than I did before. 1pm: The doctor comes in and says they are going to start me on pitocin now to see if that will kick me into gear because apparently I am having these contractions for no reason...as in they aren't even helping the process just making me hurt. They offer me an epidural before the pitocin and I decide to take it. At this point we have already been in the hospital for over 24 hours so if I get slowed down by the drugs who cares. The anesthesiologist comes in to give me the epidural and has to poke me in 4 different spots before he finally finds the right one. The pain instantly goes away and I am floating in bliss :) except still no baby. 

3pm. The doctor comes back in and breaks my water. He tells me that the "water" in my baby's amniotic sack is actually non existent because the baby had apparently pooped in there awhile ago and is swimming around in it. They decide to pump a liter of saline in there to try and thin out the poop so there is less chance of the baby inhaling the poop and getting pneumonia when she comes out.   He then tells me that if she does have pneumonia she will be taken directly to the NICU and I won't even get to see or hold her until I can walk myself over there. He then leaves the room promising to return soon. 

The nurse that is monitoring everything tells us that the baby's heart rate is remaining the same throughout this stage of active labor and it should be changing going up and down with contractions. She says that if it remains the same we will have to do a c section. She also checks the baby and says that it is "molding" which I guess means that it's head is starting to take on the form of the opening of my pelvis from pushing against it so much. 

4pm: the nurse comes back in the room and says that it's not looking good. She goes to get the doctor. Meanwhile, I cry...surprise surprise. 4:30pm the doctor comes into the room and tells us our options. Option 1-Stop pitocin and wait 20 mins and then start the WHOLE process over again and see if it works the second time. And if not then they will end up doing a c section. 

Option 2- C section ASAP. 

He tells us that he will give us a few minutes to decide. I start to cry...again. We decide that a c section is probably the best thing for the baby at this point. We don't want her to go into distress and have to be an emergency c section with all that stress. I was really scared. Mostly I was scared that something was wrong with the baby and that's why she wasn't coming out. I was a little bit scared for me as well. I mean, a c section is a big deal that's major surgery. Danny and I said a prayer and then he gave me a blessing. I felt a lot better after the blessing. 

4:45 pm: The doctor comes back into the room and asks us what we wanted to do. The nurse already has scrubs waiting for Danny to change into. We tell him the plan and he leaves to go get everything ready. Then I get the REAL drugs. They come in and numb me basically from my chest down. I loved that feeling. It helped me relax and made me super sleepy. 

Next, I get wheeled into the OR and get transferred to the operation table. The doctors and nurses go over all of my information and then they bring Danny in to sit by me. 

5:15 Pm: the first cut happens. The doctor asks if I felt anything...I was feeling nothing at the moment. It was great. Then they start telling me that I will feel tons of pressure and they started to push the baby down from the top of my uterus out the incision. They weren't lying about all the pressure. It was crazy how hard they were pushing. I was sure that they were going to squish the baby. I was told later that the female doctor was up off the floor pushing with all her might. I heard the doctor say "Hair, I see hair" and then "This isn't a newborn, it's a toddler!" I was getting a little panicked thinking my baby was going to come out weighing 15 pounds. They kept saying how big she was. Then I heard it...the tiniest of sounds. The baby was crying, at first it was just a little squeak and quickly turned into louder cries. I instantly started crying. I looked at Danny and he was a little teary eyed as well. I saw them take the baby to the corner and signal for Danny to come over. I was sad that I didn't get to see her closer or hold her on my chest like most women get to. The NICU people were there and checked her out and said that she was healthy and that she had no problems. Then they cleaned her a little and handed her to her daddy. He was so happy. The look on his face was priceless and even though I was/am jealous that he got to hold her first it was the cutest thing to see her in his arms. He asked if he could bring her over to me and they said absolutely! So he brought her to me and placed her little face next to mine and I gave her a kiss on the cheek and tried to snuggle her with my face a little bit. Then, they had to take her away to weigh her and stuff while I got all sewn and stapled up. The doctor told me that there was no way that her head or shoulders would've fit through my pelvis without causing harm to her or me or both. 

About a half hour later I got wheeled into the room and saw my mommy in the hallway. It was really comforting to see her there and I'm glad that she knew I was ok. Then I got to hold my precious daughter and I cried some more. It was the best feeling in the world. It was a super long wait and a complicated journey but Brooklyn is worth anything and everything I had to go through and will ever go through. 

She is my baby and nothing can replace the feeling I have when I hold her or look at her. 

Brooklyn's first picture Ever :

On the table:

P.S. For those interested Brooklyn had her 1 week appointment today. Here are her current stats:

9lbs (90th percentile)

20.2 inches (76th percentile)

Head circumference 14.4 (97th percentile)